Notion is a project management and note-taking software that allows you to create databases. take notes, track your projects and get more done. If you’re working deep on a Notion project, you may be working with hundreds of notes and pages. While you can use folders and subfolders to organize your pages, Notion also introduced a new Backlinks feature to help you organize your notes and pages.
Whether you’re just getting started with Notion or a professional user using complex Notion templates to manage your entire life, backlinks can help improve your Notion workflow. You can make connections between pages and see relationships you might otherwise miss.
What is a backlink or two-way link
A backlink, also known as a two-way link, allows you to link two separate notes. Other note-taking apps like Evernote and Apple Notes allow you to create notes links, but they are one-way pointers. In other words, the linked note has no way of knowing where it is linked to.
Backlinks, on the other hand, establish a two-way connection between notes. So if you link a note within another note, the original note will also display this information. This allows you to easily connect your notes and traverse them organically.
Advantages of using bidirectional links
Two-way links take the pressure off organizing your notes and pages, especially if your project has them loaded. You don’t have to sort from scratch. Starting with linked notes, you can flesh out your ideas and save them in the right place. This also provides a way to organize notes that don’t fit in a folder structure or fit in multiple folders.
Another advantage of using bidirectional links is that you can easily navigate between different notes. For example, you can create a main project dashboard that links all your projects. You can also return to the main dashboard from individual projects when using bi-directional links.
The most important advantage of two-way links is that other users can easily navigate through your ideas, notes and pages. Backlinks are displayed with an arrow in front for easy identification in notes and pages. On top of that, when you update the page icon or text title, all backlinks on the page will automatically update their details.
How to create backlinks in Notion
Notion makes it super easy to create and use backlinks. There are two different keyboard commands you can use to create bidirectional links.
step 1: Open a Notion page and type[[twicetobringuptheBacklinkspane[[tobringthebacklinkspane[[を2つ入力してバックリンクペインを表示します。[[tobringthebacklinkspane
Step 2: You can also use the @ symbol to open the backlinks pane.
Step 3: Start typing the name of the page you want to link to and Notion will search its database and display relevant results.
Step 4: Click the page name you want to link to.
Step 5: A link to the page is added and it looks like this:
How to display backlinks in Notion
Backlinks allow you to link multiple notes or pages together so that information flows and can be easily tracked instead of opening each page or note individually. Here’s how to view backlinks for your project or someone else’s project.
step 1: Open the page where you created the backlink. Click on the link to visit the linked page.
Step 2: You can see that the backlink is displayed just below the title of the linked page.
Step 3: Click the Backlinks button to see all pages that the current page is linked to.
How to remove backlinks in Notion
If for some reason you want to remove old pages or backlinks to old pages or notes, it’s easy. The only thing you need to remember is that deleting a backlink disconnects the linked pages and notes.
step 1: Open the page that created the backlink you want to remove.
Step 2: Select the link and click the 3-dot menu.
Step 3: Click the delete button to remove the backlink.
Step 4: Alternatively, click the six-dot menu.
Step 5: Click the delete button to remove the backlink.
Linking pages in Notion using backlinks
Backlinks or two-way links are useful when you have a complex project and need to connect related pages. The best way to use this feature is to create links organically instead of forcing links just to use this feature. Keep adding bi-directional links to your Notion pages where they make sense, and after a few months you’ll begin to see the immense benefits this can bring.
