For many years, a key search engine optimization strategy was to garner as many backlinks as possible pointing to your content.

However, over time, unsavory SEO practices led search engines such as Google to penalize "unnatural links" and to increasingly turn to other signals to assess content quality.

Does that mean backlinking is now dead?

Not at all, according to a recent infographic (below) from DirJournal. The piece explores why link signals still matter for search rankings, what makes a link "good" according to Google's current quality guidelines, and how businesses can build better link profiles.