Importance of external links in 2018
-
How important are external links in 2018. How much of a percentage do they represent when deciding to rank a page.
I imagine it depends on the query but I was wondering it if 10 % of of 60 % ?
My feeling is that with good content you can get on almost any query on the 1 st page without links because that would be too penalising to small business if they had no possibility to rank with just content.
Looking forward to getting some feedback.
-
Thank you Chris for your input and information.
-
Basically, Google learned long ago that it couldn't exactly trust the (small, medium or large) business owner /marketer to be 100% truthful (or anything close) with the content they put on their own websites. More often then not, the marketer would include content that didn't match their products/service just to try to outdo their competitors or game google. (I know--it's hard to believe isn't it?)
Measuring backlinks became a way Google could get some third-party input on what a website might really be about as well as how much more important one site might be than another. In that measurement scheme, unfortunately, there is no handicap for new or small businesses, though I imagine if there was, every multinational in the world would be trying to figure out how they could make themselves look smaller or newer than they actually are. Of course, the link-measuring scheme was eventually gamed by marketers (we're just a bad lot, aren't we?) and Google began weighing other factors (as Nicholas links to) more heavily as a result.
Small businesses however, may get a foothold or survive in the keyword niches that don't support enough traffic for larger companies. It takes less authority (though usually just as good optimization) to rank for those niche keywords, so while a new or local company is pulling itself up by the bootstraps to get itself established, they are usually best off targeting those more locally-oriented and long-tail keywords than the more competitive ones.
-
Thank you for the info, I agree with you low competition it is easy to rank without link more competitive query harder without.
I will check moz link explorer as I know there is a new version and I haven't time to check it out yet.
-
Agreed, we see that all the time for locally competitive searches. We recommend utilizing the Moz Link Explorer to do a link profile comparison between your website & a website that is ranking high for one of the target keywords that you are not. 9 times out of 10, they will have more authoritative, relevant links.
-
This depends greatly on the search query and what keywords you are targeting, for example, if you are writing an article on "how to eat chocolate covered bananas in outer space", you can probably rank your page on the 1st spot of Google with 0 links, even with a sub-par written article. However, the higher the competition, the more high-quality links are going to matter in my experience.
According to Google's Andrey Lipattsev, links are one of the top 3 Google ranking factors- https://searchengineland.com/now-know-googles-top-three-search-ranking-factors-245882. Good content definitely comes before acquiring links, process-wise, but I believe links are just as important when it comes to ranking for competitive searches.
We will never know an exact percentage, but if already have great, in-depth, well-written content, act like links are 40-50% of the ranking equation & your efforts will be closer to being on-target than they are off.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
100 Links Warning
Our website is GarageFlooringLLC.com. We rank relatively well for our main keywords but I am always looking to rank better. The 100 links question has been discussed to no end but I believe our website provides a great example of why a small business might have more than 100 links and IF we need to drop below that. User Experience vs Rules I think it is fair to say that if customers cannot find what they are looking for, it does not matter how well you rank. Our menu is designed to get people to the page they want to be on in a single click. So What Now? Do we remove items from the menu and only link to categories adding an extra click or two to the customers UI or do we leave well enough alone
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GFLLCCO0 -
SEO value of affiliate external links
There are websites that have linked to my site. Whenever I hover over link I see my direct website URL and I am not seeing "no follow" when viewing source code so I assume these are passing link juice. However when I click on link it directs briefly to shareasale (affiliate account) in web address bar, but then quickly directs back to my website URL as directed. I was curious if these good links I am acquiring truly pass juice or since they briefly pass through an affiliate site if that cancels or dilutes the link juice. Also I am noticing when inspecting element that after the HREF it says class="external-link" I am just not sure if my link building efforts are being ruined by having an affiliate account running.I did not tell them I had one. I guess they are searching to see that I have one and trying to make a few extra commission dollars.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nchachula0 -
Importance of minimal markup on a page
Moz.com's 2013 SEO study gave some value to "Total # of Characters in the HTML Code" (https://moz.com/search-ranking-factors/2013). Is having minimal HTML on a page still a ranking factor, even if not a huge one?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | A2890 -
Google showing me a 404 link from an external source?
In my list of 404 errors from Google webmaster I have one with the "linked from" section showing an external link. This seems like a broken link (which obviously I will try and fix to get the link juice) but why would Google recognize it as a 404? From Google: | URL: | www.broken URL | | | Error details | In Sitemaps | Linked from | | <colgroup><col></colgroup>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | theLotter
| http://externalwebsite.com |
| | |0 -
Worthwhile to have global footer links?
About Us, FAQ, Site Map, Terms & Privacy - I know rarely viewed by users (at least on my website), so why keep in global footer across all pages, since one could argue it will dilute some link juice to more important pages?Why not just keep on homepage only? What is argument for having links to these pages across all pages on a site? Is there any SEO value?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | knielsen0 -
Link with keyword or name of the company
hi sorry I am getting links from a prominent site. I would love to know what are your though. use the name of the company as the anchor text or the Keword? does the new world of SEO like keyword anchor or not?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ciznerguy0 -
Are Facebook links really helpful?
If they are no follow, how can I benefit? If Google isn't using this data, than why would we bother to LIKE anyone or anybody?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEObleu.com0 -
Are duplicate links on same page alright?
If I have a homepage with category links, is it alright for those category links to appear in the footer as well, or should you never have duplicate links on one page? Can you please give a reason why as well? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dkamen0