How many backlinks does a website need?

17 June 2026 · By John Carlsson

There is no set number. It depends on your topic, your target searches and your competitors. Look at how many sites link to the pages ranking in the top three for your main searches and use that as your benchmark. A few links from respected, relevant sites count for far more than hundreds of low-quality ones.

There is no universal answer to how many backlinks a website needs — it depends entirely on your niche, target keywords, and competitive landscape. A rough benchmark suggests established websites often have around 40-50 backlinks to their homepage, with individual pages attracting none to around 100. The most practical approach is analysing what your competitors are achieving and using that as your baseline.

Why 'how many backlinks' is the wrong question

The more useful question isn't 'how many backlinks' but 'how relevant, authoritative, and genuine'. A page with 5 links from genuinely respected industry publications often outranks a page with 500 links from low-quality, irrelevant sites. Chasing a quantity target for its own sake leads to acquiring exactly the kind of links that Google's spam updates are specifically designed to devalue.

The practical goal isn't to hit a number — it's to earn more quality links than whoever is currently ranking above you for the queries you care about.

How to benchmark the backlinks you actually need

The practical benchmark for any given target keyword or page is what the pages currently ranking in the top 3 positions have. If your target keyword is being won by pages with 15-20 referring domains, you have a realistic path to ranking with a focused link-building effort. If the top results have 1,500+ referring domains from major media outlets, the backlink gap is formidable and you'd likely get better results either targeting a less competitive variant of the term or building authority across many pages rather than trying to win that specific query directly.

Quality of referring domains vs raw backlink count

'Referring domains' (the number of distinct websites linking to you) is a more useful metric than raw backlink count (total links including multiple from the same site). A single website can link to you many times, but each additional link from the same site contributes diminishing returns to your authority. A broad base of 100 separate websites each linking to you once is generally more valuable for authority building than one website linking to you 100 times. Tools that report referring domain counts separately from total backlink counts give you a more accurate picture of your link profile's breadth.

Key Takeaways

There is no universal backlink target — benchmark against the pages currently ranking above you.
'How relevant and authoritative' matters more than 'how many'.
Referring domains (distinct linking sites) is more useful than raw backlink count.

Frequently asked questions

Is backlink quality more important than quantity?

Yes. The more useful question is not how many backlinks you have but how relevant, authoritative and genuine they are. A page with five links from genuinely respected industry publications often outranks a page with 500 links from low-quality, irrelevant sites. Chasing a quantity target for its own sake tends to attract exactly the kind of links Google's spam updates are designed to devalue. The practical goal is to earn more quality links than whoever currently ranks above you for the queries you care about.

How do I work out how many backlinks I need to rank?

The practical benchmark for any target keyword is what the pages currently ranking in the top three positions have. If those pages have around 15 to 20 referring domains, a focused link-building effort gives you a realistic path to ranking. If the top results have 1,500 or more referring domains from major media outlets, the gap is formidable. In that case you are likely to get better results by targeting a less competitive variant of the term or by building authority across many pages instead of chasing that one query.

What is the difference between referring domains and backlinks?

Referring domains are the number of distinct websites linking to you, while the raw backlink count is the total number of links, including multiple links from the same site. Referring domains are the more useful metric, because each additional link from the same site brings diminishing returns to your authority. A broad base of 100 separate websites each linking once is generally more valuable than one website linking 100 times. Tools that report referring domains separately from total backlinks give a more accurate picture of your link profile's breadth.