Check out this interactive infographic about the history of Google’s algorithm updates.

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Even so, we can’t deny that link strategies are changing and SEO professionals need to prepare for this. Let me help you with that by bringing some examples, practical tips and my view on the subject.

Is link building a ranking factor for Google?
Yes, but this is not a Google answer. Despite a consensus in the SEO industry that backlinks matter, there is no documentation explicitly stating that links are a ranking factor.

The only certainty we have is that search engines do penalize spam and gray hat practices, as you can see in Google’s Spam Policies.

If you want to check other ranking factors, I recommend reading Google Search Fundamentals, which I already mentioned in another article around here, and this article that brings a complete market study on Google ranking factors that is worth saving in your favorites.

Now that we have that clarified, let me present arguments for both sides of the coin.

Why is the backlink losing relevance?



Notice the evolution of the algorithm and the trajectory of link building:

With Panda, Google started to penalize link farms and showed the Belarus whatsapp Material world how the practice of spam was bad for the content available online.
Despite this, the market continued to try to circumvent search engine technology until Penguin figured out what low-quality links were and reduced the practice of link buying.
To the point where links didn’t even appear as a priority in the latest updates.
In other words, Google has stopped talking about backlinks!

History shows us that the focus should be on good content and that good content should be produced for people. And then you are generating enough reason to generate backlinks organically.

Also (and here’s my opinion), technology has evolved so much and so many factors must have been added that link building becomes just one more.