James Murray of Bing can be heard in a recent interview saying links may decrease in importance.
As links decrease in importance, Bing predicts search will evolve to become more driven by personalization and context.
Murray, in an interview conducted at the Bing HQ in Paddington, London states:
”We’re still not at the stage where links are going to go away, and so they will continue to be a factor that we look at.
“There’s good reason why links have served their purpose up until now and I think they will continue to do so.“
With links having “served their purpose up until now,” Murray goes on to explain where the future of search rankings may be headed.
From my understanding, what he’s saying is the data collected by search engines about their users is too valuable to ignore.
That data gives search engines a greater ability to personalize search results and better satisfy user queries.
It sounds like Bing is highly in favor of relying on personal information when deciding which results to deliver to which user at a particular time.
As we prepare for the possibility of a post-link future, it’s important not to lose sight of how valuable links currently are.
Don’t start devaluing the importance of link building just yet.
