We have heard a lot from Google recently that links are just not as significant of a ranking factor in Google Search as they used to be. But 40% of SEOs still feel link building is as effective now compared to a few years ago. 60% of SEOs think it is less effective compared to a few years ago.
Here is the poll via Marie Haynes on Twitter; I took out the “see responses” votes:
We recently covered how a Google search quality rep said links are not as important today than it was years and years ago, we also covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
I know many SEO agencies do a lot of link-building work, so I am not surprised by the poll responses.
Forim discussion at Twitter.
