A backlink for a given web resource is a link from some other website (the referrer) to that web

resource (the referent).[1] A web resource may be (for example) a website, web page, or web

directory.[1]
A backlink is a reference comparable to a citation.[2] The quantity, quality, and relevance of
backlinks for a web page are among the factors that search engines like Google evaluate in
order to estimate how important the page is.[3][4] PageRank calculates the score for each web
page based on how all the web pages are connected among themselves, and is one of the
variables that Google Search uses to determine how high a web page should go in search
results.[5] This weighting of backlinks is analogous to citation analysis of books, scholarly papers,
and academic journals.[1][4] A Topical PageRank has been researched and implemented as well,
which gives more weight to backlinks coming from the page of a same topic as a target page.[6]
Some other words for backlink are incoming link, inbound link, inlink, inward link,
and citation.[1]

I. Contents

 1Wikis
 2Backlinks and search engines
 3See also
 4References

II. Wikis
Backlinks are offered in Wikis, but usually only within the bounds of the Wiki itself and enabled by
the database backend.[7] MediaWiki, specifically offers the "What links here" tool, some older
Wikis, especially the first WikiWikiWeb, had the backlink functionality exposed in the page title.[8]

III. Backlinks and search engines

Search engines often use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most
important factors for determining that website's search engine ranking, popularity and
importance.[9] Google's description of its PageRank system (January 1998), for instance, noted
that "Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page
B."[10] Knowledge of this form of search engine rankings has fueled a portion of the SEO industry
commonly termed linkspam, where a company attempts to place as many inbound links as
possible to their site regardless of the context of the originating site.[11] In January 2017, Google
launched Penguin 4 update which devalued such link spam practices.[11]
The significance of search engine rankings is high, and it is regarded as a crucial parameter in
online business and the conversion rate of visitors to any website, particularly when it comes
to online shopping.[12] Blog commenting, guest blogging, article submission, press release
distribution, social media engagements, and forum posting can be used to increase backlinks.
Websites often employ SEO techniques to increase the number of backlinks pointing to their
website. Some methods are free for use by everyone whereas some methods, like linkbaiting,
require quite a bit of planning and marketing to work.[13] There are also paid techniques to
increase the number of backlinks to a target site. For example, private blog networks can be
used to purchase backlinks. It has been estimated that the average cost of buying a link in 2019
was $291.55 and $391.55, when marketing blogs were excluded from the calculation.[14]
EE