Google does not count links, it weighs them. A link is judged by how relevant the linking page is to yours, how trustworthy that source is, where the link sits, what its anchor text says, and whether it looks earned or bought. Spam systems then discount links that exist mainly to manipulate rankings.
What are you actually trying to find out?
You have 40 links in a tool and the rankings have not moved. Or a competitor has fewer links than you and outranks you. The question behind this page is which of your links Google actually uses, and why some seem to do nothing.
Google does not publish a link scoring formula, so no one outside Google can give you exact weights. What is documented is the direction: relevance over volume, and a spam filter that removes links meant to game the system.
Relevance matters more than the total count
The number of links is not what Google weighs. John Mueller said in a February 2021 Google Search Central hangout that the total number of links does not matter, as Search Engine Journal reported. What matters is how relevant each link is to the site it points to, and how much weight that link deserves.
In practice, one link from a page about your own topic can outweigh a dozen from unrelated sites. A bakery linked from a baking blog is a clear signal. The same bakery linked from a crypto forum signature is noise. See which backlink is best for how that plays out.
Source quality: who is linking to you
A link is only as strong as the page it sits on. Google's original PageRank idea was that a link from a page that itself has many good links passes more value. That is still the logic behind terms like authority and trust, even though tool scores such as DA or DR are third-party estimates, not Google's numbers. What is PageRank covers the idea in full.
A strong source tends to have real traffic, real editorial content and links of its own. A weak one is usually a thin page, a directory with no visitors or a site that sells links to anyone.
Placement and anchor text: how the link appears on the page
Where a link sits on a page changes how much it is trusted. A link inside the body of an article, surrounded by relevant text, reads as an editorial choice. A link in a footer or sidebar, repeated on every page, reads as boilerplate. Footer and sidebar links usually carry little.
Anchor text is the second half. Google's guidance on links says good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it points to. That also hints at the risk side: a profile where most anchors are an exact commercial phrase looks engineered. What is anchor text shows what a natural mix looks like.
Diversity: many sources beat many links
Ten links from ten domains say more than ten links from one. The first link from a domain carries most of its value, and the rest add sharply less, which is why referring domains matter more than raw backlink totals. Do multiple links from the same site count goes through the curve.
Spam checks: the links Google throws away
Google also asks whether a link was earned. Its link spam policy defines link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings, and lists buying or selling links, excessive link exchanges and paid guest posts with optimised anchors.
The enforcement is mostly automatic. On 14 December 2022 Google announced a link spam update that used SpamBrain to detect both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links. It took about two weeks (14 days) to roll out, and ranking could change as the credit passed by those links was lost. Links are usually neutralised, not punished, so the damage is a link that silently stops counting.
Links marked rel="nofollow", sponsored or ugc tell Google how to treat them; see dofollow vs nofollow.
A quick way to audit one of your own links
Run these five questions against any backlink.
- Is the linking page about something related to my page?
- Would real readers visit that page without the link?
- Is the link in the article body, not a footer or sidebar?
- Does the anchor describe my page in plain words?
- Is it one of several different domains, not the fifth from the same site?
A link that fails three or more is likely doing little. What is a bad backlink lists the ones worth removing.
How Backlinkster fits this
The checks above are the reason Backlinkster is built around 1-for-1 swaps of in-content links between different site owners. Each swap is verified by API, and the link must point to an article URL on the member's own domain, so the placement is a real page, not a homepage. The tool cannot make a link relevant for you; matching on topic is still your job. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
How does Google evaluate backlinks? Google weighs each link by relevance to the target page, the quality of the source, its placement and anchor text, and whether it looks earned. Spam systems discount links that exist mainly to manipulate rankings. Exact weights are not published.
Does Google count every backlink? No. Mueller said in 2021 that the total number of links does not matter. Google discounts or ignores links it judges unnatural, and repeat links from one domain add little.
Is relevance more important than domain authority? For Google, relevance is the better-documented factor. Domain authority is a third-party score, not a Google metric, so use it as a rough guide only.
Do nofollow links count?
Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints about how to treat a link. They are not always followed for ranking, but they can still bring traffic and discovery.
How can I tell if Google ignores my backlinks? There is no direct report. Warning signs are links that sit on thin, irrelevant or paid-link pages, and rankings that do not respond months after new links appear. A weak source is likely to be discounted.
How long does Google take to evaluate a new backlink? It must be crawled and processed first, which can take days to weeks. See how long backlinks take to work.
The bottom line
Google weighs links on relevance, source quality, placement, anchors and diversity, then removes the ones that look bought. Aim for fewer links that a reader would click, and your profile will pass most of its checks without trying.
Related: How do backlinks work? · What makes a good backlink: which backlink is best · What is link juice? · Plans