On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.
Jeff from New York City asked:
As Google’s algo evolves, is it better to have exceptional links and mediocre content, or exceptional content and mediocre links? By links I mean inbound link quantity/quality. Can new sites with awesome contest outrank mediocre/established sites?
source
Well Explain. I would like to mention this in my article.
My guess is, like he just said, Viagra is the most spammed word on the internet and he's part of the Webspam team at Google. I know that may seem like a flaccid answer, but sometimes it's hard to get your head wrapped around these things.
Both links and contents are very important indeed. If you're site is missing one (and I sure hope your aren't missing content which would make it REALLY WEIRD), you'll ed up leaving a lot of money on the table.
Google can't read content. We've all seen how it transcribes voice and translates. The ONLY thing Google can do is count links (and compare word count frequencies)
Links are more important.
What is Matt doing with his right hand from 0:40? Thinking a bit too much about viagra? Good post anyway, thanks Matt
next question "how do I rank first page for Viagra keyword"?
01:08 "stuff that we consider bad or scuzzy for the web like paying for them [i.e., links]"
Unless, of course, it's GOOGLE whom you're paying for links – then it ain't bad or scuzzy at all, right? ; )
Good content is easier to create than creating a bunch of links
Personally, I would say you need a mixture of both. One is no good without the other. You can have the greatest content but who is going to find it? You can have the best high quality links pointing to your site but if there is nothing worth reading, grabs your attention, stimulates your mind, learning from or purchasing who is going to come back? Not quality visitors. Relevant links, with relevant content 🙂
Our site is 6 months old and doing well in Google search results. We are beginning to have other sites requesting links – somewhat related but not closely. I am always cautious. Would linking to them be to our advantage or disadvantage.
Hi Matt,
Our site is 6 months old and doing well in Google search results. We are beginning to have other sites requesting links – somewhat related but not closely. I am always cautious. Would linking to them be to our advantage or disadvantage.
@MrDaveFelton I would say a little less than half in a lot of cases. I've seen lots of sites with poor content do great in the search engines and make lots of money because they ave the product at a low price and great SE ranking (because of a great link profile) .
When it comes to SE ranking links beats content hands down every time.
I'm NOT saying content isn't important. But it does little to help your SE ranking in MOST cases.
simple and clear 🙂
Un par de cientos de enlaces te garantiza estar en la primera pagina de resultados, sea cual fuese el tema, al menos en los topicos q manejo xD
great video. Great SEO answer. Great content is a must to get great links.
content is the most important partt of any website.
Brilliant.
Alright Matt, agree. Question what about good content made just for inbound links?