Search Engines and the Web

One of the most important features of HTML is the hyperlink — or link. If HTTP is the grammar
of the Web, and HTML is the language, then links might be the punctuation. They hold
everything together, and allow you to get from one page to another. Links are the architecture
of the Web, which the browsers use to navigate and users share to connect one another with
information.

As anyone passingly familiar with SEO should know, links are also one of the most important
ranking factors, critical to being discovered by search engines and increasing visibility in the
SERPs. If you want to appear in a SERP, you have to find a way to build links to your content,
and your website.

The SERP itself is, in essence, just a page full of links. So it breaks my heart when I see the
never-ending speculation of marketers and SEO analysts asking whether links still matter, or
when Google is going to stop valuing backlinks as a ranking factor. As long as Google is a web-
based search engine, links are going to matter. Their importance will be qualified relative to
other elements (like relevance, optimizing for user search intent, use of meaningful keywords,
use of proper English and grammar, technical optimization, etc.) but links will never stop being
a part of the search equation, no more than they will stop being the glue that holds the Web
together. By extension, link building services will always have its place in any SEO strategy
meant to help content get discovered, indexed, and displayed by search engines.