It’s a distinct possibility that links will not be seen as a relevant ranking influencer anymore? How does this influence SERP?

Yandex (the top Russian Search engine) and Google are both debating on the utility of links. In fact Yandex has already announced that it will no longer be considering the existing links in its newly configured algorithm. The latest algorithm by Yandex only has some commercially configured keywords and it is made in order to cater to regional places. You might think that what’s the use of learning what a Russian search engine is doing but it’s important for you to understand that signals the direction in which international search engines are now thinking. In fact in Russia, Yandex has 60% market share and also holds maximum market space in turkey, Belarus and Ukraine. The search engine Yandex employ all the latest technology in terms of search engine technology and this is why it’s a good example of global scenario.

Why are links being rejected as a rank influencer?

The search engine return pages have traditionally consisted of some genuine content mixed with some spam content. In the past disreputable black hat techniques have been used to acquire rankings for websites. Link building through spurious websites is also one type of black hat technique. The Russian representative of Yandex said that the elimination of these techniques was what prompted the creation of non link building process algorithms.

An algorithm which will help categories websites according to several factors apart from paid links, artificial link building, link value evaluation etc. The future indicates that signals from social links will also be eliminated.

What’s Google’s take on all this?

Google spokesperson Matt Cutts revealed that Google has indeed toyed with the idea of link testing and in fact eliminating links in the future but as of now it’s not very likely. Even if there is some spam and irrelevance in the search results right now, Google would much rather battle it out and try to make everything better with improved algorithms instead of eliminating links completely. According to Google, backlink relevance still definitely counts and the team is working on producing undiluted natural results for SERP.

What’s the replacement for Links?

User behavior is now being envisioned as the key factor that should be used to build links. The bounce rate, percentage of crawl ability and traffic quality is what should be explored. The question now is to how to generate organic traffic with no link around to help. According to the Yandex team here is what should be done.

• Keep on a slew of online advertising through paid means.
• Do real time marketing.
• Engage in direct emails.
• Learn the ropes of e mail marketing.

Internal analytical data, data generated through external sources, providers of organic traffic, everything is going to be under scrutiny now. While it’s next to impossible that the entire Internet can be scanned it’s highly probable that a big portion of all user activity is going to be scrutinized.

As far as the future is concerned they might be losing out on a little of their value.