Backlinks
Links from other websites to yours, which search engines read as a sign that your pages are worth visiting.
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. If a food magazine's article on coffee subscriptions links to your subscription page, that's a backlink to you. Search engines have long used backlinks as a sign that a page is worth showing, much like a recommendation from someone else carries more weight than one you make yourself.
Not all links count the same
A link from a site people trust, on a page about your subject, says more than one from an unrelated directory. Links that are bought, swapped or added in bulk to game rankings break Google's spam policies, and can do more harm than good.
Backlinks and AI answers
AI answers work a little differently. When an answer engine searches the web before answering, it reads the pages that rank for the question, and it often names the brands those pages recommend. So the pages that link to you, or mention you, matter twice: they can help your own pages rank, and they're pages the platforms read and quote.
For example, if "best coffee subscriptions" answers keep using one food magazine's roundup, and that roundup names three of your competitors and not you, getting onto it can change what the answers say. A link from it helps, but being named in its text is what the answer can repeat.
In AnswerOrbit
Sources shows the websites the answers used for your prompts. The Gaps tab lists the ones whose answers name a competitor and not you, each with a gap score and a suggested way in, such as outreach and pitching or a directory listing. Recommendations turns the biggest gaps into tasks, such as getting onto a page or listing your brand on a site. See Sources and Recommendations.