How Relevant is Link Building in 2025?

Link building, historically, has been a pillar of traditional SEO. Strategies and link building’s overall importance in a brand’s SEO calculus, however, have changed over the years. Many marketers have not been paying close enough to these changes. And now, with search behavior morphing into answer experiences—and influenced by AI platforms—the relevance of link building is once again worth looking at.

The question isn’t just “which link tactics still work for SEO?” Rather, the question is: what role do links still play in search—and how should your strategy adapt?

Here’s the TLDR answer: for traditional SEO, links still matter. But they matter less as raw ranking power and more as evidence that your content is credible. Google has publicly down-weighted link importance, while simultaneously reassuring us that the same SEO best practices carry into its AI features. This seeming contradiction is proof that the web in 2025, in the words of Walt Whitman, “contain multitudes.”

Links offer trust and proof. Within AI platforms the reliance on links is less direct. Rather than traditional link building, AI platforms establish your content’s credibility, often, by cross-referencing citations to your brand and its content, across multiple places on the web.

What’s Changed?

Links have been de-emphasized in traditional SEO. Link volume has consistently been declining as a ranking factor for Google, which now assesses value based more on the authority and relevance of links, rather than the number. In 2023, for instance, Google’s Gary Illyes said that links are no longer a “top-3” ranking factor and that the systems need very few links to rank pages.

Stronger policy enforcement. The March 2024 Google core update added explicit spam policies against expired-domain abuse, scaled content abuse, and “Parasite SEO”. And if you don’t know what those practices are, don’t worry. Just understand that they’re outdated link building practices which are now subject to penalty.

Helpful content moved into core. Google folded the “helpful content” system into its core ranking systems, making overall usefulness—not link counts—the center of gravity. “Helpful content,” for the uninitiated, simply refers to content created to provide information and knowledge, rather than content specifically created to drive search traffic. For practical guidance, see Google’s helpful content guide.

AI surfaces change where value shows up. Google says traditional SEO best practices still apply to AI Overviews/AI Mode. Meanwhile, independent analysis suggests clicks can drop when an overview answers the query directly. Google, of course, frames the potential surfacing of a brand’s answer as a search opportunity. Both conditions can be true, which is exactly why brand presence and credible citations matter. For ongoing context, browse our AI Search posts.

What links actually do now (SEO + AI)

Discovery & structure (internal linking). Internal links are the cheapest, highest-leverage link building opportunity you have. User journeys which are defined by clear site navigation and descriptive anchors to related content help Google understand your site’s topics and find the right pages. These factors are useful for ranking and for being relied on in AI answers. If a page isn’t clearly connected, it’s invisible. See the SEO Starter Guide for examples.

Provenance & credibility (editorial links). A small number of relevant, on-topic links from credible publications and associations act as corroboration: “this entity is trusted on this topic.” That won’t magically outrank poor content, but it strengthens your case in both SERPs and answer experiences that choose which sources to cite. (Google doesn’t publish a formula here; treat this as a working theory aligned with their guidance that standard SEO best practices apply to AI features.) Additionally, outside the Google universe, editorial links might be even more important for searches within AI platforms. These platforms often lean more heavily on third-party verification in the form of citations.

Compliance signals. If a link is paid/sponsored or user-generated, qualify it using rel=”sponsored” or rel=”ugc”; multiple rel values are allowed. This keeps your graph clean and reduces risk.

Practices to retire

Skip tactics designed to borrow or fake authority: expired-domain “authority passes,” scaled AI guest posts for links, and third-party/parasite placements that ride on someone else’s domain strength. (And, once again, your ignorance of what these practices are should reassure you that don’t need to worry about crossing the line here…) These now sit squarely inside Google’s spam-policy enforcement and are more likely to burn brand reputation than help rankings.

What works now

1) Fix information architecture and internal links first.
Build topic hubs and pillar pages; use descriptive anchors; prune orphan urls. These activities improve crawlability and topical clarity—often a bigger win than chasing net-new backlinks. See the SEO Starter Guide. If you need help, explore our SEO & GEO services.

2) Earned coverage > “built links.”
Create quotable assets people want to cite: original mini-studies, benchmarks, checklists, comparison tables, and properly marked-up FAQs. These formats are clean, scannable, and easy to reference in both articles and AI answers. Google’s guidance is consistent: the fundamentals that help classic SEO also help its AI features.

3) Vertical, entity-aware citations.
Target the sources and directories your buyers and algorithms already trust. Examples:

• Legal: Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, credible news/editorial.
• AEC/Engineering: ENR, standards bodies, reputable trade journals, manufacturer case studies.
• B2B services: Analyst notes, conference decks, and Clutch/UpCity (complete and accurate profiles).

These aren’t “whitelisted” by Google; they’re where subject-matter credibility lives for humans, which tends to echo in AI references.

4) Sponsorships & directories.
Keep them for brand/PR, not ranking fuel. If you pay, be explicit—rel=”sponsored” (often alongside nofollow); for community/UGC placements, use rel=”ugc”. This preserves the integrity of your link graph.

5) Content that’s obviously helpful.
Content which actually answers user queries and provides unique insights is now baked into Google’s core. No number of links will prove helpful for useless, spammy content. See Creating helpful content.

Old link tactics vs. 2025 evidence builders

Old play (skip)	2025 play (do)
Buying posts on generic blogs	Earning a short quote or stat in a real trade publication
Chasing 100 low-quality backlinks	Shipping one small dataset + one chart editors want to cite
Guest-post networks at scale	One association webinar with slides + transcript
Over-optimized anchors everywhere	Natural, descriptive anchors from relevant internal pages
Hiding sponsorships	Disclosing with rel="sponsored" / rel="ugc"

Takeaways

In 2025, link building is evidence, not alchemy. Google has de-weighted link quantity and tightened anti-abuse policies (see the March 2024 announcement), while telling us the same SEO fundamentals apply to AI Overviews/AI Mode. Your best move is to perfect internal architecture and earn a small number of precise, editorial citations from credible sources—cleanly disclosed if paid. That’s the kind of signal that travels across blue links, featured results, and AI answers. For context on the link de-emphasis, see coverage here.

If you’ve got more questions about your current link building strategy or other digital marketing questions, don’t be shy about scheduling a 15 minute free meeting with me.

FAQ

1) Are links still a ranking factor in 2025?

Yes—just less than they used to be. Treat links as evidence that supports useful content, not rocket fuel that lifts weak pages.

2) Do links help with AI Overviews and other answer engines?

Indirectly. These systems lean on recognizable citations and consistent facts across multiple places. A few credible mentions can help you get included or quoted, even if clicks are thinner.

3) What should I do first: chase new backlinks or fix internal links?

Fix internal links first. Clear nav and descriptive anchors make your site legible to both users and crawlers. See Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

4) Is guest posting still worth it?

Only if it’s truly editorial (real publication, real editor, real audience). Skip scaled “guest post” networks and pay-to-play dressed up as editorial.

5) What is co-citation, in plain English?

Your brand and a specific topic/claim showing up together across reputable sources. That repeated pairing helps search systems—and LLMs—connect your entity to that idea.

6) How should I handle sponsored or community links?

Disclose them. Use rel=”sponsored” for paid placements and rel=”ugc” for user-generated content. Multiple rel values are fine.

7) How do I measure progress when zero-/low-click results are rising?

Look for: inclusion in AI answers on a fixed set of prompts, growth in topical referring domains (quality-weighted), improved crawl depth to your pillar page, and qualified inquiries tied to those pages.

8) Do I need to rewrite my whole SEO plan for AI?

No—extend it. Keep the fundamentals. Shift effort from volume to evidence: internal links, quotable assets, and a handful of credible citations. If you want hands-on help, here are our SEO & GEO services, and you can skim our ongoing AI Search posts.