Backlinks still help search engines find and rank your pages, and AI search added a second reason to earn them: mentions of your brand on other sites shape how AI tools recognize and describe you. What hasn’t changed is that shortcuts get penalized.

This guide covers what makes a link worth having, what Google counts as link spam, and where a small business or independent marketer can start without an outreach team or a budget.

In short

Earn links and mentions from sites your customers already read, in places a real person would click. Skip anything you pay for, swap in bulk or automate, because Google’s spam policies treat these as link schemes.

What makes a backlink worth having?

Relevance. A link from a local wedding blog to a florist beats a link from a general directory.
A real audience. If the site has readers, the link can send you customers, not just ranking signals.
Placement. A link inside an article, surrounded by related text, carries more weight than one in a footer.
Natural anchor text. Google’s SEO Starter Guide asks for anchor text that tells readers what they will find. Your brand name or a plain description is fine.
Earned, not arranged. The site linked because your page is useful, not because you paid or swapped.

Many profile, forum and social links carry nofollow or ugc attributes. Google says it generally doesn’t follow these links. They are still worth having for visitors and brand visibility, just not for rankings.

Why do brand mentions matter for AI search?

AI tools build answers from what the web says about you, not only from who links to you. In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found branded web mentions had a 0.664 correlation with AI Overview visibility, against 0.218 for backlinks. It is a correlation, not proof of cause, but it means an unlinked mention in a local news story or an industry roundup still does useful work.

What does Google treat as link spam?

Google’s spam policies define link spam as links created mainly to manipulate rankings. The examples include:

Buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including exchanging goods or services for links
Excessive link exchanges, or partner pages that exist only to cross-link
Using automated programs or services to create links
Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
Keyword-rich or hidden links in widgets spread across other sites
Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature
Advertorials where payment was made and the links weren’t qualified

If you pay for a placement because its audience is worth it, that is advertising. Ask for the link to be marked rel="sponsored" and judge it by the traffic, not the ranking boost.

Where to start with no budget

Source	Examples	What you get	Effort
Business relationships	Suppliers, partners, clients, local associations, chamber of commerce	Relevant links from sites that know you	Low
Core profiles and directories	Google Business Profile, Bing Places, LinkedIn, one or two directories that matter in your industry	Consistent brand signals; links are often nofollow	Low
Useful assets	A free calculator, local price data, a template, a detailed case study	Links that keep arriving over time	High
Expert contributions	Podcast guest spots, quotes for journalists, guest articles on sites your customers read	Editorial links and brand mentions	Medium
Communities	Reddit, Quora, niche forums, local Facebook groups	Visitors and mentions; links are usually nofollow	Low, ongoing
Unlinked mentions	Sites that already mention you without linking	An easy request with a high success rate	Low

Community rule: add value first, link second. A helpful answer with a relevant link is welcome. A post that exists only to drop a link gets removed and can get your account banned.

For directories, fill in every field, use the exact same business name and description you use everywhere else, and stop after the handful that matter for your industry, such as review platforms for restaurants or agency directories for marketing firms.

How long does link building take?

Months, not weeks. In our experience the first three months go on setup: profiles, relationships, and one or two assets worth linking to. Between three and six months you should see a steady trickle of new referring domains if you keep going.

After that it compounds. More useful content gives people more to link to, and a stronger site ranks new pages faster. Most sites that stall are the ones that stopped at month three.

Frequently asked questions

How many backlinks do I need?

There is no target number. A handful of relevant links from real sites in your industry usually does more than hundreds of weak ones. Compare yourself with the pages that outrank you for your main keywords.

Are directory links bad?

Only low-quality ones. Google’s spam policies name low-quality directory links, not directories in general. Your Business Profile and a few respected directories in your industry are worth having.

Can I buy links if the site is good?

You can buy advertising, but links bought for ranking purposes break Google’s spam policies. If you pay for a placement, ask for rel=”sponsored” and value it for its audience.

Do nofollow links help at all?

Not directly for rankings, since Google generally doesn’t follow them. They can still send visitors and put your brand name in front of people and AI tools.

Sources

Google Search Central, “Spam policies for Google web search“, last updated 28 August 2026.
Google Search Central, “Qualify your outbound links to Google“, accessed September 2026.
Google Search Central, “SEO Starter Guide“, last updated 10 December 2025.
Ahrefs (Louise Linehan, Xibeijia Guan), “An Analysis of AI Overview Brand Visibility Factors (75K Brands Studied)“, 26 May 2025.

Related Guides in This Series

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First published: April 2026 | Last updated: September 2026 | Author: Minh Pham | Drafted with AI, fact-checked and edited by Minh Pham

This is one of MiinDigital’s core guides. It is reviewed and updated every year.

Link building for digital marketers: where to start