How long will links remain the benchmark for successful website promotion?

Since the advent of search engines, link building has been one of the most reliable strategies for promoting websites on the Internet. Its essence has changed greatly over the years, however, the need for it has not disappeared. Without links from external resources, your domain will not be as successful as possible.

Every year, Google releases dozens of updates for its search, and some of them completely overestimate concepts such as relevance and credibility. The company assures us that it is not going to slow down, and promises to release more significant updates in the future. Is there a possibility that one day the link-building strategy will become obsolete? If so, what can come to replace it?

How Page Rank works

In order to understand why links play an important role in SEO, you need to understand the principle of PageRank.

PageRank is the most important algorithm that determines the credibility of a site. He went through a lot of transformations, however, his basic concept remained the same: Google measures the relevance of a particular page (its correspondence to a particular query) and calculates the subjective authority of the domain. The latter is based on the number and quality of external links pointing to a page or site.

For example, compare sites A and B. Resource A has 50 links from quality sources, and B – 30 URLs from sites of varying degrees of authority. As a result, resource A will receive higher ranking positions and become more visible in the search, since all those 50 external references to it played the role of “votes” for its credibility.

Of course, I speak figuratively, but this is a fairly simple explanation of the basic principle of PageRank.

Why with the advent of Penguin has not disappeared link-building

In 2012, Google released a major update for its algorithm Penguin, which had the potential to exclude link building from the list of effective tactics of advancement on the Internet. The purpose of the filter was to cap out the “bad” links that were generated purely to improve the ranking of the site, and to encourage quality URLs. Over time, the work of Penguin has become more complicated and the requirements for links have become tougher, but, nevertheless, the link-building has not disappeared anywhere.

See Also : Best Seo Services In Hyderabad

See Also: SEO Companies In Hyderabad

Why? The fact is that SEO-optimizers changed their tactics along with algorithm updates and began to focus on quality, rather than on the number of external URLs. They began to invest much more time and labor in the reference database, began to build relationships with reputable publishers and create really useful content. Links to such resources not only no longer fall into the category of “spam”, but also carry a great value. Thus, URLs remain one of the most significant factors in a successful SEO strategy, only now is their quality, not quantity, at the forefront.

Potential threats

If Penguin could not “kill” the link building, then what can? The existence of this SEO-tactics is threatened by several Internet phenomena from completely different spheres:

IoT and voice search. The first cause of the disappearance of link-building can be the so-called “Internet of things” (Internet of Things) and voice search. Home consoles such as Google Home are gradually turning our notions about working with the Internet and applications. Users are increasingly relying on voice calls and expecting the fastest possible answers to their questions. All this can lead to the fact that the search for traditional websites can go to naught, and the leading role in the ranking process will begin to play not the authority of the domain, but its relevance, as the user will need the search engine to independently choose for him the most accurate result search.

Applications. It is possible that in the future, applications will replace traditional versions of websites for us. Google and other search engines have already begun to implement in their services various functions for applications, as their developers understand that people are much easier to work with such an interface. Development in this area can lead to a decrease in the importance of both websites and links to them.

See Also : Best Seo Services In Hyderabad

See Also: SEO Companies In Hyderabad

Feedback and evaluation. Search engines (including those that function within application stores) tend to more often equip the pages of the issue with the ability to leave feedback and display ratings. When ranking, they pay great attention to quality reviews of the product, service or site, as they indicate a certain level of user involvement. In the end, reviews, ratings and other feedback can displace links by their importance.

New technologies. Finally, do not forget that technological progress does not stand still. Search engines are constantly evolving, and the link-building can be replaced by new functions and opportunities, which we do not even suspect.

Gradual changes

Do not panic: let each of the above technologies have the ability to displace the link-building, this will not happen in the near future. Yes, the scope of SEO is changing at an enviable rate, but even the weakest innovation requires a lot of time to get accustomed to users. If tomorrow we were told that link building no longer plays any role in search engine optimization, the work of the world-famous Google would have risen tight. Most likely, large-scale changes will occur within five or even ten years.

Conclusion

Currently we are seeing the heyday of link building as SEO-tactics. In all studies and rankings, links are ironically ranked among the top three factors in successful ranking, and the benefits they bring to sites are not limited to leading positions in extradition.

Smart House technologies and applications have not made any search revolution – they just brought new elements into the sphere of SEO, which at that time was formed to the point of accepting and adapting them. Therefore, in many years, when the significance of links will fall, we will be ready for everything that will come to replace them.

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