Google Says Links Are Not Important

[Graybeard]

I keep tellin' ya --links are mostly "Urban Legend" by today's standards.

Google Confirms Links Are Not That Important

Google's Gary Illyes says that Google needs very few links, more evidence that links matter less than at any other time in SEO history

www.searchenginejournal.com

>>>``... Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed at a recent search marketing conference that Google needs very few links, adding to the growing body of evidence that publishers need to focus on other factors. Gary tweeted confirmation that he indeed say those words.

Background Of Links For Ranking​

Links were discovered in the late 1990’s to be a good signal for search engines to use for validating how authoritative a website is and then Google discovered soon after that anchor text could be used to provide semantic signals about what a webpage was about. ...``<<<

 

[KomalBhatt]

Saying links aren't important might be a bit misleading. Links still matter for showing a website's authority and relevance in search rankings. While they may not be the only factor, they're still a key part of a good SEO strategy, especially for web analytics.

Links are still important because
Links are important for several reasons:

1. Quality backlinks from high DA websites show the Authority and Trustworthiness of your site.

2. They generate Traffic, increasing your site's visibility.

3. Improves SEO Ranking

4. Shows Content Relevance

5. Also helps in Networking with other content creators and website owners, which can lead to collaborations and partnerships.

 

[Graybeard]

Well, old SEO never dies ... It just gets regurgitated for profits.

Almost all posted and bought links are just trash ...

 

[azgold]

Moral of the story: Concentrate on your site quality and content because it's not IF Google changes it's rules/policies/algorithm, it's WHEN they change. Use links when it makes sense to, the days of link spam are over, at least if you want a shot at being successful and taken seriously.

I never engaged in link spam but I admit to a fond memory of seeing page rank numbers, though.

The wild west of the early days is over and done with for the most part, I guess.

 

[Honeybadger]

Organic links --> good
Manufactured links --> bad

 

[Graybeard]

You should observe the effects of this as actual, and factual, talk from Google or just google-speak bullshit ...

 

[Honeybadger]

Search engine crawler finds link to page on website 1
follows link to page on website 1
crawls page on website 1
page is https but loads slow contains many ads & popups isnt mobile optimized
crawler compares page to indexed pages for relevant keywords on websites 2 thru 893
computes text content on website 1 is actually good or better than most and adds to index
Google begins serving page on website 1
collects & monitors results in Chrome UX Report
Chrome android users have overall bad experiences
bounce rate 91% and avg time on page 3 seconds
stops serving page
link is now useless for SEO

Takeaway --> links are only as good as the content they lead to