Link building
Link building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours. Some of it is asking people you already work with to link to you. Some of it is making something worth linking to. Google's spam policies draw the line at links made mainly to manipulate rankings, and our link spam entry lists what that covers.
Source: Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search: Link spam (updated August 28, 2026), checked October 29, 2026
What Link building means for your business
Google says most new pages it finds come through links, and that links from other sites build up on their own over time. Its SEO starter guide suggests helping that along with word of mouth, community work and your web address on business cards and posters.
Guest posting, writing an article for someone else's site, is a common tactic. It's fine when the article is for that site's readers. It turns into link spam, by Google's rules, when the point is the keyword links inside it. We don't pay for links. Google's spam policies count paid links that pass ranking credit as link spam.
For a local business, we think the links worth having come from real relationships: a team you sponsor, a customer who's also a business, a neighborhood business you work alongside, an event you host. We'd list the places that already know you and check whether they link to you at all. If you've paid for link packages before and aren't sure what they left behind, a look at your links and listings is a sensible place to start.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview gave a plain definition, said links matter for AI answers too, and cited SEO tool blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube but no Google pages. ChatGPT listed tactics, guest posts first, and cited no sources.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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