Are backlinks still a thing in 2019?

Lately, I've bumped into several old buds in and around the SEO community and without fail, when the topic turned to client management - each of them asked if I knew of a good backlink provider.

I'm afraid my initial response to the first fellow might have offended him. So, when the second chap asked me, I responded by asking what his recent experiences have been and he told me his main money sites are still doing well - thanks to prior backlink work.

And here's the kicker... There was a fellow I worked with several years back to develop some links. He and I spoke earlier in the week and he told me that the string of dental sites we collaborated on back in 2015 are still topranking for their respective keywords.

Asked what he's done since then, replied only onsite stuff. But since the other sites he's done structural SEO work on aren't ranking he's convinced it's the links. I was shocked.

What gives? Am I being too naive - do backlinks still work after all that Google has done to discourage unnatural link building?

 

Links still works and it will work in the soon years to come. Its very unwise if you don't consider them. You said you offended the first fellow. What for?

 

Just guessing here, but I believe link building has gone the way of the dodo just like keyword stuffing once did. Too many link pyramid / link wheel schemes out there for the big G to try to sort out what is real and what is not. It's no longer a major factor in determining the rankings.

 

Thanks for sharing your insights. Do you think they must be more natural or relevant than several years back or are you seeing links with minimal relevancy continue moving the needle in 2019?

Re: offending the first peer of mine, was totally unintended. Was just trying to help avoid potential penalties. Hope that clarifies...

Right, that's sort of been my thinking too until the recent string of discussions I've had with several other industry folks. Now I'm not so sure - almost tempted to do a little experiment. Will let you all know if I go through with it.

Thanks for the feedback too btw.

 

Natural or not doesn't matter. What matters is the relevancy. A page is referring to another page with just anchor text as 'Click here for information' or text which is kw filled & just used to get a click or just a naked link, will probably look more suspicious and to the search engines too. Rather than that a page which is providing some additional information in addition to the host page with an anchor that exactly defines the nature and character of the referred page and no more or less, will probably look more natural, as its more relevant in all aspects.

 

the backlink is the most powerful thing if you want ranking for your website

 

Backlinks are still a thing if they are natural and Do-Follow. Through Do-Follow backlinks, you can get more traffic to your websites and search engines will also love your website. And thus you site can rank in Search Engine Result Pages.

 

Yeah I think there's some confusion to the OPs intent. Seems they're speaking of directory & spam link building sites. Some bigger hosting companies would also push these services ("Get your business online on 40 different directories") with only 2 or 3 being of any benefit & the rest just unused directory websites. I think Google has since frowned upon those sites.

Legit, natural backlinks are great, especially from higher ranking authority sites such as a local news outlet, or bigger sites blog page. Things like Yelp & Google Business etc help too & are worth setting up. Having 50+ directory listings? Notsomuch.

 

I'm pretty sure backlinks will always be a factor in ranking. Good rankings usually come as a result of good on page and off page SEO for a website. Meaning well optimized, high quality content, good meta tag optimization and also quality backlinks pointing back to the website itself. It's possible that some websites in low-medium competition niches can retain high rankings for long periods with little work if there are no fierce competitors out to constantly outrank other sites.

 

Yes, backlinks more vital than 'a thing'.
At the same time, it is also important from where you are getting the backlinks.
If you think backlinks will loose its importance just because of the Google updates, you are wrong. I am quite sure there will be many upcoming updates from Google. And importance of quality backlinks will only increase with each Google updates.

 

Surely the point of domain authority, page rank etc is that the higher they are scoring the more reputable the website and so the bigger impact any backlinks will have from those sites.

I am pretty sure if you had 2 equal sites, one with no backlinks and one with 20 decent links into it, the one with 20 links would rank higher. It may just be the overall effect of backlinks has been tweaked. I have been working with someone doing our SEO and just through on page optimisation, he has got us to the bottom of page one, from page 3. Doing on page SEO would take a long long time for us to get much higher especially as the sites above us have a far bigger budget. So there would need to be some off page SEO also.

 

Of course backlinks are working in 2019. Without backlinks, even your keywords won't show up.

 

Hi

I really believe connection construction moved through the dodo like keyword-stuffing once did. Many hyperlink pyramid/connection wheel approaches available for the G to attempt and straighten out what's not and what's real. It's now not a component in determining the ranks.

Have a great work.

 

The backlinks (rather, we should say just LINKS) will always be good. There is solid logic behind it. The backlinks are SURE important, even Internal links and Outbound links are also of Huge Importance. Their importance is explained in these videos-


and

 

Yes, If you are generating backlinks on most relevant and high DA websites then it is a still good and effective technique in SEO.

 

heres a thought - why not try building a site with NO backlinks and see how you get on.....

 

I think it could be said that now Google can tell the usefulness of a link. if the link is on a high-traffic page, and people are going to click on it and go to the site, then it's probably a pretty good link. A link on some obscure deep page on a link directory, is not really going to do anything at all, especially the type of Link directory that no one ever visits

 

OFC backlinks is still a thing in 2019. Even your keywords would not show up without them.

 

Please read the silo structure. Many people have succeeded on this model

 

Links from website to website are what make the internet the INTERnet. Links bring traffic, not just ranking.