If links are no longer the most important SEO tactic, what might be replacing them?
If you’ve been following Google and its search engine algorithm changes over the last few years you’ll have noticed how links are becoming a less and less important 
factor when it comes to affecting search engine rankings. The tactic which 5 years or so ago was the cornerstone of good SEO, is now fading away as Google is paying less attention to links when ranking sites.
So, if links aren’t at the forefront of the Google bots’ priorities, what is? In this article we take a quick look at which factors might also be affecting your website’s search engine rankings.
How many people are visiting your site?
Google has the tools (and have had for a good while) to track precise traffic information for a majority of sites on the net. They know if your website is attracting traffic, or if it is not. If your site is attracting traffic then Google knows it is offering value, and is worthy of being found easily… so surely it would make sense for them to place popular websites higher on their pages?
Is your content fresh?
As the whole web has changed dramatically over recent years with the explosion of social media and blogging, content now has a shorter expiry date than ever before. You can write something fresh today which will be old news in a week’s time or less.
Although Google have never confirmed the following, it is very likely (and believed to be the case in certain SEO circles) that Google are ranking pages with the freshest content highest.
What’s your click through rate?
Similar to site traffic figures and the freshness of your content; if your site has a higher click through rate than the sites above it, doesn’t seem obvious that Google will benefit your internet marketing campaign by promote yours higher? It appears logical, but this has yet to be proven or confirmed by Google.
Is your site being talked about?
If something is “the talk of the town”, it probably means something is interesting. It’s the same with your website. Google has always talked about giving high ranking to websites which are popular, and if your site is being mentioned on forums, blogs and social media platforms, then this is an easy way for Google to spot the popularity your site may or may not have.
It could well be that when it comes to SEO, being ‘talked about’ is a big benefit for rankings, and in turn great for any start up business.
So, these four theories as to what may be replacing links are not concrete answers to which factors are indeed doing the replacing. However, when reading between the lines of Matt Cutts’ Google SEO updates you’d be tempted to think that some, if not all, of these ideas are now important SEO factors in your internet marketing campaign.
So which will it be? The truth is, there will likely never be one factor that completely replaces links, but instead we are likely to see many different factors influence rankings along side links at a lesser scale. In the end what really matters is building sites that drive all factors on autopilot.
So wht do you think of these theories? Am I wrong? Am I right? Let us know in the comments, and until next time, happy theorizing!
