Matt Cutts: Don’t Write The Epitaph For Links Yet [SMX Advanced 2012 Video]

Will social signals replace links as a primary SEO signal affecting Google’s rankings? Have social signals already replaced links in that way? That topic came up last month during the keynote conversation with Google’s Matt Cutts at our SMX Advanced conference in Seattle. Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land’s Editor-In-Chief, asked a series of link-related questions […]

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google-g-logoWill social signals replace links as a primary SEO signal affecting Google’s rankings? Have social signals already replaced links in that way?

That topic came up last month during the keynote conversation with Google’s Matt Cutts at our SMX Advanced conference in Seattle. Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land’s Editor-In-Chief, asked a series of link-related questions that led the conversation through topics like no-followed links, affiliate links, paid links and more.

For a few years now, some SEO insiders have suggested that social signals are replacing links as a quality signal for Google’s ranking algorithm — and that refrain has become a bit more common, I’d say, in the wake of the Panda and Penguin updates.

But in the video below, Cutts explains that it’s much too soon to say that links are dead.

For more from SMX Advanced, see the Related Entries below.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Matt McGee
Contributor
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

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