Role of Link in Ranking In 2019

If you look at the state of links, you will find out that they are not as effective as they were in the past. Although they are still very much effective but there are other factors which seems to reduce the influence of links when it comes to the ranking of websites.

The core algorithm

It is impossible to ignore the role of search engine’s algorithms while talking about a widespread ranking change. In this scenario, the pop and drop scenario is specifically worth mentioning. Pop and drop happens with the black hat methods which mainly involves acquiring of a set of links which help a website to show up in the top of the SERPs. This drop in ranking happens to be quite faster just link the rise. This is what we call pop and drop. With the change in core algorithm, Google tends to make things happen in real time. It means that the algorithm tries its best to avoid promotion of any page which is powered by shady link scheme. And even if a site manages to show up in the SERPs, the property of algorithm being real-time tends to make sure that the website gets demoted quickly.

Content analysis

The best thing about Bing is that it focuses on content along with the links. The role of links in this regard is limited to ensure that a website is authoritative, trustable and useful.

Links and trustworthiness

When you focus on avoid anchor text spamming by cleaning the link signals, the only signal you are left with is the one that indicates trustworthiness. And this is the very signal the SEOs need to work on if they want their website to rank in search engines and stay in the users’ preferences as well.

In this scenario, it would be worth mentioning that SEOs seem to be quick about disavowing Bing in their optimization strategies. However, they do not really have an idea about how to rank on Bing. Bing has been focusing on content and user preferences. On the other hand, SEO has been focusing on link building strategies to rank websites on Google. Well, it may be interesting for the SEOs to know that Google is also focusing on on-page elements and user preferences in a manner that of Bing.

How should the link building be approached?

With other ranking signals to consider, links seem to lose a bit of influence but this influence is still the biggest one. However, link builders and SEOs need to make sure that they work on the trustworthiness and usefulness of the links rather than working on the link schemes just for the sake of traffic.

SEO Ranking Factors for Some Business Verticals and Their Significance for Local Businesses

Since the inception of local SEO, there have been several changes local businesses had to go through when it comes to ranking in Google SERPs. First, local businesses had to understand Google algorithms in order to simply qualify. Then there was in introduction to local ranking factors. And now, the trends suggest that websites will need to consider vertical-specific ranking factors in the future.

Looking at the scenario in general sense, websites will need to have something more than just backlinks and matching keywords in order to get on the top of ranking.

A website only is not the solution for future success

There has been a hot discussion about the importance of websites getting balanced with that of business profile directories such as Yelp, Facebook and Google My Business. Here, Google tells the same kind of thing.

According to Google, one-size-fits-all is not the solution that is going to be provided to the users. In other words, Google is tending to provide more specific information to the users whether it comes from the website or the profiles.

But, there are a lot of businesses that cannot simply rely on the social or local pages only. Such businesses need to have websites to provide better elaboration to the users.

Having that said, it’s worth mentioning the study conducted by Searchmetrics on high ranking websites. This research was conducted to study the vertical-specific ranking factors related to the websites. The results involved direct ranking factors as well as the ones which don’t directly affect the websites as direct factors but play a role in consequential ranking of the websites.

Summary of study

The comparison between the top 10 websites’ keyword searches in given verticals and average benchmarks for universal search results are as under.

Finance websites

• File size 30 % smaller
• 40% less images
• Faster loading time by one second
• More likely to have bullet points by 23%
• Keyword repetition one-third as frequent in the body
• Less internal links by 81%

Travel websites

• More images by 38%
• More internal linking by 23%
• Word count higher by 57%
• Keyword repetition less than other sites by 50%
• HTTPS results fewer in number by 50%
• Loading time 3 seconds slower

E-commerce websites

• 40% more Interactive elements than those of other websites.
• 25 % higher word count and 70% more bullet points.
• Enhanced internal linking by73%
• File size larger by 32%
• Video integration less in number by 30%
• Facebook integration less in number by 70%

Media Websites

• Rely greatly on social signals as it has 106 percent greater Pinterest social signals, 29 percent greater Google+ signals, 39 percent greater Facebook signals, and 17 percent more Tweets.
• External links greater in number by 16%
• 7 % more images as compared to other websites
• Greater use of keywords by 12 %
• Loading time 4 seconds slower.