Search Off The Record - Google's John Mueller Discusses the Future of Backlinks

On the Search Off The Record podcast, Google Search Advocate John Mueller is joined by fellow Googler Lizzi Sassman and guest Myriam Jessier. Mueller makes a prediction about the future of backlinks, saying that Google discourages any form of unnatural linkbuilding. Google's John Mueller discusses the backlinks ranking signal in general and why it may become less critical to SEO professionals in the future. Mueller suggests Google may not have to rely as much on inbound links in the future. He suggests backlinks are only helpful for understanding content, and disregards all the other information they communicate. Inbound links help Google discover new content, says Mueller. He doesn't say how much they help with authority, but he does say they'll continue to help Google.

(source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-predicts-strength-of-backlinks-ranking-factor-will-drop/470175/)