Clients ask me the same question almost every month: if ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews now write the answers, is it still worth learning how to get backlinks? Yes, but not the way most people did it ten years ago.
SEO is not dead. It changed. GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization) do not replace SEO, they sit on top of it. AI systems still need to find, trust and quote sources, and links and brand mentions remain some of the clearest public signals of trust. What no longer works is dumping links into directories, blog comments or cheap link packages.
Below you will find what still earns links in 2026, why the same work helps your brand show up in AI answers, and how to turn it into a repeatable plan. If you need a refresher on the basics first, start with my explainer on what a backlink is and how search engines read it.
Do backlinks still matter when AI writes the answers?
Short version: links are one important signal among many, not a magic button that puts you in first place.
Google says so openly. In its guide to ranking systems, Google explains that it uses link analysis systems to understand what pages are about, and that PageRank, which Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed at Stanford in 1996, has evolved a lot but continues to be part of the core ranking systems. Nobody outside Google knows the exact weight of links today.
AI search builds on the same foundation. The Google documentation on AI features and your website states that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page only has to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Google also describes query fan-out, where the system runs multiple related searches across subtopics and shows a wider range of supporting links. Solid technical SEO for AI search is the entry ticket, links and reputation decide who gets picked.
Why brand mentions matter for AI answers
Research points to a clear shift. In a 2025 study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that branded web mentions correlated with AI Overview visibility at 0.664, while the raw number of backlinks correlated at only 0.218. Correlation is not causation, but the direction is clear: being talked about matters more for AI visibility than stacking link counts. More on this in my article on how brand mentions turn into AI citations.
Academic work points the same way. The GEO paper by researchers from Princeton and other institutions, presented at KDD 2024, found that adding statistics, quotations and cited sources to content improved visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40 percent, while keyword stuffing did not help. The same data and expert quotes that make content quotable for AI also make journalists want to link to it.
What a good backlink looks like in 2026
The more the better stopped working years ago. One editorial link from a trusted site in your industry can outweigh dozens of links from pages that exist only to sell links.
A backlink worth chasing usually has these traits:
- Relevance. The linking site covers your topic or serves your audience. A link to a building supplies store from a baking blog helps nobody.
- Editorial choice. Someone decided to link because your page adds value, not because you paid or forced it.
- Real audience. The page gets visitors, so the link sends traffic, not only signals.
- Natural anchor text. Brand names, URLs and descriptive phrases, not the same exact-match keyword repeated everywhere. My guide to anchor text for SEO explains the safe mix.
A note on link attributes. On September 10, 2019, Google introduced rel=sponsored and rel=ugc next to the older nofollow, and from March 1, 2020 it has treated nofollow as a hint rather than a strict directive for crawling and indexing. Nofollow links from social networks, forums or big media are not worthless, they send people and create mentions. Just do not build your whole strategy on them.
White hat tactics that earn links and AI mentions
These are the methods I recommend to businesses in the EU and the US. Each one gives someone a real reason to reference you.
Digital PR with original data
Journalists need numbers. Run a customer survey, analyze anonymized order data or track a market trend over time. Publish the results with a clear methodology, a few charts and quotable key findings, then pitch them to trade media and newsletters in your niche. One solid data study can collect links for years.
Expert quotes for journalists
Reporters constantly look for expert commentary. Follow journalists in your industry, watch request platforms and answer fast with a short, specific quote and your credentials. Published quotes carry your name and company, often a link, and build exactly the reputation that AI answers draw on.
Linkable assets people actually use
The best links are the ones you do not have to ask for. Build resources people bookmark and cite: calculators, templates, checklists, in-depth comparisons or case studies with real numbers. If you build a tool on WordPress with AI-assisted code, review it before launch, as I explain in my guide to secure AI coding for WordPress and WooCommerce. A leaky calculator is not a link magnet, it is a liability.
Partner, supplier and customer links
Do you work with manufacturers, distributors, software vendors or long-term clients? Ask whether they have a partner, reseller or case study page where you could appear. These links often end up in footers across many pages, so read my article on sitewide links before you ask for one. One important limit: Google lists requiring a link as part of a contract or terms of service as link spam, so ask, do not demand.
Unlinked brand mentions
People often mention your company, product or founder without linking. Set up alerts for your brand and key people, then kindly ask the author to add a link where it helps the reader. The success rate is high because the author already chose to write about you, and unconverted mentions still help your AI visibility.
Broken link building
The web decays quickly. A 2024 Pew Research Center study on digital decay found that 38 percent of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible, and 23 percent of news webpages contained at least one broken link. Find broken outbound links on relevant sites, offer a page of yours that covers the same need, and let the owner know. You fix their problem and earn a link.
Podcasts, webinars and interviews
Podcast hosts need guests every week. Pitch a specific topic you know from practice. Show notes usually link to the guest website, and transcripts create mentions that AI systems can read.
Industry associations, chambers and local organizations
Member directories of trade associations, chambers of commerce, universities and event organizers are trusted and hard for competitors to fake. Speaking at a conference or sponsoring a meetup often comes with a profile page and a link. A paid sponsorship link should be marked as sponsored, which is fine because the real value is visibility.
Guest posts written for readers
A good guest article on a relevant site brings an audience and credibility. Keep it editorial: pitch sites you actually read and use natural anchors. Mass guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchors are exactly what Google names as link spam.
Link exchanges, your own sites and social profiles
A link between two related sites that genuinely helps their visitors is fine. Excessive exchanges and partner pages built only for cross-linking are not. Linking from your own blog to your main business is natural, a network of thin sites is not. Social profiles on YouTube or LinkedIn rarely pass ranking value, but they distribute content and build awareness.
Tactics compared: effort, link quality and AI visibility
Use this table to decide where to start. The ratings are my practical estimate, not a universal score.
| Tactic | Effort | Typical link quality | AI visibility impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital PR with original data | High | Very high | Very high |
| Expert quotes for journalists | Medium | High | High |
| Linkable assets and tools | High | High | High |
| Partner and supplier links | Low | Medium to high | Medium |
| Unlinked brand mentions | Low | Medium to high | High |
| Broken link building | Medium | Medium | Low to medium |
| Podcasts and interviews | Medium | Medium | Medium to high |
| Associations and local organizations | Low | Medium to high | Medium |
| Editorial guest posts | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Social profiles | Low | Low (mostly nofollow) | Medium |
What about buying links?
According to the Google spam policies, buying or selling links for ranking purposes is link spam, and that includes exchanging money, goods or services for links. Sending a free product in exchange for a followed link falls in the same bucket. Paid placements are allowed when the link is qualified with rel=sponsored or nofollow. Google also runs spam detection systems such as SpamBrain, so disguised paid links are a risky bet.
There is a legal layer as well:
- United States. The FTC Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, updated in 2023, require that a material connection between an endorser and a seller, such as payment or free products, is disclosed clearly and conspicuously.
- European Union. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive lists advertorials, meaning paid editorial content that does not make the payment clear, among practices considered unfair in all circumstances.
So if you pay for a sponsored article, treat it as advertising: label it, use rel=sponsored and judge it by audience and brand exposure.
Avoid these red flags completely:
- bulk link packages from marketplaces with hundreds of links for a few dollars,
- submissions to hundreds of low-quality directories and bookmark sites,
- links from sites that have nothing to do with your business,
- automated link building with bots or software,
- keyword-rich links hidden in widgets or spread across footers of unrelated sites,
- anything that only makes sense for a search engine and never for a human.
If you inherited a messy profile, do not panic. Google says in its disavow tool guidance that most sites do not need the tool and it should be used only when there is a considerable number of spammy links that caused, or likely will cause, a manual action.
How to build a backlink plan that also feeds AI visibility
This is the process I follow with clients. It takes a few hours to set up, then runs as a monthly routine.
1. Audit your current links and mentions
Export the Links report from Google Search Console plus data from one backlink tool, then search for brand mentions without links. Note which pages attract links naturally, it shows what the market already values.
2. Study competitor gaps
Find who links to your top three competitors but not to you. Do not copy blindly, look for patterns such as trade media, associations or resource lists that fit your business too.
3. Pick one linkable asset per quarter
Choose one data study, tool or guide your industry is missing. One strong asset per quarter beats twelve average blog posts. Make it easy to quote, with clear numbers and sources, as I describe in my guide on how to write content AI systems cite.
4. Build a target list of people, not domains
List journalists, editors, podcast hosts and partners who cover your topic. Relationships earn more links than any template email.
5. Pitch with a clear reason to link
Every outreach message should answer one question: why would their readers benefit? Offer a data point, a quote or a fix for a broken link. Keep it short and personal.
6. Make the landing page ready for links and AI
Make sure the target page is indexed, fast and connected to the rest of your site through smart internal linking, so the authority from new links flows to your key pages. If Google takes too long to pick up new pages, compare the options in my overview of the best Google indexing tools.
7. Measure links, mentions and AI citations
Track new referring domains, brand mentions, referral traffic and whether AI assistants cite you for your core questions. Treat link building as part of a broader AEO strategy to get recommended by AI, not as an isolated SEO task.
Good backlinks make sense to people first
A good backlink should not exist only to influence an algorithm. If a real person clicks it and lands on something useful, the link has natural value and survives every update. SEO is not about shortcuts. It is about trust, authority and consistent work, and in the age of AI search that work pays off twice: in rankings and in answers.
At WooAcademy I help companies across the EU and the US build link and brand visibility that holds up in classic search and AI answers. I work remotely, and a good starting point is an AI search visibility audit or a technical SEO audit that shows where your authority gaps are.
FAQ
How do I get backlinks for a new website?
Start with links from real relationships: suppliers, partners, customers, industry associations and local business organizations. Then publish one genuinely useful resource, such as a data study, calculator or detailed guide, and pitch it to relevant bloggers and trade media. A new site rarely earns links by accident, so give the process at least a few months.
Do backlinks help you appear in AI Overviews and ChatGPT answers?
Indirectly, yes. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode have no special requirements beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet, so the signals that help pages rank, links included, help them get selected. Research also shows that brand mentions correlate strongly with AI visibility, so aim for a brand that trusted sources talk about, not only for links.
Are nofollow backlinks worthless?
No. Google now treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict rule, and nofollow links from media or forums still bring visitors and mentions that AI systems can pick up. A natural profile always contains a mix of followed and nofollow links.
Is buying backlinks illegal or against Google rules?
Buying links that pass ranking credit violates the Google spam policies and can lead to lost rankings or a manual action. Sponsored content is fine if it is labeled as advertising and the links use rel=sponsored or nofollow. In the US the FTC expects paid endorsements to be disclosed clearly, and in the EU undisclosed paid editorial content is an unfair commercial practice.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
There is no fixed number. It depends on how competitive the query is, how strong the ranking pages are and how well your content matches the search intent. Check the referring domains of the top results for your keyword to get a realistic benchmark, and focus on relevant, trusted domains rather than raw counts.
How long does it take for new backlinks to have an effect?
Google first needs to crawl the linking page, which can take days or weeks. The ranking impact usually shows gradually over several weeks to months. Be careful with tools that promise to force indexing of your backlinks overnight, and read how guaranteed indexing tools really work before paying for one.
