Backlinks.

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are links from other websites pointing to yours. Search engines treat them as a sign that others find your content credible or useful, so they remain one of the inputs into how pages rank. Quality matters far more than quantity: one link from a respected trade body or regional newspaper outweighs hundreds from directories nobody visits.

Why it matters

For an established SME, backlinks often decide whether you outrank a competitor whose website is no better than yours. Good links also send referral visitors in their own right, and AI assistants tend to draw on sources that are widely cited and mentioned. A manufacturer featured in its industry's leading trade publication gains visibility three ways: with that publication's readers, in Google, and in the AI tools that read both.

What makes a good link

• Relevance to you A link from a site in your industry or region carries more meaning than one from an unrelated site.
• A genuine editorial choice The best links are given because someone judged your page worth citing, rather than bought or swapped.
• A trusted source Established publications, universities, trade bodies and local institutions carry weight, and some of that passes to you.
• Natural anchor text The clickable words should read naturally. Large numbers of exact-match keyword anchors look manipulative.

What to do about it

List every organisation you already have a relationship with: suppliers, trade bodies, charities you support, local clubs and clients happy to name you. Check whether each one links to your website, and ask the ones that do not. Then plan one genuinely useful piece of material, such as clear pricing guidance or findings from your own customer data, that a journalist or trade publication would want to cite.