Links are still important for SEO in 2026. Google uses them for 5 practical jobs:

  • Discovering new pages
  • Understanding how pages relate to one another
  • Evaluating relevance
  • Passing signals between pages
  • Helping users and search engines find supporting information

Google's documentation says links help its systems understand relevance and discover new pages. Google also lists PageRank, its link analysis system, among its core ranking systems.

The value of a link depends on its quality, relevance and context. Link volume on its own is a weak SEO strategy.

Link Type SEO Importance Main Purpose
Internal links High Help Google crawl your site and understand its structure
Relevant editorial backlinks High Support authority, relevance and discovery
External links to trusted sources Moderate Add context, evidence and credibility
Paid or manipulative links Risky May violate Google's spam policies
Low quality directory or comment links Low Usually provide little value and may create risk

Links remain one of the main ways Google finds new pages. Google's SEO Starter Guide says that links lead Google to the vast majority of new pages it discovers each day.

Internal links matter most for:

  • New pages
  • Deep pages several clicks from the homepage
  • Product and service pages
  • Content hubs
  • Pages with few external backlinks

Every important page should be reachable through a standard, crawlable link from another page on your website.

Anchor text gives users and Google information about the destination. Technical SEO audit checklist tells the reader more than click here.

Google recommends descriptive anchor text and relevant surrounding content. It also recommends adding a link when the destination provides useful information, rather than adding links to increase the total link count.

A backlink is a link from another website to your website. A relevant, editorially placed backlink can indicate that another publisher considers a page useful or credible.

A backlink is not an automatic ranking boost. Its value can depend on:

  • The relevance of the linking page
  • The quality and reputation of the linking website
  • The surrounding content
  • The destination page
  • Whether the link was earned or manipulated

A relevant link from a respected industry publication will usually be more useful than many unrelated links from low quality directories.

Google's link analysis systems, including PageRank, remain part of Google Search, although those systems have changed over time.

Internal links and backlinks serve different purposes. Internal links support site structure and crawlability, while backlinks relate more closely to external authority, discovery and reputation.

Internal links connect pages on the same website. They help Google identify:

  • Which pages are important
  • How topics are grouped
  • What each page is about
  • Which pages should be crawled
  • How users should navigate the site

Google says every important page should have at least one link from another findable page on the same website. Google also says there is no ideal number of links for a page. Use the number that helps users understand and navigate the content.

Useful internal linking practices include:

  1. Link from strong pages to important commercial pages.
  2. Use descriptive, natural anchor text.
  3. Connect closely related articles.
  4. Create topic hubs for broad subjects.
  5. Remove orphan pages with no internal links.
  6. Check that important links use standard HTML links with an href attribute.

Backlinks come from external websites. They can help search engines discover content and may contribute to how Google evaluates a page.

Strong backlinks are usually:

  • Topically relevant
  • Editorially placed
  • Useful to the reader
  • Located within meaningful content
  • Pointed at a specific page that deserves the citation

Build content that relevant websites have a clear reason to reference. Chasing the highest possible backlink count tends to produce weaker results.

Link quantity alone is a poor SEO strategy. Google does not publish a recommended number of internal links or backlinks for a page, and a page with hundreds of links is not automatically stronger than one with ten useful links. Google specifically says there is no ideal number of links on a page.

Weak Link Strategy Stronger Link Strategy
Buying large quantities of backlinks Earning relevant editorial mentions
Submitting to low quality directories Publishing useful original resources
Repeating exact match anchor text Using natural descriptive anchor text
Creating automated links Building relationships with relevant publishers
Excessive link exchanges Linking because the destination helps users
Adding links to unrelated content Connecting closely related pages

One relevant, high quality link can be more useful than many unrelated links. That conclusion follows from Google's emphasis on relevance, crawlability and context, as well as its policies against manipulative link schemes.

Yes. Links can create SEO risk when they exist mainly to manipulate rankings.

Google identifies these activities as link spam or potential violations:

  • Buying or selling links for ranking purposes
  • Excessive reciprocal link exchanges
  • Automated link building services
  • Low quality directory links
  • Keyword rich links in distributed widgets
  • Optimised links in advertorials, guest posts or press releases
  • Promotional anchor text in forum comments
  • Large scale links placed in footers or templates

Paid advertising and sponsorship links are acceptable when they use attributes such as rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". User generated links can use rel="ugc" or rel="nofollow".

For example:

<a href="rel="sponsored">
  Sponsored recommendation
</a>

Do not add nofollow to every normal external link. Google recommends linking to useful, trusted sources and using nofollow when you do not want to associate your site with a source or pass ranking credit.

A good SEO link is relevant, crawlable, descriptive and useful to the reader. It should appear in a legitimate editorial context rather than exist only to influence rankings.

The five main criteria are:

  1. Relevance: The linked page relates closely to the surrounding content.
  2. Crawlability: The link uses a standard anchor element with an href attribute.
  3. Descriptive anchor text: Users can understand the destination before clicking.
  4. A real purpose: The link helps users research, navigate or verify information.
  5. Editorial context: The link was not created solely to manipulate rankings.

Google's recommended crawlable format is a normal HTML anchor:

<a href="/seo-audit-guide">SEO audit guide</a>

JavaScript based navigation, missing href attributes and links hidden inside non standard elements can make crawling less reliable.

A sustainable link strategy has two parts: improve internal linking and earn relevant external links.

Improve Internal Linking

Start with pages that generate business value:

  • Services
  • Products
  • Category pages
  • High converting landing pages
  • Important research or guides

Then add relevant links from existing pages. Use anchor text that accurately describes each destination, and avoid forcing the same phrase into every link.

Create assets that give other websites a clear reason to cite you, such as:

  • Original research
  • Industry data
  • Detailed comparisons
  • Useful calculators or tools
  • Expert explanations
  • Case studies
  • Proprietary frameworks
  • Thorough reference guides

Google recommends creating unique content that people want to link to. Promotion can help the right audience find that content, but promotion should not become a system for generating artificial links.

What Should You Prioritise If You Have Limited SEO Resources?

Prioritise SEO work in this order:

  1. Make important pages crawlable and indexable.
  2. Create helpful content that satisfies search intent.
  3. Build a logical internal linking structure.
  4. Earn relevant backlinks to pages that deserve authority.
  5. Review and remove manipulative or obviously low quality link activity.

Links cannot compensate for poor content, weak search intent alignment or serious technical problems. Strong content can still underperform when Google cannot discover it, understand its relationship to other pages or find external evidence that it is useful.

Final Verdict

Links are still part of the foundation of SEO, but their role is practical rather than purely numerical.

Use internal links to make important pages discoverable and explain how your site fits together. Use external links to support evidence and context. Earn backlinks by publishing material that other websites have a reason to cite.

The link count is easy to measure. The useful link is harder to earn. That is the one worth pursuing.