Backlinks are simply links pointing to your site from other websites. They are considered by search engines as votes for your content by readers.
Generally, the more links you get back to your blog, the higher the chances of ranking higher.
However, the sites that link back to your blog can make or break your blog. If you get links from web spam contents or blacklisted domains, that’s going to be really bad and can hurt your SEO.
You can use tools like SEMrush to keep an eye on your link progress or simply grab data from your Google Search Console account. Fortunately, Google has the DisaVow Tool to help them know which links to overlook.
Related: Should you buy backlinks this year for your website?