SEO Content vs Backlinks – Your Questions Answered

What is more important in 2025 in SEO? Let´s deep dive into Content vs Backlinks.

Keeping on top of SEO trends, especially in 2025 is increasingly difficult but with all the talk of E-E-A-T we answer the question – SEO Content vs Backlinks – where should you focus your efforts?

The truth is that both content and backlinks play an important role in how search engines assess the credibility of your website and it´s the credibility of your site that determines how high it will rank in the search engine results page (SERP). But as we talk about in the history of SEO, the tables really have turned over recent years and in this guide we will not only tell you why content is king but we will show you with proof that although backlinks continue to play a vital role, for online search engine success in 2025 – your content is what says it all to both humans and in turn search engines.

E-E-A-T and the ever increasing role in SEO rankings

We talk more about E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) in other areas of the website but we will touch on it again to just put things into perspective. And yes, we will show you later on some real life examples of why we are so confident in the importance of this in SEO for 2025 and beyond.

The principles of E-E-A-T are basically that you show through the content of your site that you really know what you are talking about and that you can be trusted in what you say and do. We have said before that whilst some people worry that AI advances are dehumanising the world we live in, when it comes to websites the opposite is true. We are really seeing a shift back to the good old-fashioned principles of business.

If you do a good job, you please people and you are an expert then your business will be a success. The same applies with websites. AI can now see way beyond the words on a page but can interpret them and many other factors to really get an understanding of who is the best and who are just “blagging it” to the top. This is why we have seen, and will continue to see huge shifts in the trends of which websites rank in the all important top spots on google and, let´s not forget all of the other platforms and AI chat powered assistants that are taking am increasing share of the market.

How do I make search engines believe I am the best?

This is very simple to answer. Be the best! You can´t now just tweak the website to “play the game” and fit in with algorithms. You need to really be the best in your business and your website is the place that you can proudly showcase your knowledge, skills and abilities.

If you demonstrate in a way that real people will trust that you are the leader in your field or niche or area then in the same way that people will flock to your door, search engines will give you a boost in the rankings. And why is is to important for search engines to learn who is the best? Because in a world of AI, people ask questions. If you ask “hey Google, where can I get a great kebab nearby?” it´s the reputation of Google on the line if the response is not accurate and if it sends you to the worst place to eat in town!

If you are trusting an AI search engine or voice assistant then you need to learn to trust it and you will only do that if it gives you good answers that later show to be true, accurate and correct. If not? You will change to a different one.

And don´t worry – we will come on to the question of content vs backlinks further on but for now let´s expand on the area that is content and move on to some real life examples based upon tests that we conducted to make this point clear.

Real life Proof that Content is King – Case Study 1. Holistic SEO in London

As anyone who follows our blog will know, this website is in it´s infancy as a project although it is not a “startup founded on dreams”, we have 30 years of industry experience under our belts and so we like to think that we know what we are talking about. But, the proof of the pudding has to be in the eating. And why would YOU trust us or our opinion if we cannot show you results?

We offer our services all around the world and have dedicated SEO experts (particularly Holistic SEO experts), website developers and Digital Marketing professionals that we collaborate with everywhere so we are not really a “local SEO” company. Nevertheless we can, and do target specific areas as part of our own marketing plan (note here the transparency that we put into how we do business – really important to build trust).

So, our challenge – SEO Content vs Backlinks

The Strategy to the test – be fair but not too unrealistic for a brand new website!

Lets lay out the plan of action used to settle our SEO Content vs Backlinks burning question!

• Choose an area we specialise in. It has to be a niche keyword to stand a chance but it also has to be one that a lof of people search for. Holistic SEO was the obvious choice.

It´s worth pointing out that “Holistic SEO” is not just something we made up – It´s being spoken about as the approach to take in SEO by some of the most respected names in the industry so it´s a real buzz word despite still a fairly niche topic.

• Choose a part of the world where SEO is going to be highly competitive. Erm, how about London? The Business Capital of the World with some of the world´s leading SEO agencies operating out of London.
• Write a blog post about Holistic SEO and how we offer the service in London. Fill it with really good quality content, back this up with external links, correct structure, and follow the principles of Holistic SEO in exactly the way we preach them.
• Post it, submit it to Google and leave it on the back burner for a little while. No specific backlinks to the page, just let google and other AI tools have a little time to assess the value we add. Here´s the link: https://www.seoandwebsolutions.com/?s=London
• Wait a while

The Results – SEO Content vs Backlinks

After a quick jump in the very fist day to number one, we have fluctuated between number 1 and number 3 in the SERP. That is what I call a result – especially given the fact that it was achieved in a matter of days!

Now, this position will probably fluctuate some more, especially given the lack of ongoing specific work (or backlinks, which we will talk about soon, I promise) on the area but it just goes to show that you can rank top of the charts.

We tried again! This time for another random Town!

We didn´t want to push the subject too far but there is such as think as beginners luck so we thought we would write another quality article, this time about Holistic SEO in Lincoln. We followed our principles of E-E-A-T and posted the article. Now, whilst there are not many companies who specialise in the niche located in the City, there are a lot of global competitors who naturally, by the very nature of the role of SEO marketing, compete in every location. Wait for it – 5 days later – TOP SPOT! That´s what we call another result!

Case Study 2 – Non Local SEO

It´s all well and good to take a niche, refine a City (even if it is London) and make a point but what if we went one stage further? What if, in our quest to discover the answer the our question “content vs backlinks in SEO?” we took something with no geographic location.

Well, for a new website this had to be fair. As we are keen Mentors and Coaches of SEO, we checked the competition for something like “SEO Coach”. Impossible on a new site but if we throw in the word “holistic” to make the search term “holistic SEO mentor” there is still a pretty rough ride to get to the top of the SERP. Here´s what the statistics tell us:

We would need 16.3m backlinks and a domain score of 35. Hmmm we had a domain score of 9 and about 200 backlinks. Can we do it with just great quality content? Let´s find out!

We did it! We ranked again, number one, not only at national level for the UK but for the USA too. A real result thanks to the quality of the article we wrote about using a holistic SEO mentor (take a look!).

The Importance of Niches and Keyword Research

Well, you may think that we have proven that when it comes to whether backlinks are more important than content we have answered it but we should explore this a little deeper. We have to go into a little bit more detail about our little experiment. We did choose some quite niche (although still competitive) areas for out study. But if we were to remove, for example the word “holistic” then the situation would be a little different. Ranking for “SEO LONDON” is not for the faint hearted. It´s genuinely a massively competitive term and little old us would stand no chance.

But this takes us into another very important point that we have to address – Niches and Keyword Research!

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail – The importance of Keyword Reseach

It´s not, by any means cheating to target specific niches. There are hundreds of millions of searches being carried out on Google and on all of the other search engines and AI platforms and devices every single day. If we were to set up an SEO company and just go after ranking number one for SEO we would be fighting a loosing battle. Especially in SEO. Let´s be honest, every one of our competitors is (or should be) an expert in SERP ranking. So we really are in the most difficult sector on the planet to rank for.

But, this same thing applies to whatever sector you are in. Let´s say you sell Baby Clothes. This would also be an area where many people are searching but just like any business expert would tell you to identify your USP´s (unique selling points) when making your business plan, identifying your niches and specialities is vital for successful SEO.

One of the things that we do before anything else when we work with either an organic search client (SEO) or a paid digital marketing client (PPC/SEM) is analyse the keywords, the alternatives and look for what real people are searching for. We use advanced methods to do this but it´s something that you can do from the comfort of your own home. Whilst you may not want to pay for some of the more professional level tools, tools like Answerthepublic.com can be really useful. Likewise, just the google search page itself will tell you what else people are searching for (albeit without volume information).

By identifying niches that have less traffic and less competition you can boost your chance of ranking higher and this is a great place to start your SEO because once you get some pages ranking, even for the micro niches, they lead to potentially more site visitors, more trust in your domain and the potential for other pages to move up the rankings. Plus you can use the power of those pages that are ranking to link to other, more competitive pages and, whilst it´s not a miracle overnight, it all goes towards the recipe for a successful long term SEO plan. And talking of internal linking, this takes us nicely on to the next part of our investigation into content vs backlinks in SEO. Let´s dive in to the situation with backlinks.

Do Backlinks still count in SEO?

The short answer is yes but it comes with a caveat. Backlinks are a way of showing the search engines that your site has authority because backlinks are, by the very nature of them people talking about you within their own content and either recommending your business or using it to backup their own research and content. So, if real webmasters are using your content as a source of information or telling their loyal visitors to visit your site then they are putting their name to your business, product or service.

What has changed when it comes to Backlinks?

As we talk about in the history of SEO and in this article on Backlinks, times have changed. Historically, every backlink meant something. Do you remember as a kid having collections? Coins, cards, whatever it may be. The more you had, the more you outnumbered your friends the better. Backlinks used to be the same. Search engines didn´t really have the capabilities to determine quality and E-E-A-T as they do now (thanks to AI).

So, if you had 100 backlinks and your nearest competitor has 50, your site would probably rank higher. There has been more power placed in relevance and popularity of the referring site over recent years but now it´s much much more accurate with search engines really knowing when backlinks are natural and when they are being stuffed in by someone trying to jump the queue to the top!

How do I get good quality backlinks?

This is a very open ended question because there are a number of ways. If you work with an SEO expert like us we have a number of methods we can use. For example we have contacts with journalists, web creators, content writers (and so on) who often look for expert sources of information. These close contacts mean that we can propose in some cases your site and if they consider it valuable to them they may use it as a reference, or even write about you!

We can look for websites with broken backlinks. If someone has written an article about “best cakes in New York” and linked to a cake shop that is no longer there (and of course if our client is a cake shop in new york!) we can locate these links and make personal contact with the site owner to inform them that they have outdated invalid content which is not only bad for their website but also their users. We can suggest your cake shop as an alternative so they can refresh their content, help their rankings and pass on a link to our client. Clearly this depends if they want to but it is a natural way. There is no harm in asking.

Guest blogs are another tool we use – providing specialist content to websites which links to the site we are working on. There are many other tools in our box but the importance is on quality and not so much on quantity like it used to be.

To put that into context: One backlink from a website such as the BBC (as long as it`s not a negative news report!) is worth 100 or even 1000 from other less trusted websites. As experts in white hat SEO with a truly holistic approach we will explore the best methods on a case by case basis to align with the specifics of the client and of course their budget.

What the search engines look for is steady growth of natural backlinks that are genuine, contextual and high quality.

Conclusion. What is more important? Content or Backlinks?

In conclusion, both play a vital role. The fundamentals of your success are based on what YOU DO. What your website says about you, your expertise and the time you put in to make it a useful and user-friendly experience for your visitors. We cannot emphasis enough that without that base and without that up to date, high quality content that delivers what users want, you will not succeed in 2025 and beyond in the battle for search engine dominance.

Backlinks are like any other form of external validation (such as online reviews in your local business profile of GMB). They should be natural and serve to validate the authority that you have already proven you have.

So Content Vs Backlinks – The winner is? Build on your quality content, excellent user experience and genuine care for your customers, allow good feedback, backlinks and other online platforms to naturally recommend you or use your content as reference and if you do work to build backlinks (which is inevitably needed), ensure that they only serve to strengthen what you already have shown through your excellent content.

FAQ – Content, Backlinks or Both?

We have put together some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to the ongoing debate of content vs backlinks in SEO. As always, we welcome your questions and a chance to talk to you about your website and how we can help you so please feel very at ease in reaching out to us!