Marketing

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.