Off-page SEO in 2026 is more than links

Off-page SEO used to mean link building and little else. That framing is too narrow now, because the systems deciding whether an AI answer cites you read a wider set of signals than the classic link graph.

Three things off-page work covers today: editorial links from sites with their own audience, which are worth more than ever precisely because the cheap stuff has been devalued; unlinked mentions that build the entity even with no anchor tag; and citations in AI answers, which compound, since a brand that gets quoted becomes more quotable.

The full argument is in this piece on off-page work for AI visibility, with a Poland market version.

The goal has shifted from a higher position to being the entity an answer engine is comfortable naming.