Google says links not important - what do you think?

Interesting article over at SearchEngineLand - basically Google has updated their advice to webmasters saying that its more important to build great content that people will want to "share", than trying to get links. It seems to me the wording is subtle, and that links are still important and that social shares are included in that. What do you think?

http://searchengineland.com/google-changes-ranking-advice-says-build-quality-sites-not-links-163931

 

They are not saying to stop link building completely
Some SEO make the mistake of building too much links and they create backlinks at spammy blogs and forums.
So they are just saying to stop it and get some quality backlinks which is not possible if the content is rich
And there is no need of building too much links
If the quality is rich in contents then google will crawl it

 

Google is just reiterating what they've already been saying. Don't go for a bunch of spammy links, build links naturally with good content that people want to share.

 

Links give you exposure, but sharing increases your popularity. I think both together help increase PR, Alexa, etc. I see the point, though. Google is trying to diminish the importance of gaining links.

 

Google wants to still value linking highly for ranking purposes, but doesn't want you to think they do. Google is not in support of SEO, that is, people consciously optimizing their sites, even with good quality content or links. Optimizing means artificiality, and G wants to see only "natural" content and links.

 

Link building is not that important, but to improve the quality of links , Google is to combat spam links
Link seo is a very important element

 

never trust google , if link is not important then why sites with high pr links rank much higher then normal sites, content matter a lil bit , i read some case studies that people get PR 3 for their domain without content just only with help of backlinks

 

Is squidoo nofollow now?

 

I would really say that if Google wants to "love" your own website, you don't really need to do a lot of backlinks everyday. But most importantly, try not to spam your links to various sources. And I would also like to suggest that you should diversify your links instead of just sticking to only one keyword for your website like "Click here to buy [keyword]", "Visit our [keyword] website", etc.

 

If the google search engine is not based on backlinks, then on what? They just tidy their kitchen.

 

Yes, Google says no backlinks but backlinks are still needed... but you should do link building with content creation.

The ratio of content creation and link building should be maintained.

 

I believe links are still important. If not, then how to calculate page rank?
Think about domain authority and page authority... it is not just about content but also linking root domains. Social shares is one way of building links and I guess they are promoting it even more because your content get to reach more readers.

 

Yes, links are still important but now content should be given importance (first priority).

 

I think it's exactly that. Links are more important than ever, and the best links are those from social sharing. The key to getting a lot of social shares is by sharing valuable, high-quality content, so it's really no wonder Google is telling webmaster to produce more quality content.

Have a good day!

 

ff

I']I think what they are getting at is that the days of massive link building automation scripts are done. Links still count, provided they are truly relevant to each other. Websites, blogs, articles and so forth that are linked and are complimentary in their content and purpose give Google a sign that these sites have some authority.

 

"Quality" links to Google are links that seem to be acquired naturally, based on their diversity and speed by which they were gotten. If a new site gets 100 high PR backlinks in a weekend, Google thinks the site may be 'spammy' regardless of their authority, relevance, or the quality of the content. The recent algo changes have demoted artificial content creation or linking to improve rankings, not just spam.

Google doesn't like off-site SEO, or on-site SEO---it likes natural link development, natural content, natural keyword density. "Good" content or links that do not appear to be organic are vulnerable to being hammered by Google, so people here should shake off the "quality, quality" trance they seem to be under, and instead try to focus on making their content and linking as natural looking as possible.

 

That is a very good point. Organic is certainly key. The best links are those from sites that have syndicated blogs and article content, as well as video and so on.

 

According to this study tracking recent trends with high ranking sites, it appears Google continues to view backlinks as very important, along with social media:

http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-2013/

 

I think, links is still required for google. Good neighborhood is determine the site is good or not. As others say. High quality content make people want to share, even people can spammy with sharing too.

 

I bought 4 high PR directory links for my site a few days ago and bumped my site up 4 places.