Backlinks & AI: Do Backlinks Still Matter for AI Search?

With AI search becoming so prominent, there are a lot of questions around whether some of the things from traditional SEO still matter for AI search.

And one of those big questions is backlinks.

A lot of people are wondering, do backlinks even still matter? Do they have an impact when it comes to things like AI Overviews or ChatGPT?

Do backlinks matter for AI search?

Do backlinks really matter for AI search? They matter, it’s just a little bit different than it was before.

With traditional search engines, it was always a big focus to get backlinks — and high quality backlinks at that. You were always looking for reputable sites to link back to you and send a signal to Google that you’re trusted.

Essentially, the websites that link to you are saying, “Hey, I’m a trustworthy source that trusts this piece of information that this business wrote!”

So, you spend a lot of time trying to get those backlinks and get trustworthy sources to link back to you to have a diverse backlink portfolio and essentially tell search engines you’re a trusted resource for information in your industry.

But now with AI search, AI engines aren’t really considering backlinks directly. They aren’t looking at how many you have or the quality of them.

AI engines aren’t looking at backlinks directly, but the things that backlinks do for web pages is what AI engines are considering.

And that sounds confusing, but let me walk you through it.

The role of backlinks in AI search

AI engines want to serve the best information to people. They’re looking for information that is helpful, informative, and explains things clearly.

Pages that tend to get linked to, that tend to get backlinks, are pages that do those things.

They explain information clearly, have it well organized, and the answers are direct. Basically, they’re doing all the right things to have content that performs well in search engines and earn backlinks.

Even though the backlinks themselves aren’t what’s impacting the ability to get in AI search results, it is kind of a signal of the quality of content, which is huge for AI engines. If a lot of websites are linking back to content that you have, that’s a signal that what you’re writing is high quality and valuable, and therefore that can translate to better performance in AI engines.

Essentially, backlinks aren’t really serving as a direct signal for getting into AI engines, but they are indirect indicators of the quality of your content, and that does impact your ability to get AI search results.

Branded backlinks and AI search: How they can impact performance

Another interesting aspect to consider is branded backlinks. These are backlinks that include your company’s name within the backlink text or the anchor text.

These are really interesting in the context of AI search because a big part of AI search is brand visibility. AI engines tend to recommend websites that have more brand mentions across the web because they’re seen as more trustworthy.

It boils down to, if multiple people are mentioning the same brand when it comes to a certain topic, that kind of endorses the fact that it’s a good choice to serve to the user.

So, it’s very possible that having those branded backlinks could have an impact on your ability to get an AI search because it could send a signal to AI engines that you are a reputable option for whatever it is that the user is searching.

For example, let’s say that ten really big travel bloggers make an article that is the list of the best travel agencies.

And let’s say that you run a travel agency.

If you’re mentioned in nine of the ten lists that these bloggers have made, that’s a really good signal to AI engines. It tells them that multiple people/entities within this niche, that are well-known and trusted, are recommending this same agency multiple times.

It tells AI engines that, in this example, recommending your travel agency is the right move.

Though the backlink itself will serve more of a purpose with traditional search versus AI search, the brand mention itself will have huge impact with AI engines.

If you’re getting mentioned across multiple pages for the same thing, it’s sending that signal to AI engines that you are a reputable option (or your product is a reputable option) for users who are looking for that exact thing.

Backlinks matter, it’s just changed

Overall, backlinks don’t have an impact on AI search results like they do on organic search results, but they do serve as a signal to the quality of your content. If you’re continuously earning backlinks to your content, it’s a good sign that the quality is there and that you’re providing helpful information that your audience is looking for.

And on top of that, if you’re getting branded backlinks and having websites mention your company directly and link back to you, that can be a good way to build your visibility across the web. It will help you get endorsements from other websites that essentially tell AI engines that you are a reliable and trustworthy option to serve an AI search results.