I’ve just read Kevin Indig’s recent Growth Memo
If backlinks were the currency of the pre-LLM web, this week’s analysis is a first look at whether they’re still legal tender in the new AI search economy.
So go read his great piece, infact be bold and become a subscriber, then come back to this and run through this checklist. This is what I’m going to be doing.
Identify Targets
- Set one 90-day goal you can measure (e.g., +X qualified leads or +Y key pages in top 3).
- Pick 5–7 priority pages to lift; ignore the rest for now.
Links & mentions
- Prioritise unique referring domains over raw link counts.
- Say yes to nofollow when it’s relevant (directories, vendor lists, event pages, bios).
- Do a monthly reverse-image search on my original photography I share on Unsplash and Pexels and request missing attributions.
- Co-create one resource with a complementary local business and swap image credits + links.
Content you can ship this month
- Ship one image-led post (original chart, map, example) and one quick Q&A post with schema.org FAQ schema.
- Add 2–3 internal links from related articles to each priority page.
- Refresh a proven post: new stat, screenshot, example, and a tighter intro.
Technical hygiene
- Add/confirm schema where it matters:
LocalBusiness,Product/Service,Article,FAQPage. - Compress images, write real alt text, and keep LCP under ~2.5s.
- Fix orphan pages; every page needs at least one sensible internal link in.
Local signals
- Standardise NAP (name, address, phone) everywhere; match ABN details.
- Update the main AU listings you actually use (business directories, industry bodies, chambers).
Cadence & tracking
- Track monthly: unique domains, nofollow count, image-credit links, branded search.
- Re-pitch one contribution you’ve already made with a fresh data point to keep the link alive.
- Review what earned links this month and double down; kill what didn’t.
Short, doable, and compounding.
Tidy the basics, publish more, and collect credit where your my shows up.