Every few months, a client asks us for a number: how many links does it take to rank for a given keyword? It’s a fair question, and also the wrong one — because two pages with the same link count can rank three positions apart depending on where those links actually came from.
Why link count alone is a poor predictor
Across 60 recent client campaigns, we found almost no correlation between raw link count and ranking position once we controlled for publisher relevance and traffic.
The practical takeaway
Ask less about the total number of links promised and more about the average relevance and traffic quality of the sites involved.