Link Building – Strategy and Selective Link Buying

Link building in 2026 – what links do in Google and in AI answers

A link from a valuable page is still a signal to Google that someone independent vouches for your content, but Google is increasingly good at ignoring links obtained only to manipulate rankings. So what matters in a strategy is not the growth in link count, but whether links come from pages people read and that cover your industry.

With its December 2022 link spam update, Google announced that it uses SpamBrain to neutralise the impact of unnatural links, and that it can detect both sites buying links and sites used to sell them. Neutralised means the link simply stops counting, often with no notice in Search Console. That is the main reason I see link packages as a weak investment: even when they do no harm, they can easily do nothing.

The second shift concerns AI answers. In an analysis of 75,000 brands published in May 2025, Ahrefs looked at what correlates with a brand appearing in AI Overviews. Branded web mentions had the strongest correlation (0.664), followed by branded anchors (0.527) and branded search volume (0.392), while the number of backlinks came in at only 0.218. That is correlation, not proof of cause, but the direction matches what I see in practice: what counts is whether credible sources write about the brand, not the raw number of links.

Backlink profile and competitor gap analysis – how I do it

A backlink analysis should answer three questions: what you are missing compared with competitors, which of your pages need support and which links you can recover right away. I treat DR or DA as a way to sort data, because they are tool metrics, not Google's.

I always start with recovering links to dead URLs, because it needs no outreach and no placement budget. Especially after a structure change it can bring back value the site had already earned; I cover that scenario in more detail under SEO migration.

Link acquisition methods – a comparison and when I choose each

There is no single best method; the choice depends on whether you have something worth writing about, how much time you can give as an expert and how competitive the industry is. Most strategies combine two or three methods from the table below.

The criteria I use to vet a site before buying a placement are described on the technical SEO page, in the link building part. I write more about editorial work in the article on digital PR and brand mentions, and about how an expert can build recognition under their own name in the piece on expert personal brands.

Linkable assets – content that earns links without asking

A linkable asset is content others link to because it is a source for them: original data, a tool, a roundup or a test nobody else has done. It is the most durable form of link building, because one asset keeps earning links for months and is also cited by AI models looking for specific data.

Asset types that work best

• Original data and research: a customer survey, analysis of your own business data, public data combined in a new way. Journalists and bloggers need numbers they can quote.
• Calculators and simple tools: working out a cost, saving or parameter a customer looks for before buying.
• First-hand tests and comparisons: checking products, tools or methods with a documented methodology.
• Recurring reports and rankings: updated every year, so links come back with each edition.
• Glossaries and reference guides in niches that lack a reliable source in your language.

How I design an asset

1. I look for questions that journalists, guide writers and customers ask in the industry and that have no good, current answer with numbers.
2. I check what data the company has or can collect honestly, with a methodology that fits in two paragraphs.
3. I build the results page so the key numbers can be quoted in one sentence: a table, conclusions up front, a date and the method.
4. I plan distribution: a list of media and authors who have covered the topic, a short note for each and a version of the asset they can use without asking permission.
5. I set an update cycle, because data from three years ago stops being cited.

I work this way myself on an original study of Polish brands' visibility in AI, which I am preparing precisely to earn links and citations on the back of data. How to write such content so AI models can cite it easily is covered in the article on writing for AI citations.

Buying a placement step by step – how I do it honestly and sensibly

I buy placements when a site is worth it, but I treat a purchase as an advertising partnership with a specific publication, not as buying „SEO power”. So the process starts with the target page and the reader, and ends with link labelling and documentation.

1. Goal and target page. I decide which page the placement should support and why that site's readers would want to visit it.
2. Site list and vetting. I gather candidates from the gap analysis, industry editors and publisher offers, then check each against the same criteria. Most offers fail.
3. A topic for the site's readers. I propose a piece that is valuable in its own right for that publication's audience, where the link is a natural part of it, not the reason it exists.
4. Content and link. I write or edit the piece at expert level and place the link in the body, where the reader genuinely needs more information, with a natural anchor.
5. Labelling. I agree with the publisher how the piece is marked as sponsored and which link attribute is used. I discuss the labelling and its risk with you before buying.
6. Records and checks. Every placement goes into a register: URL, date, cost, anchor, target page, attribute. Each month I check that the link is still there and that the page carrying it is indexed.

What Google's policies say about paid links

Google's spam policies (updated August 2026) list, among link spam examples, buying and selling links that pass ranking credit, paid advertorials and guest posts with such links or optimised anchor text, and excessive link exchanges. The same policies explicitly allow paid links when they are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". The documentation on qualifying outbound links names sponsored as the preferred attribute for ads and paid placements, with nofollow still acceptable.

I say this openly because many placements are sold without any link labelling, and clients rarely know. A link marked as sponsored still brings referral traffic, a brand mention read by people and AI models, and recognition. If someone promises that bought links will „definitely pass authority” and never mentions Google's policies, they are not telling you the whole story.

Disclosure under the law, not only for Google

Whatever the link attribute, a paid article must be recognisable to readers as advertising. In Poland, where I work, the Press Law (Article 36(3)) requires ads to be labelled so that there is no doubt they are not editorial material, and the Act on Counteracting Unfair Market Practices (Article 7(11)) treats paid promotion in editorial content without clear disclosure as unfair in all circumstances. The same rule comes from the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, so it applies across the EU. That is why I only work with publishers who label sponsored content. This is not legal advice; if in doubt, ask a lawyer.

I also keep the site reputation abuse policy in mind. Google describes it as hosting third-party content on a site mainly to benefit from that site's ranking signals. So a placement has to be useful to that site's readers, not a piece meant to rank on its own thanks to someone else's domain.

Anchors and target pages – how I plan where links point

Anchor text should describe what the reader will find after clicking, not repeat the phrase you want to rank for. Google's link documentation recommends specific, concise link text that makes sense out of context and warns that stuffing keywords into anchors can be treated as a spam policy violation.

I choose target pages by where a link will do the most: sometimes a service or category page directly, more often a guide or report that naturally attracts links and passes equity on through internal links. That is why I prepare internal linking changes together with the link plan. How to build topic clusters that distribute that equity is covered in the article on topical authority.

Link building budget and pace – how I split the work each month

I split a link building budget between three kinds of work: building assets, contacting editors and, where it makes sense, buying placements, and the balance changes month to month. Ongoing work starts from €500 per month, and what that achieves depends mostly on how competitive your industry is.

The pace of new links should follow what actually happens in the company: data releases, events, new products. A sudden spike of dozens of links from unrelated sites is exactly the pattern spam systems are built to detect. The price of a single placement depends mainly on the site's traffic and standing, its topic, and whether the publisher or we write the piece; that is why I do not publish a fixed price list for placements and assess each offer separately.

Toxic links and the Disavow tool – when you really need them

Most sites do not need the disavow tool, because Google already ignores most low-quality links on its own. Search Console Help says to use it when you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links and have received a manual action for them, or expect one, for example because of paid links or other link schemes.

• A „toxic score” from SEO tools is not Google's assessment. I do not disavow links just because a tool flagged them red.
• Removal first, disavow second. Google recommends trying to get the links removed at the source first.
• A new file replaces the old one. Uploading a list overwrites the previous one, so I always work on the full file. It can hold up to 100,000 lines and 2 MB, and Google says changes can take a few weeks.
• Misuse does harm. Google warns that incorrect use can hurt the site's performance, so I only disavow domains I have no doubts about.

In practice I review the link profile for every new client, but prepare a disavow file only when there is a manual action in Search Console, or when the site clearly took part in link schemes in the past. If the problem is broader, I combine it with a technical SEO audit, because drops blamed on links often have technical causes.

Link building and visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews

For AI visibility, where and in what context your brand appears matters more than the link itself. So when choosing placements I also check whether the site is a source in AI answers for questions in your industry.

• Mentions without a followed link still count for brand recognition in AI models, so I do not reject a placement just because the link will be marked sponsored, or there will be none.
• Context matters: a brand named in a roundup, a comparison or alongside a specific specialism tells models which questions to associate it with.
• Consistent description: in placements I keep the same name, offer and specialism as on the site and in structured data.
• Sources cited by AI I check directly: I ask industry questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews and note which sites keep coming up.

If the main goal is presence in AI answers, I combine link building with the AI citation strategy service. How AI engines choose sources is covered in the article on being cited in ChatGPT and Perplexity, and building trust in the piece on E-E-A-T.

How I measure link building results and how to read the report

I measure link building on the target pages, not on domain metrics: whether their rankings, impressions and traffic grow, and whether placements send visitors. A higher DR is nice, but it is a tool's number, not Google's.

Warning signs in other providers' reports

• Links on pages that are not indexed in Google or get no traffic at all.
• The same set of sites for every client of the provider, whatever the industry.
• Links in footers, widgets or on pages with dozens of outbound links to unrelated companies.
• A report that shows only link count and DR, with no placement URLs, anchors or target pages.
• Links that vanish after a few months, or placements removed once the contract ends.

For the wider picture, including what still works in link building in 2026 and what no longer does, see my link building guide.