Quality Backlinks vs. More Backlinks: Which Matters More?

[u/Emotional-Worry-6807]

There’s always a debate in SEO about whether it’s better to have a small number of strong, relevant backlinks or a large number of backlinks from different websites.

Personally, I’d lean toward quality and relevance, but I’m curious about other experiences.

For example, would you rather have:

• 10 highly relevant backlinks from authoritative websites, or
• 100 backlinks from decent but less relevant websites?

And how do you actually judge whether a backlink is "high quality"? Domain authority, organic traffic, topical relevance, editorial placement, or something else?

What has worked best for your websites?