Is backlink really important?

backlink increased but traffic declined.

[alexandra]

Backlinks almost doubled , but traffic from google declined,although not much, but it is getting less and less, so I am wondering if backlink is really that important for google ranking?

[DerekH]

Surely, you are the best person to answer this question?

If because of your backlink increases you have now climbed higher in the SERPS for one or more of your chosen search terms, then backlinks *are* important.

If you haven't climbed any higher for those search terms, you need to find out the anchor text that has been used in those new links.
If the majority have the same anchor text as your chosen search terms, then backlinks *aren't* important. But I'd be surprised...

It's generally accepted in this forum, though, that backlinks and their anchor text are very important in doing well. However it's very hard to perform a controlled experiment in controlled conditions.

What brings visitors *from Google*, of course, is doing well in the Google listings, and though backlinks are a major part of doing well, they're not the only optimisation issue you need to be contending with.
DerekH

[neuron]

I have noticed that generally an increase in backlinks increases the site's ranking substantially, initially. Then, over some weeks or months, the site declines in ranking, though it remains higher than it was before the increase in backlinks.

The way to keep it tops is to keep getting links on a regular and steady basis, rather than doing them in spurts, and then dropping to know links for some period of time.

[Reid]

Backlinks almost doubled , but traffic from google declined,although not much, but it is getting less and less, so I am wondering if backlink is really that important for google ranking?

Some would say that you may have gotten sandboxed for aquiring links too fast.

How old is the site? How many links= doubled?

What kind of links are they? any PR on the pages linking to you?