Question

I just started using SEMrush to analyze backlinks for different businesses across various industries. To my surprise, most of their backlinks looked like low-quality junk — but they’re still ranking really well, especially with exact match anchor text. Network graph was also suspicious but still ranking really well.

I’m trying to follow good backlink practices, but an SEO manager I once spoke to told me, "Don’t worry about the backlinks — just get whatever you can get."

Now I’m stuck wondering… does backlink quality really matter as much as people say? Or is it more about volume and anchor text, even if the links are low-quality? Would love to hear what others think about this?

Thanks for your advice.