In the last month, the Distilled team released a study showing that links might not have as big of an impact on a certain set of search results, specifically high volume SERPs in position 1-5.
Will Critchlow, founder and CEO of Distilled, came on our program to talk about that study and discuss the different ways Google might value links… or might not.
It was a wide-ranging discussion on where and when to think about links more than usual, how to use UX to your benefit, A/B tests that show SEO impacts, the one way to use voice search today, and a whole lot more.
Show Agenda & Timestamps
0:50: What is the two-tiered SERP?
4:33: The difference between QDF and “peak” search periods
8:35: If you’re ranking 1-5, should you stop link building?
12:00: Did the study results show up in B2B specifically?
14:40: Would blended intent SERPs change how we should perceive this study?
19:00: What thing do you see broken most often when you do SEO A/B tests?
19:45: The SEO recommendation that never sees positive increases in A/B tests
27:00: Should people do anything with Voice Search today?
32:00: Why Domain Authority is a poor metric for reporting on links
Show Notes:
- Follow Will on Twitter
- DA is the Wrong Metric for Reporting
- Introducing Domain Authority 2.0
- The Two-Tiered SERP
- Distilled ODN, SEO A/B Testing Platform
I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Will as much as I did. My takeaway is that links have as strong of an effect as ever, but there are certain situations where they may take a backseat to UX.
That said, it’s rare that a business has the liberty of a massive SEO lead from a links perspective on their competitors that allows UX to take over. If you’re lucky enough to have it, it’s very possible you won’t need them and should focus on building a UX lead instead.
