The question comes up regularly: What is more important for SEO, on-page optimization or off-page optimization? How should I allocate my budget? Isn't it enough to provide good, continuously updated content, and is off-page optimization even still necessary?
First of all: Yes, off-page optimization is important and (apart from individual exceptions) also necessary. And: Yes, on-page optimization is important and (apart from individual exceptions) also necessary. There is no universally optimal allocation, as it depends on the individual circumstances of each project.
Aha. And what exactly is off-page optimization? Off-page optimization = backlink building = structuring the backlink portfolio? Not quite. However, since there are currently few voices that consider social media optimization unimportant (see also http://www.searchmetrics.com/de/knowledge-base/ranking-faktoren/), we can focus entirely on backlink building here.
The following statements have certainly been incorrect for many years: More is better. And: The more backlinks, the better the ranking. However, these two statements are correct: The more good backlinks, the better. And: The more good backlinks, the better the ranking.
In the past, doubts about the usefulness of backlinks went so far that they were completely removed from the search engine algorithm. For example, the Russian search engine operator Yandex announced several years ago that it would no longer take backlinks into account as ranking signals (Internet World Business, issue 26-2013, "Mittel gegen Irreführung"), but later reintroduced them (Cristoph C. Cemper, newsletter "Links von Google als Rankingfaktor bestätigt" dated March 25, 2016).
Google took a clearly better approach by attempting to distinguish good links from bad ones and prevent spam attempts through its various Penguin updates. If you interpret a backlink as a recommendation and apply the principles of SEO to your personal environment, you can get many things right: When are you inclined to follow a recommendation, and when does a recommendation provide added value?
1) A recommendation provides added value particularly when it is neutral, i.e. when it can be assumed that the recommender receives no compensation for their recommendation (applied to SEO: mentions in, for example, editorial publications versus mentions in product blogs).
2) A recommendation provides added value particularly when you are not simultaneously receiving many other recommendations (applied to SEO: a mention on a customer's website versus a mention in a provider directory).
3) A recommendation provides added value particularly when the recommender has sufficient expertise in the area in question (applied to SEO: a mention on a thematically relevant page versus a mention on an unrelated or non-specific page).
4) A recommendation provides added value particularly when we trust the recommender (applied to SEO: a mention on a page with a high level of trust / credibility versus a mention on a spam page).
In summary, or simply put, the general rule is: The harder a link is to obtain, the more valuable it is.
