How Many Backlinks Do You Need For Effective SEO

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August of 2024 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

As a general rule of thumb, websites typically need around 50 homepage backlinks and up to 100 backlinks to individual pages to rank competitively in search results, but how many links you need can vary.

But this is just a general estimate. 

The actual number of backlinks you need depends heavily on factors like the competitiveness of your niche, your site’s authority, and the quality of your backlinks.

In this post, we’ll explore the different factors that can influence how many backlinks you need to rank well. 

But first, some basics.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are links from one site to another.

Google considers the backlinks to your site when determining its position in its search results. 

This is because Google interprets a link from another site to yours as an endorsement of your site. Backlinks indicate that your content is credible and valuable and—therefore—worthy of prominent search rankings for relevant keywords.

Put simply, backlinks are essential to SEO (search engine optimization).

Backlink Quantity vs. Quality: What Matters Most?

Given the importance of backlinks, it’s reasonable to ask whether you should prioritize getting as many links as possible or focus on acquiring high-quality links from reputable sources.

Which approach is likely to have the biggest positive impact on your rankings?

Backlink Quality

High-quality backlinks come from relevant, authoritative websites. 

They tend to carry more ranking power than links from low-authority or topically unrelated sites. High-quality backlinks can significantly improve your rankings for your target keyword, making your content more visible to users searching for relevant terms.

For example, if you run a health blog, a backlink from a well-established medical website like the Mayo Clinic would be far more valuable than a link from some obscure blog about, say, reptiles.

If your site doesn’t have any authoritative backlinks, it may struggle to rank well in search results (even if you have plenty of low-authority backlinks).

Backlink Quantity

While high-quality backlinks are essential, the volume of backlinks pointing to your site can also help rankings. Building backlinks from a variety of sources can help increase the volume of links pointing to your site, which can positively impact your rankings.

In fact, a 2024 study by Internet Marketing Ninjas found that around 96% of top-ranking sites had backlinks from at least 1,000 other domains. Meanwhile, only 0.3% of top-ranking sites had 100 or fewer domains pointing to them.

A sizable backlink profile serves as a popularity signal. It shows search engines that many sites find your content valuable enough to link to. 

Also, a bigger backlink profile tends to be a more diverse backlink profile, with links coming from various high- and low-authority sources. 

This diversity appears more natural to search engines, suggesting your links were built organically rather than through manipulative link-building tactics (which can result in penalties).

The Verdict

In short, backlink quantity and quality are both important. 

In an ideal world, your site will have tons of high-quality links pointing to it from multiple authoritative domains, as well as lower-authority ones.

High-quality backlinks typically have the biggest impact on boosting your site’s organic visibility. But link quantity and diversity are also crucial for SEO success, indicating that your content is widely recognized and valued across the web.

With that in mind, let’s explore what determines the number of backlinks needed to sustain a strong organic presence.

Further reading: Is Link Building Still Relevant to SEO?

5 Factors That Influence How Many Backlinks You Need to Rank

We’ve already established that backlink quantity cannot compensate for a lack of high-quality backlinks. Having too few backlinks can hinder your site’s visibility and ranking potential, making it difficult to compete with other sites.

But assuming you have a foundation of high-quality backlinks, the number of links you need to rank well can vary based on several factors:

1. The Level of Competition in Your Niche

If you’re competing against multiple sites with high-quantity backlink profiles, chances are you’ll need as many (if not more) backlinks to outrank them. In highly competitive niches, optimizing your web pages for backlinks is crucial to outrank competitors.

In highly competitive niches like finance, health, or real estate, the top-ranking sites often have many thousands of backlinks. These industries can be particularly challenging because the established sites have usually been accumulating a large number of backlinks over a long period.

You can estimate the number of links you’d likely need to catch up to competitors by evaluating their backlink profiles. Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz provide backlink analysis solutions that let you examine the number, quality, and sources of competitor backlinks.

Let’s say you own a business that sells eco-friendly household products. A direct competitor might be the website “ecocult.com.”

According to Moz, that site has almost 53,000 backlinks from 9,000 domains.

However, it’s important to realize that even smaller websites can compete with big industry players by targeting more specific, less competitive, “long-tail” keywords.

Creating content around narrower topics within your niche improves your likelihood of ranking for those terms—even if you don’t have many backlinks. Moreover, long-tail keywords tend to attract visitors toward the bottom of the sales funnel, which means these users are more likely to convert. 

2. Your Site’s Authority

Website authority refers to the domain’s reputation or credibility in the eyes of search engines. The authority of each web page on your site contributes to the overall domain authority and can impact your rankings.

High-authority websites can typically rank higher in search results with fewer backlinks compared to less reputable sites. This is because authoritative sites build their reputation by consistently providing valuable content that users find useful—precisely what search engines want to reward in their search results.

A site’s authority is determined by a combination of factors, including the age of the domain, content quality, and the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to it. 

But even though many high-authority sites boast large backlink profiles, it isn’t a strict requirement. It’s perfectly possible to have an authoritative website that benefits from better rankings with relatively few backlinks (provided some of those links come from other authoritative sites).

Again, you can check your site’s authority with tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. These platforms use their own proprietary metrics that assign a score from 0 to 100 to predict how well a site will rank in search results.

For example, according to Semrush, ecocult.com has a domain authority of 30.

3. Your Content Quality

The quality of your content plays a big role in determining how many backlinks you need to rank effectively. 

As we’ve already mentioned, search engines aim to provide the best possible results to users. This means they prioritize content that is informative, well-researched, and directly answers the questions users are asking.

One of the key things to keep in mind when producing content is the extent to which it demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). 

Google uses these factors (among others) to determine how valuable a piece of content is likely to be. As a rule, the more your content satisfies these criteria, the better your chances of ranking well for relevant terms, even without many backlinks.

You can learn more about the key ingredients for rank-worthy content in Google’s official guide to creating helpful content.

4. Internal Linking

Internal links are links that point from one page of your site to another.

There are three main ways internal links can potentially help you rank better without a high volume of backlinks. 

First, they help visitors navigate your site more efficiently, thereby improving the user experience. This signals to search engines that your site is user-friendly, which is an important factor in search engine rankings. 

Second, they make it easier for search engines to understand the structure of your site and the relevance of individual pages for specific topics. This is especially true when you apply descriptive anchor text to your links to give search engines additional context about the page you’re linking to.

Third, internal links help distribute page authority throughout your website. By linking from high-authority pages to those with lower visibility, you can “share” some of that ranking power throughout your site. In other words, internal links can help spread the influence of your most powerful pages to other parts of your website that might not otherwise receive as much attention from search engines. 

5. How Natural Your Backlink Profile Appears to Be

The authenticity and organic nature of your backlink profile are crucial for maintaining credibility with search engines.

A profile that seems organically grown—with backlinks that are legitimately earned rather than manipulated—is a key ingredient for long-term SEO success. 

It indicates that your site is trustworthy and valuable, which can potentially reduce the number of backlinks needed to achieve higher rankings (especially compared to a site with primarily low-quality or spammy links).

Here are some typical characteristics of a healthy backlink profile:

• Variety of link types: A mix of textual links, image links, and even multimedia links such as embedded videos or social media shares.
• Geographic diversity: Links coming from different regions and countries can indicate global recognition or relevance to specific locations.
• Link velocity consistent with content production: The rate at which backlinks are acquired matches the frequency and visibility of your content output. This indicates that your link growth is tied to actual user interest and engagement.
• Anchor text variation: A natural profile will predominantly feature a diverse range of anchor texts, including target keywords, branded terms, generic links like “click here,” and natural phrases that make sense given the context of the linking content.
• Presence of both high and low-quality links: Realistically, your backlink profile will contain a spectrum of link authorities. Not all links will be from top-tier sites. Having some from smaller, niche, or local websites adds to the authenticity.
• A balanced distribution of deep links: Instead of all links pointing to your homepage, a natural profile includes deep links to internal pages, reflecting genuine referrals to specific content.

Evaluating Your Competitors

Evaluating your competitors is a crucial step in determining how many backlinks you need to rank effectively. By analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can identify gaps in your own link-building strategy and create a plan to surpass them. This process not only helps you understand the competitive landscape but also provides insights into successful strategies that you can adapt for your own site.

Calculate the Backlink Gap Between You and Your Competitors

To calculate the backlink gap, you need to analyze the number of backlinks your competitors have and compare it to your own. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush are invaluable for this task. Start by entering your competitors’ URLs into these tools to get an estimate of their number of backlinks. Then, do the same for your own site. The difference between their number of backlinks and yours is the backlink gap you need to bridge.

For instance, if a competitor has 5,000 backlinks and your site has 2,000, you have a gap of 3,000 backlinks. Understanding this gap helps you set realistic goals for your link-building efforts and prioritize your strategies accordingly. Remember, the goal is not just to match the number of backlinks but to ensure they are of high quality and relevance to your target keywords.

Analyze Your Competitors’ Backlink Profiles

Analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles can reveal patterns and strategies that are working for them. Look at the types of websites linking to them, the anchor text they’re using, and the quality of their backlinks. Are they getting links from authoritative sites in your industry? Are they using specific keywords in their anchor texts?

By understanding these elements, you can identify opportunities to build high-quality backlinks for your own site. For example, if you notice that a competitor is frequently mentioned in industry blogs, you might consider reaching out to those blogs for guest posting opportunities. The key is to learn from your competitors’ successes and apply those insights to your own link-building strategy.

Building a Natural Backlink Profile

A natural backlink profile is essential for search engine optimization (SEO). It refers to the diversity and quality of backlinks pointing to your website. A natural backlink profile is important because it helps search engines understand the relevance and authority of your website.

Search engines like Google favor websites with a natural backlink profile because it indicates that the links were earned organically rather than through manipulative tactics. This means having a mix of high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites, as well as links from smaller, niche websites. It also involves having a variety of anchor texts, including branded terms, generic phrases, and target keywords.

To build a natural backlink profile, focus on creating valuable content that others want to link to. Engage in genuine outreach efforts, such as guest blogging, partnerships, and collaborations. Avoid practices like buying links or participating in link schemes, as these can lead to penalties from search engines.

By prioritizing a natural backlink profile, you not only improve your search rankings but also build a sustainable foundation for long-term SEO success.

Final Thoughts

So, how many backlinks do you need to achieve long-term SEO success?

You guessed it: It depends!

We’ve seen that the number of backlinks you need can vary dramatically depending on several factors, from the competitive landscape of your niche to how effectively you use internal linking.

Ultimately, of course, the goal isn’t just to gather as many backlinks as possible. Your focus should be to gradually build a robust, diverse, and high-quality link profile that sets you up for sustainable SEO success.
And if you’re looking for help building up your backlink profile, don’t hesitate to get in touch to learn more about our custom link building services.