Are backlinks still important in 2026?

If you’ve spent any time reading about SEO, you’ve probably heard two completely different arguments about backlinks.

One says you need as many backlinks as possible to rank. The other says backlinks barely matter anymore.

Neither is particularly useful.

Backlinks are still important for SEO in 2026. What has changed is how you should think about them. Building links today isn’t about collecting hundreds of links from anywhere that will give you one. It’s about earning relevant links from websites where there is a genuine reason for your content to be referenced.

Google’s search systems have become considerably more sophisticated, and links sit alongside many other signals used to understand and rank content. Google representatives have explicitly said links remain important,

Why are backlinks important?

A backlink is simply a link from another website to yours.

For example, imagine you publish a detailed guide to hiking in Peru. Another travel website is writing about planning a trip to Peru and links to your guide because it provides useful information for its readers.

That’s a backlink.

Links have been fundamental to how Google understands the web since its early days. Although Google’s ranking systems have evolved enormously since then, links haven’t simply disappeared from the equation.

There isn’t a magic number of backlinks that will guarantee a particular ranking, and you certainly don’t need a backlink to every page on your website.

But links can still contribute to the wider signals search engines use to understand pages and websites.

They can also provide benefits beyond rankings. A well-placed backlink can introduce your website to a relevant audience, generate referral traffic and help more people discover your content.

This is why we wouldn’t look at link building as something separate from the rest of SEO.

You need useful content worth linking to in the first place. Then link building can help that content gain greater visibility and recognition around the web.

Relevance matters more than simply getting another backlink

This is probably the biggest distinction to make in 2026.

Not every backlink is equally useful.

Suppose you run a travel blog about hiking in Europe.

A link from an established outdoor website within an article about hiking routes makes sense. There’s a clear relationship between its content, its audience and your website.

A random link from a website covering cryptocurrency doesn’t have the same relevance just because both links technically count as backlinks.

That’s why we think relevance should be one of the first things you consider when looking for link opportunities.

Ask yourself whether your website or content genuinely adds something to the page you’re hoping to get a link from.

If the answer is no, it’s probably not an opportunity worth spending much time pursuing.

What makes a good backlink in 2026?

There’s no single metric that can tell you whether a backlink is good.

We’d look at several things together.

Relevance is one of the biggest. Does the website cover subjects related to yours? Does the specific page make sense as somewhere your content could be referenced?

Then consider the website itself. Does it publish useful content? Does it appear to have a genuine audience? Is the article relevant to the link being added?

Context matters too.

A link naturally included within a useful article because it gives the reader additional information makes much more sense than a completely unrelated link inserted into an old page purely because someone wanted a backlink.