Link building still works going into 2027, but the job has changed: earned links still help your Google rankings, and well-ranked pages are more likely to be retrieved for AI answers, while brand mentions across the web track much more closely than raw backlink counts with being named by ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. Earn both, and buy neither.
The short answer
- Link building is the work of earning links from other websites to yours, and it remains a core part of off-page SEO.
- Pages that search systems rank highly are more likely to be cited in AI answers, so links that help rankings can help indirectly. Each AI engine runs its own retrieval, so that is a tendency, not a guarantee.
- In Ahrefs’ study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions correlated far more strongly with AI visibility than backlinks did. That is correlation, not proof that mentions cause it.
- Buying links to pass ranking credit breaches Google’s spam policies. Inauthentic brand mentions are also a poor foundation for AI visibility; a disclosed advertisement is a different activity from manipulating search.
- The tactics that last are linkable content, digital PR, real relationships and people inside your business who are visible experts.
What is link building, and does it still matter in 2027?
Link building is the practice of earning hyperlinks from other websites to your own, so search engines find, trust and rank your pages. Link building still matters as you plan for 2027 because Google uses links to discover and weigh pages, and because AI answer engines tend to cite the pages their own searches rank near the top.
The evidence on the second point is strong. In AirOps’ analysis of 50,553 answers, the page in retrieval position 1 was cited 58.4% of the time against 14.2% at position 10 (AirOps, The Fan-Out Effect). Google says optimising for its generative AI features is still SEO (Google Search Central). Be careful with the leap, though. That retrieval position is the order of results the AI system’s own searches returned, not a Google ranking, and ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity each search differently. Links help AI visibility indirectly, by helping the pages those searches find. I have not seen good evidence of a link moving an AI citation directly.
Earned links outlast link campaigns. I learned that on this domain. Between 2015 and 2017 this site earned its links through guest pieces, expert quotes and profiles on web design and marketing sites such as HuffPost, A List Apart and Bruce Clay. By mid-2017 about 564 sites linked here, according to Ahrefs’ history. Years later, that work is still most of the site’s real authority. The referring-domain count has grown since 2025, but almost all of the growth is low-quality or spam links that add nothing. Volume was never the asset. Relevance was. For the basics of how links work, see my explainer on inbound and outbound links.
Do backlinks or brand mentions matter more for AI search?
Brand mentions tracked AI visibility more closely than backlink counts in Ahrefs’ December 2025 sample of 75,000 brands. It selected domains with a Domain Rating above 40 and a high-volume keyword, so this is evidence about that sample, not a forecast for a new Australian business. The study found association, not cause: established brands can earn mentions and AI visibility for the same underlying reasons.
| Signal | Correlation with AI visibility | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube mentions | About 0.71 to 0.74 (strong) | Video with your brand in titles, descriptions and transcripts is worth the effort |
| Branded web mentions | About 0.66 to 0.71 (strong) | Look for relevant, genuine coverage; the study does not establish a reward for each extra mention |
| Backlinks | About 0.2 to 0.3 (weak) | Links still help rankings, but a link count alone does not get you named |
Stop treating links and mentions as separate projects. A good piece of digital PR earns both. A journalist quotes you, names your company, and often links to the page with the data. What does not work is faking the mention. Google’s guide to generative AI features says inauthentic or bought mentions are not as helpful as they might seem.
What is the difference between link building and off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is everything you do away from your own website to build its reputation in search, and link building is one part of it. Off-page SEO also covers brand mentions, reviews, directory profiles, a Google Business Profile, digital PR, podcasts, video and community answers. Each one builds the familiarity that search engines and AI assistants rely on.
- Google Business Profile: verified, complete and kept current. For local visibility, Google considers relevance, distance and prominence. A profile does not replace a useful website or earned links.
- Reviews and directories that buyers use: in a small sample I tracked in October 2026 (14 prompts about Australian WordPress agencies, in Ahrefs Brand Radar), directories such as Clutch and GoodFirms and third-party “best of” lists carried most of the citations. Fourteen prompts is a signal, not a study. Choose quality profiles, not hundreds of thin listings.
- Digital PR: original data, a strong opinion or a useful tool, pitched to journalists who cover your field.
- Interviews, podcasts and expert quotes: each appearance names you, and many link to you.
- Video: YouTube led the most-cited domains in Ahrefs’ September 2026 US AI Overview sample. My guide to video SEO covers making videos findable. That domain-level result is not a promise for an individual channel.
- Guest contributions: still useful when the publication is relevant and the piece is genuinely good. Large-scale guest posting with keyword-rich anchor text is a link scheme.
What makes a blog post worth linking to?
A blog post is worth linking to when it gives other writers something they cannot get elsewhere: original data, a clear definition, a useful tool or template, or first-hand experience with specifics. Writers link to sources that make their own article stronger. Generic advice rewritten from the top ten results gives them no reason to link.
The five ingredients I look for before a post goes live:
- Something original. A number from your own work, a survey, a test you ran, or a mistake you made and what it cost.
- Quotable sentences. Definitions written as “X is …” and takeaways that make sense on their own. These are the lines other writers and AI answers lift.
- Sources linked inline. Writers trust a page that shows its evidence, and they are more likely to cite it.
- A topic others missed. Find the gap in the current results rather than writing the eleventh version of the same list.
- Clean links of your own. Descriptive anchor text, no links to spammy sites, and internal links to your related pages.
Two outreach tactics still earn links from good content. Broken link building means finding dead links on relevant sites with a crawler such as Screaming Frog or a backlink tool such as Ahrefs, then offering your page as a replacement. Competitor backlink research shows which sites already link to pages like yours. My content marketing playbook covers how to plan the content itself.
How can social media help with link building?
Social media helps link building indirectly. Links in social posts and profiles are usually nofollow and pass little ranking value themselves, but social media puts your content in front of the journalists, bloggers and editors who do link. Social media also builds the relationships that turn into interviews, guest pieces and brand mentions.
- Complete your profiles. Name, description and a link to your site on every profile you keep active, worded the same way everywhere.
- Follow and help the right people. Journalists, editors and creators in your field. Share their work and answer their questions before you ask for anything.
- Be a source. Journalists look for experts on social platforms. Share data and clear opinions so you are easy to quote.
- Use groups and communities properly. Answer questions fully in LinkedIn groups, Reddit or industry forums, and link only when your page genuinely adds to the answer.
- Skip clickbait. It gets shares, not links. Editors link to substance.
How can employees help build links and brand mentions?
Employees help build links and brand mentions by being visible experts in their own right. A developer who speaks at a meetup, a marketer quoted in trade press, or a founder on a podcast each puts the company’s name in new places. Employee advocacy works best when people know the strategy and share real expertise.
Most businesses never ask their team to help. A simple programme:
- Explain why mentions and links matter, in one short session. People help when they understand the goal.
- Agree one consistent company description for LinkedIn profiles, speaker bios and author pages.
- Match each person to the topics they know, and put them forward for interviews, panels and expert-quote requests.
- Ask event organisers and podcast hosts to name the person and the company, with a link where they can.
- Never script fake reviews or undisclosed posts. Disclosure protects the person and the brand.
Which link building tactics should you stop using?
Stop buying links for ranking credit, arranging excessive link exchanges, operating private blog networks and dropping promotional links into irrelevant directories or comments. Google’s spam policies cover these practices. Paid publicity can be legitimate when it is transparent and links are qualified appropriately. Neither a paid placement nor a manufactured mention should be sold as a guaranteed AI recommendation.
| Tactic | Status in 2026 | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Digital PR with original data | Works | Earns links and mentions from sites engines already trust |
| Broken link building | Works | Replaces a dead resource with a useful one |
| Relevant guest contributions | Works in moderation | Fine when the piece is good; a link scheme at scale with keyword anchors |
| Review and directory profiles buyers use | Works | Directories are frequently cited in AI answers for service searches |
| Paid links intended to pass ranking credit | Stop | Qualify legitimate paid links with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”; do not buy ranking credit |
| Excessive link exchanges and private blog networks | Stop | Link schemes; high penalty risk |
| Bought or fake brand mentions | Stop | Google says inauthentic mentions are not as helpful as they seem, and they risk your reputation |
| Blog comment and forum signature links | Stop | Usually nofollow or ugc, and often treated as spam |
If old link building has already caught up with a site, my guide on how to recover from a Google penalty covers the clean-up. At WP Creative we fix the technical side of search and work alongside link-building specialists rather than selling links, and I think every business should be wary of anyone who promises a fixed number of links a month.
What to do next
- Audit your backlink profile in Google Search Console or Ahrefs, and note which pages already earn links and why.
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile and the two or three review sites your buyers actually read.
- Publish one linkable asset this quarter: original data, a definition page or a free template.
- Pitch it to five journalists or creators you have helped first.
- Put two people from your team forward for a podcast, panel or expert quote.
- Track mentions as well as links. Then see where this fits in a wider SEO strategy for the AI search era, or book a free call with me and my team.
Frequently asked questions
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
No fixed number of backlinks guarantees a ranking. The number you need depends on how strong the pages already ranking for your keyword are, and on relevance more than volume. A few links from respected sites in your field usually beat hundreds from unrelated ones. Compare your page with the current top results in a tool such as Ahrefs before setting a target.
Are guest posts still worth doing?
Guest posts are worth doing when the publication is relevant, its readers are your buyers, and the piece is genuinely useful. Guest posting stops working when it becomes a volume game with keyword-rich anchor text, which Google’s spam policies name as a link scheme. Treat a guest post as exposure and a brand mention first, and a link second.
Do nofollow links help SEO?
Nofollow links can still help, though less directly than followed links. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc attributes as hints rather than strict rules. More importantly, a nofollow link from a respected site still sends visitors and still counts as a brand mention, and brand mentions correlate strongly with visibility in AI answers.
How long does link building take to show results?
There is no dependable deadline for a ranking lift from a new link. Discovery, recrawling, relevance and competing pages all matter, and some links produce no measurable ranking change. I would plan a quarterly programme and record useful coverage, referral visits and qualified enquiries alongside search visibility, rather than selling a fixed number of weeks to a result.
Should I buy backlinks?
You should not buy backlinks for ranking purposes. Google’s spam policies name buying or selling links that pass ranking credit as a link scheme, and penalties can take months to recover from. Paid placements are fine when they are marked with rel=”sponsored” and bought for exposure. Spend the budget on content and digital PR that earn links instead.
