Do seo backlinks work anymore?

Do backlinks work anymore or with recent changes to Google have they become unnecessary? It is an interesting question that many people would love to know the answer to. For years SEO experts have towed the backlinks line, saying that it is the end-all-by-all way to build up your site. Now you have a mix of those who stand by backlinking as a way to quickly build up a site in rankings while others are unsure of their effectiveness compared to more social options.

So where does the truth lie?

As with most things, when you have two very different viewpoints, the real answer ends up somewhere in the middle.

SEO is Constant Change

The above statement is an absolute truth. Search engine providers are constantly updating their ranking algorithms to work towards the perfect search as the internet grows larger and larger. Because of this SEO success is always shifting and trying to keep pace. While backlinks have been a great way to push search engine rankings up quickly in the past, things change.

• Backlinks are advertisement – Nothing more, nothing less. When you create a link from another site to yours you are in essences showcasing your content or ability to create useful content on another site to drive people back to your useful site for them to learn more.
• Citations are in – As Google started devaluing anchor text, citations have become more important along with co-citations for ranking. So what does your author citation say when you create a backlink? If your aim is to be an expert on law then hopefully you have that included.
• Web URLs still work – Linking directly to your website using the URL rather than linking text can actually still help as a form of direct advertising. It won’t necessarily help your search rankings but it will help you be found.
• There is no magic number of backlinks – You can’t expect to create 100 backlinks or 500 backlinks to raise your rankings. If you create 500 links that nobody clicks then it just doesn’t matter. The best hope is to create some quality content that goes viral and gets shared by tons of other people for you. Linking from the same site or using the same anchor text/tag can just turn into spam if you go overboard.

The Truth about Backlinks

The bottom line is that backlinks are useful in building a site ranking. They are an important part of the whole, but still only a part. Any successful SEO campaign is going to utilize everything available: good content, backlinks, social media, newsfeeds and the like to go with a well designed site with a purpose and a good user interface.

Backlinks can give you an SEO benefit and help move you up in search engine results. They can also be a great way to drive traffic directly to your site and new visitors are all potential customers. However, it’s not just about getting first page search engine results for a week due to those links, but a matter of consistently staying at the top of rankings because people are viewing your content, flocking to your site and sharing information. That can’t be done just by having the links, you need the whole enchilada. So when you think about building your site, consider it like an entire meal rather than just the drink special that will get them in the door.