Natural Backlink

[SEODinosaur]

What is a natural backlink? is it a backlink that someone gave a site for their great content? (this is what my common sense tells me)

and this is what someone else's opinion is:

No, quality backlinks are the one which are highly relevant, is from a high <acronym title="PageRank">PR</acronym> page. However, a natural backlink is the one which is within the body of the page, which is surrounded by relevant text, you can also call it a contextual link. Except links which are placed on a resource page which have no content in it and links which are placed under blogroll etc.

this dosent even make sense to me : )

[BryanCasson]

I would say you are right, may descriptions of natural backlinks are written by copywriters and not actual SEO experts.

A natural backlink is simply a link from the main content area of a blog, page or article (eg: Not from the footer, sidebar or header section but rather from the part of the page where the main information is presented)

One of the best ways to get natural backlinks is by writing quality content that others want to write about and give you credit for. Another great way to get natural backlinks is to guest blog.

[TalarMade]

The impression I got was the following

Natural backlink - One you have received in an article, blog post etc about you're quality content that you haven't had to ask for.

Quality backlink - One from a page with high authority that provides a good amount of 'link juice' - Doesn't have to be from a page with a high PR, but people usually use that as a signal that the site has high authority.

Although I could be wrong.

[EGOL]

Natural backlinks are links that are created to your site without you doing anything to request or buy them.  They could be in content, in sidebar or anywhere on the linking site.  These links are usually EARNED but sometimes the linking site is scraper that does not wash out links.  Natural links are usually high quality but they might not be.

Quality backlinks are links that might provide traffic or help your site advance in the search engines.  They can be high PR links on relevant sites but they don't have to be.  A link from an obscure page on the Pope's site might not be relevant and might not be high PR but I bet it would help your Google rankings.