I am starting to think why the backlinks are so important. Maybe not so much anymore.

If the site has a good content but I don't have time to build links etc. why is not enough if I have just submitted the site to Google.

If it has good content then people will link to it naturally and you won't have to try create backlinks, but if people don't it is up to you to do so. Backlinks affect your sites PR and SERP's so if you are looking to make your particular site rank better you need quality backlinks and a lot of them.

I think the backlinks on the web act like word of mouth referrals in the real world. The search engine algorithm developers take that under consideration.

When you are referred to a new job by a trusted and well known guy (a quality website in this analogy) you are more likely to nail this job then if you were referred by a crook and a bludger (site with lazy and not fresh content)

Hope this analogy makes sense and reflects how backlinks are one of the most IMPORTANT SEO factors.

I love the analogy, one of those - explain to me like I am 3 year old. But it makes sense. I have another anlogy.

Fresh content could be treated as fresh looking beautiful woman. Fresh content is like a new girlfriend, whereas not updated content is bit like old boyfriend who never cares about grooming himself.

Hi SecretsOut

Are you male or female. I am thinking more - female. I wonder why?

Cheers,

backlinks are definitely necessary. As you have stated above good content can help websites rank well. But what if hundreds of sites are there with same subject, topic and of course with good content too? So there we need something to measure, right? Here comes the importance of backlinks. The better one goes first, and so..

Unfortunately Backlinks are important, there is nothing out there to say they aren't. In fact what Google started from was as a purely backlink based search results engine in a world of keyword stuffed content only. So they aren't about to abandon that!

What I have noticed though, is that if most sites in a category don't have a lot of backlinks, getting lots won't help much and you have to mainly work on content. Lots of local based sites trying to link for keywords including a city name are like that.

On the other hand, keywords that are very competitive and all the main sites have lots of backlinks, you have no change of getting high rankings without matching their back link profile/quantity.

Matt
Marketing Web

Yes. Backlinks are the essential part of a website. Backlinks are places on the web that have links that point back to your website. The more links you have, the better your rank in Google will be. The easiest way is to build backlink is by commenting on other blogs or websites in the same niche. Another way you can build links is to exchange links with other sites. You can join groups that have a link exchange, or find similar websites and post their link on your site and hope that they will reciprocate.

[quote="P_Plater"]I am starting to think why the backlinks are so important. Maybe not so much anymore.

If the site has a good content but I don't have time to build links etc. why is not enough if I have just submitted the site to Google.[/quote]

It's not enough because some of your competitors that also have good content and at the same time do link building will get over your rankings in serp. So I think to become more competitive, you also need to do quality link building. Backlinks are one of the good factors to get good rankings in serp.

Just reinforced tonight by a thrilling conversation with a fellow webmonkey.

20% is content, even though we all know the mantra, Long Live the King, The King is Dead!

80% is quality backlinks giving an authority and weight to the site as a respected member of the niche community.

This really pings.