Could Links Become a Less Important Ranking Factor to the Google Search Algorithm in the Future?

Backlinks have always been seen as somewhat of a holy grail in SEO; very difficult to attain, but extremely powerful. But as the web evolves, and Google better understands how content fits in within the context of the web, links just may not be as necessary as they once were.

In episode 48 of the Search Off the Record podcast, Google’s webmaster trends analyst, John Mueller, said that in the future there may be a Google Search ranking algorithm where links will not be as important as they are today. Mueller also hinted that links are not weighted as much as they used to be.

there may be a search ranking algorithm where links are not as important in the overall algorithm as they are today

John Mueller, Search Off the Record

When asked about links, Mueller responded:

“Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links. At some point, will drop off a little bit as we can’t figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web. And to some extent, links will always be something that we care about because we have to find pages somehow. It’s like how do you find a page on the web without some reference to it?”

“But my guess is over time, it won’t be such a big factor as sometimes it is today. I think already, that’s something that’s been changing quite a bit.”

If you want to give the full episode a listen, here it is:

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