When a user enters a search on Google, the search engine uses a very complex algorithm to scour the internet and find the best possible websites to serve that user what they need. That’s why, for example, when you search for “New York plumbers”, you don’t get results for plumbers serving Chicago.

But what happens when there are dozens or hundreds of businesses competing to rank for “New York plumbers”? How does Google know which ones to rank higher?

That’s right: backlinks.

You see, if Google sees that one plumber has received press on major news sites and is featured in top industry websites, it deems them a more trustworthy business than others. So it will likely rank them higher. Backlinks, therefore, create authority and trust for your website.