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Updated study: Links are still incredibly important for ranking in Google

Surprise, surprise - a Google ranking study shows links are still important for ranking.

Barry Schwartz on January 17, 2019 at 7:07 am

For the past few years, Stone Temple Consulting, which was acquired by Perficient, has come out with a study analyzing just how important links are to rankings in Google search. Year after year, the study shows that having good quality links to your site has a high correlation to your site ranking well in Google search.

This year it is no different.

Stone Temple published the 2019 version of the study that shows a very significant correlation between links and ranking position in Google search.

What does the data show? First, the aggregate link data using 27,000 queries shows a very strong correlation between links and ranking:

Even breaking it down by industry, it’s still clear how important links are to ranking position in Google.

Why it matters. Stone Temple founder Eric Enge told us, “The reason we continue to pursue this type of study is to continue to test whether links continue to remain an important ranking factor, and this year’s report tells us that the answer is still ‘yes’. In today’s world, that means doing the hard work of creating great sites, great content, great UX, and doing an effective job of telling the world about it.”

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.