Nowadays, competition for online visibility is fierce, so understanding the factors that influence Google rankings is crucial for any business. Recently, statements from Google itself suggest that backlinks in SEO are no longer as important as they once were.
However, a detailed analysis reveals a different reality. This post reveals the true relevance of backlinks, based on recent studies and analytical data.
Google's perspective on backlinks
In recent months, Google has repeatedly stated that backlinks are no longer one of the top three ranking factors. Gary Illyes, one of Google’s spokespeople, stated on X (formerly Twitter) that “we need very few links to rank pages” and that “over the years, we have made links less important.”
This shift in discourse suggests that SEO strategies may be moving in a new direction, focusing more on other aspects such as content quality and user experience.
The study of backlinks in SEO and the real results
Contrary to Google’s claims, a recent study conducted by bank data Internet Marketing Ninjas analyzed 1,113 websites that ranked in the top positions on Google for 200 search phrases with commercial intent. The results were revealing:
96% of the sites in the top 10 had more than 1,000 backlinks from unique domains.
only 0.3% of websites had less than 100 backlinks.
none of the sites analyzed had less than 50 backlinks.
This data makes it clear that, despite Google's claims, backlinks still play a fundamental role in page rankings.
Data analysis
To better understand the importance of backlinks, the analysis used tools such as Ahrefs , Moz , Majestic , and SEMRush . These tools provided data on the number of unique domains referencing each website. Here is a summary of the main findings:
These numbers demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of sites that rank well have a significant number of backlinks, indicating that the number of backlinks is still an essential factor for ranking.