AI will undoubtedly have significant ripple effects in SEO, but the importance of establishing authority won’t be diminished.
Your content will now face more competition, including AI results in the SERP and AI-produced content from other publishers.
Delivering signals of authority and value will be more critical than ever. As long as organizations and individuals continue to publish content, backlinks will remain an essential part of that authority.
If you’ve been in the SEO field for as long as I have, you’re likely to receive numerous LinkedIn messages daily from "link building agencies" promising you a certain number of links.
It’s not just super-annoying; it’s also the wrong approach to acquiring links for your content.
Link building is important. Establishing external authority matters.
So, let’s discuss a better way to do it (and turn off fewer people in the process): creating content that naturally generates links, or what I call writing content with link intent.
In this article, I’ll break down how to approach link intent, including:
- The philosophy behind content that generates links.
- The business significance of effective link intent.
- Practical steps to plan content with link intent.
The Philosophy Driving Content with Link Intent
Link building and content creation should be part of the same process (although I’ve found that to be rare). Treating link building as a separate initiative often leads to the mistake of optimizing for links alone without considering the downstream effects.
Instead, start by thinking about who in your community cares—or should care—about what you’re writing and why.
Content generated from this mindset, not a quantity-based "must get links" attitude, has a far better chance of passively gaining links over time.
If you do the work of writing strong, relevant content that makes people want to share it, and you’ve provided value, the links will come (without the need to send spammy emails).
When working in content and link building silos, your resources might be aiming for a target number of links and asking for link swaps.
In my experience, this strategy often disregards the relevance or usefulness of the content being promoted, which is contrary to what good content should achieve.
Content that aligns with Google’s helpful content guidelines—providing value and enhancing the user experience—will appeal to the people who write about the same concepts and are searching for fellow experts to validate their positions.
If you can produce content good enough to contribute to a topic’s discourse, it will attract links, and Google will recognize its relevance. It’s a much deeper and more integrated approach than just focusing on link numbers.
The Business Significance of Effective Link Intent
I can confidently tell you that I’ve secured several clients for my agency thanks to the content I’ve written. Chances are that many B2B businesses can make similar claims.
Content good enough to generate passive links has a great chance of being shared and driving referral traffic, which is generally undervalued in SEO.
Valuable content produced with link intent will naturally attract links and equity over time, creating a built-in snowball effect.
This not only saves you time with link outreach but ideally creates a network of related sites and publishers for referral traffic that can provide significant value over time.
Think of it as an organic version of affiliate marketing, which is a huge channel and gaining traction.
Practical Steps to Building Content with Link Intent
Ready for a checklist to get you started?
You’ll notice an outreach component, but it comes near the end after the extensive work on relevance is done.
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Research keywords where bloggers and journalists are searching for references (these keywords often include “statistics” or “reports”). Use platforms like Reddit, Quora, Twitter, and tools like Ahrefs and Exploding Topics.
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From those keywords, build a list of topics around which your team can offer valuable insights and perspectives.
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Research a list of writers and journalists who cover those topics.
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Find expert resources (either internal or closely connected) and interview them for materials to build a cache of content.
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Refine and develop that content into contemporary insights using Google Trends and social listening, with an emphasis on timing and a list of audience modifiers to heighten relevance.
- Example: Get a list of tips from an expert targeted to help hay fever sufferers (niche audience/modifier) get a better night’s sleep (core topic) during a particularly bad high pollen count period (relevance).
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Pitch a group of writers and journalists who cover your theme and/or sub-theme on why this matters right now and how it’s different from other content they might reference.
- If (or even before) those writers and journalists link to your content, follow them on their social channels to deepen your connection for future opportunities.
Does this work? Consider Todoist, whose unique presentation of productivity methods has generated hundreds of referring domains—a number that’s grown 50% year over year and significantly contributed to the brand’s growth.
Honing in on Intent-Driven Link Building
I talk to many SEOs these days who put less emphasis on link building than they did years ago.
In my opinion, this is less about links losing importance and more about old link building tactics becoming obsolete.
A link-intent approach that combines great content with strategic outreach is more effective, evergreen, and efficient than siloed content and link initiatives.
It also enhances your brand’s reputation, which, along with driving incremental traffic, positively influences your users’ experience.
