Worth a read and thanks to Brett for surfacing it.
tangor
11:33 am on Jun 23, 2025 (gmt 0)
Short answer: ONE
Just has to be the RIGHT ONE. Need an article on how to accomplish THAT magical unicorn--- (No disrespect to any/all backlink believers---just a fact of life)
MEANWHILE, never BUILT any backlinks. I got them from others because the CONTENT offered was that good. I also do NOT give backlinks unless the CONTENT off-site is that good. Don't need more than fingers and toes to count how many times I've done that over the last 30 years---
Meaning: Backlinks are important to a certain extent. Those EARNED and SOLID mean far more than the BS, SPAMMED, or PAID FOR etc which killed the original concept---and pretty much means nothing these days.
Just my 2¢---which are about to disappear in US currency, as is the myth of backlinks having real value. That ship sailed a LONG time ago!
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Whitey
9:45 pm on Jun 23, 2025 (gmt 0)
@tangor I really like your “campfire stories” analogy, it captures where backlinks sit in the SEO mythos today. And Magnus’s piece (thanks again Brett for surfacing it) nails the nuance: it’s not about volume anymore, it’s about precision and context.
A single, high-authority, thematically relevant backlink (earned rather than built) can outweigh hundreds of weak or irrelevant ones. But it goes deeper than that. Today’s link value is driven by where it comes from and how it connects within the ecosystem:
•Is the linking domain topically authoritative and trusted?
•Is the linking page itself indexed, crawled often, and distributing equity well?
•Does the anchor text naturally reinforce relevance without looking manipulative?
•What’s the internal link architecture like on the referring site?
With AI layers now reshaping how search evaluates authority and relevance in real time, and with more results surfaced as AI-generated answers or summaries, the importance of backlinks as trust signals (helping Google and others verify source credibility) is greater than ever.
The real question now isn’t “how many backlinks do I need?” but “how strategic is my link profile within today’s search and AI landscape?”
