Introduction

We are living in an era where search engine optimisation is evolving faster than ever before.

It was once the case that if you strolled into most SEO agencies, you would find teams built around writing content, building links, and perhaps a social media team.

Which is all well and good, but now you have terms such as GEO, Google AI Overviews- then there’s the different AI platforms such as

Perplexity, Claude and ChatGPT that good marketers need to think about optimising for.

So, should marketing agencies and businesses be spending a ton of time building links in 2026- that’s the question on everyone’s lips?

Should they be AI-focused and ditch the link-building campaigns?

Well, this article looks at that very question.

 

A brief history of backlinks

If you’re pondering, why are they dedicating a whole long-form blog post to discussing backlinks?

The reason is that backlinks were the most important ranking factor in traditional, or organic, search engine optimisation. This has been the case since the Stone Age, well, since Google’s PageRank formula reigned supreme.

Links were often denoted as “vote of confidence” in a business, the strongest signal in Google’s algorithm. If you had powerful links, you could soar to the top of Google.

Backlinks matter; a website with a lot of good links, well, those businesses are destined for the top spots on Google. A business with hardly any backlinks at all, well, that website is likely to lack link equity or “link juice”, which means that it’s less authoritative.

If it’s less authoritative, it won’t rank as high.

 

Let’s get to the point: do backlinks still matter to SEO rankings in 2026?

We would have to answer that question with a resounding and big fat yes!

The reason is simple: a business needs quality backlinks to rank at the top of Google. Then you have to factor in Google AI Overviews as well.

To appear as a citation in Google AI Overviews the website needs to be authoritative, to achieve that you need a strong backlink profile.

The fact of the matter is that more people asking queries to Google are getting answers displayed in the AI Overviews.

This produces what we call a “zero click search,” which basically means the shopper’s answer is answered in the SERPs. No need to click on website to read for a few minutes to find an answer.

 

How does Google’s AI Overviews work?

Well, for Google to have used your business page and cited you in the Google AI Overviews as a citation, the page needed to be deemed authoritative.

Therefore, to meet this Google EEAT element in 2026, your business typically needs many backlinks.

 

Quality, relevance and in context

We have therefore established that backlinks matter, but how many do you need, and where should you get them from?

Our best advice would be to focus on building really, really and really good links in 2026. Don’t just build spam or even mediocre backlinks, they could cause link penalty issues (Google Penguin) later down the line.

Less is more

Don’t leap into action on a Monday morning and say, “fSI have 10 links to build this week, and every week after until I reach the top of Google.”

It doesn’t work like that, plus your backlink profile is going look like a mass of easily built links, which could look spammy, bit rubbish, and yes trigger an algorithmic penalty.

The solution, therefore, is to build less, but of better quality. You do this by offering your expertise, yet often for free.

Now, directors and marketing managers every time they think about giving away their companies expertise for free, they often let out a deep and prolonged sigh.

Because, well, it takes up time, and it’s giving something away with no promise or guarantee that you will get anything back.

However, you do have to have a little faith, but not just faith; check out your main competitors- what are they doing?

Are they blogging?

Are they adding videos explaining their services on YouTube?

Are they offering newsletters?

Well, yes, all of that is marketing; however, the really top SEO agencies acknowledge that if the work genuinely offers top-quality advice, it will be mentioned and discussed more online, which generates more links.

Whether that’s someone running their own say home improvement blog, on social media or in a forum it all counts, if the links are what we

SEO’s call “naturally built”.

AI and SEO

So, with different AI platforms, such as Perplexity, many leading SEO minds believe that Perplexity, in particular, likes to quote references from authoritative websites that have many links.

Therefore, there’s a bit of a general rule that’s emerging in SEO and GEO right now, that is, if you stand firm, that is, use the methods that worked in the past, such as good technical SEO, links and content, well, you will do well across GEO and SEO.

Therefore, the platforms may have new names, such as Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT, but it just stands to reason that if you use tried-and-tested methods of optimising content, this will be more visible on AI platforms as well.

 

Semantic web

There’s a lot of conversation that mere brand mentions are sometimes considered as good as a humble link.

Yet the true marketing professionals will often say, “Well, can’t you have both?”

Therefore, it’s always a good idea to see where your business is mentioned online; perhaps the page hasn’t linked to you. Therefore, to give the website a bit of an authority boost, write or call the website, as if a link could be placed in the article.

However, in terms of the semantic web, well, it’s true that if your business does get mentioned by a leading website, the semantic web,

Google’s Knowledge Graph, means that the algorithm acknowledges where your business is mentioned. Because it’s been mentioned on

Bloomberg News, well, this shows your business is a big deal!

 

Spam, rubbish and cutting corners

So, the same white hat principles apply.

It stands to reason that when Google can literally choose from a million and one answers on the web, well, why would it choose one where the

leading backlink profile looks like you built a ton of spammy links on a Saturday morning?
Well, that’s it, they wouldn’t, they’re likely to choose a business that has juicy links, links from the BBC, Financial Times, or The Guardian.

 

Don’t overly concentrate on building links.

Here’s the thing: to be cited by an AI platform or Google, you need really high-quality content marketing.

You have to, therefore, give the AI or Google a reason to mention your work.

 

Google EEAT + Good Quality Backlinks

We highly recommend that, for a business to have multiple pages ranking high on Google, it needs well-written content marketing. If the work is super helpful, then it will naturally accumulate a ton of backlinks.

For example, just thinking it through, if you answer a frequently asked question about your products or services, well, stop to think how many times that query is asked of Google every day.

It’s probably that if it has a high search volume, it’s asked millions of times every day of the week. Therefore, as more eyeballs read that work, a certain number of those readers will have their own websites, blogs, and mention you on LinkedIn, for example.

This all generates links.

 

How do I build these backlinks in 2026?

Well, the first part to note is that it’s not a piece of cake.

You have to think about it logically: why would a business, such as Bloomberg, Wales Online, or the FT, want to mention your business?

 

Well, here are some of the reasons:

– You employ a leading voice, an expert in that field
– You’ve published comprehensive and original research
– You’re seen as the “go-to” place for information in your business sector
– You’ve generated interest in your business, through say an award, for example

 

Digital PR

There are PR companies that will have you taking part in, say, a charity event, abseiling down a building on a cold Tuesday afternoon.

However, if this gets your business in the local news, it is sometimes why businesses do this work. It’s great to help charity; however, you can also generate some positive PR for your business, which can help drive more local backlinks.

 

Forget the vanity metrics.

We get it, various SEO tools can provide you with a ton of stats, which are sometimes vanity metrics. For example, you can keep tweaking and improving a website’s design until you turn blue in the face!

However, sometimes some businesses naturally have a high bounce rate. If you’re selling a generic set of bathroom taps, those taps might be sold by 100 other retailers. Naturally, shoppers will bounce around various business websites, trying find the best price.

Therefore, asking your eager team of digital marketing experts to focus on lowering the bounce rate that month might not be the best use of their time.

However, if you generate some positive PR, if you gain backlinks from a supplier’s website, if you gain backlinks from local plumbing firms that link back to you, well, that’s what can really move the needle at the end of the month.

 

Sock it to me, do backlinks still even matter

Yes, backlinks still matter in 2026- in fact, they now matter more than ever.

Businesses used to find it incredibly hard to gain top 3 positions in the organic SERPs- that’s still the case today.

However, just like thinking that is the fastest speed you can run on the treadmill, only to find that if the pace picks up, well, you can if you have run that bit faster.

That’s exactly what SEO companies all over the land now need to do: run that bit faster because of Google AI Overviews, resulting in zero clicks. You then have AI platforms nibbling at market share, so to earn those customers, well, it’s now harder than ever.

Therefore, a key component, as we touched on earlier, is Google EEAT- the aspect in relation to this article is authority.

And to build domain authority, well, whether it’s 1999 or 2026, you still need quality links. You need links from well-known, household brands. If you can’t get them, focus on quality links in your business sector.

Quality links matter in 2026. Just remember the advice we noted above: you can’t get links without offering some quality advice.

When you offer quality advice on frequently asked questions in your business sector, that’s when you can start popping up on Google for relevant answers. This is when you increase those organic traffic levels, that’s when you get more visitors, that’s when you get more people wanting to link to your business.

Come to the experts

If you would like a free quote then do call us.