Backlink
- Standard term
A backlink is a link seen from the page it points to. Note apps list each note's backlinks, every other note that links to it, so a connection can be followed from either end.
Each link is typed once, in one note. The app adds each link to an index as you type it, and reading that index from target to source produces the list, often with the sentence around each mention. Apps that store links only one way have nothing to read backward.
Where you’ll meet it
You keep a note for each call with your kitchen contractor and link the countertops page whenever they come up. Months later the contractor says you agreed to a cheaper stone. The countertops page lists five call notes that link to it, each with the line that mentions it.
What to do
Read the line under each backlink, then open the call where the stone came up to see what you agreed. If a call you remember is missing, search your notes for "countertop." Its note may lack the link, so add one, or there may be no note at all.
Easy to mix up
| Backlink | Link |
|---|---|
| Usually not, since the app lists it from other notes | Yes, as text written in the note itself |
Check yourself
A coworker's shared document, kept outside your notes app, links to your project page in the app. Will the project page's backlinks show that document?
Go deeperNote apps hold both ends of each link, unlike the web
On the web, a backlink is a link from another site to yours. Search engines count them when ranking pages. Site owners learn of them mostly from tools that crawl the web, such as a search engine's reports, because nothing on a page records who links to it.
Because a note app derives the list, it stays in step when a link is edited or deleted, unlike a matching link typed by hand on the far page. Some apps let a link carry a type, such as "decided in," so the list can be filtered by kind. A link aimed at a page's fixed ID, instead of its title, survives a rename and never lands on another page with the same title.
A reverse list that ignores permissions can show a private note's title to anyone who can open the page it links to.