Should You Reject Backlinks from Pages Less Popular Than Yours?

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Official statement

According to John Mueller, receiving links from pages with lower popularity (whether you measure it with metrics like TF, CF, DA or others) than the page receiving the link does not pose a major problem...

Source : Search Engine Roundtable

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Official statement from July 20, 2020 (5 years ago)

⚠ A more recent statement exists on this topic Can Site Kit truly transform your Search Console data into a winning content str... Maria · February 23, 2021 View statement →

What you need to understand

This statement addresses a persistent misconception in the SEO world: the idea that receiving links from pages less popular than yours could harm your rankings.

Google's spokesperson clarifies that there is no major problem with receiving backlinks from pages with popularity indicators (Domain Authority, Trust Flow, Citation Flow, etc.) lower than those of your target page.

It is crucial to understand that third-party metrics (DA, TF, CF) only approximate how Google actually evaluates a page's authority. These indicators are approximations created by SEO tools, not Google's actual internal criteria.

Links from less "popular" pages do not penalize your site
Third-party metrics (DA, TF, CF) do not exactly correspond to Google's criteria
The real concern relates to links from spam sites, not relative popularity
Natural diversity in link profiles necessarily includes pages of different authority levels

SEO Expert opinion

This position is perfectly consistent with what we observe in the field. A natural backlink profile always includes a majority of links from pages with variable authority, often lower than that of the target page.

The important nuance here concerns the difference between "less popular" and "spam". A link from a small relevant topical blog will have more value than a link from a "popular" site that is off-topic or questionable. Topical relevance and editorial quality matter more than authority scores.

Warning: This statement does not mean that all links are equal. Links from very low-quality sites, link farms, or detectable PBNs remain problematic. The issue is not relative popularity, but the legitimacy and intrinsic quality of the source.

In practice, obsessively focusing on DA/TF metrics during a link building campaign is a strategic mistake. It is better to prioritize contextual relevance, editorial quality and natural diversity of the link profile.

Practical impact and recommendations

Do not systematically reject link opportunities from sites with a DA or TF lower than yours
Evaluate the quality of a potential backlink according to qualitative criteria: topical relevance, content quality, site legitimacy
Build a diversified link profile naturally including sources of variable authority
Focus your vigilance on identifying and disavowing spam links, not on relative authority metrics
Use third-party metrics (DA, TF, CF) as approximate indicators, never as absolute criteria
Prioritize contextualization and relevance rather than numerical scores during your link building campaigns
Verify the actual editorial quality of source sites: read the content, analyze the audience, assess legitimacy

In summary: Build your backlink strategy on quality, relevance and natural diversity rather than on an obsession with authority metrics. Developing a balanced and sustainable link building strategy requires in-depth expertise and strategic vision that goes beyond simple indicators. To maximize your results while preserving the health of your link profile in the long term, support from a specialized SEO agency can help you identify the best opportunities and avoid pitfalls that could compromise your visibility.