Best Link Building Expert Reveals What Actually Works for Agencies in 2026

We sat down with Georgi Todorov,  the person who built Semrush’s internal link building team from scratch, who scaled thrivemyway.com from zero to 100,000 organic visitors a month in eight months and sold it for a six-figure sum ,  to talk about what is really happening in SEO right now. Between AI search, content farms, and shifting Google behavior, we wanted answers. What we learned changed how we think about every single link we build.

Three surprising findings 

1. SEO metrics are almost useless now. Relying on Domain Rating alone is a trap. Metrics cannot distinguish real sites from AI content farms ,  a DR 70 site might have zero human audience.
2. Perfect scalability is a red flag. When a provider guarantees hundreds of links per month at fixed prices, that usually means controlled inventories or private link networks. Real link building is slower and sometimes unpredictable.
3. Editor interaction predicts quality. When a real editor asks questions, requests adjustments, and cares about their audience, that link is valuable. Spam networks almost always reply with price lists instead of questions.

Key findings 

1. The metric trap

Sites with high DR but zero real traffic are likely link farms. Perfect metrics alone cannot be trusted in 2026.

2. The repetition red flag

When the same weibsites appear across many different clients, that is a sign of a link network, not genuine editorial relationships.

3. The traffic pattern test

AI spam farms typically publish large volumes of articles rapidly and then disappear just as fast. Real sites show stable or gradually growing organic traffic over time.

4. The context requirement

In 2026, a powerful contextual link is not just placed inside an article ,  it appears naturally within an idea the article actually discusses, with genuine recommendation from the author.

5. The integration exception

Direct reciprocal linking purely for SEO is risky, but natural ecosystem linking ,  such as two SaaS companies documenting a product integration ,  is completely legitimate when it genuinely helps users.

What this means for SaaS companies 

For SaaS founders, this confirms that buying links based on DR alone is a losing strategy. The real value now comes from human validation ,  real authors, active editors, and consistent publishing activity. You need to audit not just a site’s metrics but its traffic patterns, editorial behavior, and audience signals. In the AI era, a link from a DR 40 site with a real human editor is worth more than a DR 80 site that exists only to sell links. We are moving from metric-based buying to relationship-driven partnerships.

Expert quote 

“The biggest mistake people make is relying only on SEO metrics. Today, metrics alone cannot distinguish real sites from AI content farms. In the AI era, link building is becoming less about metrics and more about human validation. Focus on becoming a source, not just a website. If your brand appears consistently in credible publications, industry discussions, and expert roundups, AI systems like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity start recognizing it as a trusted entity.”

– Georgi Todorov, Founder, Create & Grow

Methodology note 

These findings are drawn from an interview with Georgi Todorov, founder of Create & Grow, combined with observations of industry patterns across link building campaigns. Georgi has been building links since 2016 and previously built Semrush’s internal link building team from scratch in 2021.

Read the complete analysis with full methodology here:
The Best Link Building Expert Reveals What Agencies Get Wrong (And What Actually Works in 2026)

Want to work with Georgi directly? Reach out to his team at Create and Grow