Is ink building still worth it, or has it become an outdated SEO strategy?
It is a relevant question to ask, with AI -powered answers and large language models everywhere. They are changing how individuals search, and it is easy to assume that backlinks are losing their power.
Here is the fact: While the machines of search are evolving, the signals of trust are not, which is why links are still one of the strongest trust signals out there.
What is Link Building?
It is the practice of earning links from other websites. These links act as a signal of trust and authority for search engines. They help the pages rank higher in search results. Quality matters more than quality and you need to imprint this in your mind when working with backlinks or link building.
A few high-quality links are more than enough than dozens of low-quality links.
Backlinks: Trust Signals
Even LLMs need ways to determine what is credible and what is noise. That is where backlinks shine because they have always functioned as a kind of vote. A relevant site linking to your page or content is essential to show where your reputation lies.
- Backlinks help retrieval systems prioritise which pages to surface. Backlinks are a fundamental component of search retrieval systems, acting as a crucial, evolving signal for ranking and indexing.
- They indirectly influence brands and voices and get cited in AI responses. Backlinks have an indirect but important role in building brand reputation and influencing AI-generated responses. AI models use data from search engines. These engines use backlink profiles to determine authority, trust, and relevance.
- Backlinks are essential to provide machine-readable discoverability signals.
These are the relevant reasons to use backlinks.
LLMs Do Not Rank Pages
Links were always a major ranking factor in traditional SEO. Google’s algorithm relied on them to measure authority, relevance and trustworthiness, right? This is still true, but some things have changed. Now, wth LLMs like ChatGPT and AI overviews generating full answers in search, it feels like there is no relevance of links anymore.
Understand that LLMs do not crawl the web on their own. They either:
- Pull from pre-trained data or
- Use real-time retrieval to access and summarise pages from a search engine.
In both of the above-mentioned cases, LLMs heavily rely on the content and context of high authority pages to generate their answers.
Link Building in the AI Era
This is digital PR if you have to be precise.
Link building in the AI era has shifted from manual, volume-based link acquisition to high-quality Digital PR and brand credibility, where earning links through expert commentary, original data, and reputable coverage drives AI-driven visibility. It is no longer just about backlink counts, but rather earning authoritative, topically relevant mentions that train AI models to trust a brand. Here are the key aspects of this Digital PR and Link building:
- AI models like ChatGPT and Google’s Search Generative Experience prioritise authoritative sources; high-quality backlinks are crucial to proving Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
- Creating unique studies, interactive tools, or data-driven content earns natural, high-value, and reputable links.
- Digital PR techniques, such as expert commentary, trend hijacking, and guest posting on reputable platforms, have replaced traditional, manual link-building efforts.
AI is primarily used to speed up the process by automating prospecting, analysing backlinks, and brainstorming content ideas, making the overall strategy faster and more efficient.
Is Link Building Still Relevant?
Yes, it is. Not just because it helps you rank higher, but also because:
- Links are still a signal authority to LLMs and search engines both.
- They help the content get discovered and retrieved.
- They increase the brand’s chances of being cited in AI-generated results.
It is more about visibility than ranking. The more visibility the brand has, the more likely it is to be cited. Link building now intersects with entity recognition, meaning how your brand is mentioned across the web matters just as much as the link itself.
Building genuine relationships and creating high-value content that others want to link to is the most sustainable strategy.
Do keep in mind, “A few links from authoritative, relevant sites are worth far more than hundreds of low-quality links.”
Go for “SEO Services” if you want to master the link building for your brand. Do look for a professional team who understand latest trends and needs of your brand so that they can put the products and services nicely in front of the audience.
