Do LinkedIn Article Links Count as Backlinks?

They're backlinks in the literal sense, but they don't count for much. Links inside LinkedIn articles carry rel="nofollow", which asks Google not to pass ranking credit through them. A LinkedIn article link won't lift your rankings the way an editorial link from a relevant site does. Its real value is readers, referral clicks, and visibility for your name.

What we checked

In October 2026 we opened several public LinkedIn articles (the long-form pieces that live at linkedin.com/pulse/...) and read the HTML. Every link in the article body that pointed to an outside site was written like this:

<a href="https://example.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">

nofollow is the part that matters for SEO. Since 2019 Google has treated it as a hint rather than a strict rule, so it can choose to count a nofollow link, but you can't know when or whether it does. Plan as if a LinkedIn article link passes little or no PageRank. Dofollow vs nofollow links explains the difference.

Platforms change their markup without announcing it, so check for yourself: open an article in a private window, right-click a link, choose Inspect, and read the rel attribute.

Articles, posts, newsletters and profiles compared

LinkedIn gives you several places to put a link. None of them passes ranking value in a way you can rely on, but they behave differently.

Where the link sits	Can Google see it?	Useful for
Article (long-form, `/pulse/`)	Yes. Articles are public and can be indexed	Readers, search visibility for the article itself
LinkedIn newsletter issue	Yes. Each issue is published as an article	Repeat readers, since subscribers get notified
Feed post	Sometimes. Many posts sit behind the login wall	Reach inside LinkedIn
Profile website field or company page	Partly. Logged-out visitors see a trimmed profile	Navigation, brand consistency
Comments	Rarely	Conversation, nothing else

Links in feed posts are often rewritten through LinkedIn's lnkd.in shortener as well, which puts one more step between the post and your page. If you want a LinkedIn link that Google can read, the article format is the one to use. It still won't be a followed link.

Why "LinkedIn has high authority" doesn't change this

LinkedIn scores near the top of every third-party authority metric, and that leads people to assume a link from it must be strong. Two things get in the way:

Authority sits with pages, not domains. A new article with no links pointing at it is a weak page on a strong domain. The same trap exists with .edu backlinks and Medium backlinks.
The nofollow attribute. Even an article that does attract links is asking Google not to pass credit onward.

That's why "LinkedIn backlink packages" are a waste of money. They sell nofollow links from thin articles on throwaway accounts.

What LinkedIn articles are good for

Treat a LinkedIn article as a way to reach people, and it can earn its place.

The article can rank on its own. LinkedIn articles are indexed, and for low-competition queries a LinkedIn article sometimes ranks where a young site can't yet. A reader who finds it there is one click from your site.
Referral traffic. Nofollow doesn't stop people clicking. In B2B niches, LinkedIn is often where the buyers and the writers already are.
Secondary links. Journalists, bloggers and newsletter editors read LinkedIn. If one of them cites your original page from their own site, that link can pass value, even though the LinkedIn link didn't.
Author and brand recognition. A consistent byline tied to a named profile helps search engines and AI assistants connect you to your subject. Brand mentions work on the same principle.

Republishing a blog post on LinkedIn: the canonical problem

Medium lets you import a post with a canonical tag pointing back to your original. LinkedIn doesn't. On the articles we checked, the canonical tag pointed to the article's own LinkedIn URL, and the editor has no setting to change it.

So if you paste a full blog post into LinkedIn, Google sees two copies and picks one to show. Sometimes it picks LinkedIn's. To avoid that:

Publish on your own site first and wait until Google has indexed it. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console will tell you.
Post a shortened or rewritten version on LinkedIn, not the full text. A summary with the three main points works well.
Link to the original near the top, with a reason to click: "the full guide, with the data tables, is here."
Keep your own page as the better version. It should have the detail, the examples and the updates.

Does duplicate content hurt SEO? covers what happens when Google has to choose between copies.

Should you count LinkedIn links in your backlink profile?

Backlink tools will list them, and that's fine. A natural profile contains nofollow links from social platforms. Just don't count them toward a link-building target, and don't report them to a client as wins.

Links that move rankings are followed, sit inside relevant content, and come from sites in your field. You earn them with content worth citing, ask for them through outreach, or trade them directly. Backlinkster handles the third route: you're matched one-for-one with a site owner in a related niche, both links go inside real articles, and a real person checks each swap. The free plan covers five swaps a month, and the plans are here.

Frequently asked questions

Are LinkedIn article links dofollow or nofollow? Nofollow. When we checked public LinkedIn articles in October 2026, outbound links in the article body carried rel="nofollow noopener". Google treats nofollow as a hint, but you should assume these links pass little or no ranking value.

Do LinkedIn articles get indexed by Google? Yes. Long-form LinkedIn articles and newsletter issues are public pages, and Google can index and rank them. Ordinary feed posts are less reliably visible, because much of the feed sits behind LinkedIn's login.

Do links in LinkedIn posts help SEO? Not directly. They're nofollow, and many are rewritten through LinkedIn's link shortener. Their benefit is indirect: people see your content, some click, and a few may link to it from their own sites.

Can I set a canonical URL on a LinkedIn article? No. LinkedIn articles use their own URL as the canonical, and the editor doesn't offer a way to point it at your site. Publish on your own site first and put a shortened version on LinkedIn.

Is it worth publishing on LinkedIn for SEO? For reach, yes, especially in B2B. For backlinks, no. Judge it by the visitors it sends and the links other people give your original page after reading.

The bottom line

LinkedIn article links are nofollow and shouldn't be counted as link building. Publish there to reach readers, link to your original page, and keep the full version on your own site, because LinkedIn won't set a canonical for you. Rankings improve when relevant sites link to you with followed, in-content links.