Is Creating Backlinks Still Best Practice nowadays

Backlinks have been a crucial part of SEO strategies for over two decades. But with Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and new developments in AI and machine learning, many businesses wonder – are backlinks still an effective and worthwhile investment in 2024?

At Willan Technologies, backlinks remain one of the most important off-page SEO tactics. Here’s why creating high-quality backlinks is still a best practice for SEO success.

How Backlinks Help with Search Engine Rankings

Backlinks have been and continue to be among the top 3 ranking factors for Google and other search engines. Having authoritative websites link back to your site sends signals of trust, relevance, and importance to your content.

Specifically, high-quality backlinks can help in 3 key ways:

• Increase authority and trust – Backlinks from established sites with high domain authority pass on authority and trust to your site. This signals search engines that your content is reliable and valuable.
• Improve keyword rankings – Backlinks containing your target keywords as anchor text help associate your site with those keywords. This can improve the ranking for your desired searches.
• Drive referral traffic – Quality backlinks drive new visitors to your site through click-throughs, supporting traffic growth and conversions.

While other factors like on-page optimization, site speed, and user experience matter, backlinks remain a direct way to build authority and climb the SERPs.

Why Backlinks Remain Effective in 2024

Some may argue backlinks are less important today as Google evolves its ranking systems beyond just links. However, backlinks remain highly effective for several reasons:

• Google still relies heavily on backlinks

Google has confirmed backlinks and Domain Authority remain key factors in their search algorithm. While on-page content and UX also matter, Google has kept its reliance on quality links and the trust they represent.

• Most competitor sites still build links.

Analyzing competitors often reveals most continue building backlinks to outrank others. High-performingHigh-performing sites in competitive industries have active link-building efforts.

• Limited link-free strategies

Very few proven ranking strategies avoid backlinks entirely. While you can optimize content, site speed, and schema markup, backlinks are still needed to compete for top slots.

• AI has limits

While AI like RankBrain helps Google analyze pages, it lacks human context. Backlinks provide external validation AI cannot yet fully replace. This means links retain value for now.

As such, a link-building campaign remains a worthwhile investment in our SEO efforts.

Best Link Building Practices in 2024

While backlinks remain important, low-quality links can hurt your site. Google’s algorithms can identify manipulation and penalize sites using black hat tactics.

Here are some top practices for safe, white hat link building:

• Focus on relevance – Links from niche-relevant; trusted sites signal authority better than random links. Prioritize sites in your field.
• Be picky on placement – Links are valued more highly when naturally embedded in content vs footers or sidebars. Stick to contextual, non-commercial anchor text.
• Avoid paid links – Links you directly pay for or “trade” are easily detected. Build links editorially or through outreach instead.
• Create link-worthy assets – Build resources people want to link to, like data studies, tools, templates, and guides. Make linking easy.
• Take it slow – A natural pace of link building is safest. Wait to blast outreach to build hundreds of links overnight.
• Monitor regularly – Use tools like Ahrefs to monitor new links, analyze competitors, and avoid toxic backlinks.

By combining persistent but careful link building with on-page optimization, site speed work, and great content, we can continue leveraging backlinks for SEO success.

The Role of On-Page SEO

While backlinks are an example of off-page SEO, on-page optimization remains equally important. On-page factors help search engines evaluate and display pages for relevant queries.

Here are key on-page elements Willan Technologies optimizes:

Keywords – Strategic keyword placement in titles, headers, content, and metadata helps align pages with search intent. This ensures pages rank for precise, relevant queries.

Content – Our content team creates informative, helpful content that answers searcher questions and meets their needs. This provides value to earn trust and links.

Page speed – With site speed being a ranking factor, our dev team works to optimize page loads by minifying code, compressing images, using caching, and more.

UX signals – We design sites to encourage engagement through easy navigation, readable content design, and effective calls to action. This converts visitors.

Technical SEO – Proper site architecture, structured data markup, sitemap submission, and CORS configuration improve how search bots crawl and understand our sites.

On-page and off-page signals work together to build authority and rankings. Our SEO team focuses on both through an integrated strategy.

Conclusion

In closing, backlink building remains a best practice for SEO success based on sample data and observations:

• Backlinks still directly influence rankings by passing authority and keyword relevancy signals.
• Most competitors continue actively acquiring backlinks due to their proven value.
• Current AI needs the full context humans have to evaluate links’ value.
• On-page optimization alone rarely outranks competitors with more backlinks.

By combining ethical, white hat link-building tactics with content, site speed, and UX optimizations, businesses can still leverage backlinks to build authority, traffic, and conversions today.

At Willan Technologies, our integrated SEO approach uses persistent backlink acquisition alongside content and technical excellence to drive results. While Google’s algorithms will continue evolving, high-quality backlinks will remain a worthwhile ranking signal for many years.

Does your business have an effective link-building effort in place? Feel free to contact us for an SEO consultation!