John Mueller of Google recently stated via Twitter, that “Links are definitely not the most important SEO factor”. He adds, “I’d forget everything you read about link juice. It’s very likely all obsolete, wrong, and/or misleading. Instead, build a website that works well for your users.”
Within our own SEO company, we’ve always expected this to be true. We’re also very aware that many other SEO companies have made the acquisition of backlinks their primary focus – but we believe this is a major mistake.
In fact, our own research suggests that placing too strong on an emphasis on obtaining backlinks in an unnatural manner – or even “over creating” content, can lead to very negative results in the long term.
It’s important that your company select an experienced / veteran SEO. Many of our clients come to us from situations where they’ve been misled, often because the SEO leading them is off-track, or has been misled themselves.
You’ll quickly realize during interviews with many prospective SEO companies that not everyone knows what they are doing in this field. Part of my job as an SEO is talking people down from the cliffs that they’ve been steadily climbing with other providers – often for years on end.
Backlinks Won’t Answer All of Your SEO Prayers
Most people are so confused about which SEO factors matter by the time they reach us, that we’re usually finding ourselves bending over backwards trying to set the record straight – like we’re doing here explaining how backlinks aren’t the most important thing to focus on.
What you should keep your focus on, is organic, human written content from fluent English writers, and your business will begin heading in the right direction. From there you should still seek guidance from an expert, as there are simply too many places to get caught up without years of experience navigating these roads.
Backlinks do not have the same value they once did, and we expect this to continue. Instead, make sure you are either writing yourself, or hiring skilled SEO content creators to do the job for you. There are no true shortcuts in the search engine optimization world anymore, and when these “holes” in the system do exist – they don’t stick around for long.
We use many different tools to perform Search Engine Optimization, but if you need to check your “backlink profile”, we recommend you use the backlink discovery tool offered by AHREFS. You may need some help understanding these advanced systems, if you would like guidance on your own backlink strategy, please use this form.
