{"id":6820,"date":"2024-07-19T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T13:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=6820"},"modified":"2025-04-22T09:22:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T14:22:54","slug":"are-backlinks-still-important-for-seo-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/blog\/are-backlinks-still-important-for-seo-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Backlinks Still Important for SEO in 2024?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backlinks remain one of the most important Google ranking factors driving SEO success. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, with Google continuing to advance its algorithms, some have questioned whether backlinks retain importance following recent core updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer is an emphatic yes &#8211; backlinks continue to play a pivotal role. However, evolving search algorithms demand an updated approach focusing more on quality over quantity when earning links.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you currently view links as low ROI busywork, it may be time to reassess their vital role within modern technical SEO stacks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Impact of Link Signals on SEO Rankings Over Time<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding modern link-building requires a quick look into history&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Early Days<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 2000s, Google couldn\u2019t yet effectively filter low-quality links at scale. As a result, ranking algorithms heavily favored backlink quantity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Savvy webmasters realized this flaw could be exploited. They tapped gray hat tactics like:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comment spam across blogs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Directory link lists<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link exchange networks<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sparking a <\/span><b>race to amass as many links as possible from any site willing to reciprocate.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the mid to late 2000s, comment spam, directories, and link exchanges accounted for a large portion of many sites\u2019 total backlink profiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Begins Fighting Back<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As link spam raced out of control, Google began releasing major algorithm updates specifically targeting manipulative tactics:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2016\/09\/penguin-is-now-part-of-our-core?hl=ru\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Google Penguin (2012)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 The launch of Penguin represented a major shift in how link signals were evaluated. The update was designed to catch sites aggressively buying links or building questionable link networks. Penguin had the power to devalue spam sites or remove them entirely from search rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the ensuing years, iterations of Penguin helped clean up the SERPs significantly. But the update also created collateral damage across sites that built links too aggressively yet still offered legitimate value to visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Google Hummingbird (2013)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 While still focused on link metrics, Hummingbird worked to understand semantic search quality and connections behind user queries at a deeper level. The update further helped downgrade sites abusing keyword stuffing and excessive link exchanges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Google Panda (2014)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 Whereas Penguin targeted spammy links, Panda went after low-quality and thin content. The update introduced severe penalties for sites publishing repetitive, scraped, or auto-generated content solely to chase search volume.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Focus on Quality Emerges<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each successive Google update helped search algorithms get exponentially better at analyzing links on an individual basis. Simply tallying up the total number of backlinks no longer provided enough signal to rank well. More advanced page quality and relevance signals took hold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>By the mid-2010s, low-value link building offered minimal ROI yet carried significant downside risks.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> SEO shifted toward an editorial link-building mindset &#8211; securing contextual links from reputable sites whenever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for some industries, the opportunity to chase shortcuts with manipulative linking strategies still proved too tempting\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google March 2024 Spam Update<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over time, Google observed persistent different linking spam practices. In March 2024, Google launched a broad core update specifically targeting spammy link networks and low-value content sites. <\/span><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6821\" src=\"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident.png\" alt=\"Google Spam incident\" width=\"679\" height=\"165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident.png 1958w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident-300x73.png 300w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident-1024x249.png 1024w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident-768x187.png 768w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-spam-incident-1536x373.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 679px) 100vw, 679px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products\/search\/google-search-update-march-2024\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google reported an expected 40% reduction in spammy and thin content pages<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> surfacing in search results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6822\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6822\" style=\"width: 524px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6822\" src=\"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Biggest-domain-losses-of-the-Google-March-Core-and-Spam-update-2024-by-Sistrix.png\" alt=\"Biggest domain losses of the Google March Core and Spam update 2024\" width=\"524\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Biggest-domain-losses-of-the-Google-March-Core-and-Spam-update-2024-by-Sistrix.png 1254w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Biggest-domain-losses-of-the-Google-March-Core-and-Spam-update-2024-by-Sistrix-300x254.png 300w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Biggest-domain-losses-of-the-Google-March-Core-and-Spam-update-2024-by-Sistrix-1024x867.png 1024w, https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Biggest-domain-losses-of-the-Google-March-Core-and-Spam-update-2024-by-Sistrix-768x650.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 524px) 100vw, 524px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biggest domain losses of the Google March Core and Spam update 2024 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sistrix.com\/blog\/google-core-spam-update-march-2024\/#Winners-and-losers-of-the-March-2024-Core-and-Spam-Update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sistrix<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The update included <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/essentials\/spam-policies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new policies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against tactics like:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scaled content farms<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sites that publish large amounts of cheap, low-quality content to generate traffic and sell links. A particularly large increase has been seen in AI-generated content farms, which flood the Internet with low-quality clickbait articles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google penalizes sites that have backlinks from low-quality or spam sites, as it views this as an attempt to manipulate rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expired domains<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s common to launch websites on expired domains with strong reputations (high DA and PA) to quickly improve search rankings, even if the sites don&#8217;t offer much value to users.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It used to be a go-to strategy and could give a website an instant SEO boost before. However, search engines have wisened up, and now it&#8217;s not as effective anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comment spam rings<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are similar to regular comment spam but are typically posted on forums or in the comments section of posts, whether or not they are related to the niche, in order to attract traffic to the site and increase its ranking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Typically, the tactic is as follows: new users ask for recommendations. They then receive replies with recommendations and a link to a promoted site from a similar user and discuss it in a thread that is actually part of the spam ring. This is basically a self-answering scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the past, a site with links from spam comments wouldn&#8217;t hurt. Google bots could just discount them as if they meant nothing. However, this tactic can now backfire when search engines pick up on a pattern from repeated spam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Site reputation abuse<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some site owners try to boost their sites by publishing pages on a well-known, reputable site without oversight. They&#8217;re mostly doing this to game the search engine system by taking advantage of the host site&#8217;s ranking signals. These pages can be anything, and they usually don&#8217;t have much to do with the main purpose of the donor site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The March 2024 update <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sistrix.com\/blog\/google-core-spam-update-march-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">caused turbulence for sites using manipulation to rank<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But those with expertise and original, useful content weathered it well. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A huge number of sites were deindexed during the spam update roll-out. Glenn Gabe from G-Squared Interactive <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mas.to\/@glenngabe\/112128206690775886\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">summarizes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that out of the 1,000 sites he checked that were deindexed by &#8220;Pure spam&#8221; manual action, none have returned to the index.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>For many industries the update served as a wakeup call &#8211; link quality now outweighed quantity.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Authentic, relevant links from legitimate sites drive sustainable growth. Chasing shortcuts risks catastrophe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link Building in 2024<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the aftermath of Google\u2019s ever-intensifying war against link spam and manipulation, a new approach emerges &#8211; authoritative backlinks must be built sustainably over time. The days of shortcuts disappeared long ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/blog\/buying-backlinks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crafting an ethical, effective link-building framework<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> requires refocusing on a few core guiding principles:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Link Quality Trumps Quantity<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few contextual links from genuinely reputable sites within your industry prove exponentially more valuable than thousands of links from irrelevant properties. Assessing factors like domain authority, subject matter expertise, and audience trust should steer target selection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prioritize securing links placed on pages with healthy overall linking profiles &#8211; look for existing links from known publications, educational domains, and vendors in your space. Their endorsement offers significantly more influence than buried links on barren pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manually review each site considered for outreach to ensure they meet integrity guidelines. Analyze factors like <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">niche relevance, website\u2019s reputation, content quality, and organic traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Niche Relevance &amp; Context<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to general domain authority, assessed relevance between the linking and linked-to sites now carries tremendous weight. Consider the implied context &#8211; does an endorsement make logical sense based on respective topical focuses and content formats?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, a salsa recipe blog reference linking to a fellow cooking site feels inherently different than the same link hosted on a sports car review site. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if two domains have similar metrics, the quality of their backlinks can still vary. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prioritize niche relevance in your outreach cadence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promote Link-Worthy <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Content<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you create engaging and visually striking content, you&#8217;ll generally get more people linking to it than you would with just generic blog posts. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As such, be sure to actively promote these link-worthy assets across social media channels to maximize discovery. Consider:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evergreen content &#8211; timeless and valuable information that remains relevant over time<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Videos or podcasts &#8211; dynamic and audio-visual content<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infographics &#8211; information in a visually appealing and easily digestible format<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research studies and analysis &#8211; insights, and findings that provide authoritative content<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interactive tools &#8211; allow users to engage directly with the content<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wrap-up<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gotchseo.com\/are-backlinks-still-important\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">genuine links still serve as the lifeblood of sustainable SEO strategies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But pathways for cultivating authoritative links require continuous adaptation as Google\u2019s ranking algorithms march on against spam. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google is improving its ranking systems to spot better and prioritize quality content. It&#8217;s cracking down on content that was created to manipulate search engine rankings and promoting content that actually offers a positive user experience and real value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To effectively monitor the impact of your backlink efforts, consider adding a <a href=\"https:\/\/keyword.com\/rank-tracker\">rank tracker<\/a> to your SEO toolset. Rank trackers allow you to monitor your website&#8217;s position in the SERPs for targeted keywords over time. By correlating ranking changes with your link building activities, you can gain insights into which backlinks are most effective at improving your search visibility. This data-driven approach enables you to refine your link building strategy and focus on acquiring the types of links that yield the best results for your specific website and niche.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About the Author<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Nataly Shevchenco is the Editor-in-Chief at Crowdo.net, a leading international SEO and digital agency. She is dedicated to driving editorial excellence and delivering high-quality content to their clients.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backlinks in 2024: Still crucial for SEO success? Explore the evolving importance of backlinks as Google&#8217;s algorithms advance and improve your link building strategies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6820","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-search-visibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/6820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/6820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyword.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}