{"id":41731,"date":"2020-12-14T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/resources\/link-building-myths\/"},"modified":"2024-09-11T08:31:30","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:31:30","slug":"link-building-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clearvoice.com\/resources\/link-building-myths\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Popular Link Building Myths Debunked"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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When I say the term “link building,” does a big “spam! spam!” alarm go off in your brain? That’s thanks to some outdated practices that were, truthfully, incredibly spammy. While some of those practices still exist today, link building is primarily a wholesome and incredibly important SEO tactic.<\/p>

Link building is an SEO enigma to many, especially if you’ve been a website owner for a decade or so, or more. It\u00a0used to be more of a veiled practice<\/a>\u00a0that SEO agencies and professionals used to increase rankings, without being super transparent about where and how exactly those links were being built. However, as Google grew and improved their algorithm, SEO agencies and professionals improved their link building practices, too.<\/p>

I’d be lying if I said spammy practices no longer exist, because they certainly do, although it’s pretty debatable as to how much they still help improve rankings when Google’s so much better at detecting and penalizing spam.<\/p>

So, we’ve established that link building has lost its “always spam” label, but what, then, does it really involve? How do we know that it still matters so much? What sorts of links are actually helpful?<\/p>

5 link building myths, debunked<\/h2>

Link building, along with the concept of SEO as a whole, is rife with myth and mystery. Let’s separate some link building myths from the facts.<\/p>

Myth 1: Backlinks don’t matter as much anymore.<\/h2>

Fact:\u00a0<\/strong>Spammy link building practices have abated, but link building itself has not, and is still incredibly important.<\/p>

Studies performed by\u00a0Backlinko\u00a0and\u00a0Ahrefs have found that there is absolutely a correlation between a number of backlinks and Google rankings. According to Backlinko<\/a>, “pages with lots of backlinks rank above pages that don\u2019t have as many backlinks. In fact,\u00a0the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.”<\/p>

Take a look at this graph by\u00a0Ahrefs\u00a0<\/a>on the number of referring domains (aka links) vs. Search traffic:<\/p>

\"referring<\/a>
Image source: Ahrefs<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The takeaway:\u00a0<\/strong>More links = more traffic.<\/p>

Backlinko has a similar graph showing referring domains (links) vs. search position (rankings):<\/p>

\"Number<\/a>
Image source: Backlinko<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The takeaway:\u00a0<\/strong>More links = better rankings.<\/p>

Myth 2: It’s just the sheer number of links your site has that matters the most.<\/h2>

Fact:<\/strong>\u00a0While the number of backlinks is\u00a0definitely important, links from high-quality, authoritative pages and domains matter the most.<\/p>

We can go straight to the source (Google) for this answer. In an article in the Search Console Help Center titled “Steps to a Google-friendly site<\/a>,” Google explains:<\/p>

Links help our crawlers find your site and can give your site greater visibility in our search results. When returning results for a search, Google uses sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

Well, that sounds pretty straightforward \u2014 links from important pages are best. Except, what the heck is “important”?<\/p>

In this case, importance =\u00a0authority<\/strong>. Some quick facts on authority:<\/p>