Backlinks: What They Are and How to Get High-Quality Backlinks Safely

When a website has great content and a solid technical setup but still can’t break into the first page, the missing piece is usually authority. And authority, in search, is still built largely through backlinks.

But not all backlinks are equal. I’ve seen websites in the Gulf gain real momentum from a handful of relevant, trusted links, and I’ve also seen websites lose rankings after buying hundreds of cheap ones. The difference is quality and approach.

This guide covers what backlinks are, why they still matter in the age of AI search, what makes a backlink high quality, and practical ways to earn them without putting your website at risk.

What are backlinks?

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as signals of trust: when a relevant, reputable website links to your page, it’s a form of recommendation.

Backlinks also help search engines discover your pages and understand what they’re about, especially through the words used in the link (the anchor text) and the context around it.

Why backlinks still matter

• Rankings. Backlinks remain one of the most important signals for competitive searches.
• Discovery and indexing. Links help search engines find and crawl your pages more often. See our guide on Google indexing for more.
• Referral traffic. A link from a relevant website can send interested visitors directly.
• AI visibility. AI answer engines draw on search results and on what trusted sources say about brands. Mentions and links from credible websites increase your chances of being cited or recommended. We explain this in our guide on how to rank in ChatGPT.

What makes a backlink high quality?

A single link from a respected regional publication or industry association is often worth more than dozens of links from irrelevant websites.

Types of backlinks

• Editorial links: earned naturally when others reference your content.
• Digital PR links: from news sites and publications covering your story, data or expertise.
• Guest contributions: articles you write for relevant websites, with a natural link back.
• Niche edits: links added to existing, relevant articles on other websites.
• Business and local listings: citations on directories, chambers of commerce and platforms like Google Business Profile.
• Partner and supplier links: from businesses you work with.
• Nofollow and sponsored links: don’t pass the same ranking value but can still bring traffic, visibility and a natural-looking link profile.

How to get high-quality backlinks

1. Create content worth linking to

The easiest links to earn are for content that others genuinely want to reference: original research, local market data, detailed guides, calculators, templates and clear comparisons. For businesses in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, region-specific data is especially valuable because there’s less of it available in English.

2. Use digital PR

Share newsworthy stories with journalists and editors: company milestones, expert commentary on industry trends, survey results or useful insights for your audience. Regional business and industry publications often welcome expert input.

3. Contribute guest articles to relevant websites

Write genuinely useful articles for respected websites in your industry. Focus on audience fit and editorial quality, not just on getting a link.

4. Earn local citations and listings

Make sure your business is listed accurately on Google Business Profile, reputable local directories, industry associations and chambers of commerce. Consistent details also support your local SEO and AI visibility.

5. Turn unlinked mentions into links

Search for places where your brand is mentioned without a link, and politely ask the author to add one. It’s often the easiest win.

6. Reclaim broken links

Find broken links on relevant websites, including links pointing to your own old URLs, and suggest a working replacement from your website.

7. Build relationships in your industry

Partners, suppliers, clients, event organizers and community groups can all be natural sources of links. Relationships make outreach easier and links more natural.

8. Share expertise in communities

Answering questions on relevant forums, Q&A platforms and professional communities, and publishing useful documents or presentations on reputable platforms, can bring traffic and occasional links. Treat these as supporting activities: the priority is being genuinely helpful, not dropping links.

Backlink practices to avoid

• Buying large packages of cheap links from unrelated or low-quality websites.
• Private blog networks and link farms.
• Automated link building software.
• Excessive link exchanges (“link to me and I’ll link to you”).
• Over-optimized anchor text that repeats the same keyword.

These tactics can lead to ranking drops or manual actions, and cleaning up afterwards takes time.

How to check your backlinks

• Google Search Console shows the websites linking to you in the Links report.
• Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz provide deeper backlink analysis, competitor comparisons and link quality metrics.
• Review new links regularly, and investigate sudden spikes of low-quality links.

Should you disavow bad backlinks?

In most cases, Google simply ignores spammy links. Disavowing is mainly useful if you’ve received a manual action or know that a large number of manipulative links were built to your website in the past. Be careful, because disavowing good links by mistake can hurt your rankings.

How many backlinks do you need?

There’s no fixed number. It depends on how competitive your keywords are and what your competitors have. Compare your link profile with the pages currently ranking for your target searches, and focus on closing the quality gap rather than chasing a quantity target.

If you’d rather have a team build safe, relevant authority for your website, our link building services are built into a complete SEO strategy.