Creating links & backlinks

Notion’s link and backlink system turns a sprawling workspace into a connected knowledge graph: every time a page is linked, Notion automatically creates backlinks that point back to where that page is referenced. That matters because it lets people navigate context quickly—whether they’re managing projects, maintaining a company wiki, or organizing research notes—without manually tracking where information lives.

In a typical company setup, ongoing projects sit under a “Projects” page, with each project assigned its own dedicated page for assets, notes, documents, and videos. Those project pages often get referenced from elsewhere, such as a “Tasks” page. When someone writes a sentence and links to a specific project page (for example, linking to a “Help center revamp” project), Notion generates backlinks on the target page. By default, backlinks appear collapsed, showing a limited number (like five). Expanding them reveals all instances where the page is mentioned, and clicking any backlink jumps directly to the exact spot in the source page where the link appears.

Backlinks can also be controlled. A three-dot menu on the page allows users to hide backlinks, and Notion remembers that preference across the workspace—so the display stays consistent without repeated setup. Another practical detail: links in Notion are dynamic. If the linked page’s title or icon changes, every link pointing to that page updates automatically, preventing broken references and reducing maintenance.

Beyond project management, backlinks support wiki-style discovery. A team homepage with many subpages can include contextual links—for instance, adding a sentence on a “Vacation policy” page that links to a “Benefits policies” page. Readers then get an automatically maintained “related pages” trail, similar in spirit to a references section, but generated from actual page relationships.

For note-taking and research, backlinks become an aggregation tool. Instead of scattering mentions of a writer across multiple class notes, a user can link each mention to a dedicated author page. Clicking the author page then surfaces all notes that reference that writer, giving immediate access to related material across different courses. The result is a workflow where linking isn’t just navigation—it’s how Notion organizes and surfaces connections over time.