6 SEO Experiments That Help Reveal How Google Works [Video]

“Test, test, test!” We hear it shouted from the virtual rooftops of X and LinkedIn. But if you’re focused on running a business, how often do you get a chance to test SEO fundamentals to their limits? Probably not that often—if at all.

In this article, I’ll share my favorite Ahrefs’ SEO experiments we’ve run over the years and what they show us about how Google really works.

Google recently downplayed the importance of links, but what happens if you disavow the links to certain pages on your website?

What was the experiment?

Patrick and the team ran an experiment that disavowed all external links to three of our blog’s most popular pages for a month. He wanted to see what the impact would be on our organic traffic.

What it tells us about Google

In our experiment, it appeared as though links still matter to Google, and disavowing links or removing them can negatively impact the performance of certain pages. …