How to Build Backlinks That Get You Recommended by AI
Forget everything you learned about link building. AI changed the game.
Here's the thing nobody in the SEO world wants to say out loud: most link building advice is for Google circa 2015. It's outdated. AI visibility is a different animal. Links still matter, but the reason they matter has completely changed. You're not trying to manipulate a PageRank algorithm. You're trying to get your business mentioned in enough authoritative places that when an AI model gets trained on the web — or browses it live — your business is part of the picture. That's it. That's the whole game.
Why links matter for AI (and why your SEO guy is wrong about it)
When ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity was trained, it ate billions of web pages. Not all pages are created equal. Pages from .gov sites, major news outlets, industry associations, and established directories carried more weight because — surprise — the internet already had a trust hierarchy before AI came along. Links were part of that hierarchy.
But here's where traditional SEO people get confused. They think about links as "votes" that boost rankings. That's the Google model. The AI model is simpler and, honestly, harder to game: if authoritative sources mention your business, you end up in the training data. If they don't, you don't. There's no trick. There's no hack. You either exist in the places AI learns from, or you're invisible.
Stop thinking about "link juice." Start thinking about "training data presence." That mental shift will save you months of wasted effort.
Do this right now: open Google and search your business name + "site:yelp.com OR site:bbb.org OR site:yellowpages.com". Count how many real, accurate results come back. Write down the number.
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3+ accurate results — You have a foundation. Not great, not terrible. Keep reading.
1-2 results, or they have wrong info — This is your weekend project. Section 2 below. Do it before anything else.
Zero results — You basically don't exist to AI right now. The good news: you can fix this in one focused afternoon. The bad news: you should have done it six months ago.
The boring stuff that actually works: directory listings
I know, I know. "Claim your directory listings" sounds like advice from 2012. But here's the thing: most businesses still haven't done it completely. I audit local businesses every week and probably 7 out of 10 have an incomplete Yelp page, a missing Bing Places listing, or a GBP with half the fields empty. These are the exact sources that AI data pipelines pull from. This is not glamorous work. It is the work that matters.
Honestly? For most local businesses, just getting your 10 basic directory profiles complete and consistent is 80% of the work. I've seen businesses jump from invisible to recommended by AI after doing nothing more than cleaning up their directory presence. No fancy content strategy. No PR campaign. Just accurate, complete listings on the sites that AI actually learns from.
1.Google Business Profile — do this first, do it completely
Go to business.google.com. Claim it or create it.
Verify. Google will send a postcard or call you or email you — it depends on the moon phase apparently.
Fill in EVERY field. Name, address, phone, hours, website, description, services, photos. If there's a field, fill it.
Upload at least 10 real photos. Not stock photos. Photos of your actual business, your actual team, your actual work.
"Done" means zero empty fields. Not "mostly done." Zero.
2.Yelp — yes, even if you hate Yelp
Go to biz.yelp.com and search for your business.
Claim it or create it. Verify via phone or email.
I get it, Yelp's business model is annoying. Doesn't matter. Yelp data feeds into AI training data at a massive scale. Hold your nose and complete your profile.
Write a real description — at least 250 words. Upload your logo and 5+ photos.
Set your business hours and categories accurately.
3.BBB (Better Business Bureau)
Go to bbb.org and search for your business.
You do NOT need to pay for accreditation. The free listing is enough for AI visibility.
Fill in your description, contact info, and service area.
That .org domain carries real weight in training data. Don't skip this one.
4.Bing Places
Go to bingplaces.com. Sign in with a Microsoft account.
This is the one most people skip. Bing Places data feeds directly into ChatGPT's browsing results. Directly. If you skip every other directory on this list, do not skip this one.
Complete every field and verify.
- Apple Maps — mapsconnect.apple.com. Takes 5 minutes. Apple Maps data feeds Siri recommendations.
- Yellow Pages (YP.com) — click "Add/Edit Business." Old-school but still in training data.
- Facebook Business Page — yes, this counts. AI models trained on web data absolutely include Facebook business pages.
You're going to submit to all of these and 3-4 of them will take 1-3 weeks to verify or approve. Don't sit around waiting. Submit them all in one sitting, then move on to the next section while they process.
Home services (plumber, electrician, HVAC, roofer, landscaper) — Also claim: Angi (angi.com/pro), HomeAdvisor (pro.homeadvisor.com), Thumbtack (thumbtack.com/pro). These three are disproportionately represented in AI training data for home services queries. Non-negotiable for your vertical.
Legal (attorney, law firm) — Also claim: Avvo (avvo.com/claim-profile), FindLaw (lawyers.findlaw.com), Justia (justia.com/lawyers). When someone asks ChatGPT for a lawyer recommendation, these are the sources it pulls from. Full stop.
Healthcare (doctor, dentist, therapist, clinic) — Also claim: Healthgrades (healthgrades.com/physicians/add), Zocdoc (zocdoc.com/physicians/onboarding), Vitals (vitals.com/claim). Medical directories carry enormous weight because AI models are cautious about medical recommendations and lean heavily on established sources.
Financial services (accountant, financial advisor, insurance) — Also claim: NAPFA directory (if you're fee-only), your state CPA society directory, FINRA BrokerCheck if applicable. These are the trust anchors AI uses for financial recommendations.
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After claiming each directory — Check that your business name, address, and phone number are IDENTICAL across every single listing. Not similar. Identical. "123 Main St" and "123 Main Street" are NOT the same to an aggregator.
You found duplicate listings on a directory — Claim or merge them before doing anything else. Duplicates confuse aggregators and they'll either pick the wrong one or flag both as unreliable.
The most underrated backlink in local business: your chamber of commerce
I'm going to say something that will sound weird coming from someone who does this for a living: chamber of commerce memberships are insanely underrated. One $200 chamber membership gets you a .org backlink from a locally authoritative source that AI models trust more than 50 blog guest posts. It's not even close.
Chamber websites are .org domains with deep local authority. They're referenced by local news, government sites, and other chambers. They're exactly the kind of source that shows up heavily in AI training data for local business queries. And almost nobody in the "link building" world talks about them because they're not sexy.
1.Join your local chamber and get listed
Search "[your city] chamber of commerce" and look at their member directory.
Call them. Most have tiers starting under $300/year. Some have micro-business tiers under $150.
Once you're listed, make sure your profile has your full NAP, website link, and business description.
Ask if they'll include a direct backlink to your website in your listing. Most do by default, but check.
2.Find your industry association directories
Search "[your industry] national association" and check their member directory.
Also search "[your industry] association [your state]" for state-level directories.
Some require paid membership. Do the math: if a $200/year membership puts you on a high-authority industry directory, that's cheaper than any link-building service you'll ever hire.
Fill in your profile completely. Don't just get listed with a name and phone number — write a real description.
3.Local and regional business directories
Search "[your city] business directory" and "[your metro area] business directory".
Look for directories run by local newspapers, city business journals, or neighborhood associations.
These are often free. Submit to every legitimate one you find.
If a directory looks like it hasn't been updated since 2019 and has popup ads, skip it. You want sources that are actively maintained.
A rule of thumb I use: if the directory shows up when you Google "[your city] [your service]" on the first two pages, it's worth being listed on. If it doesn't, it's probably not in AI training data either.
Local press: the hardest link to get and the most valuable one
One article in your local newspaper or business journal mentioning your business is worth more than 50 directory listings. I'm not exaggerating. Local news sites are among the highest-authority sources in AI training data, and they're also indexed by live-browsing AI tools like Perplexity in real time. The problem is you can't just claim a news listing. You have to earn it.
You have a genuinely newsworthy story (expansion, major hire, community impact) — Pitch it directly. Find the reporter who covers small business or your industry at your local paper. Email them: two sentences on the story, two on why their readers would care, your phone number. Follow up exactly once after 3 days. That's it. Do NOT send a 500-word press release as the first email.
You don't have an obvious news hook right now — Make one. Sponsor a local youth sports team and issue a press release. Survey 100 of your customers about something relevant and publish the results. Partner with a local nonprofit for an event. These aren't fake — they're real things your business should be doing anyway. The press angle is a bonus.
1.Find your media targets
Search "[your city] newspaper" and "[your city] business journal." Find the actual reporter names.
Check local TV station websites — they cover business stories more than you think.
Find local bloggers and neighborhood newsletters. Lower authority than a newspaper, but easier to get into and still credible.
Make a spreadsheet: name, outlet, email, beat. You'll use this more than once.
2.Write a pitch that doesn't get deleted
Under 150 words. Total. Journalists delete long emails without reading them.
Subject line: "[Specific story idea] — [your city] [your industry]." Not "Press Release" or "Business Announcement."
First sentence: what happened. Second sentence: why their readers should care. Third: who you are in one line.
End with your phone number. Some journalists prefer to call. Make it easy for them.
3.Use expert query services (this actually works)
Sign up for HARO (helpareporter.com), Qwoted (qwoted.com), and SourceBottle (sourcebottle.com). All free.
Check your inbox every morning. When a query matches your expertise, respond the same day. Speed wins.
Keep responses under 200 words. Lead with your expert take, not your bio.
When you get quoted, ask the journalist to link to your website. They don't always, but many will if you ask.
Fair warning: this takes patience. You might pitch 10 times before you land one piece of coverage. That one piece will be worth more than a month of directory submissions. Keep going.
A rant about what you should NOT be doing
I need to get this off my chest because I keep seeing the same garbage advice recycled in every "link building" blog post, and people keep following it. Stop.
Buying links. Just stop. I don't care if some agency told you they have "relationships" with high-DA sites. I don't care if the Fiverr gig has 5-star reviews. Buying links doesn't just risk Google penalties anymore. AI models are getting genuinely good at identifying paid link patterns in training data. When your business shows up on 30 random blogs that all have the same template and all link to unrelated businesses, you look like spam. To Google AND to AI. You're paying money to make yourself look less trustworthy.
Submitting to every directory you can find. I had a client come to me with listings on 200+ directories. Sounds impressive until you look at them: half were spam farms, a quarter hadn't been updated since 2017, and the business name was spelled three different ways across them. That didn't help. It actively hurt because the inconsistency made aggregators distrust ALL of the data.
- Private blog networks (PBNs) — these were sketchy in 2018 and they're toxic now. AI companies explicitly filter out known PBN content.
- Exact-match anchor text everywhere — "best plumber in Austin" as your anchor text on 40 different sites looks exactly as manipulative as it is.
- Building all your links in one month then stopping — a spike followed by silence is the signature of a link-buying campaign. It looks unnatural because it is.
- Guest posting on sites nobody reads — if the site's only purpose is to accept guest posts, its value in AI training data is approximately zero.
- Ignoring your existing backlink profile — bad links you don't even know about can be dragging you down. Check at least quarterly.
- Paying for "directory submission services" that submit you to 500 directories for $99 — you're paying someone to create a mess you'll have to clean up later.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: there are no shortcuts that work for AI visibility. The shortcuts that "worked" (barely) for Google SEO in 2015 are actively counterproductive now. The businesses winning in AI recommendations built their presence the slow, boring way. I wish I had sexier advice.
1.Set up monitoring so you catch problems early
Create a free account at Ahrefs (ahrefs.com/backlink-checker) or just use Google Search Console's Links report.
Check your backlink profile quarterly. Look for links from sites that look spammy — casino sites, foreign-language spam, sites with no real content.
If you find bad links, use Google's Disavow Tool to exclude them.
Set up a Google Alert for your business name (google.com/alerts) so you know when someone mentions you.
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Your backlink profile is mostly quality sources — Good. Focus on growing it steadily with the tactics above. Don't get complacent.
You see a bunch of low-quality or weird links — Disavow them before adding any new links. Starting clean matters more than adding volume.
You previously paid for link building or used a "black hat" service — Disavow everything from that period. It takes 3-6 months to recover but the recovery is real. I've seen it happen.
Content that earns links on its own (if you do it right)
Everything above is active link building — you go get the links. This section is about creating something good enough that people link to you without being asked. It's harder, it takes longer, and when it works it compounds over time in a way that outreach never does.
The key: specificity. "10 Tips for Hiring a Plumber" gets zero links. "What Austin Homeowners Actually Pay for Repiping in 2026: A Price Breakdown from 47 Real Jobs" gets links from local blogs, neighborhood Facebook groups, and occasionally the local news. The difference is local data that doesn't exist anywhere else.
1.Create a definitive local resource
Pick a topic where you have real data that nobody else has published locally.
Examples that actually work: "Complete Guide to [Service] Costs in [City] (2026)", "[City] Homeowner's [Industry] Maintenance Calendar", "What [State] Law Actually Says About [Relevant Topic]".
Make it thorough — 2,000+ words, real numbers, local references.
Publish it, then email it to your chamber of commerce, local bloggers, and any relevant community groups. Don't just post and pray.
2.Publish original local data
Survey 50-100 of your customers about something relevant. You have their contact info. Use it.
Write up the results with a headline that a journalist would actually want to cover: "[City] Homeowners Spend 40% More on Emergency Repairs Than Planned Maintenance, Survey Finds."
Pitch the data to local reporters. Original local data is catnip for journalists who need to fill column inches.
The content that earns links is specific, local, and has a point of view. Generic "tips" posts earn nothing. Data-backed, locally grounded, opinionated content earns links from sources that AI actually trains on. There's a direct line from "useful local content" to "AI recommends your business." It just takes 3-6 months to see it.
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