Starting to build backlinks for your website but don’t know the amount of backlinks you need? This is one of the most popular questions we encounter while meeting a new client, and here are several cases that prove that our expertise in this question works.
Over several months, we built 15 high-quality links from unique domains for a PL version of the website that provides online language courses. This led to stable growing traffic that has already changed from 2К to 9K:
We started building backlinks for this client in May 2024, continuing our efforts in October 2024. 15-20 paid links per month on average, and the website traffic grew from 69K in June to 114K in October:
If you want to know how many backlinks your website needs and understand which factors to consider when calculating the number of backlinks, read on.
Google Speaks: Do Backlinks Still Influence Rankings in 2025?
SEO always goes hand in hand with link building. Nonetheless, the development of Google’s algorithms and AI changed the attitude of the search engines to the links obtained by the websites.
When determining rankings, they consider the website’s quality, relevance, and other factors in addition to the number of backlinks. So, maybe the backlinks have lost their importance over the last decade? In short: not really, but backlink quality is certainly more important for SEO performance than quantity.
What Is a Backlink?
Backlinks are the links your site obtains from other online resources. They are also called inbound or incoming links. As a rule, these references are considered by search engines as proof that your content includes interesting and valuable information.
How Do Backlinks Affect Search Rankings?
The references you get from other sites can significantly improve your website’s visibility and increase the organic traffic flow. Search engine algorithms assume that if the owners of other online resources link to your website, then you probably provide unique and exciting information, such as statistics, research, valuable insights, etc.
We can say for sure that a rich backlink profile indicates the website’s authority. There is a special Google PageRank algorithm that works by counting the number of backlinks to a certain page to determine its importance and popularity. The algorithm is based on the assumption that the more important a site is, the more links from other resources it gets.
So, does it mean that the answer to “How many backlinks should a website have?” is “The more, the better”? Of course, it can’t be so easy!
The quality of the links is way more important than their number. Low-quality or irrelevant links can even harm your performance. That’s why it’s not enough to simply start getting references from all the websites you can find in the online network.
What does the quality of the link mean? Well, it’s a combination of different SEO metrics of the page and domain that contains the link to your page. They might include the website’s Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR), the relevance of the linking page, and the anchor text relevance.
Other important factors considered by the PageRank algorithm include:
- Link diversity
- Relevance
- Authority.
Google’s Updated Views on Backlinks
Unfortunately, Google keeps the high-ranking secrets under wraps. Nonetheless, it’s still possible to gather some pieces of information to understand how the number of backlinks may affect the site’s position in the SERPs.
So, in September 2023, Gary Illyes, an analyst on the Google Search team, claimed that links are no longer among the top three ranking factors. After the March 2024 core algorithm update, the word “important” was removed in reference to links as a ranking factor.
Once again, in April 2024, at a search conference in Bulgaria, Illyes announced that Google doesn’t need a lot of links to rank a page. Similar information was provided by John Mueller, the company’s search advocate. Although the author has already deleted his comment on Reddit, the Internet remembers everything.
As you can see, Google’s officials claim that focusing on obtaining as many backlinks as you can isn’t the winning SEO strategy. Still, it doesn’t mean that you have to completely ignore this factor. If you want your business to grow online, you should ensure that your site gets references from relevant and reputable websites, while also investing in other strategies of search engine optimization.
Here’s how continually earning high-quality backlinks from unique domains influences our clients’ growth:
How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank?
It’s difficult to give an exact answer to this question without a proper analysis of your website, competitors, and niche. For example, if you run a local website, up to 30 high-quality links obtained from other online sources may be enough to ensure high rankings.
On the other hand, this number may reach 500 or even more for the sites that try to grow their rankings in a highly competitive niche. If you want to find out the ideal amount for your particular case, follow the tips provided below.
How Many Backlinks Does My Website Have?
First of all, you need to answer a simple but extremely important question, “How many backlinks does a site have?” The good news is that you don’t need to be a professional link builder with years of experience to find out the answer. There are several ways you can deal with this task:
- For a quick overview, open Google Search Console and click the Links section to see a quick overview of sites linking to your website. Alternatively, you may also use Majestic.
- If you need a detailed analysis of your backlink profile, opt for Semrush. In addition to the information about the number of links from other sites, it also can help you check their quality.
- Ahrefs is another great tool that will provide you with a detailed overview of your backlinks. It allows checking lost domains and tracking your links.
You can choose any of the mentioned tools or even combine them to thoroughly analyze your backlink profile. As soon as you find out the current number of references from other websites, you’ll be ready to continue your journey.
Steps to Determine the Right Number of Links for Your Website
So, now your task is to discover the answer to the question “How many backlinks do I need?” This task includes two important stages, so make sure you follow the instructions described below.
Examine Which Pages You Need to Build Backlinks To
The harsh truth is that not all pages on your websites are worth getting backlinks. If you don’t want your link building efforts to fail, it’s better to immediately focus on the pages with the main keywords that generate the majority of your sales and leads.
Are you not sure which one to choose? Here is a simple process that will help you:
- Check out the keywords that your website is currently ranking for on the first three pages of Google. It’s possible to discover this information in Google Search Console. This way, you can define the keywords that provide you with a strong chance to win the top positions.
- Choose the options that are the most commercially relevant to your business. You can use Ahrefs or Semrush for this task. Create a shortlist with these keywords and URLs, and where they are placed. Remember that it’s better to avoid high-traffic and high-competitive terms. It’ll be a way smarter decision to focus on the extremely specific keywords with low keyword difficulty scores. Now, you have a list of pages for which to get links from other websites.
Identify the Number of Backlinks for Similar Pages in Your Niche
How many backlinks are good for your site? The answer to this question depends on the link profiles of similar pages in your niche. Here are two ways how you can find out the amount of backlinks you need:
- Start with the analysis of your competitors to understand which strategies they opt for to boost their online visibility. You can check their backlink profiles using the Site Explorer feature on Ahrefs.
- Type in the URL of your website. It’ll help you discover the relevant sites from your niche. Let’s take a popular website for lodging reservations as an example:
- Open the Overview page and find the “Organic competitors”. You will find top-5 competitors here:
- The service will also show you the twenty most popular competitors in your niche below. If you truly want to discover the ideal number of backlinks for your website, analyze them all.
- Use Ahrefs to check the backlink profiles of the discovered websites. Of course, if you are a local business, your competitors won’t have as many backlinks, and calculating them will be easier🙂
- Identify your competitor’s high-quality backlinks. Remember that they must be relevant to your industry and provided by websites with high domain authority.
This information will help you calculate the difference in the number of referring domains your website has and the ones acquired by other sites in your niche. It’s also known as the backlink gap. For exact calculations, take the following steps:
- Divide your and competitors’ backlinks into three categories:
- the links from top-quality websites (with 70+ DR)
- medium-quality (with 70-30 DR)
- low-quality websites (with DR less than 30).
- Check the difference between the numbers. It’ll help you define whether you need more medium- and top-quality backlinks to boost your rankings and domain rating.
Ranking Factors and Their Effect on Backlink Quantity
In SEO, it’s not enough to know the answer to the question, “How many backlinks do you need?” Backlinks aren’t the only ranking factor. Other aspects like Domain Authority, content, and technical SEO are also taken into account, and they can influence how many links your site needs.
What Is a Ranking Factor?
A ranking factor is a criterion considered by search engine algorithms while evaluating the quality of web pages. Due to this, they can properly rank websites on search engine results pages. It’s important to understand them and include them in your optimization strategy if you want to grow your website.
Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR)
Domain Authority (DA) is an SEO metric used for the evaluation of the website’s overall authority and strength. It was introduced by Moz.
Domain Rating (DR) helps to identify the strength of any site’s backlink profile. This metric was originally developed by Ahrefs.
Both DA and DR evaluate sites on a scale from 1 to 100. The higher the score, the stronger the potential to rank in search results a website has. As a rule, these metrics directly depend on:
- The amount and quality of the linking domains.
- The number of links in a website’s backlink profile.
The higher your site’s DA, the higher your new content will rank in search engines. If your DA is high and remains stable, you need fewer backlinks to keep your high rankings because Google has already approved your trustworthiness.
However, if both DA and DR have low scores, it’s a strong signal you need to boost your site’s authority. That’s where high-quality backlinks should come into play!
High-Quality Content
Getting more high-quality links is important, but it becomes a difficult task if you don’t have good content. This is a key part of any SEO strategy that helps you not only attract new links but also build trust with both users and search engines.
You should focus on the creation of exciting blog posts, landing pages, and product descriptions. Unique and valuable content will help you get more organic backlinks, proving to the algorithms that your website is truly worth ranking high.
To turn your blog post into link-worthy pieces, follow these principles:
- Focus on your target audience’s pain points and interests. Ideally, your content should provide valuable information based on your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
- Make engaging and original content. Include some useful tips and tricks that people will want to share.
- Your articles should be comprehensive. The minimum length of an article should be at least 700 words, but it’s better to aim for 1,000 words to fully disclose a topic.
- Always support the information you provide with reputable sources. Do your own research for more unique insights.
Keyword Optimization
It’s impossible to imagine a successful SEO campaign without proper and comprehensive keyword research. These phrases and terms help your site reach users who may be truly interested in your services or products.
By skillfully weaning the target keyword into your content, you help search engines understand what your pages are about. Thus, there is a stronger chance they’ll reach your potential customers.
Don’t forget that it’s important to build a number of backlinks to the pages that include the keywords essential for your commercial success. Due to such an approach, you can make them rank higher, boosting your sales and ROI.
Internal and External Links
While looking for the answer to “How many high-quality backlinks do I need”, you should keep in mind that these aren’t the only links to consider. The links you place on your own website can also have an impact on your rankings. Thus, you should ensure that your pages have relevant internal and external links.
- Internal links lead from one of your website’s pages to another. A smart placement of the internal links will help you spread link juice (the value of a web page) to other pages, speeding up their indexing and ranking. This way, they support the lower authority pages and enhance content relevance. They are also important for easier navigation through your site.
- External links lead from your website to other online resources. You can use them to provide references or additional information when creating content. This is a great way to help your users find out more about a specific topic and check the information you’ve provided. Linking to low-quality domains can reduce the trustworthiness of your site, so it’s critical to only link to authoritative and reliable sources of information
Technical SEO & Page Experience
Technical SEO is focused on the website’s infrastructure. It helps web crawlers to index your site and improves the user’s experience.
Problems with technical SEO are even more serious than having fewer backlinks than your competitors. Some issues, such as broken links, may completely prevent the search engines from crawling and indexing your pages, so they simply won’t appear in the SERPs.
The optimization of technical elements is extremely important and includes the improvement of:
- Crawlability and indexability. During this process, you should submit a sitemap, using a robots.txt file, and apply the necessary noindex tags.
- Mobile optimization. Google follows the mobile-first indexing principle, so it’s important to ensure your website provides a smooth experience for users of portable devices.
- Site architecture. All your pages should be well-organized and logically structured within the categories to offer flawless navigation.
- Page loading speed. If it takes ages for your pages to load, your users will simply leave even before they see your website’s content, which will not go unnoticed by Google.
- URLs. All your URLs should include relevant keywords, avoid the usage of long strings that include numbers or special characters, and stay descriptive.
- SSL. Finally, obtaining an SSL certificate can significantly boost the website’s trustworthiness and overall security.
Additionally, it’s essential to remember about the Page Experience. Google is unlikely to promote pages that take too much time to load, contain too many ads, and are poorly optimized for certain devices. This is because stable, fast, and responsive pages ensure better user experience and conversions.
Now I Know How Many Links I Need. What Is Next?
As you can see, it takes a bit of research to get a comprehensive answer to the question “How many backlinks to my site do I need?” And once you get an idea of that amount, you need to incorporate a link building strategy into your SEO efforts.
Each site requires a personal approach and tailored link building services to obtain relevant links. If you have too few backlinks and are dreaming of building a strong, natural backlink profile, professional outreach assistance is just what you need. And the amazing news is that you’ve already discovered the best link building experts!
Backlinkers are here to provide you with high-quality backlinks! Our team will thoughtfully analyze your niche, competitors, and website to help you grow your business online. Opt for our services today to reap the benefits of quality backlinks!
