Backlinks remain a foundational pillar of search engine optimization (SEO), acting as critical signals of authority and relevance for search engines.
If you’re an SEO or marketing professional, understanding the latest backlink statistics is not merely advantageous; it is essential for crafting effective SEO strategies.
This roundup aims to help you understand the relationship between backlinks and SEO by providing a comprehensive overview of current backlink data, offering definitive insights to guide your digital marketing efforts.
Here are the most important backlink statistics I could find in my research for 2026.
1. The top result in Google has nearly 4x more backlinks on average than the rest of the top 10
This statistic alone proves that backlinks are important. According to a Backlinko study of 11.8 million Google search results, the #1 result in Google has 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.
Part of this, however, can be because the top results also attract backlinks naturally over time. Bloggers and journalists who give these backlinks are more inclined to link to the results that are already at the top.
It’s important to keep correlation vs. causation in mind, but even so, the difference is significant.
Takeaway: Websites that rank at the top may continue to get backlinks, but Google has recency factors, so focusing on outpacing your competitor’s backlink growth over their total number of backlinks.
2. On average, pages that rank higher in search engines have nearly 2x more linking domains than lower-ranked pages
According to the same Backlinko study, the top ranking pages also have 2x more linking domains.
Quick refresher:
Linking domains (or referring domains) is the number of unique websites linking to you. This is a diversity metric. Search engines value links from many different domains because it signals broader authority and trust.
Backlinks are the total number of individual links pointing to your site. This is a volume metric. Multiple links can come from the same domain, but they typically have diminishing returns compared to links from new domains.
In other words, it’s better to get 10 links from 10 different sites than 10 links from the 1 site.
Takeaway: Focus on getting backlinks from multiple domains rather than getting lots of links from a few domains.
3. The top 10% of websites by backlink quality get the most AI mentions
A study by SEMRush on backlinks and AI search showed a strong positive correlation between their Authority Score (measured by the strength of a website’s backlink profile) and AI mentions for a brand.
This means that the quality of backlinks plays a major role in how often a domain appears in AI-generated answers.
When they compared their Authority Score with the number of AI mentions, their results showed a strong positive relationship:
- Pearson: 0.65 → strong linear correlation
- Spearman: 0.57 → strong but slightly non-linear correlation
They did note that the effect varies across models. ChatGPT Search and Perplexity weigh link quality the least, while regular ChatGPT (without Search on) shows the strongest correlation.
Takeaway: Quality over quantity. Go after real, earned backlinks from websites your customers are reading. Aim for big targets to hit the threshold quickly.
4. A website’s authority has the strongest correlation with AI visibility vs. other backlink metrics
The same SEMRush study measured the relationship between different backlink metrics and AI visibility.
Specifically, these metrics were:
- Authority Score: SEMRush’s own metric for determining a website’s authority based on the quality of its backlink profile.
- Unique Domains: The diversity of domains linking to the website.
- Image Links: Backlinks that are included as clickable images (for example, a blogger hosts an infographic, and clicking that infographic takes the user to your website).
- Total Backlinks: The total number of backlinks from all domains linking to the website.
- Follow Links: Backlinks that do not have the rel=”nofollow” attribute. By default, all backlinks are dofollow unless marked with a rel=”nofollow”, sponsored, or UGC tag, aiding in search engine ranking and page indexing.
- Text Links: Backlinks that are text-based, like the ones in this article.
- Nofollow Links: Backlinks with the rel=”nofollow” attribute added.
The study shows that out of these common backlink metrics and attributes, a website’s authority, as measured by their Authority Score, had the strongest correlation with more AI visibility.
The difference between these correlations shows that the diversity and quality of a website’s backlink profile influence its AI visibility, but only to a point.
Small increases in backlinks won’t drive meaningful results. The real impact happens once a site crosses a higher authority threshold.
Takeaway: If you aren’t seeing traffic gains from AI with your link building, you may need to do more than you think before you’ll see a significant impact on your website’s AI presence. There is a threshold to when success becomes large enough to justify the effort, so make sure you invest your time or money into backlink outreach long enough before calling it quits.
5. In AI Search, nofollow links carry almost as much weight as follow links
According to the SEMRush study mentioned above, follow links have nearly the same impact on AI visibility as standard follow links.
When each link type was analyzed separately against AI mentions, the results were nearly identical.
Follow links:
Pearson: 0.334 → moderate linear relationship
Spearman: 0.504 → strong threshold effect
Nofollow links:
Pearson: 0.340 → moderate linear relationship
Spearman: 0.509 → strong threshold effect
This indicates that AI models evaluate follow and nofollow links in a very similar way when determining authority and visibility.
There are slight platform differences: Google Gemini and ChatGPT tend to weight nofollow links slightly more, while Google AI Overviews and Perplexity lean more toward follow links.
6. Branded web mentions and backlinks are the biggest influencers on AI Overview brand visibility
According to Ahrefs’ analysis of 75,000 brands and their AI Overview visibility, brand web mentions show the strongest correlation (0.664) with AI Overview brand visibility.
While not backlinks, modern SEO professionals are turning to digital PR as a link building tactic, which often results in brand mentions as a byproduct if the work is high quality.
Takeaway: Invest your time and money in digital PR to drive both backlinks and brand mentions online. This will influence your AI visibility.
7. More than 70% of SEO professionals believe link building is the hardest part of SEO
According to this Twitter survey from Freddie Chatt, link building is considered to be the hardest part of SEO according to most SEO professionals.
This aligns with our experiences. As AI tools are being created to send out more emails, response rates are dropping, and pitch fatigue is rising.
It’s more important than ever to be unique today in your content creation efforts. Automating the whole thing won’t work because you’ll end up with something too similar to what everyone else is doing.
Takeaway: To win in a world of AI automation, you need to stand out. Do what others aren’t. Create something epic, handwrite your emails, and focus on creating relationships with bloggers and journalists with your outreach.
8. Nearly 75% of link building professionals are paying for backlinks
According to this survey of link building professionals from Authority Hacker’s old website, 74.3% of link builders pay for backlinks.
Despite the echo of SEO journalists and researchers everywhere about the downsides of paid links, this black hat link building tactic is still exceptionally common.
It makes sense. Outreach is getting harder, and management wants their KPIs hit. Unfortunately, this practice can cost the business as traffic can be obliterated when Google discovers this practice.
Takeaway: It’s tempting to pay for a backlink that looks good, but it’s never worth it. Search engines have methods of detecting this behavior. If a website is selling you a backlink, they’re selling to others. Google has data on the entire internet in their hands, so they can see this kind of thing at scale.
9. 95% of all pages have zero backlinks
If you have no backlinks yet, you’re in good company. According to Backlinko’s previously mentioned study, 95% of all pages on the internet have 0 backlinks.
The researchers also noted that pages with no backlinks were beginning to skew the data, so they had to eliminate them from the study.
Takeaway: You might have more success competing against other specific pages of your competitors than their whole domain. Look for pages where they have no backlinks, and aim your strategy at outranking these targets!
10. 85% of SEO professionals believe that link building has a big impact on brand authority
According to a survey from uSERP, 85% of SEO professionals believe backlinks have a big impact on their brand authority and search presence.
The professionals surveyed also believe backlinks will continue to have an impact in the future.
Search engines will always need a way to filter through good and bad content online, and backlinks help them do that. Backlinks are votes of content for the internet, and while many attempt to spam them, search engines have smart teams of engineers working every day to figure out new filtering algorithms.
This is why backlinks will likely continue to have some kind of impact on search presence regardless of the platform. Backlinks help with crawling, indexing, and sorting of information online, and authoritative sources will always carry the most weight.
Takeaway: Every year, people wonder if link building will still work. Link building has been an SEO practice since the beginning and is unlikely to go away. However, white hat strategies are becoming more important with the speed at which link analysis algorithms are improving.
3 types of link building strategies that work in 2026
The methods for acquiring backlinks are continually evolving. Staying abreast of current trends is crucial for ethical and effective link building. We have a full list of effective link building strategies, but here are the three dominant strategies for 2026.
1. Content-Led Link Acquisition
Content-led link acquisition has transitioned from a best practice to the dominant strategy. Instead of simply requesting links, the focus is on creating exceptional, link-worthy content that naturally attracts backlinks.
Our internal data shows that “evergreen” content assets (e.g., comprehensive guides, original research, interactive tools) that are consistently updated receive more than 200% more backlinks than standard blog posts within their first year.
Infographics and data visualizations are particularly effective, acquiring 1.8 times more referring domains than text-only articles. The strategy involves identifying content gaps, producing superior resources, and promoting them to relevant audiences, allowing links to be earned organically.
2. Digital PR and Media Outreach
Digital PR has become an indispensable component of link building. This involves actively pitching compelling stories, data, or expert insights to journalists, bloggers, and online media outlets.
Data-driven, content-first campaigns citing original research are particularly potent, earning response rates as high as 7% from PR outreach.
This approach not only builds links but also significantly enhances brand mentions, a key driver of visibility and authority.
3. Guest Posting: Evolving Standards
Guest posting remains a valid link building strategy, but its standards have significantly evolved.
The era of low-quality, spammy guest posts is over. High-quality guest posts, published on genuinely relevant and authoritative websites with engaged audiences, continue to yield significant SEO benefits.
However, guest blogging on sites with low editorial standards or obvious reciprocal linking patterns shows a greater risk of being devalued or even leading to penalties. The focus must be on providing genuinely valuable content to the host audience and securing a link that is editorially justified and relevant to the content.
The efficacy lies in quality, not volume, and in demonstrating true expertise. Take a PR approach to guest blogging and write on websites your audience is reading to get backlinks and brand mentions that drive real authority.
Key Takeaway: Strategic, ethical, and content-driven link building is the future.
The overarching theme is clear: sustainable link building is deeply integrated with content creation, brand building, and ethical outreach. Prioritizing strategies that naturally earn links through valuable content and genuine relationships will consistently outperform outdated, manipulative tactics, ensuring long-term SEO success.
Final Take: Link building is becoming more PR-like
AI search has changed what SEO professionals are focused on. What used to be backlinks is now a hybrid of backlinks and brand mentions.
Ultimately, the methods used to acquire backlinks for SEO are becoming more PR-like. SEO strategy now requires public relations skill sets to earn attention from authoritative online outlets.
Digital PR agencies and some link building agencies specialize in this sort of thing. With a specialization in digital outlets, these agencies know the ins and outs of PR and SEO, and can create a blended strategy that makes the best use of both marketing channels.
