73.2% believe backlinks influence AI search visibility

Editorial.link's 2025 practitioner survey finds that 73.2 per cent of respondents believe backlink authority materially affects which sources large-language-model search engines cite in their answers. The figure is meaningful because it is a belief signal more than a measurement; the underlying causal evidence is still emerging, but the practitioner consensus that backlinks-as-AI-input is a real channel is now firmly the majority view. For programmes planning 2026 link investment, the practical implication is that link budget is increasingly defended both as a Google ranking signal and as a source-authority signal feeding AI answer surfaces. Budgets justified on dual purpose are easier to defend.