Why would backlinks trump content and keywords / DA?

[Deacyde]

While analyzing competition, I frequently see backlinks being the biggest factor at deciding rank for keywords, while content and keyword page grading can say great things, it always comes down to backlinks it seems. Even our DA is better or equal, Why would this be?

[Paddy_Moogan]

Hi,

I often see the same myself and the recent Moz ranking factors survey (and all previous ones) show that general opinion is that links are still the strongest signal when it comes to organic rankings.

As others in the thread have mentioned, your content can be great but if no one ever sees it, then it's a bit wasted. One of the ways people can see / discover your content is via links and Google see links as vote of confidence in your website or content.

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that it's often the high quality links that can differentiate websites in the long-term. Lower quality links can boost a site for a short period but will often not work long-term anymore. So you're right in that things often come down to backlinks, but it's usually high quality backlinks that make the difference.

Having said all of that, I wouldn't bet against Google bringing in more signals that could become as strong as links. Social signals may become stronger for example, as may user signals or brand / offline signals. Machine learning also plays a huge part in rankings which are largely driven by user behaviour.

I hope that helps!

Paddy

[EGOL]

I frequently see backlinks being the biggest factor at deciding rank for keywords, while content and keyword page grading can say great things, it always comes down to backlinks it seems

I believe that it is important to consider the age of the document and the on-site traffic that might flow into it.   New pages with great content might have very little popularity on other sites.  If you see them ranking high then it is the authority of the domain on which they were published that is lifting them to high rankings.  Young product pages on amazon, new pages on wikipedia are examples.

Great content that has not been marketed to other websites but that is seen by lots of people who visit the domain where it is published can climb the rankings to top positions but that takes more time.

Great content on less visited domains can still rank high over time but the climb up the SERPs can take years to happen.

[Toddfoster]

Hello,

The old saying that content is king still remains the same, but there should be an asterisk (*) next to it. Good content is not good if you cannot market it to a wide audience and build interaction and feedback with it. A website that is simply optimized for given keywords will only get you so far. Most people in the SEO industry (myself included) would argue that links represent a hefty percentage of all ranking potential. The split is roughly 50%:25% in favour of link profile over on-site optimization and content from a technical perspective.

These numbers are impacted by interaction metrics (CTR, BR, etc.) which is where content can really be a deal maker. Links represent votes of confidence in your website from other sources. If these sources are authoritative and relevant, you are in good shape from a rankings perspective. Another way to look at it is:

Links are how you get discovered, content is how you generate revenue/interest.

Remember that rankings do not necessarily generate revenue. You need properly-created, relevant and useful content for your user base to make the difference between digital success and failure. The way this content gets discovered is through your link profile and social avenues, among others.

In other words, you are not wrong. Links are still a huge factor when it comes to rankings, but this is not the only aspect of SEO that requires attention. A 1st place ranking will not last if users are not finding what they are looking for once they click through.

Hope these insights help,

Rob