What are backlinks, and does my small business need them?
A backlink is simply a link from another website to yours. Google treats relevant, earned links as votes of confidence, so yes, they still matter. But a small business needs a handful of good ones, not hundreds of cheap ones. Buying links or swapping them in bulk breaks Google’s spam policies and can do real damage.
If you have ever paid an SEO agency and wondered what they actually did all month, there is a fair chance the answer involved “building links”. It is one of the oldest ideas in search, one of the most abused, and one of the least explained. Here is what it actually means, what it is worth to a business your size, and when to walk away from someone selling it.
What a backlink actually is
Every time another website links to yours, that is a backlink. A local newspaper mentions your sponsorship of the under-11s and links to your site: backlink. A supplier lists you as an approved installer: backlink. Your chamber of commerce member profile: backlink.
Three distinctions matter straight away:
- Backlinks versus internal links. Links between pages on your own site are internal links. They help Google understand your site, but they are not votes from the outside world. Backlinks come from other people’s sites.
- Editorial links versus listings. An editorial link is one someone chose to include because you were worth mentioning. A listing link is one you created yourself by filling in a form, like a directory entry. Both exist, but Google weighs them very differently.
- Followed versus nofollowed. Sites can mark a link so it does not pass ranking value, and many large sites (Wikipedia, most social platforms) do exactly that. A nofollow link can still send you customers; it just does not count as a vote.
Why Google still cares
Google’s original insight was that a link is a recommendation. If twenty independent local sites link to a plumber and nobody links to another, the first one is probably the safer bet. That idea still sits underneath search results today, alongside hundreds of other signals.
The important word is “alongside”. Google has become much better at judging content, location and intent on their own, and it has spent fifteen years discounting links that exist only to manipulate rankings. So the honest position is: links still influence who wins a competitive search, but they are one factor, not the factor, and the quality bar keeps rising. A brilliant page with no links can outrank a poor page with fifty, and it does, every day.
The links that are actually worth having for a small business
Forget volume. For a typical local or regional business, the valuable links are boring and obvious:
- Trade bodies and professional associations you genuinely belong to.
- Suppliers and manufacturers whose “where to buy” or approved-installer pages you can legitimately appear on.
- Local press and community sites, usually through something real: sponsorship, a charity event, an expert comment on a local story.
- Partners and customers with a genuine reason to mention you, such as a case study they agreed to publish.
- Directories that real customers actually use, which in the UK usually means a small handful: your Google Business Profile, and any trade-specific platform your customers genuinely browse.
Ten links like that, earned over a couple of years, will beat a thousand forum-profile links every time. They also tend to bring the right visitors directly, which is the point.
The links that can hurt you
Google publishes an explicit list of what it calls link spam, and it is not ambiguous: “Buying or selling links for ranking purposes” is on it, along with “excessive link exchanges” and large-scale guest posting or automated link schemes. Break these at scale and the consequences range from Google ignoring the links (you wasted your money) to a manual action that suppresses your whole site until you clean up.
That is why the “5,000 backlinks for £49” emails exist to be deleted. Nobody earns five thousand real recommendations for £49. Those links come from networks of junk sites built to be sold from, and Google has spent years learning to spot them. The same caution applies to any agency that reports “links built” as a monthly number without showing you where they are. If they will not name the sites, you already know what the sites look like.
How many backlinks do you actually need?
There is no number, and anyone who gives you one without looking at your market is guessing. The practical test is the search results you want to appear in. Search for your own service in your town and look at who sits above you. If the top three are nationals with thousands of links, you are in a fight that links alone will not win, and your money is better spent on reviews, your Google Business Profile and genuinely useful pages. If the top three are local firms much like yours, the gap is often a small number of decent links plus better content, and that is winnable.
How to earn links without doing anything shady
The boring, reliable route looks like this. First, claim the free ones: every organisation you already belong to or pay – trade body, supplier, chamber, sponsor – and ask to be listed. Second, be quotable: when a local journalist or blogger needs a quick comment from someone in your trade, be the one who replies fast with something useful. Third, publish things worth referencing: original data from your own work, a proper cost guide, a clear answer to a question customers actually ask. That is the whole strategy behind our own Knowledge Centre articles, like the one on how a small business should start SEO – answer real questions well enough that people point at the answer.
The bottom line
You do not need to “do link building” as a monthly ritual. You need your business mentioned in the places your customers and your industry already trust, and you need your own site to deserve those mentions. If an agency includes link work in a retainer, ask which sites, and expect answers you recognise. If the answer is directories you have never heard of, the value is what you suspect it is. The compounding assets are still the unglamorous ones: a fast site, pages that answer real questions, a well-kept Google Business Profile, and links from real organisations. For the wider picture of what should be in a monthly retainer, see what a monthly SEO fee should include.
Frequently asked questions
Do backlinks still matter in 2026?
Yes, but as one signal among many. Google is far better at judging content quality and local relevance than it was when links dominated. Good earned links still move competitive searches; bulk-bought links mostly move money out of your account.
Can I just buy backlinks?
Google’s spam policies name buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. At best the links are ignored and you have paid for nothing. At worst the site picks up a manual action. Paid placements that are genuinely advertising should be marked as sponsored so they do not pass ranking value.
How do I see who links to my website?
Google Search Console’s Links report shows the sites linking to yours, free, once your site is verified. Several SEO tools show more detail, but Search Console is the starting point and costs nothing.
Do directory listings count as backlinks?
Technically yes, but they sit at the weak end. A listing on a directory your customers genuinely use is worth having for the enquiries it sends. Fifty listings on directories nobody visits add nothing.
Should I swap links with other local businesses?
A one-off link between genuine partners with a real reason to mention each other is fine. Google’s spam policy specifically lists “excessive link exchanges” – link-to-me-and-I-will-link-to-you schemes – as link spam. The difference is intent and scale, not the existence of the link.
Sources and checks
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (link spam section): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
- Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content
- Bamsh Knowledge Centre: What should be included in a monthly SEO fee? https://bamsh.co.uk/what-should-be-included-in-a-monthly-seo-fee/
- Bamsh Knowledge Centre: What’s the best way for a small business to start SEO? https://bamsh.co.uk/whats-the-best-way-for-a-small-business-to-start-seo/
Sources checked 31 October 2026.
