*Spoiler alert*
They are.
In fact, 82% of SEOs believe that links have a positive effect on rankings.
Despite the world of SEO constantly evolving, and the fact that much of what was useful for SEO a decade ago is less relevant now, there is one aspect of SEO that has remained consistently important over the years - links.
Through numerous algorithm updates and ever-changing SEO tactics, good-quality links have retained their value. But with continuous developments in the digital landscape, it does have people questioning if links and outreach are still important in a modern SEO strategy.
In this article, we’ll look at the true value of backlinks and why you should still be using them as part of your optimisation efforts.
Before we get into their significance, we first want to clarify what we mean by links. In short, a backlink is a link from another website that points back to your own.
When a reputable site voluntarily links to you, it tells Google that your site can be trusted and offers value to its visitors. Subsequently, your website has a better chance of performing well in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which will drive organic traffic to your site.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the advantages backlinks bring to your website:
One of the biggest advantages of building high-quality backlinks is the impact they have on your site’s credibility. Backlinks from reputable sites essentially act as a vote of confidence for Google, who will view your content as helpful and relevant if multiple credible sites are pointing to you.
As a result of your strengthened credibility, your chances of surfacing higher up in the SERPs is much greater. The increase in visibility will in turn improve your levels of organic traffic, since Google gives more weight to relevant, credible websites.
When an external webpage includes a link to your website, users may click the link and visit your site. This is known as referral traffic.
Referral traffic has a range of benefits, including lead generation, increased brand exposure, improved SEO performance, and a chance to reach new audiences.
Your page won’t appear in the search results without first being indexed by the search engine. Search engines use crawlers, also known as search bots, to sift through known URLs to find hyperlinks leading to undiscovered pages. These new pages are then added to the list of pages to crawl. If you have backlinks on other pages, Google will be able to find, crawl, and index your pages faster.
Links come with a wealth of benefits, there’s no denying that, but some links hold more weight with search engines than others.
Links from high-quality, reputable domains with content that's relevant to your niche will have a more notable impact on your SEO performance than links from low authority, unrelated webpages.
The proof is in the pudding when it comes to the effect of backlinks on a website’s visibility - here are just a couple of examples.
One of our clients wanted to see how they could improve their visibility for a key commercial phrase. We worked with them to build authority around their target landing page and improve its position in the SERPs:
As you can see from the graphs above, in just a few months the target page saw a significant increase in its rankings.
On our own website, we have focused on building authority to improve commercial positions for our core service pages:
Once again, you can see a clear spike in rankings as building authority was prioritised.
Despite plenty of developments, particularly regarding machine learning, 94% of SEOs believe Google will continue to use links as a ranking signal for the next five years.
Google’s algorithms prioritise relevant, credible, and authoritative content and a well-placed link from a respected publication is unlikely to lose its value when contributing to this.
The rise in machine learning capabilities and the introduction of features such as AI Overviews, has caused debate over the future of links. However, on April 10, AI Overviews released a new official feature - linking text. AI Overviews now include hyperlinks to relevant sources, and with AI Overviews beginning to dominate the SERPs, getting a link within an AIO could be hugely beneficial in regards to both authority and traffic.
This addition endorses the sentiment that Google will continue using links to grade websites and measure the quality of information provided.
Links remain a highly influential SEO signal - they are essential for building authority, improving rankings, gaining referral traffic, and increasing visibility. By focusing on earning links from relevant, high authority sources, you can yield lasting results.
If you’d like help creating an effective link building strategy, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our SEO experts today.
