Here are three simple, but unsurprising, key takeaways from the study:
- Publish great content that is relevant to your target audience (and will naturally attract links).
- Market your company on multiple channels (don’t just rely on organic search traffic).
- Avoid junky tactics that will get you penalized (such as buying links).
Google has added many signals to its ranking algorithm over the years, everything from page speed, to mobile-friendliness, to RankBrain.
So if, for any odd reason, you didn’t know that links matter – or if you forgot or were led astray by other correlation reports and newer, shinier trends – now you know. Links are (still!) an essential ranking factor.
Think of links this way. You have about 640 muscles in your body. If you want to be healthy, are you only going to exercise your right arm? I mean, your right arm is pretty important, and does a lot of cool stuff, but it’s just one important part of your body.
It’s the same thing with SEO. You can choose to only focus on links, but this will limit your success. You need to address all the important elements of SEO.
Courtesy of SearchEngineJournal
