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Backlinks and why they suck in 2024

I have been in the SEO space for quite a while as an employee and very recently made the complete transition into agency mid 2023 despite taking the first step in 2021.

Backlinks have always been an area that makes no sense to me. Mainly because what Google recommends vs what gets you ahead of your competition are two completely different things.

Originally, they were thought to be gold dust for boosting your site's SEO, akin to a nod of approval from one site to another. However, the theory behind backlinks is flawed.

The concept was simple: more backlinks mean your site is valuable, right? Well, not really. The chase for backlinks turned into a Wild West, with tactics ranging from guest blogging to the shadier sides of link farms and paid links. Technically, those black hat practices should get you penalised but I am yet to see that first-hand, despite working with clients who engaged in it and in fact, most of the clients I have seen engaging in black-hat backlink acquisition seemed to get with it favourably.

This gold rush has diluted their value, making it less about quality content and more about who's got the deeper pockets or the sneakier tactics.

Using backlinks as a ranking factor is fundamentally flawed and the more I test my theory, the clearer it gets

submitted by /u/MSTSSolutions
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from Search Engine Optimization: The Latest SEO News https://ift.tt/BZolKbO
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