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The Link Letter

Link building and AI search, with the real numbers left in.

Off-page SEO for the AI era. Our own studies, the best research out there, real link operations and tools you can run on your own data.

No paywall. Unsubscribe any time.

Amit Raj
The Link Letter

Amit Raj

Founder, The Links Guy

Built links across more than forty industries since 2015. Independently run, reader-supported.

Buy me a coffee →

Featured in

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● ━━━ FROM RECENT EDITIONS

Data you can check

4,964

links from our own build history, set against what the link market actually sells.

Read the study →

67.8%

of pages AI cites don't rank for your head term.

Read the edition →

62%

of brand citations don't name the brand.

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● ━━━ WHAT YOU GET

What lands in your inbox

01 Original studies and the best research

Our own data, plus the best studies out there, reported warts and all with my honest take.

02 Real operations, behind the curtain

My own experiments, past client work and other people's operations, with the screenshots and numbers left in.

03 Tools you can run yourself

Calculators, Claude Code skills and trackers you can run on your own numbers.

● ━━━ LATEST EDITION

The Link Economy Report 2026

Oct 6, 2026

•

15 min read

The Link Economy Report 2026

Half of what we've built, no marketplace database sells. 4,964 links and 2,922 root domains, set against what the link market actually stocks.

● ━━━ THE ARCHIVE

Recent editions

View all editions →

what it takes to own a category in search

Sep 22, 2026

•

8 min read

what it takes to own a category in search

what opusclip and respona did instead of chasing keywords.

Link building in the DMs

Sep 8, 2026

•

11 min read

Link building in the DMs

if your outreach keeps going quiet, it might not be your copy.

What AI search is actually worth

Aug 25, 2026

•

9 min read

What AI search is actually worth

Record enquiry rates, bottom-of-the-pack close rates, a fraction of the deal size. The SEO ROI maths on AI traffic - plus a free tracker and dashboard to run it on your own numbers.

There is no AI search

Aug 11, 2026

•

10 min read

There is no AI search

There are four engines reading four different internets - and a deindexed spam site topped the dashboards that pretend otherwise. The map, engine by engine.

The state of international link building, 2026

Aug 4, 2026

•

8 min read

The state of international link building, 2026

Where links really are half price, what the quality actually is, and the one question that decides if it's worth a cent.

what do a comedy show, a handyman and a botox clinic have in common?

Jul 28, 2026

•

4 min read

what do a comedy show, a handyman and a botox clinic have in common?

They all got advice on the house. Here's what it saved them.

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New studies and tools, straight to your inbox. No paywall, and you can unsubscribe any time.

The Link Letter

Practical link building and off-page SEO for the AI era, with the real numbers left in.

Independently run and reader-supported. Buy me a coffee →

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