That was a direct quote from a customer. They believed that for modern business websites seeking to rank in natural search results there was no need for link building.
Link Building is not BS.
It remains a valid and essential strategy for search engine optimisation in 2025.
The numero® SEO team works on both on-page and off-page linking for our clients. Both contribute to natural search success.
Link building is essential
Here’s why. Link building remains a core signal for the search algorithms. I did some research into 8 reasons why you should not abandon link building when doing SEO on business websites.
- It’s still a core ranking factor – According to a study by Patrick Stox analysing 1,000,000 keywords, links remain a crucial ranking factor in 2025 Is Link Building Still Important for SEO in 2025? – Wisp CMS
- Statistical evidence – When comparing website content with and without backlinks, studies prove that 91% of content fails to rank if it hasn’t got high quality backlinks Is Link Building Still Relevant to SEO in 2025 – BetterLinks
- Emphasise quality over quantity – High quality “link signals” remain a key part of the Google Search algorithm. Prioritising authoritative, relevant backlinks from trustworthy sources is essential for the modern business website. Search Engine Land
- Competitive advantage – 52% of businesses believe link building is the toughest part of SEO. Link farms and thin content pages get penalised so it’s harder to game the algorithm Coalition Technologies
- Trust and authority signals [EEET] – Link building remains core to SEO best practice SEO Space
- Local SEO benefits – For many businesses, local links from authoritative local domains, Google Business Profiles, or local directories definitely boost regional search visibility
- Content amplification – High quality links are part of the content distribution tactics used by the numero® SEO team. These drive referral traffic of human readers.
- Long-term investment – SEO is not a quick-fix – it’s a consistent and persistent task for modern marketers. Website backlinks give lasting value and they compound over time
Local SEO is essential for bricks and mortar businesses where you want customers to visit your premises. And a nice chalk board is a friendly sign that you appreciate your customers too.
SEO does not stand still
Marketing is a diverse and evolving business discipline. It changes and the horizon of “best practice SEO” changes regularly. This isn’t just driven by algorithm updates and the 4 stages of SEO, it’s based on real life work for our clients and our own website. The fact that you’re reading this shows that SEO is an effective marketing tactic.
In 2025, numero® has found that by having a focus on earning links through valuable content proves that expertise continues to be a strong basis for delivering excellent natural search results.
We continue to develop new techniques – read about GEO and how AI is affecting search results, or just give us a call and we’ll assess your website’s SEO for context, relevance and give you our views about how you can improve outcomes.
Author Expertise: John Anthony Talaguit
John brings comprehensive digital marketing expertise spanning strategic planning, technical optimisation, and multi-channel execution to numero®’s clients. His core strengths include developing timeline-driven marketing strategies, advanced SEO implementation with schema markup and Core Web Vitals optimisation, and comprehensive Google Analytics tracking. He excels in paid advertising across Google Ads, YouTube, and display networks, whilst maintaining expertise in conversion rate optimisation and email marketing. Technical capabilities encompass WordPress development, mobile-first optimisation, and scripting in HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. John’s experience extends to social media management, e-commerce optimisation, and cross-team project management, making him a well-rounded digital marketing strategist with strong technical acumen.
