Backlink
An inbound hyperlink from another website pointing to your site.
Definition
A backlink (also called an inbound link or incoming link) is any hyperlink on an external website that points to a page on your domain. Backlinks are one of the most important signals Google uses to evaluate a page's authority and relevance. The logic: if many reputable sites link to your page, it signals to Google that your page is trustworthy and worth ranking highly.
Not all backlinks are equal. Backlinks from high-DR, topically relevant sites carry far more weight than backlinks from low-quality or irrelevant sites. Dofollow backlinks pass PageRank; nofollow backlinks do not (or pass very little). For early-stage startups with no backlink profile, directory submissions are one of the fastest and most systematic ways to acquire legitimate backlinks at scale.
Example
When TechCrunch writes about your startup and links to your homepage, that's a backlink. When Product Hunt creates a listing for your product, the link to your site is also a backlink — and it's one you can proactively earn by submitting to the directory.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no universal number — it depends entirely on what you're competing against. For low-competition long-tail keywords, even 10–20 quality backlinks may be sufficient. For competitive head terms, you may need hundreds. Directory submissions are an efficient way to build a baseline backlink profile (50–100 links) that establishes your domain as legitimate in Google's eyes.
High-quality, curated startup directories are safe and recommended by Google's own guidelines as a way to get discovered. What Google penalizes is mass, low-quality, spammy link building. The directories in the backlinks.fyi database are manually vetted — submitting to them is legitimate SEO, not manipulation.
Put it into practice
Browse startup directories with DR scores, dofollow status, and submission tips — everything you need to build your backlink profile.
Browse all directories →