With fewer and fewer people clicking on the 10 blue links, more and more people are using ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, etc. to answer their questions. This means businesses need to understand how to get their content cited in these AI search results.
AI search engines still rely heavily on many of the same trust factors that Google does, and backlinks remain one of the most important factors.
This article will explain why backlinks are still important for AI search visibility, share 5 link-building strategies for AI search, and show how to use AI to help scale your efforts.
Why backlinks are still important
Backlinks are important for AI search because the answers are made from search results. ChatGPT and Perplexity pull content from the search engine index and summarise it. If your page doesn’t rank well or is not seen as trusted, it is unlikely to appear.
Backlinks will help with:
- Ranking – Most AI tools pull content from pages that already rank highly. Having good backlinks will help your page rank.
- Entity Trust – If your brand is being mentioned and linked to by reputable websites, models will start to associate your brand with that particular topic. This means your brand is more likely to be mentioned.
- Brand Authority – AI tools will check facts from multiple sources. If your brand is mentioned on lots of relevant and credible sources, it will look more credible to cite.
Overall, backlinks show your brand is a real authority in your niche.
5 Link-Building Strategies for AI Search
Create original data
AI tools love specific data, and so do journalists and bloggers. Try running a mini survey, analysing your customer data or creating some industry benchmarks. Create a piece of content showing your findings with clear charts and quotes.
Original data will naturally gain backlinks, as the writer will need a source. Each backlink will tell the model that the information comes from your page.
Get mentioned in ‘best of’ and comparison pages
When someone asks AI tools a question like “What’s the best X for Y?”, the tools are often summarising a listicle or comparison page. If your brand appears on these pages, you have a good chance of being mentioned.
Search for your main buying-intent keywords and list the pages that are ranking. Contact the writers and offer them a demo, free trial or helpful information to improve their list.
Prioritise topic relevance over authority
Often, a backlink from a mid-tier site within your niche will be more beneficial than one from a large general site. Being mentioned on relevant sites will help the model know your brand is related to the topic.
Focus on getting backlinks from industry blogs, niche sites, industry bodies and community resources. Ten relevant backlinks will be better than 50 random ones.
Claim mentions
Your brand will probably be mentioned on sites that aren’t linking to you. Use a brand monitoring tool or simply search your company name on Google. Contact the writers politely and ask for a backlink.
This is one of the easiest wins. As the site already trusts you, they will be happy to link to you.
Digital PR & Expert Commentary
Journalists always need expert quotes. Use a source-to-reporter platform or directly contact editors within your niche to get backlinks from high-trust news and industry sites.
These are exactly the sources that will be trusted by AI tools. One quote in a reputable publication can be more valuable than dozens of low-quality directory links.
If you don’t have the time or connections to run these campaigns, at Ranklizer can help speed things up. Their link-building services focus on gaining relevant editorial backlinks from real sites within your niche.
How to Use AI to Scale Your Efforts
Using AI can save you hours of work, but it’s important to have a human in charge. The best results will come from using AI to help research and create your content.
AI can help you:
- Research – AI tools can help you find which sites from a list are relevant, active and likely to link. This will give you a shortlist of 50 sites from 500.
- Content Gap – AI can compare your content to content that is ranking and identify any gaps in your content. By filling these gaps, you’ll give other sites a reason to link to you.
- Initial Drafts – AI can create initial drafts for your outreach by looking at the latest articles from each prospect. However, each email should be edited by a human to sound authentic.
- Optimise – Having clear headings, concise answers, FAQs, and schema can help AI tools quote your content. This means your backlinks will be pointing to pages that are easy to cite.
It’s important to keep a balance. Fully automated outreach will be ignored or marked as spam. But using AI to help with your outreach will keep it fast and personalised.
We can help you set this up. Our team uses AI for research and humans for strategy to make your content more visible in Google and AI search tools.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Buying backlinks – These can be easily spotted by search engines. AI tools rarely see them as credible.
- Anchor Text – Using the same keyword anchor text looks unnatural. Use a mix of brand, generic and descriptive anchor text.
- Domain Rating – A high domain rating won’t mean much if the site doesn’t have an actual audience.
- Sending AI-generated outreach – Editors will instantly know if your email is generic and templated. One poorly planned campaign can lose you a contact for good.
- Not looking at the page – A great backlink to a poor page will not help. Ensure the page actually answers the question well.
Conclusion
AI search hasn’t made link building outdated. It has made quality backlinks more important than ever. The brands that will appear in AI search results will be the ones mentioned and linked to by other trusted sources.
Start small: create one piece of original data, claim your mentions and pitch 3 comparison pages in your niche. Use AI to help you research, but ensure every email is sent by a human. Focus on getting relevant backlinks. If you do this consistently, you will build up authority that both Google and AI tools will reward.
