Hi, Before the launch of LLM search engines, we were building backlinks for their website to rank on the search engines. We were using some free tools like checkbytools and ahref for checking the backlinkks. Now everybody talking about AI traffic and things have changed. People are more focused on the listing website in AI overview or llm search engines. Do we still need to work on backlinks? Backlinks are still important in SEO or things changed to somewhere else?
Backlinks will always be important, for logical reasons. Google cannot goto your site and say 'This is great content, I will rank it high' Why? Because it's a bot, and it cannot make subjective calls, as what is great to one person might not be to another. So it relies on signals, the heaviest weighted will always be backlinks, again, for logical reasons.
The incoming links inform, that their target is important. This information is used by every search engine.
Absolutely — backlinks are still important, even in the age of LLM-powered search. They still serve as trust signals, like editorial "votes", showing that your content is credible and relevant. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is how search engines — especially those using LLMs — evaluate them. It’s no longer just about quantity. Now it’s more about: Quality & context: Links from reputable, relevant sources carry much more weight. Brand mentions: Even unlinked mentions can influence AI-generated answers. Structured, useful content: AI tools prefer clear, well-organized content they can confidently reference. So yes, backlinks matter — but they’re part of a broader strategy now. Focus on authority, helpful content, and building a strong digital footprint. That’s how you stay relevant in LLM-driven search.
I can clearly see how important this is on Perplexity; it gives more importance to and prioritizes content that has links.
Yes, still important, but not as much. At this point, seemingly less than branded mentions, for example, or branded anchors. But I don't intend to stop building backlinks, and I don't think anyone should. Just with even more focus on relevance and authority, that's all.
Backlinks still matter, but the way they’re valued has shifted. It’s less about generating tons of links and more about securing a few strong ones from trusted sources. LLM search engines might change how traffic flows, but authority and credibility signals (like good backlinks) aren’t going away anytime soon.
Backlinks are more than ever important with AI search results, but not any backlink. Why ? Because the AI models will search answers to the users' requests in forums, product reviews and "how to". Therefore, it's even more important nowadays to think "usefull information" before sumitting a content for backlink.
Backlinks are still valuable because they build authority and trust for websites, even with the rise of LLM-powered search engines. While AI traffic and AI overviews are growing, traditional SEO signals like backlinks continue to play a role in ranking. At DataOnMatrix, we focus on balancing backlink strategies with AI-driven SEO to stay ahead in this evolving landscape.
My site automatically added rel="nofollow" to all user-posted links. Recently, Google Search Console reported that many pages weren't indexed due to these rel="nofollow" tags. A few days ago, I removed rel="nofollow" from all links to see if it improves indexing. However, this could backfire due to low-quality backlinks. I'll update once I see how this affects my rankings.
Backlinks are still important, but the way we think about them is definitely changing. Traditional search engines like Google still use backlinks as a core ranking signal — they help determine authority and trustworthiness. So if your content is optimized for Google, backlinks still matter a lot. But with LLM-driven search (like AI Overviews, Perplexity, or ChatGPT Search), the focus is shifting from link-based authority to content relevance, entity understanding, and contextual depth. These AI systems don’t “crawl and rank” the same way Google does — they learn from vast datasets, and then decide which content seems the most useful, credible, and up-to-date. That said, backlinks can still help indirectly: They drive referral traffic (which AI tools can interpret as engagement signals). They increase brand visibility, making your site more likely to be referenced or cited in AI summaries. And they still help with traditional SEO, which AI tools often rely on as a data source. So yes — backlinks still matter, but the real game now is producing content that’s AI-friendly: authoritative, structured, and written in a way LLMs can easily understand and summarize.
Backlinks still matter, but I would look at them a little differently now. For Google, good links still help with trust and discovery. I would just focus more on links and mentions that real people could actually trust, not random backlinks made only for metrics.
I don’t think backlinks are dead, but I wouldn’t build a strategy around them like before. I’d rather have a few relevant links from sites that actually have authority than hundreds of random ones. AI search changes how people find information, but being referenced by trusted sites still seems useful for both SEO and visibility
Yes, still important but the why has changed.For traditional Google, backlinks = ranking power. For LLM search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews), backlinks = trust signals. LLMs are more likely to cite sites that are referenced by trusted sources.So it's less about 100 random links, and more about getting mentioned on real, topical sites. One link from a respected site in your niche now beats 20 low-quality ones for both SEO and AI visibility.
Backlinks still count, but I'd look at it from a different angle: a link can't help you if the AI engines can't actually find and read your site in the first place. Before chasing more links, it's worth running an AI visibility scanner to see whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude can discover your pages and recommend your business — I found gaps on my own site (robots.txt blocking AI crawlers, missing structured info) that no amount of link building would have fixed. Fix those first, and the backlinks you earn will work a lot harder.