Link building is one of the most misunderstood (and misused) parts of SEO. Everyone agrees that backlinks matter, yet many sites still see flat or declining organic traffic despite actively building links.
In this article, I’ll break down how link building actually works in practice in 2026. Everything here is based on hands-on experience from building links across different markets. I work daily with companies that actively invest in link building, and the difference between what works and what doesn’t is usually not whether links are built, but how they’re built.
I presented this talk about link building in 2026 at the SEO Latvia Meetup #8, but I wanted to share my knowledge in article form as well.
The goal of link building
The goal of link building is sustainable sustainable organic growth, while we build links.
In successful cases, organic traffic increases steadily while new referring domains are linking to our site. In failing cases, the opposite might happen: referring domains increase, but organic traffic drops or stagnates.
Two sites can build links in the same niche, during the same time period, and still get completely different results. Why?
When link building goes wrong
A common failing pattern when link building doesn’t work can look like this:
- Only dofollow links
- Only exact-match anchor texts
- Links pointing only to the main money page
- No branded anchors
- Short, aggressive link bursts
This approach can work short-term. Rankings may increase for a few months. But it’s rarely sustainable.
In this case, everythign looked good in the beginning, organic traffic increased, but after a few months rankings dropped, even though links were still live and indexed.
Google didn’t “stop valuing links”. The link profile simply stopped looking natural.
A holistic link-building approach that works
Sites that see long-term growth tend to do the opposite:
- Multiple link types (editorial, homepage, content links)
- A natural anchor mix (branded, partial, generic, exact match)
- Links to different target pages (not just money pages)
- Consistent link velocity over time
- Brand mentions alongside links
This creates a link profile that looks organic, diversified, and trustworthy, which leads to stable and growing rankings.
Plan link building from your starting point
Every link-building strategy should start with context:
- Is the site new or established?
- How strong is the current domain authority?
- What pages need links and why?
Keyword and page mapping
Decide which keyword should rank on which page. Avoid linking with the same keyword to multiple pages on your site. This confuses Google and weakens ranking signals.
For your main target pages:
- Use a mix of exact-match and partial-match anchors
- Support them with branded and generic anchors
Budget and link velocity
One of the most common mistakes is poor pacing. Getting 10–20 links in one month and then nothing for the rest of the year looks unnatural.
A better approach:
- Spread link building over several months
- Keep velocity predictable and consistent
- Align link building with business goals and seasonality
Competitor analysis: understand what it takes to win
Before building links, analyse what already ranks.
Look at:
- How many referring domains top-ranking pages have
- What types of sites link to them
- Which pages receive links
- Anchor text patterns
The goal isn’t to copy competitors — it’s to understand the minimum level of authority required to compete, and then adapt it to your own site.
You can do this in Ahrefs, using their Link intersect tool, or just look at a competitor domain and its referring domains.
Why referring domains matter more than raw links
Getting multiple links from the same site is less valuable than acquiring links from new unique domains.
I prioritise:
- Unique referring domains
- Topical relevance
- Traffic-bearing sites
This creates broader authority signals and reduces dependency on individual publishers.
Relevance is non-negotiable
Relevance matters on three levels:
- The publisher domain
- The article topic
- The surrounding link context
If a site already ranks for keywords related to your niche, Google already sees it as relevant. That relevance transfers through links.
Authority metrics: use them carefully
Stronger domains usually pass stronger signals, but metrics can lie.
Always verify:
- Organic traffic trends
- Indexation
- Spam patterns
- Link neighbourhoods
Never rely blindly on domain rating (DR) or Domain authority (DA) alone.
Homepage links vs money-page links
Homepage links are among the safest links you can build:
- No anchor text risk
- No over-optimisation
- Strong domain-level authority boost
They distribute link equity naturally across the site.
Money-page links are powerful too, just don’t rely on them exclusively, and avoid exact-match overuse.
Anchor text strategy that scales
A healthy anchor profile usually includes:
- Branded anchors
- Partial branded anchors
- URLs
- Generic anchors
- Partial match anchors
- Exact match anchors
The stronger your domain, the more flexibility you have with exact matches. New sites should start brand-heavy.
How many links per article?
There’s no absolute rule, but a practical guideline:
- One main topic per article
- 1–3 backlinks to the target site
- Additional internal or external authority links for natural context
Natural articles rank better, and get indexed faster.
Dofollow, nofollow and sponsored links
Not all links pass PageRank, but all links can have value.
- Dofollow: pass direct link equity
- Nofollow: support trust, authority, and natural profiles
- Sponsored: often treated similarly to nofollow
A link profile with zero nofollow links looks unnatural.
Link building in the era of AI search
In AI-driven search environments, links play a role in AI-visbility.
- Nofollow links still matter
- Brand mentions matter
- Authority across many domains matters
Visibility isn’t just about PageRank anymore, it’s about overall authority signals.
Brand mentions are important for AI searches
The brands with the most brand mentions appeared most often in AI Overviews.
Branded anchor texts, brand search volume, and domain authority (DR) are also important.
Factors that correlate with brand appearance in AI Overviews
(Based on a study of ~75,000 brands. Source: Ahrefs Brand Radar & Ahrefs Site Explorer)
- Branded web mentions
- Branded anchors
- Branded search volume
- Domain Rating (DR)
- Number of referring domains
- Branded traffic
- Number of backlinks
- Ad traffic
- Ad cost
- URL Rating
- Number of site pages
High authority score helps visibility in AI search
Your site must first reach a certain level of authority before it can appear in AI-driven search results.
Getting links from multiple different domains is very important, not just the number of links from a single site.
Quality links matter.
Image links perform better than text links for LLMs
Image links show a stronger correlation with visibility in AI systems compared to traditional text links.
This applies across multiple AI platforms, including:
- ChatGPT
- Gemini
- Google AI
- Perplexity
- Search-GPT
Nofollow links matter for LLMs
It doesn’t matter whether links are nofollow or dofollow.
Both are important for visibility and ranking in AI-driven search.
AI mentions increase consistently across authority deciles for both follow and nofollow links, especially at higher authority levels.
Brand signals are increasingly important
Strong brands rank more easily.
Key signals include:
- Brand mentions (linked and unlinked)
- Branded searches
- Traffic from non-Google channels
When people search for your brand, Google learns that your site is worth showing.
Final checklist for sustainable link building
- Plan link building carefully
- Prioritise topical relevance
- Choose sites with real organic traffic
- Focus on unique referring domains
- Maintain a natural anchor mix
- Build links consistently over time
- Support links with brand mentions
Link building still works, when it’s done properly.
The difference between success and failure is rarely the budget. It’s the strategy behind it.
