SourceBacklinko
PublishedJanuary 20, 2016
TypeCorrelation study (historic)
Sample11.8 million Google search results (data from Ahrefs, Clearscope and Alexa)
The short version: Cover the topic thoroughly rather than chasing a word count or exact-match keywords.
What they studied
Backlinko compared pages ranking in different positions to see which measurable features went with higher rankings.
Key findings
- The top result had about 3.8 times more backlinks than results in positions 2 to 10, and about 3 times more referring domains.
- Site-wide authority correlated with rankings more strongly than page-level authority.
- Word count showed no direct relationship with rankings (first-page results averaged 1,447 words).
- Exact keyword use in the title tag showed almost no correlation with ranking on page one.
- Higher content grades (topic coverage) went with better rankings.
Key learnings
- Cover the topic thoroughly rather than chasing a word count or exact-match keywords.
- Links, and especially links to the site as a whole, still separate the top results.
Things to keep in mind
- The data is from 2016, before many Google updates, AI Overviews and the shift to mobile-first indexing. Treat it as history.
- Correlation only: the article itself says it cannot tell why the relationships exist.
- Page speed was measured per domain, not per page. Backlinko is now owned by Semrush.
Read it alongside
- 96.55% of pages get no traffic from Google (Ahrefs, 2023)
- The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (Stanford University, WWW7 conference, 1998)
Source
Correlation study (historic) by Brian Dean, published by Backlinko, January 20, 2016.
We read the source and checked every figure on this page against it on October 13, 2026. Summaries and learnings are ours. Spotted an error? Tell us.
More research like this in SEO Insights Central.
More research
Links and authorityThe Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
PageRank scores a page by the scores of the pages linking to it, with each linking page's score shared across its outgoing links. Our summary of what it found, what to do about it, and what to keep in mind.
Links and authority96.55% of pages get no traffic from Google
96.55% of pages got no traffic from Google, and 1.94% got between one and ten visits a month. Our summary of what it found, what to do about it, and what to keep in mind.