Back in the 90s, links were considered to be an important part of how the web worked. At that time, people navigated the web by clicking on links; and this is why the search engines could approximate the relative popularity of pages by looking at those links.
But now, Google could now far more accurately model whether a link drives traffic, so you shouldn’t aim to build links that don’t drive traffic.
At the end of the day, you would just want to know whether links are a ranking factor or not. This is mainly because you want them to improve the rankings.
Why Do Rankings Change?
Fluctuation
Rapid fluctuation in the rankings can be a result of links, on-site, and algorithm changes. This level and frequency of fluctuation are increasingly common for hotly contested terms, and it shows a tendency by Google to continuously iterate and optimize.
This is a slide taken from Larry Kim’s presentation at SearchLove San Diego, and it shows how the highest SERP positions are gaining click-through rate over time, despite all the changes in Google Search (such as increased non-organic results) that ought to drive the opposite.
Successful Link Building
There are cases where the number of links defines the rankings. The higher the number of links, the better the rankings are. In these cases, you may also find that the links are much more stable.
Conclusion
There is a lot of contradiction regarding the importance of link building. Links are correlated with rankings, and Google says they’re important. At the top end, user signals and factors that Google’s algorithms associate with are of utmost importance.
For competitive queries with lots of search volume, links don’t tell Google anything it couldn’t figure out anyway, however, links may still be a big part of how you qualify for that competition in the top end.
You can always consult an SEO agency India to get high quality and adequate link building for your business. They follow white hat SEO to make sure that you get the best results.
