Backlinks and SEO have always gone hand in hand. Akin to a vote of confidence, having another site link to yours is a strong indicator to search engines of its quality. The more credible the domain, the stronger the signal that your content is also reliable, credible and trustworthy – all key factors in Google’s Search Quality Raters score that help determine where your site will rank.
But search engines have come a long way over the years. With ongoing advancements in AI and machine learning, they can better understand the intent and trustworthiness of links all by themselves. So, where does that leave us? If search engines don’t need our guidance anymore, are backlinks still important for SEO in 2024?
What are backlinks and why do they matter for SEO?
Before we dive into the importance of backlinks today, let’s start right at the beginning – what are backlinks? Simply put, they are a link from another website to yours. As mentioned above, they are a virtual pat on the back; a way of letting search engines (and users) know your content is deemed useful by others. There’s also ‘follow’ and ‘nofollow’ links, with the former passing on link equity and the latter not.
There was a time when the number of backlinks pointing to your site had an influence on search engine rankings, but it didn’t take long for this to be exploited. An infamous SEO tactic, link building schemes became a black hat way of trying to manipulate rankings and game your way to the top of the SERPs. But search engines soon got wise to this and shifted their focus onto quality, not quantity of links.
Speaking of quality, not all domains are created equal either. Like your ex, links from low quality, spammy websites are dubbed as “toxic”. Finding and removing these toxic backlinks has been an important SEO action for years, helping search engines understand when links from certain domains are unwanted – or so we thought. This is known as disavowing links and can be done by Google’s aptly named disavow tool.
Disavowing backlinks to your site
The disavow tool allows you to upload a list of pages or entire domains which you would like to be ignored by Google. This usually takes the form of spammy websites, unwanted directories, explicit content; anything you don’t want your site to be associated with. Handy, right? However, Google heavily warns this is an advanced feature that should be used with caution, as using it incorrectly could have an adverse effect on your site’s performance.
That’s where SEO specialists come in. In fact, compiling a list of toxic backlinks and domains to disavow has been one of the main actions from conducting a Backlink Audit for years. But Google now clearly states you should only disavow backlinks if:
“You have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site,
AND
The links have caused a manual action, or likely will cause a manual action, on your site.”
What is a manual action?
A manual action sounds serious but what exactly is it? It’s given when a human reviewer at Google deems a page on a site is not compliant with their spam policies – note the importance of human reviewer, so it’s not automated or judged by a machine. Manual actions are generally used to address attempts to manipulate Google’s search index and cause the affected page(s) to rank lower or be omitted entirely from search results.
Thankfully, Google is transparent if your site is hit by a manual action by notifying you in Search Console’s Manual Actions report (you’ll find this under Security & Manual Actions). This will identify the page(s) in question and outline steps to fix the issue. Once you’re confident these have been addressed on all affected pages, select Request Review and outline what you have done to fix the issues. Google will then reconsider these pages, which may take up to several weeks.
So, should we disavow backlinks?
With clear guidance from Google that we should only disavow links if we receive a manual action, should we be using the disavow tool much at all? There has been an ongoing debate about the usefulness of disavowing backlinks for some time now. SEO expert Glenn Gabe shared his opinion recently on an experiment run by fellow specialist Cyrus Shepard, where he disavowed every single link to a website – and saw no impact whatsoever.
There may have been several reasons for this, whether Google simply didn’t trust the disavow file and ignored it, it needed more time to work, not enough links were disavowed; there’s no way to know for sure. What is clear (and emphasised by Gabe) is we should only be disavowing links if we really have to, i.e. Google has issued a manual action or you’re sure one will be coming your way soon.
Will Google remove the disavow tool?
Notice we’ve only been discussing Google’s disavow tool? That’s because Bing removed its disavow feature from Webmaster Tools in October 2023. After being introduced in 2012, technology has advanced to the point where Bing is confident in its ability to differentiate between natural and unnatural links without the need for a disavow tool. The question is – will Google follow suit?
John Mueller, notable Google Search Advocate, seems to think so. In a series of tweets earlier this year, he made his opinions clear on the disavow tool by declaring it’s not something that should be used regularly. He went a step further to say he would consider it a “big red flag” if an SEO tool reported on so-called “toxic” links to remove, as this hasn’t been needed for many years now.
If that wasn’t compelling enough, Mueller went on to clearly state he’s sure that Google will do the same as Bing eventually and completely remove the disavow tool. Given it’s almost a year after Bing, it’s surprising Google hasn’t already done this but it may not be too far off.
For now, if you currently have a disavow tool, we recommend reviewing this with an SEO specialist and consider removing domains if you have no manual actions against your name. How you do this will depend on the size of your disavow file – if you only have a few domains in there, remove them in one swoop; if you have thousands, consider removing them gradually to monitor the impact (if any) this has.
Are backlinks still important for SEO?
So, the question remains, are backlinks still important for SEO in 2024? In a word, yes. They’re just not as important as they used to be, thanks to the advancements in search engines over the years. What was once one of the most important ranking factors has been diluted, as search engines need us less and less. This is clarified by a quote from Google Analyst, Gary Illyes, who attended SERP Conf. 2024 in Bulgaria earlier this year:
While they are “less and less important”, backlinks still featured in the May 2024 algorithm leak that gave us a glimpse behind the curtain of how Google’s ranking systems work. Notably, PageRank was mentioned several times, which is Google’s patented algorithm for analysing which sites have been ‘voted’ the best by other pages on the web, i.e. linked to. However, the days of link building as we know it are all but over. Google states in their philosophy that “no one can buy better PageRank”, clarifying that the goal shouldn’t be to build links – we should attract them with great content.
Several algorithm updates seen throughout the year, including the March and June 2024 core updates, focused on spam and improving how this is detected. This reiterates the improvements in Google’s automated systems, such as SpamBrain, their AI-based spam prevention tool. The more sophisticated search engines get, the less they rely on us to tell them what is and isn’t spam through things like the disavow tool.
What can we use a Backlink Audit for, then?
If we no longer need to disavow toxic backlinks, what can we use a Backlink Audit for? Fortunately, examining your current backlink profile has many advantages beyond checking for spammy links, including:
- Benchmarking your site – how big is your backlink profile? Measure this over time and assess how much it has grown. What could you be doing differently to grow your backlinks?
- Comparing to your competitors – how does your backlink profile compare to competitors? What kind of content do they have that’s attracting links? Are there any untapped areas you should consider creating content for?
- Analysing your current links – what kind of domains are currently linking to your content? Are they of good quality? It’s still important to analyse this but without the purpose of identifying domains to disavow.
- Identifying your top performing content – what content has the most backlinks? What can you learn from this? If there is a certain type of content that is attracting links, such as guides, can you create more of this? Finding a niche that your site excels in will help it generate more links naturally.
- Focusing on link reclamation – have you lost any links from high quality domains? Most tools will be able to tell you when you had a link on a page that no longer exists. If possible, reach out to the site it came from and try to reclaim this.
- Discovering unlinked brand mentions – you can also use a Backlink Audit to find mentions of your brand that were never linked in the first place. If it’s worthwhile, drop them a line and see if they can add a link.
- Supporting PR efforts – while building backlinks shouldn’t be the main aim of your PR efforts, ensuring that opportunities to link back to your site are utilised is a bonus. Auditing your current backlink profile will help reveal these opportunities.
So, backlinks still have an important role to play in SEO today. After all, if no one links to your content, how will anyone find it? This is especially true for new sites just starting out on their SEO journey, as earning backlinks will help you gain exposure online.
However, toxic backlinks and using the disavow tool are a thing of the past that should no longer be prioritised, unless you have a manual action. Likewise, traditional link building and outreach shouldn’t be a huge focus. Creating great content in a niche of your own that naturally attracts links is where your efforts should lie.
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