In short
A backlink is a link that points from another website to your page. From the point of view of search engines, it is a vote: whoever links to you is indirectly saying "this page is relevant enough to refer to".
That is exactly why backlinks are still among the most important ranking factors at Google today. But they are not all worth the same, and a few wrong ones can do you more harm than good.
As synonyms you often hear "incoming link", "inbound link" or simply "link". The meaning is always the same: a reference from domain A to domain B. The reverse case, a link that points away from your page to another one, is an outgoing link. For your own ranking, it is the incoming ones that count.
Technically, a backlink is nothing more than an a tag in the source code of another page whose href points to one of your URLs. What makes this inconspicuous snippet of HTML so valuable is the context around it: who sets it, in which text it appears and, above all, whether it was given voluntarily. An editorial link that someone sets because they consider your content worth citing is the premier league. A link you built in yourself with a guest article or simply paid for counts for much less in Google's eyes, and if in doubt even negatively.
Why backlinks carry so much weight in e-commerce
Google built its entire business model on evaluating links. The original PageRank algorithm regarded every link as a directed recommendation and passed "link equity" from referring to linked pages. The mechanics have become more complex over the years, but the basic principle has remained: a page that many trustworthy sources point to is itself considered more trustworthy. In its spam policies for Google web search, Google describes high-quality, editorially placed links as part of a healthy web, while bought or manipulated links are a violation.
For an online shop this means in concrete terms: if a trade magazine, an industry blog or a manufacturer links to your category page or your guide, you benefit twice. First, direct traffic comes via the click. Second, and more valuable in the long term, the link signals to Google that your domain has authority in your topic. A shop for sustainable outdoor equipment that is linked by a hiking magazine with a large reach will rank better for "waterproof hiking jacket" in the medium term than an equivalent shop without these references. Better content alone is rarely enough today.
That is the uncomfortable truth for many retailers: you can have the most beautiful product page in the world. Without anyone pointing to it, it will stay stuck on page three of the search results. Backlinks are the element of SEO that you control least on your own, and that is exactly why Google values them so highly.
There is also a second, often underestimated benefit. Backlinks are the paths by which search engine crawlers find new pages in the first place. A fresh shop without a single incoming link is practically invisible to Google until it happens to discover it via the sitemap. If a page that is already indexed and crawled well points to your new category, the category is found faster and added to the index. Especially in large shops with thousands of items, many of which are buried deep in the navigation, the link structure helps decide which product pages Google visits regularly at all.
And finally there is the purely commercial aspect, which is easily forgotten in the heat of SEO: a backlink from a page with a large reach brings a qualified stream of visitors, completely independently of the ranking effect. When the right trade magazine links to your guide, people who are interested in exactly your topic click. This traffic often converts better than cold search traffic because the referring context has already pre-qualified it. A good backlink is therefore never just an SEO signal but always also a marketing channel.
How search engines evaluate backlinks
Not every link counts the same. Search engines use several signals to assess the value of a backlink. The most important factors:
- Authority of the referring domain. A link from an established site with a strong link structure of its own weighs considerably more than one from a newly registered domain without a history. Tools represent this with metrics such as Domain Rating or Domain Authority, but these are estimates by third parties, not Google's own figure.
- Thematic proximity. A link from your own topic area is more valuable than one from a completely unrelated context. For a coffee shop, a reference from a barista blog brings more than one from a gambling portal.
- Position and context. A link in the middle of editorial text counts for more than one in the footer or in a list of links in the sidebar. Google reads the surrounding text too.
- Anchor text. The linked text gives Google an indication of the topic of the target page. "Click here" says nothing; "robust women's hiking jacket" says a lot. But do not overdo it with exact-match keywords; more on this below.
- follow vs nofollow. A link with the attribute rel="nofollow" (or the newer variants sponsored and ugc) signals to Google that no recommendation should be passed on. Such links bring hardly any direct ranking advantage but can still deliver traffic and visibility.
A realistic link profile mixes all of this. It does not consist of 200 identical keyword anchors from obscure directories but of natural, organic growth: brand mentions, naked URLs, a few strong editorial links and some nofollow mentions from social networks. Anyone who buys a thousand links at the push of a button builds a profile that any algorithm will recognise as manipulated.
follow, nofollow, sponsored and ugc compared
| Attribute | Used for | Passes on link equity? |
|---|---|---|
| (no attribute / follow) | Normal editorial link | Yes |
| rel="nofollow" | A link you do not want to vouch for | As a rule, no |
| rel="sponsored" | Paid links, advertising, affiliate | No |
| rel="ugc" | User-generated content, such as forum posts and comments | No |
Important for shop operators: affiliate links pointing to your shop should be marked as sponsored by the partner. If the partner does not do this and you benefit massively from unmarked paid links, in the worst case you risk a manual penalty.
A common misunderstanding concerns nofollow links. Many retailers consider them worthless and ignore them. That is short-sighted. First, since 2019 Google has treated the attribute only as a hint, not as a strict instruction, so it may well take a nofollow link into account. Second, and this is decisive, a nofollow link from a forum or a large platform with a wide reach sends real visitors. Third, a natural link profile always shows a healthy mix of follow and nofollow. A profile that consists of 95 per cent follow links looks artificial, because real links via social networks, forums and comments are almost always nofollow.
How online retailers can earn good backlinks
The most sustainable route is uncomfortable: create content or products that others link to voluntarily. That sounds like a marketing cliché, but it is the only method that will not be destroyed by a Google update in the long run. A few concrete levers:
- Publish your own data. If you as a retailer publish industry figures, a size guide or an annual trend report, blogs and magazines will cite you and link to the source. Data is the most frequently linked content format.
- Approach manufacturers and suppliers. Many brands maintain retailer directories or store locators. An entry there is a thematically relevant, often strong link that you only have to ask for.
- Digital PR. A real story, a campaign or a statement on an industry topic can trigger press coverage that links to you.
- Industry directories and associations. Reputable, editorially maintained directories in your industry are solid, if unspectacular, links.
- Replace broken links. If a blog links to a dead resource that you can offer in a better form, a friendly hint is a fair exchange.
What you should not do: buy links on a large scale, run link exchange networks, do "you link to me, I link to you" deals on a large scale or register in spam directories. Sooner or later this will be found out.
Practical example: a Shopware shop for bicycle accessories
Take a medium-sized Shopware shop that sells bicycle accessories and is stuck at position 14 for "StVZO bicycle light". The product page is decent, the description clean and the price competitive. What is missing is simply the recommendations.
The shop writes a detailed guide explaining which requirements the German Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) place on bicycle lighting, with a table, images and a checklist. This guide is not salesy but useful. Two cycling blogs link to it as a source, a regional portal close to the German cyclists' association ADFC includes it in a collection of links, and the lamp manufacturer refers to it from its retailer directory. Within a few months, the product page rises, because the guide passes link equity on to the product pages linked internally. Position 14 becomes position 6. The decisive point: not a single one of these links was bought. They came about because the content was worth linking to.
Common mistakes and their limits
Link building often goes wrong because retailers look for the shortcut. The most common pitfalls:
- Quantity instead of quality. A thousand links from junk sites bring less than ten from relevant, authoritative sources, and they can do active harm.
- Over-optimised anchor texts. If 80 per cent of your backlinks have exactly "buy cheap bicycle lamp" as their anchor text, that is a clear signal of manipulation. Natural profiles are mixed.
- Bought links without labelling. A violation of Google's guidelines that can lead to a manual penalty. Paid placements should be marked as sponsored.
- Backlinks as an isolated measure. Links do not replace a technically clean site, good user guidance or relevant content. They amplify what is already there. Pointing to a weak page changes little.
And an honest assessment to finish: the effect of individual links is harder to measure today than it used to be, because Google weighs hundreds of signals. Backlinks remain important, but they are not a switch you flip. They are the result of your shop and your content being taken seriously in your niche. Anyone who understands this stops chasing links and starts being worth linking to. That takes longer, but it also survives the next algorithm update.
For implementation in your own shop, a sober look is worthwhile: use one of the common SEO tools to check your existing link profile, identify your strongest referring domains and think about which of your content someone would cite voluntarily. If the answer is "none", that is where the real task lies, not in the next link purchase.