The Power Of Links in SEO AND Why They Are Important

SEO is all about being found when someone searches for what you do or sell At least that is the first part, as I believe more than ever after reading ‘They Ask You Answer’ by Marcus Sheridan, that SEO is also about creating content that genuinely creates a relationship between the reader and the business. After all, people are taking more and more time to evaluate who to buy from these days, simply because they can. This means that once you have been ‘found’ you still have to pass the interview stage with the customer if you want their business. But that is for another post (and is yet another ‘rabbit hole’ in the SEO world), this one is about the power of the link. In my post yesterday I explained that a change was coming, Google altering their algorithm mix, by reducing the power of the link and increasing the influence of content and the UI/UX when deciding whom to rank and it what order. This will still mean links are essential, just that they won’t exert the same ‘force’ they used to. BUT, that is for the future, what about now? Well, I can say with certainty that at the moment links are HIGHLY important, the lack of a sufficient level relegating the very best content to the dark zone of Google results, the effect being that they rarely see the light of day. This is a shame and I am glad that it is changing. Why do I say this and can I prove it? I say it is as it is a fact, and is something that I have to tell all my customers when they ask about improving their website. I have to tell them, as unless they are willing to invest in this area, doing any SEO (just to get rankings) will probably be a fruitless exercise. As to the proof, the two images below show the top sites for two very different search areas, and in both cases the blured site name has optimised the page in question just about as fully as is possible. They are using the right Meta data, Headers, internal links and more importantly the words that Google is proven to like, and yet still they cannot gain a high position. And the reason as you can see is down to them being outclassed in the linking department. One of the sites has been rewarded in getting a position 11 (and sometimes position 7 on the first page) but it cannot make that last move upwards. In the other case, the site is a young one and has few links, but again the copy is highly optimised and yet failing to win a first page position. The Moral of the Story The moral of this story?, simply that today, if you want to rank on Google you in most cases will need a sufficiently strong back link structure, or you will fail. If you want more information or to see if your site is suffering from the same problem, then please fill out the contact form or contact me on graham@somltd.co.uk

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