A citation and a backlink are two different things primarily used in the fields of writing and digital marketing respectively. A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source that you consulted and obtained work from. It typically involves mentioning the author and work in a bibliography or works cited page. In contrast, a backlink is a hyperlink from one web page to another. In the context of search engine optimization, backlinks from other websites to your own are beneficial as they can improve your site’s search engine ranking.