The importance of establishing authority through link building has only increased as search areas have expanded to LLMs.
Your content now competes with additional sources, including AI results in SERPs and AI-generated content from other publishers.
At the same time, backlinks are always important signs of authority for both Google and LLMs, who treat those placements as indicators that your product is trustworthy and relevant.
If you’ve been in SEO as long as I have, you probably still get daily LinkedIn messages from “link building agencies” promising a set amount of links. That approach misses the point.
The most effective link building strategy is to create content that people actually want to refer to and share. That’s what I call writing content with link intent.
The philosophy that drives content with link intent
Link building and content creation should be part of the same process, although I’ve found that to be rare. Treating link building as a separate step increases the likelihood that you will develop links on your own without considering the results of the funnel.
Instead, start by thinking about who in your community cares – or should care – about what you write and why.
Content created from this mindset, rather than a value-driven “must get links” mindset, has a much better chance of earning links and building momentum in both traditional search and AI over time.
If your content is really useful and relevant, people naturally want to share and refer to it without the need for spam emails or InMails.
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That’s where strategic access comes in
Strategic access works best after the corresponding task is done. That means identifying writers, journalists, and creatives who are already covering your topic and showing them why your idea adds something timely, useful, or different from other sources they can reference.
In many cases, the strongest opportunities come from content that is linked to targeted topics about statistics, benchmarks, reports, or highly relevant industry developments.
If you work in content and link building silos, your teams are likely focused on:
- Hitting the target number of links.
- Requests a link exchange.
- Promoting content without considering whether it is actually useful or relevant.
In my experience, that approach tends to ignore what content actually benefits your brand, which is the opposite of what good content should accomplish.
Content that provides real value and improves the user experience will naturally appeal to people looking for reliable sources for their work.
If you can produce content strong enough to contribute meaningfully to the topic discussion, it will attract links, as well as Google, ChatGPT, Claude, et al. will see its worth. It’s a much deeper and more integrated approach than chasing raw link numbers.
From what we know about LLMs, they like content from reliable sources that they treat as the definitive reference on the topic. That means depth and focused authority are more important than volume.
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The business importance of an active link objective
If LLM exposure is your goal, focus your efforts on a small number of high-value, deeply authoritative pieces instead of casting a wide net.
I can confidently say that I’ve won several clients for my agency because of the content I’ve written (thank you, Search Engine World!). Most B2B businesses can probably say the same.
Content strong enough to generate passive links also has a strong chance of being shared and driving referral traffic, which is often overlooked in SEO. Relevant content produced with link intent naturally builds links and SEO/AEO equity over time, creating a built-in snowball effect.
Beyond reducing time spent on outreach, it can build a network of affiliate sites and publishers that continue to drive referral traffic and long-term value. Think of it as the organic version of affiliate marketing, which continues to grow as a channel.
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Consideration of the content that forms the purpose of the link
There are good reasons to create content on news-related topics, such as providing feedback on the release of a new platform or product in your industry.
Stealing news is always a proven PR strategy that can help you earn quotes from the right outlets. But if your content resources are limited, it’s useful to weigh the pros and cons of news coverage versus evergreen topics. Content that focuses on topics may generate clusters of links in the short term, but those topics also lose relevance very quickly over time.
Evergreen resources can continue to accumulate citations and links long after the news cycle is over, and that durability has weight in both SEO and AEO because LLMs are not primarily trained in this week’s topics.
Specificity and timing can increase the power of a passage quote even if the subject itself is always vague. Advice aimed at hay fever sufferers during a particularly heavy pollen season, for example, is more likely to attract attention and referrals than general sleep advice published out of context.
Dig deeper: How to produce content that builds AEO organically
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Focus on purpose-driven link building
Todoist is a great example of this approach in action. Its unique introduction of production methods has produced hundreds of reference sites – a number that has grown by 50% year-on-year and contributed significantly to product growth.
I talk to many SEOs these days who put less emphasis on link building than they did years ago.
In my opinion, that has less to do with links losing value and more to do with outdated link building tactics that don’t work.
An objective approach to linking that combines solid content with strategic outreach is more effective, sustainable, and efficient than combined content and linking programs.
It also strengthens your brand reputation while driving increased traffic and improving the overall user experience.
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