Inbound Link

Detailed explanation

An inbound link is any hyperlink on another domain that points to a page on your site. Search engines treat each inbound link as a kind of vote of confidence, and the authority of the linking domain, the relevance of its content to yours, and the anchor text used all affect how much weight that vote carries. This is distinct from internal links, which connect pages within your own site.

Not all inbound links are equal, and not all are good. Links from relevant, reputable sites in your niche tend to help rankings; links from link farms, comment spam, or clearly paid link networks can trigger algorithmic devaluation or manual penalties under Google's spam policies. Because of this, most SEO teams monitor their backlink profile, via Search Console or third-party tools, not just to count links but to catch toxic patterns early and disavow them if needed.

For “what is an inbound link” or “how to build backlinks” searches, this entry is a starting point. Read it with Anchor Text for how link text affects relevance signals, and SEO for the broader ranking context.