Off-site SEO, Digital PR, and link building campaigns have grown rapidly in recent years, largely because Google has continued to place increased emphasis on backlinks from authoritative third-party websites, a focus that was further reinforced by the Google leaks in 2024.

The problem is that, heading into 2026, building links purely for Google rankings is no longer enough. Search is no longer a simple act of “Googling” something. Instead, it has evolved into a far more fragmented and complex landscape that spans Google, Reddit, LLMs, and social platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.