The best replacement for backlinks is content.

The best alternatives to backlinks are rated as following:
★★★★★  content
★★★★  inbound links
★★★  referring domains

Your alternative for backlinks is not listed? Suggest!
Speaking about backlinks, one probably shouldn't forget about pagerank.

Other search terms related to backlinks and their ratings are:
★★★★★ pagerank
★★★★★ pr
★★★ high pr
★ page rank
You have in mind a companion for backlinks and it is not yet here? Propose!



Google Trends

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of backlinks in all years. Click on graph for more.
backlinks
content
inbound links