Does link-building for AI SEO actually matter, or are backlinks soon to become a thing of the past?
As we’ll explore in this article, backlinks remain extremely important for both AI search and classic search.
Why is that?
It’s because AI search tools NEED major search engines like Google and Bing in order to deliver relevant online content to users.
In particular, LLM-powered AI tools require (indirect) access to Google and Bing’s indexes.
AI tools like ChatGPT cannot access online content that hasn’t been indexed, and they don’t have the capability (or resources) to crawl the internet themselves.
At the same time, backlinks are one of the most important factors that influence traditional search rankings.
In other words, high-quality backlinks signal trust, quality, and authoritativeness to search engine algorithms.
Over the years, top-tier content with strong backlinks has established an online influence ecosystem.
AI search tools do not replace this ecosystem; they amplify it.
The content that AI tools summarize still depends on backlinks, search rankings, and brand reputation.
Keep reading to learn more about how backlinks power the AI SEO funnel!
How LLMs Value Links Differently
There are certain independent factors that affect LLM visibility, such as brand mentions on authoritative online publications (think Forbes, G2, TechCrunch, BuzzSumo, etc.).
In fact, brand mentions will improve your AI visibility whether they include a link or not.
This is what has led some marketers to decree that backlinks no longer matter for AI search.
Yet, as we’ve already mentioned, backlinks and search rankings indirectly impact AI SEO.
Therefore, why not achieve the best of both worlds by targeting linked brand mentions on high-authority websites?
Doing so will create a compounding effect.
Here’s how it works:
- High-quality backlinks mean better search rankings.
- Higher search rankings improve your visibility to AI search tools.
- Top-tier brand mentions help with entity recognition and signal trust to LLMs.
- Combining all of these factors equals more AI citations, summaries, and traffic.
That’s why it’s still worth targeting linked brand mentions instead of settling for unlinked mentions.
It doesn’t matter how many links you have
In regard to how LLMs value backlinks, quantity is not a consideration.
On Google and Bing, the number of backlinks a website has impacts its search rankings.
While quality backlinks outweigh quantity on search engines, there are plenty of instances where websites need more backlinks to catch up with the competition.
As such, building up lots of average backlinks can positively impact a website’s search rankings on Google.
That’s not the case for LLM-powered search tools like Perplexity and Claude.
Instead, the context and source of a backlink are what matter most to LLMs.
What Types of Links Influence AI? Positive Context and High-Quality Sources
Let’s start by analyzing context, which is the ‘why’ behind a backlink.
Why is another website linking to yours?
Are they giving you a glowing recommendation, citing you as a helpful resource, or covering a news story related to your brand?
LLMs will be able to infer the context behind a backlink, and things like brand recommendations and resource citations carry the most clout.
A raw ‘dofollow’ link from a random blog that appears out of nowhere won’t matter to AI search tools at all.
That means you need to build purposeful backlinks if you want LLMs to notice.
Source-wise, your backlinks must come from authoritative websites like:
- Editorial giants like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia, and Business Insider. These types of backlinks are the gold standard for establishing your website’s authority and trustworthiness on LLMs AND search engines. Digital PR is your ticket to premium editorial backlinks.
- Niche topic authorities like Semrush for SEO (like our backlink pictured above) or Harvard Business Review for business management. AI tools also value niche-specific expertise, so try to build backlinks from trusted publications in your industry.
- Trusted online community forums like Reddit and Quora. These let LLMs know that the public is talking about you. These can improve your visibility on AI search tools, as long as they’re positive (i.e., Redditors sharing positive experiences with your brand).
- Government and educational institutions with top-level domains (TLDs) like .gov, .org, and .edu. These types of websites will always signal trust to LLMs and search algorithms because of their innate credibility. Backlinks and mentions from these types of sites are especially effective if you operate in health, finance, or education.
Backlinks from these types of sites will improve your visibility on AI search tools and traditional search engines, so they’re definitely still worth pursuing.
| Want to build the types of links AI wants to see? Our Digital PR service is your ticket to premium editorial backlinks! |
How to Build Backlinks That Support the AI SEO Funnel
Next, let’s learn how to start building backlinks that will improve your AI SEO (and regular SEO).
That will help ensure your brand doesn’t get left behind during the transition to AI search (71.5% of users already report using AI platforms to search the internet).
We’ve already established which types of backlinks matter most for AI SEO, but what are some effective techniques for building them?
Let’s find out!
Establish topical relevance and authority
First, your content needs to be topically relevant to attract attention from LLMs.
That’s because, thanks to advanced natural language processing (NLP), AI search tools can understand the full meaning behind user prompts.
As a result, LLMs do not rely on exact match or partial match keywords like search engine algorithms do.
Instead of matching queries with keywords, AI tools use semantic clustering to group together a bunch of related terms and phrases.
That means topically relevant content is more important than keyword usage.
Also, topical authority matters big time in AI search.
Consistently covering relevant topics will help LLMs associate your brand with your niche. Creating content clusters is a great strategy for this, and you can check out our in-depth guide on content clustering to learn more.
In terms of backlinks, you should only build links on topically relevant websites.
Even if a domain has a sky-high authority score, you should avoid building a link from it if it’s not related to your content.
AI tools will simply ignore irrelevant backlinks, and search algorithms do too, so stick to building links from sites in your industry!
Use branded and descriptive anchor text
Research by Ahrefs found that branded mentions are one of the most important signals LLMs consider when pulling information online.
Going by that logic, it would make sense that you’d want to use branded anchor text for your backlinks.
However, you shouldn’t go too crazy.
Just like with search engine algorithms, overoptimizing your anchor text for LLMs isn’t a good thing. Just like with regular SEO, you should diversify your anchor text to avoid seeming spammy.
Descriptive anchors also work well, especially since LLMs appreciate semantic richness. For instance, if you’re in the digital marketing niche, anchor text like ‘check out our link-building guide’ will suffice.
LLMs will pick up on the semantic connection between the anchor text and your brand, and you’ll avoid spamming branded anchors and exact-match keywords.
Add link insertions to evergreen content
Lastly, you should target trusted websites in your field for link insertions. In particular, try to find evergreen content that won’t be outdated in a few months.
This ensures that the backlink will continue to remain relevant and valuable for a very long time.
You should stick with trusted publications because they’ve already built topical authority online. As a result, earning a link from them will positively impact your AI search visibility.
At the same time, link insertions take effect faster than other types of backlinks since the content already appears in Google’s index.
Tracking AI Outcomes from Link Campaigns
Before we wrap up, you need some ways to monitor your progress on LLM-powered search tools.
AI tools like ChatGPT do not disclose user queries or automated replies, so data gathering is still a bit tricky.
At the moment, the best way to monitor your progress is to run test prompts on popular AI search tools.
After you’ve built your backlinks (and given them time to take effect), start typing relevant prompts into tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT and see what comes up.
Do they recognize you as a brand in your industry?
Are you appearing as a recommended brand in AI Overviews and summaries?
If the answer is no, it means you need to rethink your strategy.
Reasons why you aren’t seeing results include:
- Targeting prompts in a high-authority space (i.e., AI summaries are dominated by high-authority sites like Wikipedia and Mayo Clinic). Look for prompts that aren’t overrun with legacy websites.
- Lack of semantic HTML and schema markup.
- Poor traditional SEO performance.
Ideally, your content should be optimized for AI search and already rank well on search engines like Google and Bing. If your SEO isn’t doing too hot, you should get it in order first before targeting AI search tools.
Final Takeaways: Link-Building for AI SEO
Backlinks still matter in AI search, just in a different way than traditional SEO.
Since backlinks help shape the influence ecosystem that LLMs tap into, they also impact AI search visibility.
Do you need help developing the right AI search strategy for your brand?
Book a free strategy session with our team to discover the perfect strategy for your needs!
