Why External Links Matter to SEO

by | News

SEO is, and always has been about creating a great user experience. Help Google help its users in the best way possible, and Google will help you. That’s how it works. Google doesn’t hate those who do good SEO. But Google hates those who think they’re above the rules and try to game the system. Link building was a huge thing in this department back in the day – people using automated software to build links to and from their websites thought they were pretty slick and would get away with it. Then Google decided to prove them wrong. And prove them wrong they did – they basically made half of them cry.

Today, many say that link building is dead, especially in regards to external links. This is, of course, not the case. Not only is link building still a thing, but it’s still one of the most important factors in the page ranking. However, it has to be handled with care. Links pointing to your site are almost always good to have, especially if they’re from high-quality, authoritative sites. Social media are also given a huge importance in this regard. The only exception are links from spammy, low-quality websites.

External links matter too, though. Not as much as internal links, but enough to make a difference. As we said in the beginning, it’s all about creating a great user experience, and sometimes you can’t do that without help. You can’t waste half an article explaining something that has been explained in another article – just link to the other article and the people who are interested will follow. Always make sure that the links are relevant to the content, and to the reader. And never link to spammy or other bad-reputation, low-quality websites. If you want organic link building done right, leave it to NXTFactor. We’ve been in this business for a long time and we know how things work. We’ll make sure that your website gets out there without fear of repercussions.