External backlinks? How to tell...

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I tried Google search and only got more confused!

What is an external backlink? I thought it was sites that linked backed to yours, but became confused as when I check on a certain domain of mine, it says,
"Link popularity" Google 0 Yahoo 11 All The Web 11 Total 22 and am told from someone that my site does not have any external backlinks. That's fine, I have no problems with that, I just want to understand what is what.

What kind of links are these, and how do I tell the difference? What is the difference between an internal backlink and an external backlink?

Thanks for any insight!

 

I can't help you with any specific info, sorry, so take this post with a large grain of salt.

External backlinks are almost certainly links to your site from another site. Ideally that other site should be on another IP address - preferably a different C class IP. The value of that backlink will depend on how relevant the content of the site linking to yours is in relation to the content on your site, and on how much trust and authority the search engines give that other site (as indicated by Pagerank and other factors).

Internal backlinks are probably links to your site from the internal pages of your site. Links from other sites on the same IP address may also qualify as internal backlinks.