Spoiler—there’s no such thing as “just a link.” Most people working in SEO think they know what links are for—until you ask them to explain the difference between a backlink and an external link, or why internal links matter beyond helping a user navigate a page.
That’s not us punching down, it’s just reality. The language around links is often too vague or overly tactical. We talk about SEO tactics without stepping back to define what role each kind of link plays, and why content strategy needs all three: internal, external, and backlinks.
When we think about links only as a means to an SEO end, we miss their real value: structure, trust, and relationships. Internal links build structure, external links build trust, and backlinks build relationships (and rankings). They aren’t interchangeable, nor do they compete. When you use the right link types intentionally, they support something more important than SEO: a content strategy that produces clear, credible, and genuinely discoverable material in search engines, AI results, and by human beings.
Link Types Defined
Before we jump into content strategy, let’s clarify some vocabulary. When we talk about links, we’re referring to three distinct types, each with its own purpose and value.
Internal Links
These are links between pages on your own site. They help users navigate your site and signal its structure and topical depth to search engines. If you’ve published a lot of content around a specific subject and you’ve connected that content well, it tells Google and other engines that you’re a source worth surfacing.
External Links
Outbound links from your site to another domain often act like citations. When we link to a research study, a trusted source, or a relevant article from a well-known organization, that’s an external link. Done correctly, these links add credibility to your content. They show you’re doing more than making claims, you’re backing them up. They can also help spark relationships or brand recognition when used intentionally.
Backlinks
Backlinks are the opposite of external links—they’re when other sites link to yours. These are some of the most valuable signals you can earn. A backlink is essentially someone else saying, “This content is worth referencing.” Backlinks are still one of the strongest ranking factors in traditional SEO, and they’re also closely tied to visibility in AI-powered search experiences. If you want to show up in SGE or in Perplexity’s answer summaries, you need more than well-structured content—you need other sites pointing to yours.
In short:
- Internal links inform search engines about the structure of your content.
- External links show you’ve done your research.
- Backlinks show others trust you enough to cite you.
Backlinks are an authority signal you can’t fake, which makes them invaluable to your SEO strategy.
Backlinks as Reputation
If internal links are about structure and external links are about credibility, backlinks are about reputation.
Unlike the links you control, backlinks are earned. Ultimately, someone else is deciding to link to your site independently of you, which is exactly why search engines treat backlinks as a strong indicator of authority. They’re harder to manipulate, and they act as a digital vote of confidence.
When another brand, publisher, or content creator links to your site, especially one with relevant anchor text, they’re telling search engines “this content is worth referencing.” Backlinks remain one of Google’s top ranking factors and are strongly correlated with visibility in AI-driven search.
They’re uniquely powerful because they increase your favor from the outside in. They drive new traffic to your site, boost your authority in the eyes of search engines, and increase the chances you’ll show up in AI-generated answers to search queries, even when people don’t know your brand yet.
They can also be uniquely frustrating—you can’t just write great content and hope for the best to earn them. You need to commit to visibility, collaboration, and distribution: co-branded content, partnerships, media mentions, webinars (like ours with the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, Backlinks Back, Alright!), and smart guest posting, not spammy links or sketchy PR gimmicks.
Mentions Matter
Backlinks are crucial to maintaining visibility as search engines evolve. We’re not just contending with search engines anymore; we’re dealing with generative engines changing what visibility means on the internet.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the emerging mindset. Instead of aiming to rank for keywords alone, GEO is about showing up in AI-generated summaries, answer boxes, and conversation threads across platforms like Perplexity, Chat GPT, and Google’s SGE.
In the context of GEO, backlinks are part of a broader signal, one that includes branded mentions and contextual authority. Sometimes that comes through a traditional hyperlink, but just as often it’s a brand mention, a cited name, or a consistent presence in relevant conversations that signal trustworthiness to generative engines.
Recent data from Ahrefs suggests the strongest correlations with appearing in AI answer results were found in branded anchor text, domain mentions, and topical consistency, rather than raw backlink count. If your brand is cited frequently around a specific subject—even without a clickable link—it increases your chances of being pulled into AI-generated results.
So what’s the takeaway? Build content that’s actually useful and structure it clearly. Reference sources that matter and give others reason to mention you, through collaboration, research, events, or standard content that’s worth citing.
Getting Started
You don’t need a massive SEO budget or a hundred-domain backlink campaign to get started. What you need is a deliberate, consistent approach across all three link types:
- Start with a content audit. Identify your highest-value pages (solution overviews, pillar blogs, resource hubs) and look for internal linking opportunities that support visibility and conversion goals.
- Build out your internal content network intentionally. Use the hub-and-spoke model: create detailed pillar pages on high-priority topics, then link supporting blog posts, how-tos, or use cases back to them.
- Use external links to support claims, not outsource the story. Link to high-authority sources (e.g., government data and reputable industry publications), but avoid overwhelming your content with outbound links that dilute your voice.
- Limit external links per page. A few well-placed citations go further than a dozen outbound references that make your content look like an aggregator.
- Track your backlinks. Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to monitor who’s linking to you and which pages are earning the most attention. Look at anchor text to see what topics you’re being associated with.
- Create content that earns links naturally. Original research, strong POVs, and co-branded assets like consortium reports or joint webinars tend to perform best for long-term backlink generation.
- Promote new content with backlink strategy in mind. Think beyond your site: where can this content live, and who might reference it? Could you guest post on a relevant site, or collaborate with partners for mutual amplification?
- Think mentions, not just links. As generative engines expand, branded mentions in context are becoming a key signal of authority whether or not they’re hyperlinked. That includes podcast appearances, citations, event recaps, and quotes.
- Measure performance across SEO and GEO. Track traditional KPIs (organic traffic, domain authority) and generative visibility (e.g., Perplexity citations, SGE summaries, ChatGPT plugin exposure). If your content is showing up in AI summary answers, your strategy is working.
Link Strategy is About Intention
If there’s one thing to take from this, it’s that links aren’t just technical tools, but signals of clarity, credibility, and connection. Internal links indicate that your content has a clear structure; external links demonstrate that your content is well-researched. Backlinks show your content is trusted beyond your own walls. None of these work in isolation, and none of them are optional if you’re trying to build sustainable visibility in a world where AI systems are deciding what content to surface, summarize, and cite.
Whether you’re chasing rankings or aiming to appear in search engine results, a solid link strategy remains one of the most effective ways to signal to both humans and machines that your content deserves attention.
Looking for more insights into the value of backlinks? Check out our webinar with Cybersecurity Marketing Society, Backlinks Back, Alright!, or get in touch with us to explore SEO and GEO strategy together.
