Links matter, but they’re no longer in the top three

large chain links in a pile

Backlinks have always been an essential factor in your website’s search results. For well over a decade, backlinks were touted as one of the top three ranking factors.

However, Gary Illyes of Google recently confirmed that links matter but are no longer in the top three factors for site ranking. High-quality content (like mentioned in #1) is the number one factor for ranking on Google Search. It is so essential it can even cause sites with no backlinks to rank high in the search results. You can read more about Google’s view on backlinks here.

Holiday Shopping is Here

couple looking in a shop window

The holiday shopping season is here. Google released their Four Ways to Prepare for the Holiday Season guide back in August but it’s a great resource to revisit. It’s full of great information that can apply to more than just merchants selling products on Google Shopping.

The guide provides valuable insights into what Google is prioritizing this holiday season: enticing gift ideas, effective PMAX Google Ads strategies to expand your customer base, and the ever-popular feature of fast and free shipping.

Quality still matters (it’s critical)

Baker creating macarons.

It may not be surprising, but quality content is critical to high ranking in Google Search (although it’s not a guarantee).

Search Off the Record is one of our favorite podcasts here at Decantery, and it always features great conversions about search. In a recent episode, John Mueller and Gary Illyes discussed the role of quality in indexing and ranking. The episode featured some great nuggets of information and discussed how Google treats various parts of your site differently based on quality.

One great reminder from the podcast is that we can always strive to enhance the quality of website content. A practical step towards achieving this goal is to remove outdated and low-quality content.