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.

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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.