How to build backlinks: Start from the pages that already decide

What do you offer a page to earn a link?

Editors add a link when it makes their page better for their readers. What makes a page better:

• A missing entry. A roundup of tools in your category that leaves you out is incomplete. A short, factual note with what you do and who for is an easy addition.
• A fact or data point. Original data from your product or your own research, with its method and sample size. Editors link to sources.
• A correction. If a page states something wrong about your category or your product, the correct fact with its source is welcome.
• A better resource. If a page links to an outdated tool, guide or study, point to a current one, yours if it genuinely is the better one.
• Expertise. A quote or a short explanation on a topic you know well, for a writer working on it.

What does not work: asking for a link because you would like one.

How do you write the pitch?

Short and specific. Under 150 words, one ask, signed by a real person. It should contain the exact page you mean, what is missing or wrong on it, what you offer, and why it helps their readers. Do not attach a list of everything you do. Do not send a follow-up more than once.

Pitches work best from a real person's own mailbox. A reply then lands where the conversation can continue.

What does Google count as link spam?

Google defines link spam as "the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings", and lists examples:

Paid placements are fine when the link is qualified so it does not pass ranking credit. They can bring visitors; they do not help rankings.

Do backlinks help with AI answers?

In a different way. Google's ranking uses links as one signal among many. AI answers read text: when an engine cites a roundup, it reads what the roundup says about each product. Being named on that page matters even without a link, because the engine sees the mention.

So for AI search, the target is the mention on a cited page; the link is a bonus. For Google, the link is the target. The good news is that the same pitch earns both.

How do you measure backlink work?

Count outcomes, not effort:

• Placements: pages that now mention or link to you, each one checked on the live page.
• Relevance: how many of those pages rank or are cited for your buying questions.
• Effect: whether the questions those pages decide moved after the placement. Re-read the answers and compare with before.

A pitch sent is not a placement. A placement promised is not a placement. Check the live page.

How do you keep a placement once you have it?

Placements decay. Roundups are rewritten, guides are updated, and an entry that was accurate last year can describe a product you no longer sell. Keep a simple list of every page that mentions you, with the date you last checked it and what it says. Once a quarter, re-read each page. Where your entry is out of date, send the editor the new facts in two lines. Editors who maintain a list usually welcome corrections; it saves them the research.

The same list tells you where to focus next. If most of your placements are on pages that no longer rank or are no longer cited, the effort should move to the pages that replaced them.

How long before backlinks show an effect?

There is no fixed timeline. A new link has to be found when Google recrawls the linking page, and its effect on rankings, if any, settles over the following weeks. For AI answers, a mention on a cited page can be read the next time the engine reads that page, which may be quick or slow depending on the engine. Judge a quarter's work at the end of the quarter, against the questions those pages decide.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Volume targets. "Fifty links this month" pushes towards the low-quality sources Google lists as spam.
• Irrelevant links. A link from an unrelated site helps no buyer and little else.
• Anchor text manipulation. Asking every site for the same keyword-rich link text looks engineered.
• Ignoring mentions without links. For AI answers, a plain mention on a cited page is valuable.
• No owner. Pitches without a person who keeps the relationship are one-off emails.

How does Attensira build placements?

Attensira builds links from the deciding pages, as this post does: for the questions you track, on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI, with Gemini from Growth, it ranks the pages that decide each answer and marks which ones you are already on. For a page that cites competitors and not you, it reads the page, finds who runs it from the page itself, and drafts a pitch under 150 words with the evidence attached: the answer passage that cited the page and the one page of yours that answers what its readers came for. Nothing is ever sent from an Attensira domain; drafts go to your own Gmail or Outlook, the first ten pitches are sent by you, and there is a cap of two pitches a day. A placement counts as verified only when the live page shows you and a later answer cites it.

That is the service of an SEO agency at the price of a tool, with your name on every email. See off-site work, or run the free audit to see which pages decide your answers today.