Despite years of “links don’t matter anymore” talk, Google’s own documentation confirms link analysis is still part of its core ranking systems. Backlinks remain one of the clearest signals of trust, and most pages have none, which is precisely why they’re a lever.
The honest nuance: links matter less than they did, and they’re overrated by people who treat SEO as a numbers race. Quality and relevance beat raw count, and Google itself downplays them. But less-important is not unimportant.
The pages that win still tend to be the ones with the links, and they keep earning more. Done right, link building is patient, editorial, relationship-driven work, not buying a thousand junk links. Here’s the data, including the caveats.
Most pages have no backlinks at all.
Here’s why links are still a lever: scarcity. In a sample of roughly a billion pages, 66.31% had zero backlinks. The vast majority of the web has earned no votes of confidence at all.
That means a handful of quality, relevant links can separate you from nearly everyone else competing for the same terms. The bar is lower than the “links don’t matter” crowd assumes.
How many pages have earned links
The #1 result is usually the one with the links.
Across 11.8 million Google results, the top-ranking page had on average 3.8 times more backlinks than positions two through ten, and the number of referring domains correlated with rankings more strongly than any other factor measured.
Correlation isn’t causation, but the pattern is consistent and stubborn: the pages at the top tend to be the ones other sites vouch for.
The link gap at the top
Link quality beats raw link count.
Not all links are equal, and the data says so. When Ahrefs measured what correlates with rankings, a page’s URL Rating (a quality-weighted link metric) showed the strongest correlation at 0.39, well above total backlinks or raw referring domain counts at around 0.24 to 0.27.
That’s the whole philosophy: a few genuinely relevant, authoritative links beat a pile of cheap ones. We build for quality and relevance, never volume for its own sake.
What kind of links track with rankings
Links matter less than they used to. Just not zero.
We’ll be straight: Google has genuinely de-emphasized links, and its own team says people overestimate their importance. But Google also confirms PageRank, its original link-based system, “continues to be part of our core ranking systems.” Even in a 2026 analysis of a million SERPs, referring domains still correlated with rankings, more so for local searches.
So the move isn’t to obsess over links or to ignore them. It’s to earn quality links as one part of a complete program, which is exactly how we treat it.
I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three.
Gary Illyes, Google Search team (via Search Engine Land)
Winners keep earning links faster.
Link building rewards patience because it compounds. Pages ranking #1 acquire new followed referring domains at roughly 5% to 14.5% per month, faster than the pages below them. Authority begets authority.
That’s the case for an ongoing program rather than a one-time push: the links you earn make the next ones easier, and the gap on competitors widens over time.
How authority compounds
PageRank is one of our core ranking systems used when Google first launched, and it continues to be part of our core ranking systems.
Google Search Central (ranking systems guide)
I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links.
Gary Illyes, Google Search team (via Search Engine Land)
We earn quality links, the slow, durable way.
Link building at MoonSauce is editorial and relationship-driven: genuinely useful content, digital PR, and outreach that earns relevant, authoritative links, not bought volume that gets you penalized. It’s slow, compounding work, treated as one part of a complete SEO program rather than a numbers race. The kind of links that still move rankings, and keep moving them.
Frequently asked
Does link building still work in 2026?
How many backlinks do I need?
Is buying links a good idea?
How long does link building take?
Are links more important than content or technical SEO?
Every figure on this page comes from a primary platform, an independent study, or a named industry expert. No competing-agency stats, no made-up numbers.
- Ahrefs: SEO statistics (66% of pages have no backlinks)
- Backlinko: search engine ranking factors (11.8M results)
- Ahrefs: links matter less but still matter (1M SERPs)
- Ahrefs: links with traffic study (URL Rating correlation)
- Ahrefs: backlink growth study
- Google Search Central: ranking systems guide (PageRank)
- Search Engine Land: Gary Illyes on links as a ranking factor
