Once you understand that backlinks act like recommendations, a natural question follows: are all links equal? Is a link from a famous newspaper the same as a link from a forum signature or a directory nobody has ever heard of? And what are those “nofollow” links people keep mentioning?
Let me answer all of that in this lesson. By the end, you will be able to look at any link and judge whether it is likely to help, do nothing or put you at risk. You will also know the three link labels Google asks site owners to use, and what Google’s link spam policy actually says.
If you haven’t read the previous lesson, start with what backlinks are and why they matter. This one builds on it.
Why are some links worth more than others?
Go back to the recommendation idea. If a well-known food critic recommends your restaurant in a newspaper review, that carries weight. If a stranger hands out flyers saying “eat here,” it carries almost none. And if you pay the stranger to hand out flyers, nobody should treat that as a real recommendation at all.
Links work the same way. Google’s systems try to count genuine recommendations and ignore the fake or bought ones. So the question is never just “do I have a link?” It is “would a real person have chosen to put this link here, because it helps their readers?”
In my view, four qualities decide most of a link’s value: relevance, authority, editorial placement and anchor text. Let me take them one at a time.
What are the four signs of a good link?
1. Relevance: does the linking site have anything to do with you?
A link from a gardening magazine to a garden tools shop makes sense. A link from a casino blog to that same shop doesn’t. Relevant links also tend to send visitors who actually care. Relevance can be the whole site, the specific page, or even the paragraph around the link.
2. Authority: is the linking site trusted?
A link from a site that many others trust and link to is usually worth more than a link from a brand-new site with no reputation. SEO tools give this a score, such as Moz’s Domain Authority or Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. These are helpful for comparing sites quickly, but they are not Google metrics. Our article on what Domain Authority is and isn’t explains the difference.
3. Editorial placement: did someone choose to link to you?
An editorial link is one a writer or editor added because it improves their content, like a source cited in an article. Compare that with links you can add yourself anywhere, such as blog comments, forum signatures or open directories. Links inside the main content of a page are usually more meaningful than links stuffed into footers or sidebars across thousands of pages.
4. Anchor text: does the link read naturally?
Anchor text is the clickable wording of a link. Google’s link guidance asks for descriptive, concise anchor text, and it warns against stuffing keywords into links. Natural link profiles are messy: lots of brand names, plain web addresses, “this study,” and some descriptive phrases. When nearly every link to a site uses the same exact-match keyword, like “best cheap plumber Chicago,” that pattern looks engineered. For more detail, read our guide to anchor text types.
Good link vs bad link: how can you tell them apart?
Here is a quick comparison you can use whenever you look at a link. These are invented examples, but they are very typical.
| Question to ask | Likely good link | Likely poor or risky link |
|---|---|---|
| Is it relevant? | A cycling blog links to your bike repair guide | An unrelated “general news” site with posts on every topic links to your bike shop |
| Is the site trusted? | A regional newspaper with real reporters | A site that exists only to publish posts with links for sale |
| Was it earned? | A writer cites your survey results | You paid for a link and asked them not to label it |
| Where is it placed? | In the body of an article, next to helpful context | In a site-wide footer or a list of 300 links |
| How does the anchor read? | “the repair checklist from Example Bikes” | “best bike repair cheap bike repair near me” |
| Would it exist without SEO? | Yes, readers find it useful | No, its only purpose is to influence rankings |
That last question is my favorite test. If search engines didn’t exist, would this link still make sense? If the answer is yes, it is probably a healthy link.
What do nofollow, sponsored and ugc mean?
Sometimes a site owner links to a page but doesn’t want to vouch for it. For this, Google supports three values for the rel attribute on a link. They are like small labels that explain the relationship between the two pages.
rel="sponsored"is for ads, paid placements and other links that exist because of payment. Google prefers this value for paid links, though it saysnofollowis still acceptable for them.rel="ugc"stands for user-generated content. It is for links that visitors add, such as comments and forum posts.rel="nofollow"is the general option when the other two don’t apply and you don’t want your site associated with the linked page, for example when you link to a site you don’t trust.
In the code, a qualified link looks like this:
<a href="https://example.com/" rel="sponsored">Example Shoes</a>You can combine values, such as rel="ugc nofollow". Google says links with these values will generally not be followed, but the linked page may still be found and crawled in other ways.
What does this mean for you? Two things. First, when someone pays you or you pay someone for a link, it should carry sponsored or nofollow. Second, qualified links pointing to you are not useless. A nofollow link from a popular site can still bring visitors and lead to more natural links. Our guide on dofollow vs nofollow links goes deeper.
What does Google count as link spam?
Google’s spam policies have a section called link spam. In short, it covers any link meant mainly to manipulate rankings. Here are the main examples Google lists, in my own simple words:
- Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, including paying with goods or services, or sending someone a free product in exchange for a post with a link.
- Excessive link exchanges (“link to me and I’ll link to you”) and partner pages made only for cross-linking.
- Using automated programs or services to create links to your site.
- Requiring a link in terms of service or a contract without letting the other site qualify it.
- Text ads that pass ranking credit, and paid advertorials with links that pass ranking credit.
- Articles, guest posts or press releases with keyword-rich, optimized anchor text links.
- Low-quality directory or bookmark site links.
- Hidden or keyword-rich links inside widgets that get spread across many sites.
- Links widely spread in the footers or templates of many sites.
- Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature.
Notice what is not on this list: getting a link because you made something worth linking to. Paid links are also fine for advertising, as long as they are labeled with sponsored or nofollow.
What happens if you break these rules? Usually, Google’s systems just ignore the spammy links, so the money and time are wasted. In more serious cases, Google can apply a manual action for unnatural links, which you would see in Search Console’s Manual actions report. Google’s ranking systems guide also mentions SpamBrain, its system for spotting spam. You will learn how to handle real problems in the lesson on bad links, negative SEO and the disavow tool. For the bigger picture of Google’s rules, see white-hat vs black-hat SEO.
Try it: grade ten of your own backlinks
Let’s put this into practice. You looked at your backlinks in Search Console in the last lesson. Now you will grade some of them.
- Open Search Console, go to Links, then Top linking sites. Pick ten sites from the list. Mix big ones and ones you don’t recognize.
- Visit each site and find the page that links to you. (Search Console can show you example linking pages if you click a site.)
- For each link, answer the four questions: Is it relevant? Is the site trusted? Was it placed by an editor or by anyone? Is the anchor text natural?
- Right-click the link and choose “Inspect” in your browser to see whether it has
rel="nofollow",sponsoredorugc. This is optional, but it is a nice way to learn. - Give each link a simple grade: Good, Neutral or Suspicious.
- Look at your “Good” links. What did you do to earn them? That is a clue for the next lesson.
Don’t worry if a few look suspicious. Almost every site has some junk links it never asked for. Only take action if you see a clear pattern of links someone built on purpose to manipulate rankings. Our step-by-step guide on how to do a backlink audit goes further if you want a full review.
Questions beginners ask about link quality
Is Domain Authority a Google metric?
No. Domain Authority, Domain Rating and Authority Score are scores made by SEO tool companies (Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush). They try to estimate link strength, and they can be useful for comparing sites, but Google doesn’t use them. Treat them as a rough guide, not a target.
Are nofollow links worthless?
No. They usually don’t pass ranking credit the way a normal link does, but they can still send visitors, build awareness and lead to other people linking to you naturally. A nofollow link from a big news site is still a good thing to have.
Will a bad link hurt my site?
In most cases Google simply ignores spammy links rather than punishing the site they point to. Problems usually come when a site owner builds or buys manipulative links on purpose. If you have done that, read the lesson on bad links and the disavow tool.
What anchor text should I ask for?
Ideally you don’t control it at all, and that is fine. If someone asks, suggest your brand name or a short, natural description of the page. Avoid asking everyone for the same keyword-rich phrase, because that pattern looks manipulative.
Are links from .edu and .gov sites special?
Not because of the domain ending itself. They can be great links when a university or government page genuinely references your work, because those sites tend to be trusted. A link on a random student page or open comment section isn’t special at all.
Good links are earned, labeled honestly and make sense to readers
In brief: a good link is relevant, comes from a trusted site, was placed by someone who chose to recommend you, and uses natural wording. Paid and user-added links should carry sponsored, ugc or nofollow. And anything built mainly to manipulate rankings falls under Google’s link spam policy, where at best it does nothing.
Now that you can spot a good link, the next lesson shows you how to earn more of them: link building strategies that still work. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your links, you are welcome to contact us for a free quote.