Google Confirms Links Are Not That Important

At a recent search conference in Bulgaria, Google’s spokesperson Gary Illyes gave wind to a controversy related to the importance of backlinks for SEO. He said, “Google needs very few links, adding to the growing body of evidence that publishers need to focus on other factors.”

Background of Links for Ranking

In the late 1990s, Google considered links as a good signal for search engines and authoritative websites. Later they also discovered that the usage of anchor text provided semantic signals about what a webpage was about.

What Did Gary Illyes Say About Links In 2024?

In a recent conference, Google’s spokesperson said, ‘We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.’ And later he confirmed it with a tweet, which said, “I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that”.

This comment surely has questioned the authority of the links for SEO.

Why Links Matter Less

Initially, links were non-spammy and used for ranking purposes. Backlinks and hyperlinks were used to send traffic from one website to another website.

Google began using statistical analysis to identify manipulated links in 2004 or 2005. Links in website footers that said "powered-by" stopped passing anchor text value. By 2006, links containing the word "advertising" also stopped passing link value due to similar reasons. In 2012, Google launched a massive link algorithm known as Penguin to knock millions of websites using guest posting from the top of search results. Google decided in 2019 to utilize no follow links selectively for ranking purposes because the link signal had finally gotten so terrible.

Google Explicitly Confirms That Links Matter Less

In 2023, Gary Illyes said that Google links are not even in the top 3 ranking factors, and in 2024, Google brought Core Algorithm Update, which has spam policies documentation to downplay the importance of links for ranking purposes.

John Mueller from Google also suggested the same about links as there are more important factors for high ranking on SERP than backlinks.

What is Your Take on This?

Just like every other digital marketer, we are as shocked to hear this as you are. However, Google has been hinting about the same for a while now yet link building has been one of the key strategies for effective SEO. If this is actually true, we all need to revise our strategies, whereas we still think there is a strong loophole in this.

What is your opinion? Tell us in the comment section!

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