To understand why a website needs backlinks, you must know what a backlink is. A backlink is an incoming link posted or created on another site resulting in a clickable link that leads back to your website. A good example would be a backlink that is created from entering your webpage information on an online directory. Other backlinks could be found in the form of linked text inside content such as articles. Backlinks are also how a website is measured in terms of popularity and page rank. That is why the generation of backlinks is emphasized in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).