Fridays with Vicky 68
I’m very active over at this one online community for affiliate marketers.
The other day one of the owners of the community submitted a post, called:
“Are Backlinks Good for Rankings. Nope…”
I had a comment that was too long, so I decided to turn it into a blog post instead.
There are many questions and claims around backlinks. Some still claim backlinking being a highly important part of SEO. Some saying you can rank in Google without backlinks…
I think this is an important discussion and it seem to stir things up a little, everybody has their take on backlinks and their importance.
What’s your take on backlinks?
Let’s go back to the title of that post…
Are Backlinks Good for Rankings? Nope…
I don’t think the answer is as easy as Yes or No.
There were of course a lot to the post and I think the point Kyle is trying to make is that your focus should not be link building.
Focus when building your site should be on other things like content creation, targeting keywords, engagement and user experience.
I do agree with that 100%.
But…
I also believe that natural backlinks still has its role within the Google ranking system. Even though they seem to claim it doesn’t.
The whole internet is build up by links, there’s a reason why it’s called the WEB. We want to link to others, we do it all the time.
If I read or refer to a good post or page, I will be happy to link to it from my site or social media for example. Most of us that interact and engage on the internet link multiple times daily… nothing wrong with that at all.
The Question Is How Does Google Look at These Backlinks?
When Google looks at the links to your site, they have 3 options:
- If it’s relevant, count it to your advantage
- Ignore it if it has no value
- Penalize you if they think it’s black hat manipulative links
Back in the day…
Ok not that long ago but before the 2014 Penguin update you could rank a site with massive amount of backlinks. This is something that was easy to manipulate and Google adjusted their algorithm.
They gave these spammy backlinks no value at all. In many cases they penalized the sites and they disappeared from the rankings.
Black hat strategies are not a good way to build an online business.
What Does that Mean Today?
That doesn’t mean though that natural backlinks from other relevant authority sites does not have any value for your site when it comes to rankings.
I would say as of now 2016 they do. We naturally link to content we like. It is still a way for Google to see if a site is “popular” or not.
With that said trying to unnaturally manipulate Google with backlinks is not a good idea.
The key word here is natural backlinks.
Let Me Back This Up…
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for a few years now but by no means am I a backlink expert.
There are many sites/companies that are experts in this field though. They research the effect of backlinks, so let’s check in and see what two of them have to say about this.
Searchmetrics
This is their take on backlinks…
Searchmetrics say decreasing importance of backlinks, but as of now “backlinks still show quite high correlations with rankings”.
MOZ
According to MOZ and their backlink Google study, the relationship between Google rankings and links were the following:
- 99.2% of all top 50 results had at least 1 external backlink to their site.
- 77.8% of top results had at least one external link pointing to the page.
99.2%, I would say that backlinks can’t totally be taken out as a ranking factor…
The 77.8% does not surprise me when it comes to individual pages. Say that a news article is posted by BBC News, that will rank high immediately due to the authority of the site even though the page itself does not have any backlinks.
It seems according to this study that it would be easier to rank in Google with backlinks.
(Study was done 2015 after the Penguin update)
Should Backlinking Be Your Main SEO Strategy?
My answer to that would be NO.
Personally I don’t spend any time building backlinks. Focus should be on great content and engagement for your readers, with that natural backlinks will come.
But to totally ignore the fact that it has an impact on your site ranking… I can’t do that either.
The internet and Google is evolving and constantly changing, whether we like it or not. What works today might not work tomorrow. One thing that will always be of value is quality content that is helpful to your reader, that’s where focus should be.
So what should you be focusing on instead of building backlinks?
Read the article that inspired this post, Kyle will have some great suggestions on what to do instead – “Are Backlinks Good for Rankings. Nope…”
What’s your take on backlinks? Do you actively build links to your site? Do you believe your site can rank in Google without backlinks?
Please share your link building thoughts in the comment section below,
Have a productive day,
Vicky
Hi Vicky
Good post well researched. It does seems that some so called affiliate training programs still believe that backlinks will secure a no.1 ranking with google.. Whereas are you saying Wealthy Affiliate with their approach to affiliate training do not condone the use of backlinks to rank a website?
Hi Paul,
Wealthy Affiliates focus has ALWAYS been quality content. I can’t remember that they every taught any kind of back linking strategy.
There are still many that claim though backlinks being a vital component of ranking a page or site… I’ve been reading a lot on the topic lately and it’s interesting how some are still referring to comments, research and such that are OLD and very outdated….
What used to work with backlinks years ago just doesn’t have the same affect and impact. I still believe though that natural links to your site is a good thing, that possibly can improve your rankings.
Vicky
I used to avoid creating any backlinks myself and solely relied on keywords and quality content to get my rankings. However in more recent times I now do leave my website address there. Not sure why I made the change but I kept doing it after seeing some traffic come to my site via those links.
Overall I would agree with your view on the topic though. Write great content and the links will happen on their own.
Hi James,
Where do you leave your url? In comments or somewhere else?
Through our links is often how people find our content… it might be in social media, it might be other websites linking to us, it might be through a comment…
Yes, if you help others through great content, the natural links will come,
Vicky
Thanks for this post, Vicky. The information is timely for me. I’m working to learn better SEO for our website. My wife & I have been self-employed for years. We’ve marketed at home shows for 18 years. We get most of our business from referrals, but home shows put us in front of new prospects.
My wife predicts that home shows will be gone in a decade or so. We see less vendors and attendees every year. This year was the last one we plan to do. So we have to learn how to market effectively online.
I just started digging in to backlinks this week. Our site has a lot more backlinks than two competitors who’s sites rank higher than us. I’m working to learn what to do to fix it.
Thanks for your insights and referencing Kyle article.
Hi Eric,
To market online will be crucial for many small businesses going forward. Like you say many of the traditional ways of marketing is slowing down and the internet is taking over more and more. This is good and bad for sure, but it’s definitely the trend in many markets.
Do you work in a specific geographical area? If you do, I would target that in your keywords. Local keywords can be highly beneficial. A keyword like “remodel kitchen cabinets Kansas City” for example.
If you want some more feedback on your site, I will be happy to help just send me an email or leave a comment,
Vicky
Hi Vicky,
I’m quite clueless about backlinking and all that stuff. Could you explain explicitly what it means? Do posting your post’s links on social media count as a backlink? I’m focusing on writing content for my website and keyword research.
Hi Yvonne,
A backlink is simply a link pointing back to your site from another site. Yes social media, is one example.
That’s great focus, quality content that includes keywords. Over time that will generate natural backlinks, when people like what you share they will be happy to link to your site…
Vicky
Write engaging content, people will read it. When people read it, they are more likely to create dialogue within your content in the form of comments. Once you have set those “hooks” so to speak, the share value of your content will continue to go up.
The premise of any share worthy content is a well thought out, thorough post that ENGAGES and CAPTIVATES the respective readership. Those that are touting the importance of backlinks and the fact that it is the premise of all rankings online are the same people that are writing incredibly thorough and well thought out content that is WHAT PRECISELY Google is looking for and what gets shared.
It is a cause and effect scenario. The byproduct of the content was people want to share it (ie, backlinks). So when someone attempts to reverse engineer the content, sure enough, they see backlinks.
I have spent a incredible amount of time writing content over the years and my highest ranking sites are those I have never worked even the slightest on backlinks. Not a minute. Rather I focused on what Google wants and what Google has built their entire business off. Quality content. They will continue to chase it and they will continue to find the ways to find and rank the best, most relevant, and share worthy content. Backlinks will become less and less important as time goes and and as Google gets a better handle on human language and interaction metrics.
I absolutely agree with you that it’s a cause and effect scenario.
Some that “promote” backlinks with their own back linking products, write very well written, lengthy in depth content that are very “sharable”. Now are they getting credit and rank high in the search engines because of their great content or for their backlinks… they will claim backlinks but it’s most likely the engagement and great content that get’s them the good rankings, content that’s “shareable”. The cause and effect scenario…
Yes, quality content will always “win”. I’m working with a client right now in the medical field. He loves to write and share his experience as a doctor. He writes very engaging informative content, without any focus on backlinks, keywords or other “metrics”. He has thousands of visitors daily from writing great quality content… again this confirms the importance of content.
Thank you for your input and feedback Kyle!!
Vicky
Thanks for sharing that great information