Backlinks for SEO and GEO: Bing, Google and AI Search

This page explains backlinks from A to Z: what a backlink is, why it still matters, how Bing, Google and AI search tools look at backlinks, the history of algorithm updates related to links, how to earn good backlinks and how to check backlinks yourself. Every point taken from a source has a citation number, and the list of sources is at the end of the page.

Quick summary

This page is long, so here are the key points. Each point has a detailed explanation below.

A backlink is a link from another website pointing to your website, like a recommendation. See What is a backlink.
Links are still a ranking signal, but not the only one. In September 2023, Gary Illyes of Google said links are not among the top 3 factors and are often overrated, although they still play a role [1]. See Why backlinks still matter.
Bing says its AI distinguishes natural from unnatural links, then ignores or devalues the latter; Bing retired its Disavow tool in October 2023 [2]. See Backlinks in Bing.
AI search such as Bing chat (now Copilot) and ChatGPT search cites sources with links [3][4]; Google's AI Overviews also show links to sources [38]. Research shows that more authoritative websites tend to be mentioned more often by AI, but that is correlation, not causation [5][6]. See Backlinks and AI search (GEO).
Link attributes include dofollow (the default), nofollow, sponsored and ugc. Since 2019, Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints [7]. See Link attributes.
Link placement determines a link's context and how many people see it. See Link placement.
First-party data is Google Search Console for Google and Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing. Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz only give relative figures because some websites block their bots [8][9]. See Checking backlinks.
No one can promise rankings or AI citations. Bing itself says GEO cannot guarantee citations [10].

Every figure on this page has a source number in square brackets, for example [2]. The list of sources is at the end of the page.

What is a backlink

Definition

A backlink (also called an inbound link) is a link that sits on website A and points to a page on website B. For B, it is a backlink. For A, it is an outbound link. Links between pages within the same website are internal links, not backlinks.

Example: a "best laptops for programming" guide on wikilaptop.org says "if you are still torn between a laptop and a desktop for running AI models, a laptop and desktop comparison for AI work puts the two side by side". The link in that sentence is a backlink for argusic.com.

The parts of a link

<a href="https://argusic.com/hardware" rel="nofollow">a laptop and desktop comparison for AI work</a>

Part	Example	Meaning
Target URL	`https://argusic.com/hardware`	The page the link points to
Anchor text	`a laptop and desktop comparison for AI work`	The words the reader sees and clicks
rel attribute	`rel="nofollow"`	A hint to bots about the nature of the link
Referring domain	`wikilaptop.org`	The domain that contains the link

Anchor text has been an important signal since the original 1998 paper about Google, because it often describes the target page more accurately than the page itself does [11]. For links on images, the alt attribute plays a similar role.

Referring domains are the number of distinct domains that link to you. Many backlinks from one domain are very different from the same number of backlinks coming from many different domains, so always look at both numbers.

Backlinks and mentions

A mention is when a page names your brand without linking to it. A mention is not a backlink, but it has value for AI search: an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands found that brand mentions on the web have a Spearman correlation of 0.664 with appearing in AI Overviews, higher than the number of backlinks (0.218) [6].

PageRank: why links are scored

PageRank is an algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford in 1996 [12], introduced in a 1998 paper [11]. The idea: imagine a random surfer who keeps clicking from one link to the next; pages visited more often are more important [12]. Pages that receive links from important pages get a high PageRank. The formula has a damping factor, usually around 0.85 [12].

The Google Toolbar used to display PageRank from 0 to 10; it was last updated in November 2013 and shut down completely in 2016, and the PageRank patents had expired by 2019 [12]. No public number does not mean links have lost their value. Domain Rating (Ahrefs) and Authority Score (Semrush) are each tool's own metrics, not Google's PageRank.

Common types of backlinks

Editorial links: the writer chooses to link to you. Backlinko lists editorial placement among 4 quality signals, along with topical relevance, source trustworthiness and link status [13].
Guest posts: an article you write for another website, with a link back to you.
Paid placements: paying for a link to sit in a specific position.
User-generated links: comments, forums, member profiles.
Directory, business profile and social media links: usually nofollow or with little context.
Image links: links attached to images.

How to get each type is covered in How to get backlinks, and the kinds to avoid in Tactics to avoid.

Why backlinks still matter

The short answer: they still matter, but very differently than before. There are 4 reasons, in this page's order of priority.

1. Bing still reads and classifies links

Bing says its AI distinguishes natural links from unnatural ones, then ignores or devalues the latter without affecting natural links [2]. If links were meaningless, Bing would not need to classify them.

Bing keeps the Backlinks report in Bing Webmaster Tools, which shows links to your website and to any other website [2][14]. This means you can see competitors' backlinks using the search engine's own first-party data [15]. Bing's principles are also consistent: its 2012 guidelines already said links should grow naturally, and that the value of bought links and link farms is reduced [16]. Details are in Backlinks in Bing.

2. AI search draws sources from indexed pages

Copilot and AI Overviews take information from pages that have been crawled (bots read pages by following links) and indexed (stored so they can be returned in search). Google says there are no special requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page only needs to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet [17]. Links are a main path for bots to discover new pages.

Correlation studies:

Semrush tracked 1,000 domains on ChatGPT, ChatGPT with Search, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity: Authority Score has a Pearson correlation of 0.65 and a Spearman correlation of 0.57 with AI mentions [5].
Ahrefs, with 75,000 brands: Domain Rating has a Spearman correlation of 0.326, and the number of referring domains 0.295, with mentions in AI Overviews [6].

This is correlation; it does not prove that adding backlinks will make AI mention you [5]. See Backlinks and AI search (GEO).

3. Google still counts links, even if they are no longer "king"

Links have been a core input for Google since 1998 [11], and Google still keeps a "link spam" section in its spam policies [18] along with updates that target links [19]. But their role has shrunk: Illyes said at Pubcon Austin in September 2023 that links are not among the top 3 factors [1]. In the spam policies, the phrase "an important factor" describing links was changed to "a factor" in early 2024, then removed entirely [18].

On the data side, Backlinko analyzed 11.8 million search results and found that the #1 result on Google has 3.8 times as many backlinks as positions 2 through 10 [13]. This is also correlation. A practical reading: content that matches search intent is the foundation, and links help that content get found and trusted. See Backlinks in Google.

4. Links bring real readers

A well-placed link, on a page that people read, sends real people to your website no matter how algorithms change. A useful question when evaluating a link: "If Google and Bing did not exist, would this link still be worth it?"

What backlinks cannot do

They cannot replace good content.
They do not guarantee rankings or AI citations. Bing says GEO cannot guarantee citations [10], and the AI citation metrics in Bing Webmaster Tools do not reflect ranking or authority [20].
They do not help if the target page is not indexed yet. Check indexing before building links.
Quantity is no match for quality: Semrush concluded that quality and authority matter more than quantity [5].

Link attributes: dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc

What is the rel attribute

rel (relationship) is part of the link tag that tells bots the relationship between the source page and the target page. Readers do not see it, but bots can read it.

Name	In HTML	Use when
dofollow	No relevant rel (default)	Normal links
nofollow	`rel="nofollow"`	Other cases
sponsored	`rel="sponsored"`	Advertising links, paid links
ugc	`rel="ugc"`	User-generated content

Google describes them as follows: sponsored for paid or advertising links, ugc for comments and forum posts, nofollow for the remaining cases; they can be combined, for example rel="ugc nofollow" [21].

Dofollow

"Dofollow" is not a real HTML attribute. It is the name the SEO world uses for a link that has no nofollow, sponsored or ugc, which is the default state of every link:

<a href="https://argusic.com/servers">GPU rental by the hour</a>

Semrush lists follow status as one factor that determines a link's value, along with authority, topical relevance, placement and context, and anchor text [22].

Nofollow

Origin

Google introduced rel="nofollow" in January 2005 to deal with comment spam on blogs; nofollow links at that time did not pass ranking credit [23]. Blog owners used it to say "someone else placed this link, and this site does not vouch for it".

Since 2019: from "directive" to "hint"

In September 2019, Google made these changes [7]:

Added rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc".
Nofollow, sponsored and ugc became hints for ranking: Google decides on its own whether to use the link.
From March 1, 2020, nofollow is also a hint for crawling and indexing.
Existing nofollow links do not need to be changed.

Google does not publish specifically when it uses a nofollow link.

Data from AI search

In Semrush's study of 1,000 domains, follow links have a Spearman correlation of 0.504 with AI mentions and nofollow links 0.509, almost the same [5]. As a reminder: correlation, not causation.

rel="sponsored" is for advertising, sponsored and paid links [21], and can be combined with nofollow for older systems: rel="sponsored nofollow".

On policy, Google announced in December 2007 that buying or selling links that pass PageRank violates its guidelines and that enforcement action can affect both parties [24]. Bing's guidelines state that buying links and link schemes (link patterns meant to manipulate rankings) can get a website removed from the Bing index [2][25]. These milestones are listed in Update history. Which attribute to choose is the decision of whoever places the link.

UGC

rel="ugc" (user-generated content) is for links in comments, forums and member profiles [21]. Many platforms automatically add ugc or nofollow to every link users post.

The rel="noopener" or rel="noreferrer" you often see are security-related values for opening a new tab, not signals like nofollow. A link with only noopener is still dofollow.

Old story: PageRank sculpting

Before 2009, some people added nofollow to internal links (Contact, Terms pages) to "funnel" PageRank to more important links. In June 2009, Matt Cutts, then head of webspam at Google, explained that nofollow on internal links no longer preserves PageRank for the other links [26]. So just leave internal links as normal links.

Check a link's attribute in 3 steps

Open the page containing the link in Chrome or Edge.
Right-click the link and choose Inspect.
Look at the <a> tag: if rel contains nofollow, sponsored or ugc, it is not dofollow; if not, it is dofollow.

Inspect shows the page after JavaScript has finished running, which is closer to what modern bots see than "View page source". The Links report in Google Search Console does not show nofollow links [27], so not seeing nofollow links there is normal.

Choosing dofollow or nofollow

It depends on your goal:

If you want to pass a normal link signal: the default link (dofollow) is the natural state of the web.
If you want to clearly label the commercial nature: sponsored is the value Google describes for that purpose [21].
If you want readers, brand recognition and a diverse link profile: nofollow still brings real clicks, and its correlation with AI mentions is nearly equal to follow links in Semrush's study [5].

At PR IFLMMO, dofollow and nofollow cost the same, and buyers can edit a link 1 time (anchor, target URL, or dofollow/nofollow). See pricing and FAQ.

Link placement on a website

On the same domain, links in different positions differ in context, visibility and the number of pages containing the link. Semrush lists "placement and context" among the factors that determine a link's value [22], and Backlinko treats links within editorial content as a quality signal [13].

The areas of a page

Header: logo and main menu, present on every page.
Main content: articles, category descriptions, unique to each page.
Sidebar: recent posts, categories, widgets.
Footer: contact, policies, sometimes a list of links.

7 common placements

1. In-content

The link sits in a sentence of the article. The clearest context, closest to an editorial link [13], and readers click because it relates to what they are reading. Limitation: it is on only 1 page, so it depends on that page being indexed and having readers.

2. Category page

A link in the description of a page that lists articles on the same topic, for example "Gaming laptops". The topic is focused, and category pages usually have many internal links, so bots visit often. The description is short, so the link needs to be written carefully.

3. Sidebar

Present on many article pages, but outside the main content, so the context is weaker. On phones, the sidebar is often pushed to the bottom of the page.

4. Homepage footer

Only in the footer of the homepage, which is usually the page with the most links pointing to it on the website. The footer is an area few people read closely.

5. Homepage content

Combines the website's strongest page with a position in the main content, easy to see for people visiting the homepage. Slots are limited.

6. Header menu

At the top of every page, the most visible. A menu has only a few items, so the link must fit the menu structure.

7. Sitewide (footer on every page)

The link appears on every page. A website with many pages creates a very large number of backlinks, but it is still only one referring domain: reports will show total backlinks rising sharply while the number of domains stays the same.

Comparison table

Placement	Pages containing the link	Topical context	Visibility
In-content	1	Very clear	Depends on the article
Category page	1	Clear	Medium
Sidebar	Many	Weaker	Low on phones
Homepage footer	1	Weak	Low
Homepage	1	Fair	High
Header menu	Every page	Depends on the menu	Very high
Sitewide	Every page	Weak	Low to medium

The table is a qualitative description based on page structure, not a measurement. No search engine publishes weights for each placement.

Links should sit naturally in a sentence

Write the sentence first, add the link after. If the sentence still makes sense and is useful with the link removed, the link is in the right place.
Avoid boilerplate such as "read more here" or "click here": it does not say what the target page is about.
Vary your anchors: mix brand names, page names, descriptive phrases and URLs. Ahrefs found that branded anchors (anchors containing the brand name) have a Spearman correlation of 0.527 with mentions in AI Overviews [6].
Place the link in the paragraph closest in topic to the target page.

Wording	Comment
"If you only run AI models a few hours a week, renting a GPU by the hour can make more sense than buying a new graphics card."	Natural, the anchor accurately describes the target page
"The comparisons on Argusic put results side by side so the choice is easier."	Brand anchor, natural
"GPUs are very important. Click here."	The anchor carries no meaning
"Cheap GPU rental best GPU rental"	Repeated keywords, hard to read

Image links

For links attached to images, alt serves as the description. In Semrush's study, image links have a Spearman correlation of 0.538 with AI mentions, compared with 0.472 for text links [5]. If you use image links, write a clear alt that matches the content.

Placements at PR IFLMMO

PR IFLMMO sells link placements on the IFLMMO network of satellite review websites, with dofollow and nofollow at the same price:

Placement	Price	Maximum links sold
In-content	$19	2 per article
Category page	$29	3 per page
Sidebar	$39	5
Homepage footer	$49	5
Homepage	$59	5
Header menu	$79	2
Sitewide (footer on every page)	$99	3

Guest posts from $50, PR articles from $80 (Basic package). Anchors are placed naturally in a sentence that fits the paragraph, never in a "read more" pattern. After delivery, a robot opens the live page to check the link, anchor and rel. If a satellite website moves to a new domain, the backlink is kept and follows the new domain. See pricing, FAQ, and how to check links yourself in Checking backlinks from A to Z.

Backlinks in Bing

Many SEOs look only at Google and ignore Bing. That is a mistake, because Bing is more than a separate search engine: Bing Webmaster Tools now also shows how many times your website is cited in Microsoft Copilot and in AI summaries on Bing [20]. The index (the store of web pages a search engine has crawled and saved) therefore serves more than the traditional list of blue links. When you understand how Bing views backlinks, you also understand part of how your content gets chosen as a source in AI answers. That is why this section comes before the Google section.

How Bing views backlinks

Bing does not publish its ranking formula, but its official guidelines over the years show a fairly consistent position.

Links should come naturally

Since 2012, the Bing Webmaster Guidelines (Bing's guidelines for webmasters) have stated that links pointing to a website should grow naturally (organically), over time, as the content proves valuable [16]. The same document says that the value of purchased links and links from link farms (networks of pages built only to link to each other) is reduced [16].

By late 2013, the wording had become stronger: buying links and taking part in link schemes (plans to create links in order to manipulate rankings) can get a website removed from the Bing index [25]. "Removed from the index" (delisting) means the page no longer appears in Bing search results.

Bing's AI tells natural links from unnatural ones

In September 2023, when it announced the removal of the Disavow tool, Bing explained why: its AI systems had become capable of distinguishing natural links from unnatural ones [2]. For unnatural links, Bing chooses to ignore them or reduce their value, and this does not affect the natural links a website already has [2].

In the same announcement, Bing restated that link schemes, buying links and link spam can get a website removed from the Bing index [2]. This is Bing's published policy, and you should know it as a fact when working with Bing.

Bing's position at a glance, milestone by milestone

Date	What Bing says about links	Source
2012	Links should grow naturally; value from purchased links and link farms is reduced	[16]
June 2012	Launched the Disavow Links tool	[28]
Late 2013	Buying links and link schemes can lead to removal from the index	[25]
October 1, 2015	Retired Link Explorer, kept the Inbound Links tool	[29]
July 2020	New Backlinks tool, view the backlinks of any website	[15]
October 2023	Removed the Disavow tool and its API; AI handles unnatural links on its own	[2]
Early 2026	Rewrote the guidelines, added Copilot and GEO; no reported change to link rules	[10]

Worth noting: according to Search Engine Journal, the 2026 rewrite of the guidelines has no recorded change in the link rules section [10]. In other words, Bing's view of links has kept the same core direction from 2013 to today.

The Backlinks report in Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT for short) is Bing's free dashboard for website owners, similar to Google Search Console on the Google side. For backlinks, BWT has one strength that Google Search Console lacks: you can see the backlinks of other websites, not only your own [2][14].

A short history of Bing's link tools

Before 2015, Bing had Link Explorer, a tool for looking up the links of competitor websites. Bing retired Link Explorer on October 1, 2015 [29].
The Inbound Links tool (links pointing to your website) was kept. In 2015, Bing said you could export up to 1 million links with their anchor text (the linked text) [29]. This is a 2015 figure; Bing has not republished the current limit in the sources we have.
In July 2020, when it completed the move to the new BWT interface, Bing introduced a new Backlinks tool: it lists backlinks for any website, including similar websites, so you can compare yourself with competitors [15].
In September 2023, when it announced the removal of Disavow, Bing confirmed that the Backlinks report stays, showing the links pointing to your website and to any other website [2].

What the Backlinks report tells you

When you open the Backlinks section in BWT, you see the following main information:

Referring domain: the domains that link to your website. One referring domain can contain many backlinks.
Source page and target page: which page the link is on and which page of your website it points to.
Anchor text: the linked text, which tells you what words other people use to describe your page.

Because this data is collected by Bing itself, it is closer to how Bing sees your website than data from third-party tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush. Third-party tools are still useful, but their numbers are only relative, because some websites block their bots (the section Checking backlinks from A to Z covers this in more detail). For Bing, your main data source should be Bing Webmaster Tools.

Comparing with competitors right inside BWT

Bing itself presents the ability to view other websites' backlinks as a useful tool for competitor research [14]. Here is a practical way to use it:

Sign in to BWT and open the Backlinks section.
Choose the option to view another website's backlinks (the label in the interface may change over time), and enter the domains of 1 to 3 competitors that rank above you on Bing for the same keyword.
Put your list of referring domains next to your competitors' lists.
Filter out the domains that link to your competitors but not yet to you. That is your opportunity list: industry press, review sites, forums, partners.
For each domain, open the page that contains the link and check where the link sits (in the article, sidebar, footer) and in what context.

Illustrative example (hypothetical, to explain how to read the data, not real figures): website A sells camera accessories and sees that competitor B has links from several camera review sites that A does not have yet. A sensible next step is to see what kind of content those sites accept (guest posts, PR articles, paid link placements, or simply mentions of good products), then choose a suitable approach. Ways to earn backlinks are covered in the section How to get backlinks.

Bing has dropped Disavow: what it means for you

What Disavow is

Disavow (rejecting links) is a tool that lets website owners send a search engine a list of links they do not want counted when the website is evaluated. Bing launched its Disavow tool in June 2012, which according to Search Engine Roundtable was earlier than Google's equivalent tool (October 2012) [28].

Bing dropped Disavow in October 2023

On September 21, 2023, Bing announced that it would remove the Disavow Links feature and its API from Bing Webmaster Tools in October 2023, after about 11 years (since 2012) [2]. The reason Bing gave: its AI can now tell natural links from unnatural ones on its own, then ignore or reduce the value of unnatural links without affecting natural links [2].

Practical consequences

There is no longer a "disavow links" button on Bing. If someone points a flood of spam links at your website, you cannot send Bing a disavow file as before. Bing says its systems ignore those links on their own [2].
The Backlinks report is still there, so you can still track who links to you [2].
Do not panic when you see strange links in third-party tools. Some schemes use cheap domains to create fake links to your website to muddy your Ahrefs or Semrush data, then offer a "link removal" service [30]. Check again in Bing Webmaster Tools before you conclude anything [30].
Google still keeps its Disavow tool, but treats it as an advanced feature (the section Backlinks in Google explains this in detail).

IndexNow: tell Bing that your page just changed

What IndexNow is

IndexNow is a protocol (a shared set of conventions) that lets a website tell search engines that a URL has just been added, updated or deleted [31]. Instead of waiting for the search engine's bot to come back and crawl (fetch the page again), you actively "knock on the door" to report a change.

Bing and Yandex launched IndexNow on October 18, 2021 [32].
Since January 2022, the participating engines share the URLs submitted to them with each other, so notifying 1 engine reaches all participating engines [33].
The official IndexNow site currently lists these engines: Microsoft Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep [31].

How IndexNow relates to backlinks

Be clear about this: IndexNow helps search engines discover URLs faster; it does not add link value to any page [32]. Submitting to IndexNow does not make a backlink "stronger."

Even so, there are 2 situations where IndexNow helps link builders:

A newly published page that contains a link. A backlink only works once the search engine knows about the page that contains it. If you own the source page (for example, you just published a guest post on your blog), submitting that URL to IndexNow helps Bing learn about it sooner.
Updated content that AI cites. Bing presents IndexNow together with the AI Performance report as a way to help AI use the latest version of a page [20]. When you change prices, specifications or product details, notifying IndexNow reduces the chance that Copilot relies on the old version.

How to turn on IndexNow

The basic method: create a key file and place it on your website, then submit changed URLs to the IndexNow endpoint as described on the official site [31].

AI Performance and Citation Share: measuring how often AI cites your website

This is Bing's newest and most important addition in 2026: Bing gives website owners official data on how their content is used as a source by AI [20].

AI Performance (February 2026)

On February 10, 2026, Bing launched a public preview of the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools [20]. The report shows how many times your website is cited in Microsoft Copilot, in AI summaries on Bing, and in some selected partner integrations [20].

The main metrics [20]:

Metric	Meaning
Total Citations	Total number of times AI cited the website as a source
Average Cited Pages	Average number of the website's pages that were cited
Grounding queries	A sample of the queries AI used to find sources (grounding, that is, "anchoring" the answer in real web content) that led to your website
Page-level citations	Number of citations for each specific page

A very important note: Bing states clearly that these metrics do not represent the ranking or authority of a website [20]. Bing also calls this report a first step toward building tools for GEO [20]. In other words, this is observational data, not a score for comparing who is stronger.

Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare (June 2026)

On June 16, 2026, Bing added 4 new parts to its group of AI visibility reports [34]:

Intents.
Topics.
Citation Share: your website's percentage of all citations for a grounding query [34]. A higher Citation Share means your website accounts for a larger share of the citations AI gives for that query.
Compare.

How to use AI Performance together with the Backlinks report

These 2 reports complement each other well:

Open AI Performance and note the pages that are cited most and the related grounding queries.
Open Backlinks and see which referring domains those pages have.
For important pages that are rarely cited, check whether they are rarely mentioned on the web, and whether the content answers the question in the grounding query directly.
Track month by month; do not draw conclusions from 1 to 2 weeks of data.

This is a way to observe, not a formula. Bing does not say backlinks are the deciding factor for being cited, and no tool guarantees that AI will cite you.

Bing Webmaster Guidelines in 2026: Copilot, GEO and AI abuse

In early 2026, Bing rewrote the Bing Webmaster Guidelines. Bing's original guidelines page renders with JavaScript, so the section below is based on Search Engine Journal's report [10].

What is new

Covers Copilot and grounding APIs. The guidelines address not only traditional search results but also how content is used in Copilot and grounding APIs [10].
Names GEO. The guidelines mention Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and state clearly that GEO does not guarantee citations [10].
Controlling content in Copilot with meta tags:
- NOARCHIVE: keeps your content out of Copilot answers [10].
- NOCACHE: limits Copilot to using only the URL, title and short description (snippet) [10].
New abuse category "Prompt Injection and AI Manipulation." Prompt injection means inserting hidden instructions into content to steer the AI that reads the page. Bing added this behavior to its list of abuses [10].
Link rules: according to Search Engine Journal, no changes were recorded [10].

What this means for link builders

A page that contains your backlink and has NOARCHIVE enabled can still be a normal backlink in search, but that page's content will not go into Copilot answers [10]. When choosing where to place links with AI search as a goal, check whether the source page uses these tags.
Do not hide text or instructions aimed at AI in an article that contains links. Bing has classified that as abuse [10].

Bing checklist for backlinks

Verify your website in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Open Backlinks and export the list of referring domains every month for comparison.
Look up the backlinks of 1 to 3 competitors and note the opportunity domains [14][15].
Turn on IndexNow on your website so Bing learns early about new or updated pages [31].
Open AI Performance and note the cited pages and grounding queries [20].
Check Citation Share for your main queries and track it monthly [34].
Check the NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE tags on your own website if you want to appear in Copilot [10].
When you see strange links in Ahrefs or Semrush, cross-check with BWT before doing anything [30].

Backlinks and AI search (GEO)

A common question: "What good are backlinks when people ask ChatGPT, Copilot or Perplexity instead of searching on Google?" This section answers it using each tool's official documentation and 2 large studies by Semrush and Ahrefs, read carefully for what they actually say.

What GEO is and where it came from

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization: optimizing content to be shown and cited in the answers of "generative engines," that is, search engines that use generative AI to write answers instead of only returning a list of links.

The term GEO comes from the paper "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Aggarwal, Murahari, Rajpurohit, Kalyan, Narasimhan and Deshpande, posted on arXiv on November 16, 2023 and presented at the KDD 2024 conference [35]. The authors report that their methods can increase visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40% in their experiments [35]. This figure is a result under the paper's experimental conditions, not a gain you are certain to get on your own website.

By 2026, GEO is no longer just an academic term: Bing has put GEO into its official guidelines, with a sentence stating clearly that GEO does not guarantee citations [10], and calls the AI Performance report the first step toward GEO tools [20].

Key milestones of AI search

Date	Event	Source
February 7, 2023	Microsoft launches the new Bing with chat (later Copilot), answering with source links	[3]
May 10, 2023	Google introduces Search Generative Experience (SGE)	[36]
May 23, 2023	Microsoft announces that Bing will be the default search experience in ChatGPT	[37]
November 16, 2023	The GEO paper is posted on arXiv	[35]
May 14, 2024	AI Overviews opens to all users in the US	[38]
October 31, 2024	OpenAI launches ChatGPT search, with source links in answers	[4]
March 5, 2025	Google launches AI Mode in Labs	[39]
May 20, 2025	AI Mode opens to all users in the US	[39]
February 10, 2026	Bing launches the AI Performance report	[20]
June 16, 2026	Bing adds Citation Share, Intents, Topics, Compare	[34]

How each AI tool selects and cites sources (according to its own documentation)

A general principle: AI search can only cite pages that its systems can find and read. So the first step of GEO is always a technical one: let the right bots in, and make sure the page is indexed.

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

AI Overviews are AI-written summaries shown at the top of Google's results page. AI Mode is Google's conversational search mode. Google's documentation "AI features and your website" says [17]:

There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. No special tag, no separate file [17].
The page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet (the excerpt in search results) [17].
Both may use a technique called query fan-out: splitting the user's question into several smaller related queries, searching each one, then combining the results [17]. The consequence: your page can be chosen for a sub-question even if it does not rank first for the main question.
The available controls: nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex [17].

Because the condition is "indexed and eligible for a snippet," everything that helps a page get found and evaluated in regular Google search, backlinks included, still matters for AI Overviews. Google does not publish any separate weight for backlinks in AI features. How Google uses links in ranking is covered in the section Backlinks in Google.

Microsoft Copilot and Bing

Since its launch on February 7, 2023, Bing with chat (later Copilot) has answered with links to the web content it used [3]. Today:

The number of times Copilot cites your website appears in the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools, along with a sample of grounding queries [20].
You control whether your content goes into Copilot with NOARCHIVE and NOCACHE [10].
Everything covered in the section Backlinks in Bing (natural links, the Backlinks report, IndexNow) is worth doing if you want to be present in Copilot, because Bing measures Copilot citations right inside its webmaster tools [20].

ChatGPT search

OpenAI launched ChatGPT search on October 31, 2024, with answers that include links to sources [4]. According to OpenAI's crawler documentation [40]:

OAI-SearchBot is the bot that helps websites appear in ChatGPT search [40].
If you block OAI-SearchBot, your website will not appear in ChatGPT search answers, although it can still show up as a navigational link [40].
GPTBot is a separate bot used for model training. Blocking GPTBot and blocking OAI-SearchBot are 2 independent choices [40].

Some history: in May 2023, Microsoft announced that Bing would be the default search experience in ChatGPT, with cited answers [37]. Which search source ChatGPT search uses today is not confirmed in the sources we checked, so this page makes no claim about it.

Perplexity

According to Perplexity's crawler documentation [41]:

PerplexityBot helps websites appear in Perplexity search results and is not used to train foundation models [41].
Perplexity-User is the bot that fetches a page when a user asks about a specific page, and it generally ignores robots.txt [41], because it acts on behalf of the user.

Summary table of AI search bots

Tool	Bot to allow in order to appear	Other bots to know	Main controls
Google AI Overviews, AI Mode	Googlebot (same as regular search)		nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet, noindex [17]
Copilot, Bing			NOARCHIVE, NOCACHE [10]
ChatGPT search	OAI-SearchBot [40]	GPTBot (training) [40]	robots.txt [40]
Perplexity	PerplexityBot [41]	Perplexity-User (usually ignores robots.txt) [41]	robots.txt [41]

Research: are backlinks related to being mentioned by AI?

Before reading the numbers, you need 1 concept: the correlation coefficient. The Pearson and Spearman coefficients measure how much 2 quantities "move together": values range from -1 to 1, and the closer to 1, the more they tend to rise together. Correlation is not causation. Websites that have many backlinks and are mentioned often by AI may both be the result of a third cause, for example a big brand, good content, or many years of activity.

The Semrush study (October 2025)

Semrush, with authors Margarita Loktionova and Kevin Indig, tracked 1,000 randomly selected domains across ChatGPT, ChatGPT with Search, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity [5]. The main results:

Quantity compared with number of AI mentions	Coefficient
Authority Score (Semrush's authority score), Pearson	0.65
Authority Score, Spearman	0.57
Number of follow (dofollow) links, Spearman	0.504
Number of nofollow links, Spearman	0.509
Image links, Spearman	0.538
Text links, Spearman	0.472

Source for the entire table: [5].

How to read it correctly:

There is a fairly clear correlation between domain authority score and being mentioned by AI [5]. But Semrush also says this is correlation, not causation [5].
Follow and nofollow are almost equal (0.504 versus 0.509) [5]. In this data, being mentioned by AI does not go specifically with follow links. This fits the view that AI reads the content and sees the brand being mentioned, while the rel attribute is a signal meant for search engines. See more about rel in the section Link attributes.
Quality and authority matter more than quantity, according to Semrush's conclusion [5].
Image links have a slightly higher coefficient than text links in this sample [5]. That is no reason to switch everything to image links: the difference is small, and it is still a correlation.

The Ahrefs study (May 2025)

Ahrefs, with Louise Linehan and Xibeijia Guan, analyzed 75,000 brands to see which factors go with a brand being mentioned in Google AI Overviews [6]. Spearman coefficients:

Factor	Spearman with number of mentions in AI Overviews
Branded web mentions (number of times the brand name is mentioned on the web)	0.664
Branded anchors (anchor text containing the brand name)	0.527
Branded search volume (search volume for the brand name)	0.392
Domain Rating (Ahrefs' domain score)	0.326
Referring domains	0.295
Number of backlinks	0.218

Source for the entire table: [6]. About 26% of the brands in the sample were not mentioned at all [6].

How to read it correctly:

The strongest associated factor is the brand being mentioned by name on the web, even without a link [6].
Anchor text containing the brand name ranks 2nd [6]. A link whose anchor is the brand name is both a backlink and a mention of the brand by name.
The raw number of backlinks has the lowest coefficient in the list (0.218) [6]. Having many links does not mean being mentioned by AI.

What the 2 studies say together

Putting the 2 studies together gives a fairly consistent picture (still correlation):

Brand authority and recognition go with being mentioned by AI [5][6].
The raw number of links matters less than quality, placement, and the brand name appearing in context [5][6].
The follow or nofollow attribute makes almost no difference in the correlation with being mentioned by AI [5].

What the 2 studies do not prove: that buying more links will make AI cite you. No one can promise that, and Bing also says GEO does not guarantee citations [10].

So how do backlinks help GEO?

From the official documentation and the 2 studies, the role of backlinks in AI search comes down to 4 points:

Helping pages get found and indexed. Google requires a page to be indexed to appear in AI features [17], and Bing measures AI citations right inside its index management tool [20]. Links from other pages are one path for bots to discover your page.
Contributing to regular search rankings, which indirectly affects whether a page is in the pool of sources AI considers. Google only requires that a page be indexed and eligible for a snippet [17], so a page that is strong in regular search has more chances in query fan-out.
Bringing the brand name into the right context. A link inside a sentence about your topic, with your brand name, is exactly the kind of "mention" that the Ahrefs study found goes with being mentioned in AI Overviews [6].
Putting you on the pages AI often reads. If an industry review page is cited by Copilot regularly, being present on that page (through a link or a mention by name) is a natural way for your information to appear in the sources AI reads.

This is also why a link should sit naturally inside a sentence that fits the paragraph, instead of a detached "see more" line: the paragraph around the link tells readers, search engines and AI who you are and what you do. On PR IFLMMO, in-article links are inserted exactly this way: the anchor sits in a sentence that fits the paragraph, with no "read more" pattern. See the placements and prices on the pricing page.

Practical GEO checklist

Technical: let AI read the page

Important pages are indexed in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools [17].
You do not accidentally block snippets with nosnippet or a max-snippet that is too short if you want to appear in AI Overviews [17].
You do not enable NOARCHIVE or NOCACHE if you want your content in Copilot answers [10].
robots.txt allows OAI-SearchBot if you want to be present in ChatGPT search [40]. Decide separately about GPTBot (training) [40].
robots.txt allows PerplexityBot if you want to be present in Perplexity [41].
Turn on IndexNow so Bing gets the latest version of your pages [20][31].

Content: easy to choose as a source

Each page clearly answers 1 main question, with related sub-questions (a good fit for query fan-out [17]).
Information has sources, an update date, and figures with a stated origin.
No hidden text or instructions aimed at AI (Bing classifies this as abuse [10]).

Backlinks and brand mentions

Prioritize links from relevant, authoritative pages over quantity [5].
Use your brand name in part of your anchor text, naturally [6].
Look for chances to be mentioned by name on industry review sites, press and forums, even without a link [6].
Use Bing's Backlinks report to find domains that link to competitors but not yet to you [14][15].
Do not choose between follow and nofollow because of AI: in the Semrush study, the 2 types had nearly equal correlations [5]. Choose rel based on your SEO goals.

Measurement

Track AI Performance and Citation Share in Bing Webmaster Tools every month [20][34].
Note newly appearing grounding queries and use them as content ideas [20].
Remember that Bing's AI metrics do not represent ranking or authority [20], and no tool guarantees citations [10].

Backlinks in Google

Google is the search engine that made backlinks a familiar concept to everyone who does SEO. This section explains how Google uses links, how Google defines link spam, and where you can see Google's link data. If you have not read the Bing section yet, see Backlinks in Bing to compare the two approaches.

PageRank: Google's original idea

In 1998, Sergey Brin and Larry Page published a paper describing the Google search engine at the WWW7 conference [11]. In that paper, the two authors introduced PageRank, a way to calculate the importance of a page based on the link structure of the web [11]. PageRank was developed starting in 1996 at Stanford University [12].

The core idea is easy to picture through the "random surfer" model [12]:

Imagine a person who keeps clicking any link on the page they are viewing, moving from one page to the next.
Every so often, that person gets bored and jumps to a completely random page. The probability of continuing to click links is called the damping factor, usually set at around 0.85 [12].
The pages that person visits most often over the long run have the highest PageRank.

The practical consequence: a page that many important pages link to is considered more important. Each link is like a vote, but a vote from a trusted page weighs more than a vote from an unknown page.

The 1998 paper also emphasized anchor text (the visible text of a link) as an important signal [11]. Anchor text helps Google understand what the target page is about, even before Google has been able to read that target page [11]. This is why anchor text is still a major topic in SEO today.

The PageRank bar is gone

Many longtime SEO learners still remember the Google Toolbar showing PageRank on a scale of 0 to 10 [12]. That number was last updated in November 2013, and Google turned the display off completely in 2016 (Wikipedia gives the date as April 15, 2016) [12]. The PageRank patents had also expired by 2019 [12].

What this means: since 2016, there has been no public PageRank number from Google. Metrics such as Ahrefs' Domain Rating or Semrush's Authority Score are each tool's own metrics, not Google's PageRank.

How much do links still matter to Google

This question comes up constantly, and Google's answer has changed over time.

At Pubcon Austin in September 2023, Google's Gary Illyes said links are not among the top 3 ranking factors and are often overrated, although links still play a role [1]. This is according to Search Engine Land, a secondary source [1].
Google's spam policies page once described links as "an important factor". In early 2024, that phrase changed to "a factor", and it was later removed entirely [18].

A reasonable reading: links are still a signal Google uses, but Google no longer wants SEOs to treat links as the center of everything. Helpful content, page experience and relevance to the query stand alongside links.

Some outside studies also show a relationship between links and rankings. For example, Backlinko analyzed 11.8 million search results and found that the top result on Google had 3.8 times as many backlinks as positions 2 through 10 [13]. This is a correlation, and it does not prove that links are the only cause of rankings.

How Google defines link spam

Google has a dedicated page called "Spam policies for Google web search", most recently updated on August 28, 2026 [18]. According to that page, link spam is creating links to or from a website primarily to manipulate search rankings [18].

The examples Google lists include [18]:

Group	Example Google gives
Buying and selling links	Buying or selling links to influence rankings
Link exchanges	Excessive link exchanges ("link to me and I'll link to you")
Automation	Using automated programs or services to create links
Directories, bookmarks	Links from low-quality directory or bookmark sites
Widely distributed links	Footer or template links distributed widely across many sites
Forums	Optimized links in forum signatures

The key lies in the words "primarily to manipulate rankings" [18]. Google does not ban links; Google describes the purpose of the link.

Paid links and the rel attribute

Google instructs site owners to mark outgoing links with the rel attribute [21]:

rel="sponsored" for paid links and advertising links [21].
rel="ugc" for links inside user-generated content, such as comments or forum posts [21].
rel="nofollow" for other cases where you do not want to associate your site with the target page [21].
These values can be combined, for example rel="nofollow sponsored" [21].

Since September 2019, Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as a "hint" for ranking, not an absolute directive [7]. A detailed explanation of each attribute is in Link attributes: dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc.

Google handles link spam in two ways

Google's handling of links can be split into 2 groups: automatic and manual.

Automatic handling: algorithms and SpamBrain

Since September 2016, Penguin (the well-known link spam filter) has been part of the core algorithm, running in real time [42]. Google said the new Penguin is more granular and tends to devalue link spam rather than demote the rankings of an entire website [42].

In the December 2022 link spam update, Google said it uses SpamBrain, its AI-based spam prevention system, to neutralize the effect of unnatural links [19]. SpamBrain detects both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links [19].

What this means for SEOs: most links Google considers unnatural are simply ignored. Those links just no longer count.

Manual handling: manual actions

A manual action is when a Google employee reviews a site and concludes it violates policy. For links, Google sends "unnatural links" notifications in Search Console, and Google has explained these notifications since July 2012 [43]. Since August 2013, Search Console has had a Manual Actions viewer so site owners can see any penalty in effect directly [44].

Google's 2007 policy also stated clearly: action against bought and sold links can affect both the buyer and the seller [24].

Google's disavow tool

Disavow is a tool that lets you send Google a file listing links or domains you want Google to ignore. Google launched this tool on October 16, 2012, and said from the start that removing links from the web is still the step to take first [45].

Google's current documentation describes disavow as follows [46]:

It is an advanced feature, meant for sites that have or are at risk of a manual action for unnatural links [46].
In most cases, Google decides on its own which links to trust without you doing anything [46].
A disavow file can have at most 100,000 lines and 2 MB [46].

Compared with Bing: Bing removed its disavow tool in October 2023 [2]. Google still keeps the tool, but positions it as a tool for special cases.

See your backlinks in Google Search Console

The main source of link data from Google's point of view is the Links report in Google Search Console [27]. Third-party tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz have their own indexes, and their numbers are only relative, because some sites block these tools' bots (for example, AhrefsBot and SemrushBot both obey robots.txt [8][9]).

The Links report has 4 main tables [27]:

Table	What it tells you
Top linked pages	Which of your pages get the most links from outside
Top linking sites	Which domains link to you the most
Top linking text	The most common anchor text pointing to your site
Internal links	Internal links between pages within your site

Limits to know when reading the report [27]:

The data is a sample, not every link.
It may still contain links that have been removed.
It does not show nofollow links.
Tables show at most 1,000 rows; exports can include up to 100,000 rows, covering "latest links" and "more sample links".
Links are grouped by root domain and canonical URL.

Example of reading the report

Suppose you just got a dofollow link placed in an article on a review site. After Google crawls and indexes that page, the link may appear in the Top linking sites table. Because the report is a sample and does not update instantly, not seeing the link after a few days is normal. To check whether the link really exists on the page, the fastest way is to open that page and view its source code. Step-by-step instructions are in Checking backlinks from A to Z.

For placements on the PR IFLMMO network, our system's robot opens the real page and checks the link, the anchor and the rel attribute before the order is completed. You should still keep an eye on Search Console to know whether Google has recorded the link.

Links and AI Overviews, AI Mode

Google has 2 AI features in search results: AI Overviews (an AI-generated summary at the top of the results page) and AI Mode (an AI question-and-answer mode) [17]. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in these two features: a page only needs to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet [17]. Both may use a technique called query fan-out, which splits a question into many smaller queries to find more sources [17].

Site owners can control which content is used through nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex [17]. Because Google's condition is "indexed and eligible for a snippet", whatever helps a page get crawled, indexed and ranked well in search is usually also the foundation for appearing in AI Overviews. No one can guarantee that a page will be cited. The section Backlinks and AI search (GEO) goes deeper into studies on the correlation between links and how often a site appears in AI answers.

History of algorithm updates and link policies

This section walks through, in chronological order, the main link milestones at Google and Bing, from PageRank in 1998 to 2026. Each milestone covers: when it happened, what changed for links, and the lesson learned. At the end of the section there is a table summarizing every milestone.

Two notes before you read:

Some familiar names such as Florida or Jagger are unofficial names given by the SEO community. Google never confirmed the details of these updates [47][48].
After the December 2022 link spam update, no Google spam update has been described as targeting links [49].

1998 to 2004: links were everything

April 1998: PageRank is born

Change: Brin and Page published the paper introducing Google, with PageRank and anchor text as core ranking inputs [11].
For links: for the first time, the quantity and quality of inbound links became a main ranking signal.
Lesson: links were designed to reflect natural trust between pages. Every later policy revolves around protecting this idea.

November 16, 2003: Florida (unofficial name)

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, many people saw this update as a change in how Google counted links, and many retail and affiliate sites lost rankings [47].
For links: Google never confirmed the details [47].
Lesson: from very early on, what "works" for rankings could change overnight. Do not base your whole strategy on a single trick.

2005 to 2011: nofollow and paid link policy

January 18, 2005: rel="nofollow" is born

Change: Google introduced the rel="nofollow" attribute, originally to fight comment spam on blogs [23].
For links: nofollow links do not receive ranking credit [23].
Lesson: for the first time, site owners had a way to tell Google "I do not vouch for this link". This laid the foundation for sponsored and ugc later on.

September to November 2005: Jagger (unofficial name)

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, this was a series of updates focused on backlinks [48].
For links: reciprocal links and paid links were suspected of losing value, but Google did not confirm this [48].
Lesson: mass link exchanges are a kind of link Google gradually came to see as unnatural, which the current policy states plainly as "excessive link exchanges" [18].

December 1, 2007: policy on buying and selling links that pass PageRank

Change: Google published a post stating clearly that buying or selling links that pass PageRank violates Google's guidelines [24].
For links: Google's action can affect both sides, the buyer and the seller [24].
Lesson: the way Google recommends marking paid links changed in 2019, when rel="sponsored" was introduced [7].

June 15, 2009: the end of PageRank sculpting

Change: Matt Cutts, then head of Google's webspam team, said that adding nofollow to internal links no longer preserves PageRank for the other links on the page [26].
For links: the technique of "sculpting" PageRank (PageRank sculpting) with internal nofollow stopped working [26].
Lesson: internal links should serve readers and site structure; there is no need to use nofollow to funnel strength to a few pages.

2012 to 2014: Penguin and the era of penalties

This was the most eventful period in the history of links. Both Google and Bing made major changes.

April 24, 2012: the webspam update, later called Penguin

Change: Google announced an update that demotes sites violating its guidelines, with link schemes (link patterns meant to manipulate rankings) named explicitly [50]. This update later became known as Penguin [50].
For links: link schemes were one of the violations the update named [50].
Lesson: from this point on, link schemes were not only a guideline violation but were also handled directly by an algorithm update.

June 2012: Bing launches a disavow tool

Change: according to Search Engine Roundtable, Bing launched a disavow tool in June 2012, before Google [28].
Lesson: Bing launched a disavow tool before Google [28].

July 27, 2012: "unnatural links" notifications

Change: Google explained the unnatural link notifications sent to site owners [43].
Lesson: from here on, Search Console became the first place to look when you suspect a link problem.

October 5, 2012: Penguin refresh

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, Penguin was refreshed, affecting about 0.3% of English queries, according to a tweet by Matt Cutts [51].
Lesson: Penguin ran in batches during this period, so affected sites had to wait for the next refresh to see the results of their cleanup.

October 16, 2012: Google launches its disavow tool

Change: Google opened its disavow tool, while saying that removing links is still the first step [45].
Lesson: disavow is a supplementary tool, not a replacement for removing links.

November 2012: Bing's guidelines state that bought links lose value

Change: Bing's webmaster guidelines (archived copy from November 2012) said links should grow naturally, and that the value of bought links or links from link farms is reduced [16].
Lesson: Bing chose to devalue bad links, an approach Bing keeps to this day.

May 22, 2013: Penguin 2.0

Change: Matt Cutts announced Penguin 2.0, affecting about 2.3% of US English queries [52].

August 8, 2013: the Manual Actions viewer

Change: Google added a Manual Actions viewer to its site management tools [44].
Lesson: site owners can confirm for themselves whether they have a manual penalty, instead of guessing.

October 4, 2013: Penguin 2.1

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, Penguin 2.1 affected about 1% of queries [51].

November 2013: the last Toolbar PageRank update

Change: the PageRank number on the toolbar was updated for the last time [12].
Lesson: after this point, any "PR" number sold on the market no longer reflects fresh Google data.

Late 2013: Bing states it can remove sites from its index

Change: Bing's guidelines (archived copy from late 2013) said buying links and taking part in link schemes can get a site removed from the Bing index [25].
Lesson: Bing has two levels: devaluing bad links, and for serious violations, removing the site from the index.

January 20, 2014: guest blogging for links

Change: Matt Cutts wrote that guest blogging done primarily to get links is considered spam [53].
For links: the emphasis is on the words "primarily to get links" [53]. A guest post with value for readers on a relevant site is a different matter.
Lesson: for the same format, purpose and quality determine how search engines see it.

October 17, 2014: Penguin 3.0

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, Penguin 3.0 rolled out on October 17, 2014 [51].

2015 to 2020: real time and links as a "hint"

October 1, 2015: Bing retires Link Explorer

Change: Bing retired Link Explorer, the tool for looking up competitors' links [29]. The Inbound Links tool remained, allowing exports of up to 1 million links with anchor text (a 2015 figure; the current limit is unknown) [29].
Lesson: site management tools change over time, so always check the features available now instead of relying on old guides.

2016: Google turns off the Toolbar PageRank display

Change: the PageRank display on the toolbar was turned off (Wikipedia gives the date as April 15, 2016) [12].
Lesson: from here on, there are only third-party metrics, and they are only relative estimates.

September 23, 2016: Penguin joins the core algorithm

Change: Penguin became part of the core algorithm, running in real time and more granular [42].
For links: Google said Penguin now devalues link spam instead of demoting the rankings of the whole site [42].
Lesson: bad links are usually just ignored. There is no need to panic every time you see a few strange links in a report.

May 25, 2017: a reminder about large-scale article campaigns

Change: Google published a reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns [54].
Lesson: how Google views links in mass-published articles is consistent with its 2014 position on guest blogging [53].

September 10, 2019 and March 1, 2020: sponsored, ugc and nofollow become "hints"

Change: Google added rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc" [7]. All 3 values, nofollow, sponsored and ugc, became hints for ranking [7]. Since March 1, 2020, nofollow has also been a hint for crawling and indexing [7].
For links: existing nofollow links do not need to be changed [7].
Lesson: Google now decides on its own whether to use a nofollow link. The rel attribute is how site owners describe the nature of a link.

July 2020: the new Bing Webmaster Tools

Change: Bing completed the move to the new Bing Webmaster Tools, with a Backlinks tool that lists the backlinks of any site, including similar sites for competitor comparison [15].
Lesson: Bing Webmaster Tools is the place to see competitors' backlinks based on Bing's own data [14][15].

2021 to 2022: SpamBrain and link spam updates

July 26, 2021: link spam update and link tagging

Change: Google announced a link spam update, along with guidance on tagging links [55].
Lesson: a link spam update is a separate type of update, different from a core update.

October 18, 2021: IndexNow

Change: Bing and Yandex launched IndexNow, a protocol that tells search engines when a URL has been added, changed or deleted [32][31].
For links: IndexNow helps search engines discover URLs faster and does not affect link scores [32]. Since January 2022, participating engines share submitted URLs with each other, so notifying one engine reaches all of them [33].
Lesson: the page containing a backlink needs to be crawled before the link is recorded. Tools that help pages get discovered quickly are a useful supplement.

October 13, 2022: Google Search Essentials

Change: Google introduced Google Search Essentials [56]. The spam policies, including the link spam section, now sit in the Essentials section of Google's documentation [18].

December 14, 2022: December 2022 link spam update

Change: Google used SpamBrain to neutralize the effect of unnatural links [19]. SpamBrain detects both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links [19]. The update finished rolling out on January 12, 2023 [19].
For links: this is Google's most recent update described as specifically targeting links [49].
Lesson: from here on, Google's main way of handling bad links is to "neutralize" them, meaning the links are not counted.

2023 to 2024: AI search arrives

February 7, 2023: the new Bing with chat

Change: Microsoft launched the new Bing with chat (later Copilot), whose answers cite sources with links to the web content used [3].
Lesson: links are not only a ranking signal but also the way AI leads readers back to sources.

May 10, 2023: Google SGE

Change: Google introduced the Search Generative Experience (SGE), an experiment with generative AI in search [36].

May 23, 2023: Bing in ChatGPT

Change: Microsoft announced that Bing would be the default search experience in ChatGPT, with grounded answers and citations [37]. This is a May 2023 announcement; whether ChatGPT search uses Bing today has not been verified.

September 2023 (Pubcon Austin): Illyes says links are not in the top 3

Change: according to Search Engine Land, at Pubcon Austin, Gary Illyes said links are not among the top 3 factors and are overrated, although they still play a role [1].
Lesson: investment in links should go together with investment in content, not replace it.

October 2023: Bing removes its disavow tool

Change: Bing removed its disavow tool and the accompanying API (a feature that had existed since 2012) [2]. Bing said its AI distinguishes natural from unnatural links, ignoring or devaluing unnatural links without affecting natural ones [2].
For links: link schemes, buying links and link spam can still get a site removed from the Bing index [2]. The Backlinks report remains, letting you see links for your site and for other sites [2].
Lesson: with Bing, what site owners need to do is monitor; there is no longer a tool to disavow links.

October 4, 2023: the first spam update after the link spam update

Change: Google rolled out a spam update on October 4, 2023 [49]. Like every spam update after December 2022, this one was not described as targeting links [49].

Early 2024: "an important factor" becomes "a factor"

Change: Google's spam policies page changed its description of links from "an important factor" to "a factor", and later removed the sentence entirely [18].
Lesson: Google itself is de-emphasizing the role of links in its public documentation.

March 5, 2024: core update and 3 new spam policies

Change: Google announced the March 2024 core update along with 3 new spam policies: expired domain abuse, scaled content abuse and site reputation abuse [57]. Google also had a spam update on the same day [49].
For links: these are new policies about domains and content; Google did not call this a link spam update [57][49].
Lesson: Google increasingly looks at the purpose behind domains and content, not just at link counts.

May 14, 2024: AI Overviews for all US users

Change: Google brought AI Overviews to all users in the US [38].

June 20, 2024: spam update

Change: the June 2024 spam update, not described as targeting links [49].

October 31, 2024: ChatGPT search

Change: OpenAI launched ChatGPT search, with answers that link to sources [4].

November 19, 2024: site reputation abuse policy update

Change: Google updated its site reputation abuse policy [58].

December 19, 2024: spam update

Change: the December 2024 spam update, not described as targeting links [49].

2025 to 2026: GEO and tools that measure AI citations

March 5, 2025 and May 20, 2025: AI Mode

Change: Google tested AI Mode in Labs starting March 5, 2025 [39], then opened it to all US users on May 20, 2025 [39].
Lesson: Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode; a page only needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet [17].

August 26, 2025: spam update

Change: the August 2025 spam update, not described as targeting links [49].

February 10, 2026: AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools

Change: Bing launched a preview of the AI Performance report, showing how many times a site is cited in Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries on Bing and some partners [20]. The metrics include Total Citations, Average Cited Pages, sample grounding queries and citations by page [20].
For links: Bing says these metrics do not indicate ranking or authority [20]. Bing calls this a first step toward tools for GEO [20].
Lesson: site owners now have official AI citation data from Bing [20].

Early 2026: Bing adds GEO to its guidelines

Change: according to Search Engine Journal, Bing's webmaster guidelines were rewritten to include Copilot and the grounding API, naming Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and stating that GEO does not guarantee citations [10]. There is also a new abuse section called "Prompt Injection and AI Manipulation" [10].
For links: Search Engine Journal did not note any change to the link rules [10].
Lesson: Bing's link rules stayed the same while the AI section expanded.

March 24, 2026 and June 24, 2026: spam updates

Change: two spam updates, not described as targeting links [49].

June 16, 2026: AI Visibility Insights on Bing

Change: Bing added Intents, Topics, Citation Share (a site's percentage of all citations for a grounding query) and Compare [34].
Lesson: Citation Share tells site owners what share of AI citations for a grounding query their website holds, based on Bing's data [34].

August 18, 2026 and September 24, 2026: spam updates

Change: the August 2026 and September 2026 spam updates; the September update finished rolling out on October 8, 2026 [49]. Neither was described as targeting links [49].

August 28, 2026: the current spam policy update

Change: the "Spam policies for Google web search" page was updated on August 28, 2026 [18]. The definition of link spam is still creating links primarily to manipulate rankings [18].

Takeaways from nearly 30 years of history

The original idea has not changed: from 1998 until now, links are still used to measure trust between pages [11][18].
Handling shifted from penalizing to ignoring: from Penguin in 2012 demoting whole sites [50], to real-time Penguin in 2016 devaluing links [42], to SpamBrain in 2022 neutralizing unnatural links [19]. Bing described a similar approach when it dropped disavow [2].
rel attributes became more detailed: from nofollow in 2005 [23] to sponsored and ugc in 2019 [7].
The last link spam update was December 2022: the spam updates since then have not been described as targeting links [49].
AI search adds a new role for links: citation links in AI answers are how readers are led back to sources [3][4], and Bing now has reports that measure citations [20][34].

Milestone summary table

Date	Engine	Milestone	Key point about links	Source
April 1998	Google	PageRank	Links and anchor text are core ranking inputs	[11]
November 16, 2003	Google	Florida (unofficial)	Believed to change how links were counted, unconfirmed	[47]
January 18, 2005	Google	rel="nofollow"	Nofollow links receive no ranking credit	[23]
September to November 2005	Google	Jagger (unofficial)	Reciprocal and paid links suspected of losing value	[48]
December 1, 2007	Google	Paid link policy	Buying or selling links that pass PageRank violates guidelines	[24]
June 15, 2009	Google	PageRank sculpting	Internal nofollow no longer preserves PageRank	[26]
April 24, 2012	Google	Webspam update (Penguin)	Demotes sites with link schemes	[50]
June 2012	Bing	Disavow	Bing had a disavow tool before Google	[28]
July 27, 2012	Google	Unnatural links notifications	Explains unnatural link notifications	[43]
October 5, 2012	Google	Penguin refresh	About 0.3% of English queries	[51]
October 16, 2012	Google	Disavow	Tool launched, removing links is still the first step	[45]
November 2012	Bing	Webmaster guidelines	Bought links and link farm links are devalued	[16]
May 22, 2013	Google	Penguin 2.0	About 2.3% of US English queries	[52]
August 8, 2013	Google	Manual Actions viewer	See manual penalties directly	[44]
October 4, 2013	Google	Penguin 2.1	About 1% of queries	[51]
November 2013	Google	Toolbar PageRank	Last update	[12]
Late 2013	Bing	Webmaster guidelines	Buying links and link schemes can lead to removal from the index	[25]
January 20, 2014	Google	Guest blogging	Guest posts made primarily for links are spam	[53]
October 17, 2014	Google	Penguin 3.0	The next Penguin update	[51]
October 1, 2015	Bing	Link Explorer retired	Inbound Links remains	[29]
2016	Google	Toolbar PageRank turned off	No more public PageRank	[12]
September 23, 2016	Google	Penguin joins the core algorithm	Real time, devalues link spam	[42]
May 25, 2017	Google	Article campaign reminder	Links in mass-published article campaigns	[54]
September 10, 2019	Google	sponsored, ugc	3 rel values become ranking hints	[7]
March 1, 2020	Google	Nofollow for crawling	Nofollow becomes a hint for crawling and indexing	[7]
July 2020	Bing	New Bing Webmaster Tools	See backlinks for any site	[15]
July 26, 2021	Google	Link spam update	Link spam update and link tagging	[55]
October 18, 2021	Bing	IndexNow	Helps discover URLs, does not affect link scores	[32]
October 13, 2022	Google	Search Essentials	Introduces the Essentials documentation	[56]
December 14, 2022	Google	Link spam update	SpamBrain neutralizes unnatural links	[19]
February 7, 2023	Bing	Bing chat (Copilot)	AI answers cite source links	[3]
May 10, 2023	Google	SGE	Generative AI experiment in search	[36]
May 23, 2023	Bing	Bing in ChatGPT	2023 announcement	[37]
September 2023 (Pubcon Austin)	Google	Illyes statement	Links not among the top 3 factors	[1]
October 2023	Bing	Disavow removed	AI ignores or devalues unnatural links	[2]
October 4, 2023	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
Early 2024	Google	Spam policies	"an important factor" becomes "a factor"	[18]
March 5, 2024	Google	Core update, 3 new policies	Expired domain, scaled content, site reputation	[57][49]
May 14, 2024	Google	AI Overviews	Opened to all US users	[38]
June 20, 2024	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
October 31, 2024	OpenAI	ChatGPT search	Answers include source links	[4]
November 19, 2024	Google	Site reputation abuse	Policy update	[58]
December 19, 2024	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
March 5, 2025	Google	AI Mode (Labs)	Experiment	[39]
May 20, 2025	Google	AI Mode	Opened to all US users	[39]
August 26, 2025	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
February 10, 2026	Bing	AI Performance	Measures citations in Copilot	[20]
Early 2026	Bing	Guidelines with GEO	No change to link rules noted	[10]
March 24, 2026	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
June 16, 2026	Bing	AI Visibility Insights	Citation Share, Compare	[34]
June 24, 2026	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
August 18, 2026	Google	Spam update	Not targeting links	[49]
August 28, 2026	Google	Spam policies	Current update	[18]
September 24, 2026	Google	Spam update	Completed October 8, 2026, not targeting links	[49]

What makes a good backlink

Once you understand what a backlink is and how Bing, Google and AI search look at it, the most practical question is: is a specific backlink good? Neither Google nor Bing publishes a "benchmark score". But reputable industry sources describe the traits that make a link valuable in very similar ways, and the search engines themselves state clearly which kinds of links they ignore. This section gathers those traits into a set of criteria you can use right away.

Backlinko's 4 quality signals

Backlinko sums up backlink quality with 4 main signals: topical relevance, source credibility, editorial placement and link status [13]. Here is a simple way to understand each one.

1. Topical relevance

A link from a laptop review page pointing to a store that sells computer accessories makes obvious sense: the readers of that page may genuinely need your product. A link from a recipe page pointing to a computer accessories store is very hard to explain. Semrush also lists topical relevance among the factors that determine the value of a backlink [22].

How to check it yourself: read the page that holds the link and ask, "Do readers of this page have any reason to click through to my page?" If the answer is yes, the link is relevant.

2. Source credibility

A credible source is a website with real content and real readers, that gets updated and is not stuffed with paid links everywhere. Semrush calls this factor authority (the authority of the page or domain that holds the link) [22]. Third-party tools measure authority with their own scores, for example Semrush's Authority Score or Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR). Keep in mind that each tool computes these scores itself; they are not Google or Bing scores.

3. Editorial placement

Editorial placement means the link sits in the main content and was placed because it helps the reader, not stuffed into a corner few people look at. Semrush mentions "placement and context" as a value factor [22]. You can review each placement on a website in detail in the section Link placements on a website.

An easy example:

Good link: "If you need an external drive for your gaming console, this portable SSD comparison lists the read and write speeds of every model." The anchor sits naturally in the sentence, and the sentence fits the paragraph.
Weak link: a line "See more: buy cheap SSDs" tacked onto the end of the article, unrelated to the paragraph above.

4. Link status

Link status is the technical state of the link: whether the link is still live or has been removed, whether the page holding it is indexed, and what its rel attribute is (dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc) [13]. A link on a page blocked from indexing, or on a page that now returns a 404 error, has almost no effect, even though third-party tools may keep showing it for a while.

The rel attribute: understand it, no need to fear it

The section Link attributes explained this in detail. Here are just a few points related to quality:

Since 2019, Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as "hints" for ranking, no longer as absolute directives [7].
Google describes rel="sponsored" as the value for paid or advertising links, rel="ugc" for user-generated content, rel="nofollow" for other cases, and these values can be combined [21].
In Semrush's study of 1,000 domains, the correlation between the number of follow links and the number of AI mentions (Spearman 0.504) was nearly the same as for nofollow links (Spearman 0.509) [5]. This is correlation, not causation [5], but it suggests that for AI search, a nofollow link from a reputable place is still worth having.

In other words, dofollow and nofollow are 2 technical options, each with its own role. Which one you choose is your decision, based on your goals.

Anchor text: natural and branded

Anchor text is the visible text the reader clicks. Semrush lists anchor text as a factor that determines link value [22]. A few practical principles:

Write the anchor as part of the sentence, accurately describing the target page.
Vary it: brand name, URL, descriptive phrase, sometimes a keyword. A link profile where every anchor is identical does not look like natural linking.
Branded anchors deserve attention for AI search: in Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, "branded anchors" (anchors containing the brand name) had a Spearman correlation of 0.527 with how often the brand appeared in AI Overviews [6].

Quantity or quality?

The short answer: quality first, quantity second, but quantity is not meaningless.

Backlinko analyzed 11.8 million search results and found that the #1 result on Google had 3.8 times as many backlinks as positions 2 through 10 [13].
On the other hand, Semrush's AI search study concluded that quality and authority matter more than volume [5].
Ahrefs found that the raw backlink count had the lowest correlation with appearing in AI Overviews among the factors they measured (Spearman 0.218), lower than the number of referring domains (0.295) and Domain Rating (0.326) [6]. Referring domains are the number of distinct websites linking to you, which differs from the total number of links.

From these 3 data points, a sensible way to think about it is: a few links from many relevant websites with real readers are usually worth far more than many repeated links from the same place or from pages nobody visits.

Backlink self-check table

Use this table whenever you consider a link placement or review your existing links:

Question	Good sign	Sign to review
Is the page on the same topic?	Same or adjacent industry	Unrelated topic
Does the website have real readers?	Fresh content, search traffic	Abandoned site, nothing but link posts
Where is the link?	In the body, in the right context	Long, unrelated "partner links" block
What is the anchor like?	Sits naturally in the sentence	Mechanically repeated keyword phrase
Is the page with the link indexed?	Yes, found on Google or Bing	Noindexed, broken, or blocked from crawling
Does clicking the link reach the right page?	Reaches your exact URL	Redirects somewhere else

The last row of the table may sound unnecessary, but it is the key to spotting the fake backlink trick in the section Tricks to avoid.

How to get backlinks

There are many ways to get backlinks. Semrush groups them into 7 main approaches: creating useful resources, broken link building, answering media requests, digital PR, writing guest posts on relevant sites, exploiting competitor gaps and leveraging business relationships [22]. Alongside these is paid link placement, the option many small sites choose to save time. Below is each approach, with concrete steps.

1. Create resources worth citing

This is the most durable approach: make something other people want to link to. For example:

A complete spec comparison table for a product group.
A step-by-step guide with real screenshots.
A small tool such as a cost calculator or a size chart.
A glossary for newcomers to the industry.

Good resources also help with AI search, because Copilot and ChatGPT search cite sources with links to the web pages they use [3][4]. A page that clearly answers a question has a chance of being cited, though nobody can guarantee it. Bing states plainly in its new guidelines that GEO does not guarantee citations [10].

2. Broken link building

Broken link building means finding broken links (pointing to dead pages) on other websites in your industry, then suggesting the site owner replace them with a link to your page that has equivalent content [22]. A compact process:

Find resource pages in your industry ("roundup" pages, "useful tools" pages).
Use a link checker to find links that return a 404 error.
Check whether you have a suitable replacement page; if not, write one.
Send a short, polite email that points out exactly where the broken link is and suggests the replacement page.

This takes effort, but the links you get usually sit in the right context.

3. Media requests and digital PR

Media requests are when journalists and bloggers post questions looking for experts or sources; you answer and may get mentioned with a link [22]. Digital PR is broader: creating stories, data or events compelling enough that the press and other websites cover them on their own [22].

For AI search, digital PR has an extra benefit: it creates brand mentions across the web. In Ahrefs' study, "branded web mentions" (how often the brand is mentioned on the web) was the factor most correlated with appearing in AI Overviews, Spearman 0.664 [6]. A mention without a link still has value in this respect.

4. Guest posts on relevant sites

A guest post is an article you write and publish on someone else's website, usually with a link back to your site. Semrush lists guest posts on relevant sites as one of the 7 ways to build links [22].

On the history, one milestone is worth knowing: on January 20, 2014, Matt Cutts (then head of Google's webspam team) wrote that guest blogging done mainly to get links is considered spam [53]. In May 2017, Google published a reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns [54]. These 2 milestones describe mass guest posting with thin content written only to hold links. A guest post with real content, published on a site on the same topic that has readers, is an ordinary article on the web.

Practical tips for writing guest posts:

Write for the host site's readers, not for search engines.
Place the link to your site where it genuinely helps the reader, with the anchor inside a sentence.
You can also link to other reputable sources; the article will look more natural.

5. Exploit competitor gaps

A competitor gap analysis compares the list of websites linking to your competitors with the list linking to you, to find places that link to them but not yet to you [22]. The free, first-party tool for this is Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing's Backlinks report shows the backlinks of other websites too, not just your own site [2][14][15]. Google Search Console only shows links to your own verified site [27].

Steps:

Open Bing Webmaster Tools, go to Backlinks, and enter the domains of 2 to 3 competitors.
Export the list and filter for websites on the same topic.
Look at how each site links to the competitor (review, list, guest post, sponsorship).
Choose an approach that suits each site.

If you also use Ahrefs or Semrush, remember that their numbers are relative: some websites block these tools' bots (AhrefsBot, SemrushBot) with robots.txt, so links on those sites may not be recorded [8][9].

6. Business relationships

Suppliers, distribution partners, business customers, industry associations: these are places that already know you and have a legitimate reason to mention you [22]. Examples: a manufacturer's "authorized dealers" page, the "partners" page of a company you work with, a featured customer story. These links usually have very high topical relevance.

7. Paid link placement

Many small site owners lack the time or relationships for the 6 approaches above, so they choose to buy link placements on existing websites with a matching topic. When choosing, use the same self-check table from the previous section: is the topic relevant, where is the link, is the anchor natural, is the page indexed.

On attributes, Google advises using rel="sponsored" for paid or advertising links [21], and Google announced on December 1, 2007 that buying and selling links that pass PageRank violates its guidelines [24]. Bing states in its guidelines that link schemes, buying links and link spam can get a site removed from Bing's index [2]. That is what the search engines have published. Choosing dofollow or nofollow is the buyer's decision, based on their own goals.

PR IFLMMO is one example of a link placement service along these lines. You choose a placement on the IFLMMO network of review sites, and dofollow and nofollow cost the same:

Placement	Price	Maximum links sold
In an article	$19	2 per article
Category page	$29	3 per page
Sidebar	$39	5
Home page footer	$49	5
Home page	$59	5
Header menu	$79	2
Sitewide (footer on every page)	$99	3

There are also guest posts from $50 and PR articles from $80 (Basic package). The anchor is placed naturally in a sentence that fits the paragraph, never in a "see more" template. See details on the pricing page and in the FAQ.

How to combine the approaches

There is no universal formula, but here is a sensible order for a new site:

Build 1 to 2 really good resources on your site first, so every later link has something worthwhile to point to.
Leverage your existing business relationships.
Use Bing Webmaster Tools to find competitor gaps.
Add guest posts and placements on sites with the same topic.
When you have notable data or a story, do digital PR.

Whichever approach you choose, do not expect a fixed ranking or a fixed number of AI citations from a given number of links. Even Google says links are not among the top 3 ranking factors, although they still play a role (Gary Illyes speaking at Pubcon Austin in September 2023, according to Search Engine Land) [1].

Tricks to avoid

This section has 2 parts. The first is a scam aimed squarely at site owners: fake backlinks used to sell "link cleanup" services. The second is how Google and Bing define link spam, along with the related policies.

The fake backlink trick: "junk" links that redirect to an agency

This is the trick described in a warning post by Tran Ngoc Thuy on Facebook [30]. Here is how it works.

How the trick plays out

Some agencies buy cheap domains in bulk, usually with extensions like .shop, .site, .store and similar [30].
On these domains, they create links pointing to your website, so that tools like Ahrefs or Semrush record them as your backlinks [30].
But when a real person clicks the link, the browser is redirected to the agency's own website [30].
Then these same agencies offer you a "bad link removal" service or an SEO package [30].

The result: in your Ahrefs or Semrush report, you suddenly see a flood of strange, low-quality referring domains. If you only look at those numbers, it is easy to panic, assume your site is under a "negative SEO attack", and then pay the very people who created the problem.

The key point of the post: this trick mainly pollutes third-party tool data [30]. The primary data for assessing your links is Google Search Console for Google and Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing [30].

How to spot it

The signs below come from hands-on checking experience, and you can check them yourself in a few minutes:

A sudden spike in strange domains. The referring domains report in Ahrefs or Semrush suddenly shows many new domains at once, mostly cheap extensions like .shop, .site, .store, with meaningless names or names unrelated to your industry.
Clicking does not reach your page. Open a few of the links in a browser (preferably in a private window). If you are sent to the website of an agency or SEO service, that is exactly the sign of this trick.
The page with the link has no real content. No articles, no readers; it exists only to hold links.
Not visible in first-party data. Compare with the Links report in Google Search Console and the Backlinks report in Bing Webmaster Tools. If those domains do not appear there, you know the problem lies mainly in third-party tool data. Note that the Search Console report is sampled data and does not show nofollow links [27], so use it to compare trends, not to count individual links.
A sales pitch follows. Right after the strange numbers appear, you get an email or message warning that "your site has many toxic links", along with a quote for a link removal service or an SEO package.

What to do

Stay calm and do not pay for "link removal". The seller may be the very person who created those links [30].
Treat first-party data as the standard. Cross-check with Google Search Console for Google and Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing [30].
Understand how search engines handle unnatural links. Bing says its AI systems distinguish natural from unnatural links, ignoring or discounting unnatural links without affecting natural ones [2]. As for Google, in most cases Google decides on its own which links to trust [46], and since 2022 Google has used SpamBrain to neutralize the effect of unnatural links [19].
Use disavow only when truly necessary. Google describes the Disavow tool as an advanced feature for sites that have, or are at risk of, a manual action for unnatural links [46]. If Search Console shows no manual action notice, you usually do not need it. Bing removed its Disavow tool in October 2023 [2], so there is nothing to do on the Bing side.
Keep evidence. Take screenshots of the reports, the redirecting links and the sales messages. If a real manual action ever happens, you have material to explain your case.
Read third-party tool numbers as relative. Ahrefs and Semrush have their own indexes crawled by their own bots [8][9], so they can record links that real people would never see.

How Google and Bing define link spam

Google: the definition of link spam

In its spam policies, Google defines link spam as creating links to or from a website primarily to manipulate rankings [18]. Google gives examples, including [18]:

Buying or selling links to manipulate rankings.
Excessive link exchanges ("link to me and I'll link to you").
Using automated programs or services to create links.
Links from low-quality directory or bookmark sites.
Links embedded in footers or templates, widely distributed across many sites.
Keyword-optimized links in forum signatures.

Bing: paid links, link farms and link schemes

Since 2012, Bing's guidelines have said links should grow naturally, and that the value of paid links and link farms (networks of pages that exist only to link to each other) is discounted [16]. By late 2013, Bing stated clearly that buying links and link schemes can lead to removal from Bing's index [25]. In September 2023, when announcing the removal of the Disavow tool, Bing reiterated that link schemes, buying links and link spam can get a site removed from the index [2]. According to Search Engine Journal, Bing's rewrite of its guidelines in early 2026 has no recorded changes to the link rules [10].

Expired domains and borrowing another site's reputation

In March 2024, Google added new spam policies, including expired domain abuse (buying an expired domain and using its old reputation to publish low-quality content) and site reputation abuse (publishing third-party content on a reputable site to rank on the strength of that site's reputation) [57]. Google updated the site reputation abuse policy again in November 2024 [58].

Mass-produced content to hold links

In the same March 2024 update, Google added the scaled content abuse policy: creating large numbers of pages primarily to manipulate rankings, no matter how they are made [57].

A new trick in the AI era: injecting instructions for AI

Bing's new guidelines in early 2026 add an abuse section titled "Prompt Injection and AI Manipulation", according to Search Engine Journal [10]. These are tricks that deliberately hide instructions in a page to steer AI answers. It is not directly related to backlinks, but if someone offers you a package "guaranteed to get cited by AI" using hidden tricks, remember this section. Bing states clearly that GEO does not guarantee citations [10].

Summary table: quick identification signs

Trick	Signs	Who named it
Fake backlinks redirecting to an agency	Strange .shop, .site, .store domains; clicking sends you to the agency's site	Warning post by Tran Ngoc Thuy [30]
Mass automated links	Hundreds of links added in a short time, identical content	Google [18]
Low-quality directories and bookmarks	Pages that are nothing but link lists, no content	Google [18]
Widely distributed footer and template links	The same link appears in the footers of many unrelated sites	Google [18]
Keyword-optimized forum signatures	The anchor is the main keyword, repeated in every reply	Google [18]
Excessive link exchanges	2 or more sites constantly linking to each other for no reason	Google [18]
Link farms	Networks of pages that exist only to link to each other	Bing [16][25]
Expired domain abuse	An old domain that has completely changed topic, with thin content	Google [57]
Injecting instructions for AI	Hidden instructions in the page aimed at AI	Bing, according to SEJ [10]

Key takeaways

A good backlink is one the reader has a reason to click: same topic, on a trustworthy site, in the right context, and clicking it reaches your exact page.
When third-party tool data suddenly shows a flood of strange links, cross-check with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools before doing anything [30].
Both Google and Bing describe how they identify and discount unnatural links on their own [2][19][46]. There is no need to pay someone who creates the problem and then sells the cure.

The next section, Checking backlinks from A to Z, explains in detail how to use Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and other tools to review your links.

Checking backlinks from A to Z

Once you have backlinks, the next step is to check them: is the link real, is it still live, what attribute does it carry, and has the search engine seen it yet. This section follows the same order of priority as the whole page: Bing first, Google second, and only then third-party tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz. Last comes how to check a link by hand yourself, and how the PR IFLMMO robot checks every link it sells.

One principle to keep in mind from the start: the source data about Bing lives in Bing Webmaster Tools, and the source data about Google lives in Google Search Console. The other tools use their own bots to collect data, so their numbers are only relative.

Step 1: Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is a free Microsoft tool for website owners. To use it, you add your website and verify ownership, just like with Search Console.

What the Backlinks report tells you

Bing Webmaster Tools has a Backlinks report that lists the links pointing to your website [2]. When Bing removed the Disavow tool in October 2023, Bing stated clearly that the Backlinks report would stay [2]. What sets it apart from Google: this report lets you see links not only for your own website but for any other website as well [2][14]. Since the new Bing Webmaster Tools of 2020, the Backlinks tool can list the backlinks of any site, including similar sites, so you can compare yourself with competitors [15].

This is worth noting because earlier, in 2015, Bing retired the Link Explorer tool (used to look up competitors' links) on October 1, 2015, keeping only the Inbound Links tool for your own site [29]. At that time, Bing allowed exporting up to 1 million links with anchor text [29]. That figure is from 2015; the source does not state the current limit, so check it directly in your own account.

Step by step

Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools and select your verified website.
Open the Backlinks report in the left menu (the item name may change with the interface).
Review the list of websites and pages linking to your site, with anchor text if the report shows it.
To compare with competitors, use the option to view another site's backlinks and enter the competitor's domain [14][15].
Export the data to a file if you need to filter or archive it.

No more Disavow on Bing

Disavow is a tool that tells a search engine "do not count these links". Bing removed both the Disavow tool and its API in October 2023, because Bing's AI systems ignore or devalue unnatural links on their own without affecting natural links [2]. On Bing, your job is to monitor, not to submit a disavow file.

Also track AI Performance

Bing Webmaster Tools also has an AI Performance report (since February 2026) on how many times a website is cited in Copilot and in Bing's AI summaries [20]. This is not a backlink report; for details, see the section Backlinks and AI search.

Step 2: Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free Google tool. It is the only place that shows you the link data Google itself has recorded.

What the Links report tells you

The Links report has these main parts [27]:

Top linked pages: the pages on your site that receive the most links from outside.
Top linking sites: the websites that link to you the most.
Top linking text: the most used anchor texts.
Internal links: internal links between your own pages.

The data is grouped by root domain and by canonical URL (the page's canonical address) [27].

Limits to know

Google states the following points clearly on its help page [27]:

What to know	What it means in practice
The data is a sample	Not every link appears
Removed links may still be listed	A link that is gone may still show for a while
Nofollow links are not shown	A nofollow link is real but does not appear in the report
The table shows at most 1,000 rows	A site with many links will not see them all on screen
Export of up to 100,000 rows	There are options to export latest links and more sample links

The third point matters a lot for link buyers: if you place a nofollow link and do not see it in GSC, that is normal, not an error [27]. To know whether a nofollow link is still live, check it by hand (see Step 5).

Step by step

Sign in to Search Console and select your property (website).
Open the Links report in the left menu.
Look at the Top linking sites block to see which websites link to you. Click a row to see which of your pages they link to.
Look at the Top linking text block to check whether your anchor text is varied and natural.
Use the Export button to download the latest links or more sample links when you need deeper analysis [27].

What about Disavow on Google

Google still keeps the Disavow tool, but calls it an advanced feature, meant for sites that have, or are at risk of, a manual action for unnatural links [46]. Google says that in most cases, Google decides on its own which links to trust [46]. A disavow file is limited to 100,000 lines and 2 MB [46]. In other words, most SEO learners never need to touch this tool.

Step 3: Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz

All three tools have their own bots crawling the web to build their own link index. The upside: you can see the links of any site, with many filters and metrics that make comparison easy. The downside: it is their data, not Google's or Bing's.

Ahrefs

AhrefsBot is the bot that builds the Ahrefs index (and also the index of the Yep search engine) [8]. Ahrefs has a free plan called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, usable for sites you have verified [59]. In this plan, Site Explorer shows up to 1,000 backlinks, and Site Audit has 5,000 crawl credits per project per month [59].

The general method: verify your website in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, open Site Explorer, enter the domain, then review the backlink list with source page, anchor text and link attribute. Note new and lost links to cross-check against Bing Webmaster Tools and GSC.

Semrush

SemrushBot collects data for the Backlink Analytics index [9]. A free Semrush account gets 10 Backlink Analytics lookups per day [60]. With 10 lookups, you can check your own site and a few main competitors.

The general method: open Backlink Analytics, enter a domain or URL, review the overview, then open the backlink list and the referring domains (the distinct domains that link to you).

Moz

Moz has a link index lookup tool called Link Explorer, based on Moz's own crawler [61]. It works like the two tools above: enter a domain, review the link list and the metrics Moz calculates itself. For the free plan's limits and other details, check the Moz site directly, as they can change.

Step 4: Why every tool gives a different number

It happens all the time: Ahrefs reports one number, Semrush another, and GSC shows yet another. No tool is completely "wrong"; each one simply sees the web in its own way. There are 4 main reasons.

1. Robots.txt blocks bots

Robots.txt is a small file at the root of a website that says which bots may enter and which may not. AhrefsBot obeys robots.txt and Crawl-Delay, and a site owner can block it with 2 lines, User-agent: AhrefsBot and Disallow: / [8]. SemrushBot works the same way, blocked with User-agent: SemrushBot and Disallow: /, and the change takes effect within at most 1 hour [9]. When a website blocks these bots, links from that website to yours may never appear in Ahrefs or Semrush, even though Google and Bing still see them.

The reverse happens too. If your own site blocks a bot, that tool will be missing data about your site.

2. The data is a sample

GSC states clearly that the Links report is a sample [27]. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools also shows at most 1,000 backlinks in the free plan [59]. So the number you see is usually not the full total.

3. Delay

Bots need time to reach new pages, and reports need time to update. A link placed today may take a few days or longer to show up. Conversely, GSC may still show a link that has been removed [27].

4. Each tool filters and groups its own way

GSC groups by root domain and canonical URL [27], and does not show nofollow links [27]. Third-party tools have their own ways of grouping and filtering. The same set of links, counted differently, gives different numbers.

Tip: watch out for "fake backlinks" made only to fool tools

Some agencies create fake backlinks from cheap domains that redirect to their own site, then offer a "link removal" service; how to spot and handle this is in the section Tricks to avoid [30].

In short, how to read the numbers

Use Bing Webmaster Tools and GSC as the source data.
Use Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz for relative comparison, to see upward or downward trends and to research competitors.
Do not compare absolute numbers between two tools. Compare the same tool over time.

Step 5: Check a link by hand

When you buy or exchange a specific link, the surest way is to open the page and look yourself. It takes a few minutes and needs no paid tool.

1. Open the page with the link

Open the exact URL of the page said to contain the link. Check whether the page loads, whether it is a real page with content, or a blank page or an error page.

2. Find the link on the page

Use the browser's find shortcut (Ctrl+F on Windows, Cmd+F on Mac) and type your anchor text or brand name. See where the link sits: in the body, sidebar, footer or menu. Is the sentence with the link natural and does it fit the context of the paragraph? Placements are explained in detail in the section Link placements on a website.

3. View the source code

Right-click the link and choose "Inspect" to open the developer tools. You will see code like this:

<a href="https://argusic.com/hardware" rel="nofollow">a laptop and desktop comparison for AI work</a>

Or use view page source (Ctrl+U, or Cmd+Option+U depending on the browser) and search for your domain.

Note: some pages build their content with JavaScript. In that case the original source may not contain the link, but the Inspect tool (which shows the page after it has run) does. Check both.

4. Read 3 things in the link tag

href: the target address. Is it the exact URL you want, the right http or https, the right page?
Anchor text: the text between the opening and closing tags. Is it the exact text that was agreed?
rel: the link attribute. With no rel, or a rel that does not contain nofollow, sponsored or ugc, it is what people commonly call a dofollow link. rel="sponsored" means a paid or advertising link, rel="ugc" means user-generated content, rel="nofollow" covers other cases, and the values can be combined [21]. For the meaning of each type, see the section Link attributes.

Also check whether the top of the page (the head tag) has a meta robots tag containing nofollow or noindex, because that tag applies to the whole page.

5. Check for redirects

Click the link. Does the browser take you to the right target page, or detour through another address? If the href points to an intermediate page before reaching your site, or the reverse, the link looks like it points to you but clicking it goes to another site (exactly the trick above [30]), that is a sign to look more closely. In the Network tab of the Inspect tool, you can see any redirect steps.

6. Record it

Save the source page URL, target URL, anchor text, rel, placement and check date. Repeat periodically to know whether the link is still live. A simple spreadsheet is enough.

Step 6: How the PR IFLMMO robot checks every link it sells

PR IFLMMO applies the same manual checks above, but hands them to a robot, so buyers do not have to open each page themselves.

Opens the real page: after the link is placed, the robot opens the actual live page on the satellite website, not a draft or internal data.
Checks 3 things: the robot checks that the link is on the page, the anchor text is correct, and the rel matches the type the buyer chose (dofollow or nofollow).
Timing: the delivery target is 48 business hours. An order completes when the buyer confirms, or after 48 business hours.
Link edits: the buyer can edit the link 1 time (anchor, target URL, dofollow or nofollow).
Domain changes: if a satellite website moves to a new domain, the backlink stays and follows the new domain.
Tracking by project: buyers can track their backlinks per project, adding them by hand or importing a CSV file.

Even though the robot has checked, you can still do the steps above yourself at any time, especially for nofollow links, since GSC does not show this type [27].

Frequently asked questions

1. Where should I check backlinks first?

For Bing, use Bing Webmaster Tools, because it is Bing's own data and the Backlinks report was kept after Bing removed Disavow [2]. For Google, use the Links report in Google Search Console [27]. Both tools are free and are the source data. Only after that use Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz for relative comparison and competitor research. If you are short on time, just open the two source tools once a month and note any notable changes.

2. Why don't nofollow links show up in Search Console?

Because the Google Search Console Links report does not show nofollow links [27]. This is how the report is designed; it does not mean the link does not exist or that Google cannot see it. To be sure a nofollow link is still live, open the page with the link, find the anchor, and view the source code to read the rel attribute, as described in Step 5. You can also look in third-party tools, but remember their data is only relative.

3. Ahrefs and Semrush report different numbers. Which one should I trust?

Do not pick one as "correct". Each tool has its own bot and index, some sites block their bots through robots.txt [8][9], and the data has delays and different counting methods. Use Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console as the source data. With Ahrefs or Semrush, compare the same tool over time to see whether the trend is up or down, instead of comparing absolute numbers between two tools.

4. Do I need to use Disavow?

On Bing, the tool no longer exists: Bing removed Disavow in October 2023 and said its AI systems ignore or devalue unnatural links on their own [2]. On Google, Disavow still exists but is an advanced feature, meant for sites that have, or are at risk of, a manual action for unnatural links [46]. Google says that in most cases, Google decides on its own which links to trust [46]. So most small websites do not need it.

5. I see many strange links from .shop and .site domains pointing to my site. Is that a problem?

There has been a warning about a trick where some agencies buy cheap domains such as .shop, .site, .store so that tools like Ahrefs and Semrush record links pointing to your site, but clicking them redirects to the agency's site, which then offers a link removal or SEO package [30]. This trick mainly muddies third-party tool data [30]. Stay calm, check Search Console for Google and Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing [30], and do not rush to buy a link removal service.

6. Can I see competitors' backlinks for free?

Yes. Bing Webmaster Tools lets you view other websites' backlinks, not only your own site's, so you can use it for competitor research [2][14][15]. Google Search Console only shows links for sites you have verified. Semrush gives free accounts 10 Backlink Analytics lookups per day [60], enough for a quick look at a few competitors. Combining these two sources gives you a fairly good picture without paying, and you can add manual checks for important links.

7. How long until a newly placed link shows up in the tools?

There is no fixed number. Each tool's bot needs time to reach new pages, and reports need time to update, so a link may appear after a few days or longer. Google also states clearly that the Links report is sample data [27], so some links never appear there. The fastest way to know a link is in place is to open the page with the link and check it by hand. For Bing, IndexNow helps notify new or updated URLs [31], but it affects page discovery, not link value [32].

8. What is the fastest way to check a link's rel?

Right-click the link, choose "Inspect", then read the highlighted a tag. If it has rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc", the link carries that attribute, and these values can be combined [21]. If there is no rel, or the rel does not contain those values, it is what people commonly call a dofollow link. Remember to also check the meta robots tag in the head, because it can apply nofollow to the whole page.

9. Is Bing's AI Performance report a backlink report?

No. AI Performance shows how many times a website is cited in Microsoft Copilot, in Bing's AI summaries and at some partners, with metrics such as Total Citations, Average Cited Pages and sample grounding queries [20]. Bing says these metrics do not reflect ranking or authority [20]. The Backlinks report is where you view links. Still, tracking both helps you see both the SEO side and the GEO side of the same website.

10. If I buy a link at PR IFLMMO, how is it checked?

After the link is placed, the PR IFLMMO robot opens the real page on the satellite website and checks the link, anchor text and rel. The delivery target is 48 business hours, and the order completes when you confirm or after 48 business hours. You can edit the link 1 time (anchor, target URL, dofollow or nofollow) and can track backlinks per project, adding them by hand or importing a CSV. You should still run your own manual checks at any time. For details, see the FAQ.

Get started with PR IFLMMO

PR IFLMMO is a link placement marketplace on the IFLMMO network of satellite review websites. If you have read this far, you already know what a backlink is, how Bing, Google and AI search view links, and how to check a link yourself. This section summarizes how the service works so you can decide for yourself whether it fits.

Placements and prices

Dofollow and nofollow cost the same; you choose the type that fits your plan.

Placement	Price	Max links sold
In-article	$19	2 links per article
Category page	$29	3 links per page
Sidebar	$39	5 links
Home page footer	$49	5 links
Home page	$59	5 links
Header menu	$79	2 links
Sitewide (footer on every page)	$99	3 links

There are also guest posts from $50 and PR articles from $80 (Basic package). See the full list on the pricing page.

The cap on links sold per placement keeps pages from becoming crowded with links. The meaning of each placement is explained in the section Link placements on a website.

How links are placed

The anchor text sits naturally in a sentence that fits the paragraph, exactly as described on this page. PR IFLMMO does not use generic "read more" style templates with a link attached.

Process

You choose a placement, choose dofollow or nofollow, and enter the target URL and anchor text. The delivery target is 48 business hours, the robot opens the real page to check the link, anchor and rel, and the order completes when you confirm or after 48 business hours.

After you have the link

You can edit the link 1 time, the backlink follows the satellite website if it changes domain, and you can track links per project (details in Step 6). Beyond that, monitor it with Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console like any other link.

What PR IFLMMO does not promise

No link service can promise rankings. Bing also states clearly that GEO does not guarantee being cited in AI answers [10]. What PR IFLMMO can do is place the link in the right placement, with the right anchor and the right rel, on a real page, checked by a robot, with tools for you to track it. The rest depends on your content and your overall SEO strategy.

Next steps

See the pricing page to choose a placement that fits your budget.
Read the FAQ if you still have questions about orders, link edits or tracking.
Go back to the Quick summary if you want to review the key points of this page.

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Backlinks for SEO and GEO: Bing, Google and AI Search

Quick summary

What is a backlink

Definition

The parts of a link

Backlinks and mentions

PageRank: why links are scored

Common types of backlinks

Why backlinks still matter

1. Bing still reads and classifies links

2. AI search draws sources from indexed pages

3. Google still counts links, even if they are no longer "king"

4. Links bring real readers

What backlinks cannot do

Link attributes: dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, ugc

What is the rel attribute

Dofollow

Nofollow

Origin

Since 2019: from "directive" to "hint"

Data from AI search

Sponsored

UGC

Old story: PageRank sculpting

Check a link's attribute in 3 steps

Choosing dofollow or nofollow

Link placement on a website

The areas of a page

7 common placements

1. In-content

2. Category page

3. Sidebar

4. Homepage footer

5. Homepage content

6. Header menu

7. Sitewide (footer on every page)

Comparison table

Links should sit naturally in a sentence

Image links

Placements at PR IFLMMO

Backlinks in Bing

How Bing views backlinks

Links should come naturally

Bing's AI tells natural links from unnatural ones

Bing's position at a glance, milestone by milestone

The Backlinks report in Bing Webmaster Tools

A short history of Bing's link tools

What the Backlinks report tells you

Comparing with competitors right inside BWT

Bing has dropped Disavow: what it means for you

What Disavow is

Bing dropped Disavow in October 2023

Practical consequences

IndexNow: tell Bing that your page just changed

What IndexNow is

How IndexNow relates to backlinks

How to turn on IndexNow

AI Performance and Citation Share: measuring how often AI cites your website

AI Performance (February 2026)

Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare (June 2026)

How to use AI Performance together with the Backlinks report

Bing Webmaster Guidelines in 2026: Copilot, GEO and AI abuse

What is new

What this means for link builders

Bing checklist for backlinks

Backlinks and AI search (GEO)

What GEO is and where it came from

Key milestones of AI search

How each AI tool selects and cites sources (according to its own documentation)

Google AI Overviews and AI Mode

Microsoft Copilot and Bing

ChatGPT search

Perplexity

Summary table of AI search bots

Research: are backlinks related to being mentioned by AI?

The Semrush study (October 2025)

The Ahrefs study (May 2025)

What the 2 studies say together

So how do backlinks help GEO?

Practical GEO checklist