Do Links Still Matter for Rankings?

this month's SEO news! ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  Hi {NAME}, It's the most wonderful time of the year! Let’s dive into the newest happenings and most important SEO updates we’ve seen over the past month. Google redesigns local map pack After testing out a new layout for the local map pack for the past few months, Google has announced that the new changes will now be permanent. The new layout now features a larger map on the right that is easier for searchers to use. Below is a screenshot of what the new layout looks like. In a statement made to Search Engine Land in confirmation of the changes, Google said, "We’re constantly exploring ways to connect people with the helpful information that they’re seeking. "We’re currently rolling out an update to the Search interface on desktop so when people search for places or businesses nearby, like ‘parks near me’ or ‘restaurants near me,’ they’ll easily see local results on the left and a map on the right. We expect this to be broadly available over the coming weeks." Ahrefs conducts an unusual test to see if links still matter for ranking In a recent study Ahrefs disavowed all backlinks to 3 different blog posts for an entire month to see the impact it would have. They removed a total of 3,476 links and removed the disavow file a month later. Let’s see what they found. Below is a graph showing what happened to the traffic of the 3 blog posts after disavowing the links and restoring them. They saw an almost immediate loss of traffic when they disavowed all the links and began to see an increase in traffic again when the backlinks were restored. In short, backlinks definitely still matter. To read more about the study Ahrefs conducted, visit [their blog post here.]( Google is working on a new core web vitals metric This new metric is presumed to replace the First Input Delay (FID) metric. FID measures how fast a browser can respond to user interaction with a website. The issue with FID, as noted in a recent HTTPArchive Almanac article, was that typically CMSs score extremely high for FID: "FID is very good for most CMSs on desktop, with all platforms scoring a perfect 100%. Most CMSs also deliver a good mobile FID of over 90%, except Bitrix and Joomla with only 83% and 85% of origins having a good FID." The article continues, "The fact that almost all platforms manage to deliver a good FID, has recently raised questions about the strictness of this metric. The Chrome team recently published an article, which detailed the thoughts towards having a better responsiveness metric in the future." According to [this article]( the new metric currently under development is said to have the following goals for the new measurement: - Consider the responsiveness of all user inputs (not just the first one) - Capture each event’s full duration (not just the delay) - Group events together that occur as part of the same logical user interaction, and define that interaction’s latency as the max duration of all its events - Create an aggregate score for all interactions that occur on a page, throughout its full lifecycle To learn more, take a look at the article [here](. And that wraps up our SEO finds for this month. What did you think? Anything we missed? As always, reply and let us know your thoughts! Adam Steele COO Loganix, Inc.  Not a Loganix Pro Member? [Sign up and save]( 10% on all purchases and get access to our learning templates. Explore services, place and track orders and connect directly with your support specialists via the [Loganix Dashboard](. Not interested in this email? [Click here]( to let us know your email preferences or [unsubscribe](. Loganix Inc., 170-422 Richards Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2Z4, Canada