What are backlinks in documents?
A backlink is a link seen from the page it points to: each document lists the documents that link to it.
How it works
When document A links to document B, B gains a backlink from A. Note-taking tools such as Obsidian show these in a panel, which turns every link into a two-way connection without writing it twice.
On the web, the same word means links from other sites to yours, which search engines count. In a team’s documents, backlinks answer a more practical question: what depends on this page?
An example
Before changing the pricing spec, a product manager opens its backlinks and sees the launch plan, two sales briefs and the support FAQ. Those are the documents to check after the change.
Common mistakes
- Treating backlinks as decoration instead of checking them before a change.
- Expecting a mention to count: a document that names another without linking it is not a backlink.
In Nodary
Every Nodary document lists, under Mentioned in, the documents whose [[links]] point to it. The map shows something else: the links people draw between documents, each with its reason. Studio AI and connected agents read a document’s links and backlinks too, so they can find what a change affects.
What Nodary does not do: it lists linked references, not unlinked mentions: a document that names another without linking it does not appear.
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