Chapter 27: Why Does Google Trust Some Sites More?

Connections reaching out from a globe on a laptop to surrounding websites

Last updated: November 1, 2026.

To understand backlinks, we need to go back a little to Google’s early years.

A short history: PageRank

When Google first launched, one of the most important ideas that set it apart from its competitors was PageRank. The basic approach was roughly this:

If other pages link to a web page, those links can be a signal of that page’s importance.

But the system was never as simple as “100 links are better than 50.” Google’s original PageRank approach also took into account how important the linking page itself was. So a link from a strong page and a link from a page with no value were not treated the same. How many different places the linking page linked to was also part of the calculation.

There’s one more thing people who did SEO back then will remember:

Google Toolbar PageRank.

The Google Toolbar could show users the PageRank value of the page they were visiting. Back then, that value was almost a currency in the SEO industry. PR 2, PR 4, PR 6, PR 9…

When people talked about a backlink, one of the first questions was, “What’s this site’s PR?”

But there was an important detail here:

PageRank was actually the value of a page, not a domain.

So a site’s homepage could have a very high PageRank while another page deeper in the site had a much lower value. That’s why even saying “I got a link from a PR 7 site” wasn’t enough on its own. Which page the link came from mattered.

Over time, Google’s ranking systems became much more complex. Link analysis was a very dominant signal at first, but over time content quality, relevance to the query, spam detection, usefulness to the user, local results, freshness and many other signals were added to the system.

The backlink side changed too. In the early days of SEO, getting a link from a page with very high PageRank could produce quite strong results even if the topical connection was very weak. Naturally, this led to the growth of link buying, link exchanges and PageRank manipulation.

Today, just looking at “Who linked?” is no longer enough. These also become important:

  • Which page is the link coming from?
  • What is that page about?
  • Is the content the link sits in related to our topic?
  • Is the link a natural reference?
  • Does it make sense from the user’s point of view?
  • What anchor text was used?
  • Is the link sponsored?
  • Is the linking site a real publication, or a setup built to sell links?
  • In what country and language context does the link come?

So the way backlinks work has changed a lot over the years. But one thing hasn’t changed:

Links on the web are still one of Google’s core signals.

That’s why I sometimes disagree with the sentence “Backlinks don’t matter anymore.” I think the more accurate statement is this:

Backlinks are not as simple as they used to be.

In the past, getting a link from a page with high PageRank could be a big advantage on its own. Today, a link’s value depends much more on context. The topic, the page, the source, the anchor text, the link attribute and how natural the reference is all matter together.

So backlinks may not be as decisive on their own as they were in Google’s early years. But the web’s network of references, one of the ideas at the backbone of how Google works, still keeps its importance.

When another website links to a page on your site, we call it a backlink.

For example, if a tech site says, “For a detailed SEO guide, see this content on imza.com” and links to your page, that’s a backlink.

In its simplest form: site-a.com → site-b.com

But counting backlinks on its own tells us very little. Because not all 100 backlinks have the same value.

We can think of the internet as a big network of references.

An article cites another study. A news site links to an official source. An industry article credits the tool it used. A university study links to the data it relied on.

Here, a link is not just a technical element.

It’s a way of referencing a source.

Google’s link systems also use links to understand the relationships between pages. But this isn’t a simple system that works like:

More links = higher rankings

No. Let’s imagine two backlinks.

In the first, a well-known tech publication in the industry cites a comprehensive piece of SEO research you did. In the second, you get a footer link from an unknown site that sells thousands of links on every topic in the world.

Both are technically backlinks. But they don’t mean the same thing.

When I evaluate a backlink, I don’t just ask, “What’s this site’s metric?” I also look at:

  • Is the site really active?
  • Is it related to our topic?
  • Does it have real users?
  • Which content is the link coming from?
  • Does the reason for the link make sense?
  • Is the page itself strong?
  • Does the site constantly sell links to hundreds of unrelated sites?
  • Was the link given editorially?
  • Is the content the link sits in actually worth reading?

I think reducing backlink quality to a single number is one of the most common mistakes.

4. Why does relevance matter?

Let’s think of a manufacturer of industrial packaging machines. Suppose it gets backlinks from these two sites:

  • An industry site that publishes about packaging and manufacturing technologies
  • A high-traffic site that publishes fashion gossip

The second site may have higher traffic and some higher SEO metrics. But the context of the first link is much more meaningful. Because we’re in the same topic area.

That’s why in backlink analysis we need to look not only at a site’s overall size but also at how the link relates to the topic.

5. What is a referring domain?

How many backlinks we get from one site and how many different sites we get backlinks from are different things.

For example, site-a.com may have linked to your site from 500 different pages. In that case:

  • 500 backlinks
  • 1 referring domain

In another scenario, say 100 different sites have each given you one link. In that case:

  • 100 backlinks
  • 100 referring domains

These two profiles are not the same. That’s why in backlink analysis we look at the number of referring domains as much as the total number of backlinks.

But here again, the number alone isn’t enough. 100 low-quality referring domains are not necessarily more valuable than 10 strong, truly relevant sites.

There’s no one-line mathematical answer to this question. But in general, it isn’t right to think of each of hundreds of links coming repeatedly from the same source as an independent new reference.

For example, if a news site puts your link in its footer, hundreds of thousands of backlinks can appear. You’ll see a huge number in your SEO tool. But in reality, a single site has given you a sitewide link.

So we can’t conclude:

High backlink count = strong backlink profile

In reports, you should always read the backlink count together with referring domains.

7. What is authority?

We use the word “authority” a lot in SEO. But we need to be careful here.

Google doesn’t give us an official score like “This site’s Authority Score is 78.” So it isn’t right to think of “authority” as a single Google metric.

I think of it more as a combination of these:

  • Recognition on the web
  • Topical expertise
  • References
  • Backlink profile
  • Brand awareness
  • Content history
  • Trust

8. What are DR and DA?

SEO tools develop their own comparison metrics.

For example, Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) metric tries to show the relative strength of a site’s backlink profile. Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) metric is similarly based on its own estimation system.

Are these useful? Yes. They can help when comparing competitors, looking at link opportunities or trying to quickly understand an overall backlink profile.

But you shouldn’t make this mistake: “The competitor’s DR is 70, mine is 42. So I can’t beat them.”

We can’t draw that conclusion. Because DR and DA are not official Google metrics.

No. I think this is one of the most common mistakes in practice.

A site may have a high DR, but the page you’d get a link from may:

  • Not show up on Google
  • Not have been updated for years
  • Be unrelated to your topic
  • Contain thousands of outbound links
  • Have been created only to sell links

On the other hand, there may be a site with lower metrics that publishes exactly in your industry, has real readers and cites you naturally. I usually find the second link more meaningful.

The metric doesn’t decide; it gives us an idea.

The logic we discussed for keyword difficulty applies here too.

10. A page’s strength and a domain’s strength are not the same thing

This distinction matters too.

You might get a link from a page on a very strong news site that was published five years ago, has never earned a backlink and gets no traffic.

Or you might get a link from a guide on a smaller industry site that is:

  • Widely read
  • Frequently referenced
  • Ranking well on Google
  • Directly related to the topic

That’s why looking only at the domain level isn’t enough in backlink analysis.

You also need to analyze the page the link comes from.

Another commonly used concept in SEO is link equity. To simplify a lot, it’s used to describe the ranking signals a link passes to the target page. It used to be called “link juice” very often.

But here too, we shouldn’t think of every link as containing a fixed amount of SEO points. Google’s link systems have become much more complex over time. The source page, the context of the link, the link attribute and other signals may be evaluated together.

12. What is anchor text?

The clickable text in a link is called anchor text.

For example, if the words SEO agency are linked, the anchor text is “SEO agency.”

Anchor text can take different forms:

  • Brand: İmza
  • URL: imza.com
  • Keyword: SEO agency
  • Long phrase: what to look for when choosing an SEO agency
  • Generic phrase: click here

It’s normal to see a mix of these types in a natural backlink profile.

13. Should every backlink’s anchor text be a keyword?

No. On the contrary, constantly trying to get links with the same commercial keyword can look extremely artificial.

For example, you have 500 backlinks and 450 of them use the anchor “best seo agency.” That doesn’t look much like a natural reference profile.

In real life, people may link to your brand:

  • With the brand name
  • With the URL
  • With the article’s title
  • With a natural part of a sentence

I think turning link building into an activity of producing exact-match anchors is wrong.

If a normal HTML link has no special rel value, it’s generally treated as a standard link. For example:

<a href="https://example.com">Example Site</a>

In the SEO industry this is usually called “follow” or “dofollow.” In fact, there’s no rel="dofollow" attribute in HTML. A normal link is already the default link.

15. What is nofollow?

When rel="nofollow" is used on a link, the site owner gives Google a different relationship signal about that link.

This is where old SEO knowledge needs updating. In the past, nofollow was often explained as “Google completely ignores this link.”

Today, link attributes like nofollow, sponsored and ugc are treated by Google more as hints. So nofollow is no longer an absolute command meaning “act as if this link doesn’t exist.”

16. What is sponsored?

For paid links, rel="sponsored" can be used. For example, links given in the context of:

  • Advertising
  • Sponsored content
  • Paid placement

This will become especially important in the next chapter (Chapter 28) when we get to buying backlinks.

17. What is UGC?

UGC stands for user-generated content.

For example, links inside these can be marked with rel="ugc":

  • Forum posts
  • Blog comments
  • User profiles

That’s not how I see it.

How their direct SEO impact is evaluated depends on Google’s systems. But a backlink’s only value isn’t as a ranking signal.

For example, a nofollow link from the biggest site in your industry can:

  • Bring referral traffic
  • Build brand awareness
  • Bring in new customers
  • Lead other publishers to discover you
  • Increase your brand’s visibility on the web

That’s why an approach like “It’s nofollow, throw it out” in a backlink report doesn’t seem right to me.

19. Is it better to get backlinks to the homepage or to the relevant page?

It depends entirely on the goal.

If a news site writes a story about your company, linking to the homepage can be very natural. But if an article cites your detailed guide on “How to clean an espresso machine,” linking directly to that guide makes more sense.

Whenever possible, I prefer the link to take the user to the truly relevant page. Pointing every backlink to the homepage isn’t necessarily natural.

For new or small businesses, this can be normal. Brand news, directories and company profiles mostly link to the homepage.

But on a site that has been producing a lot of content for many years, having all backlinks point only to the homepage can be a red flag.

If you’re really producing good content, over time you can expect people to link directly to:

  • Your research
  • Your guide
  • Your tool
  • Your statistics
  • Your product

That’s why you also need to look at which pages are earning links in the backlink profile.

“Natural backlink profile” means different things to different people. I think of it more simply.

If a brand is growing on the web in the real world, its backlinks come from a variety of places too. For example:

  • News
  • Industry publications
  • Business partners
  • Associations
  • Blogs
  • Customers
  • Social profiles
  • Events
  • Universities
  • Forums
  • Product reviews

The anchor texts are different too. So are the target pages.

If all the backlinks come on the same day, in the same format, with the same keyword, from similar sites, that doesn’t look much like natural brand growth.

Here too, we shouldn’t set an automatic rule.

A new startup launches a very big product. Major tech publications and hundreds of other sites cover it in the same week. Thousands of backlinks come in. This can be completely natural.

On the other hand, if a small site nobody knows gets backlinks from 5,000 unrelated blogs overnight with the same anchor text, that’s a different situation.

So the problem isn’t just speed.

It’s the reason for the speed and the structure of the backlinks.

Google may treat links created to manipulate rankings as link spam.

For example, these are risky areas:

  • Buying and selling links for rankings
  • Getting links in exchange for products or services
  • Excessive link exchanges
  • Automated link-building systems
  • Low-quality directory links
  • Keyword-stuffed widget links
  • Footer links distributed across many sites
  • Optimized forum signature links

In the next chapter (Chapter 28), we’ll go into this in more detail in the section on buying backlinks.

In a backlink profile, I roughly look at:

  • Total backlinks
  • Referring domains
  • New and lost backlinks
  • Quality of the linking sites
  • Topical relevance
  • Quality of the linking pages
  • Anchor text distribution
  • Target pages being linked to
  • Follow / nofollow distribution
  • Use of sponsored / UGC
  • Country and language distribution
  • Sitewide links
  • Suspicious backlink spikes
  • Competitors’ backlink sources

But I’d like to put this question at the very top of the list:

Why does this link exist?

If the answer makes sense, we’re usually at a good starting point.

No. Of the competitor’s 10,000 backlinks:

  • 7,000 may be from the same site
  • 2,000 may be old or worthless
  • 500 may be sitewide
  • 300 may be unrelated

That might leave 200 truly valuable links. That’s why comparing numbers alone is misleading in backlink competition.

In the same way, saying “The competitor’s DR is 75” doesn’t give us a strategy on its own. The real question is:

Which of the competitor’s links actually create value?

26. Why can’t a new site compete right away with an old site on the same content?

Two sites can publish content of the same quality.

But one has been in the industry for 10 years. It has been referenced by hundreds of trustworthy sources. People search for its brand. It’s known in the industry. The other launched yesterday.

It wouldn’t be right to explain the gap only by the number of backlinks. But history on the web and a network of references can make a significant difference.

That’s why, while some parts of SEO can be fixed in a few hours, authority is an area that takes time. Building a real brand and a network of references isn’t a shortcut job.

Technically, if there’s no link, it isn’t a backlink. But I think measuring brand visibility only by backlink count is increasingly incomplete.

A brand may be mentioned in places like:

  • News
  • Forums
  • Social media
  • YouTube
  • Industry publications

This doesn’t get counted directly in the backlink total. But in the real world, it’s part of the brand’s recognition.

This topic comes up again especially in AI search; I cover it in my AI SEO book. Because there, the question “Where and how is the brand mentioned?” becomes much more important.

I think this is my favorite approach to backlinks.

We can think of it this way: instead of “How do I get backlinks?” sometimes we need to ask:

“Why would people link to this page?”

For example, if you create these, you give people a reason to link:

  • Original research
  • Industry data
  • A free tool
  • A calculator
  • An infographic
  • A useful guide
  • A benchmark
  • A research report

In the next chapter (Chapter 28), we’ll go into this in more detail when we look at ways to earn strong backlinks.

29. Don’t try to measure authority with a single score

I think this is one of the most important points in this chapter.

An SEO tool might show us:

  • DR 72
  • DA 65
  • Authority Score 68

All of these can be useful for analysis. But none of them is:

The official authority score Google gives that site.

As SEO professionals, we should use the tools’ data. But we shouldn’t mistake a tool’s metric for Google’s algorithm.

As we said in earlier chapters:

Tools don’t make decisions. They give us data so we can make decisions.

In short

Increasing the number of backlinks is not a backlink strategy.

You may have 100,000 backlinks, but how many of them actually:

  • Come from a relevant site?
  • Sit on a strong page?
  • Were given editorially?
  • Bring real users?
  • Mean something for your brand?
  • Form a natural reference?

I think these are what matter.

Backlinks are still one of the important parts of Google’s core ranking logic. But the point is no longer just getting links.

It’s earning a meaningful reference, in the right context, from the right source.

This is roughly how I look at backlinks:

Why would one website reference another?

If the answer to that question makes sense, the backlink makes sense too.

And maybe the most important sentence in this chapter is this:

A good backlink isn’t a number you bought; it looks like a reference you earned.

Previous: Chapter 26: How to Do SEO for Multiple Countries · Contents · Next: Chapter 28: How to Earn Strong Backlinks

This chapter was first published in Turkish on X (October 1, 2026).