If you’re asking yourself, ‘How many backlinks do I need to rank on Google?‘ you’re not alone. In 2025, backlinks are still one of the most agile tools for climbing the search engine ranks. But here’s the thing: Numbers don’t mean everything; strategy does

The benefit of backlinks is that they make it appear that you are a credible website and tell search engines that your content is something they should pay attention to. 

Now, we’ll show you how to determine the backlink requirements that will serve you well plus actionable strategies to secure high-quality backlinks. From new to SEO to finessing what you’ve already done, you’ll walk away with practical insights that’ll help you rank higher and leave your competitors in the dust!

What is a Backlink?

If you’ve ever seen a link that takes you from one website to another, you’ve seen a backlink. In simple terms, a backlink is a hyperlink from one website to yours. As an expression of digital thumbs up, or of stuck confidence. If a trusted site links to your content then it’s like they’re giving you a personal recommendation, “Hey, this website is worth checking out!”.

Search engine optimization (SEO) depends a lot on backlinks. Search engines like Google interpret this as a signal of trust or relevance. High-quality backlinks create more of a source to trust in your site. The thing is, there’s more to it than quantity. 

It’s also true that a few well-placed backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites can mean more than hundreds from irrelevant, low-quality sites.

There are different ways a link can show up. Sometimes they’re natural, like when someone genuinely likes your content so much that they link to it in their blog. Some are built through outreach, Guest posts, or partnerships. But it’s important to note the ethical practices—black hat-like buying backlinks will damage them more than they’ll help in the long run.

Expert opinion

“The three essential elements of an effective SEO are effective communication, useful information, and high-quality backlinks.”SEO Refugee

How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank?

It’s the million-dollar question: How many backlinks do you need in 2025 to rank? There’s no magic number, not at all. The amount depends on several things, such as competition, your website’s authority, and the keyword you are targeting. So for the simple, let’s break it down step by step.

Factors Influencing the Number of Backlinks Needed

Factor # 1 Keyword Competition 

Source: Ubersuggest

  • If it’s a high-competition keyword (like “best smartphones”), you’re going to need both a strategy and a bunch of backlinks.
  • If you’re going for pretty low-competition keywords (like “custom pottery shops in Denver”), then you may only need a few strong backlinks

Factor # 2 Website’s Domain Authority

Source: Google DA, Ubersuggest

  • Once for newer websites or the ones with low authority, they need more backlinks to build up credibility.
  • However, established websites with strong authority may need fewer backlinks to rank as high as one would need to with lower authority sites.

Factor # 3 The Quality of Backlinks

Source: Google Backlinks, Ubersuggest

  • Backlinks are important, but Google more wants relevant and authoritative links than just sheer numbers.
  • A couple of links from other trusted, high-ranking sites within your industry will be worth more than dozens of low-quality or nonrelevant pages.
  • Think of it like this: They say one vote from a respected expert is worth more than 100 votes from random bystanders.

Factor # 4 Content Quality and Relevance

Studies already proved that consistent publication of high-quality and relevant content for three months increases the website traffic by up to 60%.

  • In-depth and valuable content: For example, case studies, data-driven posts, and guides are more likely to get you a backlink.
  • Content relevance: It’s also easier to secure backlinks when your content shares the same interest as a potential linking site.

Factor # 5 Competitor Strategies

By examining your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can see what is needed to rank.

  • Analyze their profiles: With tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush we can check how many backlinks top-ranking competitors have, and we can also see their link quality.
  • Fill the gaps: It is about concentrating on the opportunities where your competitors do not take advantage of valuable backlinks or are weak in this area.
Your number of backlinks needed depends upon your goals and how saturated the competition is. You’ll want to make sure you’re building a quality, relevant, consistent backlink profile in order to rank in 2025.

Use SEO Tools for Guidance

Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz will let you analyze your competitor’s backlink profiles. Going through this will allow you to see how many links they have for specific keywords and that will set you up with realistic goals for your site.

How to Build High-Quality Links?

Making high-quality backlinks is equal parts art and science. It’s tough and patience is required, but in exchange, you get rankings and credibility. I will take you through the steps of creating a strong backlink strategy.

Step 1: Create Outstanding Content

Source: Blog | Create & Grow: Link Building Agency 

Any successful backlink strategy is built on quality content. Do you realize that it takes someone’s time to send links to your site if it’s not engaging, helpful, or unique?

  • Write with purpose: Write long-form, well-researched, well-respected articles, guides, or resources that solve actual problems for your readers.
  • Include visuals: The more eye-catching infographics, videos and charts are easier to share, which can lead to more backlinks.
  • Update regularly: Outdated Content doesn’t earn links. Your material should remain fresh and relevant.

Pro tip: How about linking content formats like how-to guides, case studies, industry reports, etc?

Step 2: Reach Out and Build Relationships

Links are much more than links in the eyes of Google; they are connections. When getting others to link to your site, the first rule is to build real relationships with people in your niche.

  • Start networking: Sometimes it can be an email outreach to bloggers and influencers or even interaction with industry leaders on a social media platform.
  • Offer value: When you do that, share your insights, suggest a collaboration, or link to their content in your posts first. Backlinks often come from reciprocity.
  • Personalize your pitch: No one likes a generic message. Be sure to tailor your outreach, showing you’ve taken a second to do your homework.

Step 3: Guest Post on Reputable Sites

Guest blogging is a win-win: There’s exposure for you and fresh content in general for the host site.

  • Target relevant sites: Pick blogs or websites in your niche, that have strong domain authority.
  • Pitch unique ideas: Provide original, gap-filling topic.
  • Include natural links: Don’t overdo, or force, the link to your site where it makes sense.

Step 4: Leverage Broken Link Building

Broken link building is another clever (and ethical) way to get backlinks while helping other website owners.

  • Find broken links: Find broken links on some reputable sites using tools such as Ahrefs or Check My Links.
  • Provide a solution: Contact the site owner and recommend that they replace their broken link with your related content.
  • Be polite and helpful: You’re helping them by returning their broken link.

Step 5: Monitor Your Backlinks

Building backlinks is a continuous process and watching your progress helps you know you are in the right direction.

  • Use analytics tools: You can find out where your backlinks are coming from and how good they are on platforms such as Google Search Console or Ahrefs.
  • Disavow bad links: Not all backlinks are good. Disavow spammy sites that are linked to you to prevent them from affecting your rankings.
  • Celebrate your wins: As your backlink profile grows so long as it’s a long-term game, it’s worth taking a step back and enjoying the little wins.

Getting high-quality backlinks isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight for you, but by following these steps (creating stellar content, building relationships, guest posting, leveraging broken links, and monitoring your progress) you’ll put yourself in the right place to be successful with SEO for the long-term. 


Keep it consistent, keep it ethical, and every link is a step to ranking higher by 2025!

How Many Backlinks Are on My Site?

Need to know how many backlinks your site has? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. It’s crucial to keep track of your backlinks when doing SEO. Your online presence is what your backlinks are, and knowing where you are is a big part of knowing where to go next.

It can be easier to find this information than you’d think. Here’s how you can check:

1. Use Free Tools Like Google Search Console

Source: Google Search Console 

For anyone serious about SEO, Google Search Console is a go-to tool. It’s free, it’s reliable and you won’t learn more about your website than you would from Google Analytics.

  • After you log in, go to the “Links” section.
  • There, you have a detailed report: how many backlinks to the site you have.
  • You’ll see what pages are linked the most, and what’s linking to you.

This tool is useful for getting a bird’s eye view of what your backlink profile looks like is exactly what 

2. Dive Deeper with SEO Tools

Source: Moz

If you’re willing to get a little nerdy, paid tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz will take your review above and beyond.

These platforms not only show you how many backlinks your site has but also provide insights like:

  • What sites have linked to you (Are they reputable?)
  • What words are hyperlinked to your site (Also known as the anchor text being used)?
  • Authority of the domain of linking sites.

Using this data you can spot trends and find out where you can focus efforts to improve your backlink strategy.

3. Keep an Eye on Competitors

As you’re analyzing your site’s backlinks, you might want to also check your competitors. You can also compare your backlink profile with theirs with tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush.

  • Are they linking from authoritative sites you aren’t?
  • What kind of content are these links earning them?
  • Knowing how they did it will inspire you.

4. Regularly Audit Your Backlinks

Knowing how many backlinks you have is awesome, but you also need to know the quality. If a large number of spammy or irrelevant links make up your backlink profile, they can actually hurt your rankings.

  • If you don’t know if some links are natural or not, use tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs to spot those.
  • If you see spammy links, then use the Google Disavow tool to inform the search engine that you don’t want them to be counted.
Although links are great, getting fixated on their numbers is not going to do you any good – Google is moving away from merely counting backlinks and giving more importance to content quality, user experience, and relevance

Although it’s a widely known truth, a site with fewer high-quality backlinks (and amazing on-page SEO) can beat a site full of dead, low-quality backlinks.

How does Create & Grow Help in Building Your SaaS Backlinks?

While creating backlinks for SaaS (Software as a Service) websites can be hard it is where Create & Grow comes in. We help make the process easier to simplify your SEO efforts, and more importantly, help you acquire high-quality backlinks that the search engines highly approve of.

Source: SaaS Link Building Service | Create & Grow 

Outreach and Relationship Building

Getting backlinks, however; is often about building connections. We make outreach easy because we build relationships with sites that develop into real backlinks from trusted sources.

Tracking and Monitoring Backlinks

This is incredibly important because there is nothing that tells a story about your growth better than keeping tabs on your backlinks. Create & Grow offers you analytics tools where you can know how your backlink profile goes which of them work best and which you need to improve.

Efficiency and Scalability

Building backlinks is time-consuming for SaaS businesses. With Create & Grow you cut to the chase, do the work, and grow your SaaS business.

Conclusion

Backlinks are still important in SEO in 2025, but understanding quality is more important than understanding quantity. The amount of backlinks you need varies with the competition, site authority, and the content of the piece you write. Focus on getting high-quality, relevant links rather than shuffling after arbitrary backlink counts.

If you’ve found this article useful, please share it with your network! And if you’re enjoying this, make sure to follow us on social media for more insights on SEO, backlinks, and ranking your site! Let’s connect and we’ll grow your SEO strategy together! 


Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, backlinks continue to be a key ranking factor but it’s quality and relevance that matter more than ever before.

Not necessarily. Hundreds of low-value links can never outweigh a few high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources.

It will depend on the competition and your site’s authority. Terms that require more links tend to be highly competitive, and vice versa.

If you’re working toward steady growth, aim for 10–20 backlinks per month that are high quality. Be about quality, not quantity.

The strategies include guest posting and broken link building, as well as outreach to high authority sites. Speed doesn’t matter more than consistency and quality.