Link quality in 2026

Link Decay in 2026

Links do not quietly fade away. They get removed, nofollowed, or deleted. The good news is that this behaviour is predictable once you know what to look for.

What “link decay” usually means

When a placement “goes bad”, it typically falls into one of four buckets.

Dead page The page disappears or becomes inaccessible.
Unlinked The quote remains, but the backlink is removed.
Nofollow added The link stays, but the rel attribute changes.
Still good Live page and a dofollow link remains intact.

Key point: Time alone is not the main driver. The biggest driver is how the site makes money and how often it revisits older content.

Executive summary

Predictable decay comes from predictable behaviours.

Review and affiliate models tend to edit older pages heavily.
High output publications often shift policy over time.
Product and service businesses have fewer incentives to tamper with links.

Use the visuals below as your risk map for prioritising targets and setting expectations.

The 2026 reality: links “decay” because humans touch them later

If your placements are regularly disappearing, it is rarely a mystery. It is usually a footprint of a business model, an editorial policy shift, or an optimisation habit. Once you identify the patterns, you can reduce future decay by prioritising the types of sites that are least likely to edit older articles.

Visual 1: Link decay risk arc

Highest risk

Higher than average

Average

Lower than average

Lowest risk

Use this as a prioritisation map. It is not about “good” or “bad” brands. It is about predictable link intervention behaviour over time.

Tier guidance: what to expect and why

Tier 1: Review and affiliate sites

High churn environments. Content is frequently rewritten to improve conversions and rankings. Outbound links are often treated as variables.

Tier 2: High output publications

Often stable pages, but evolving editorial policies. Retroactive nofollow changes are a common outcome.

Tier 3: Lifestyle and finance

Mixed incentives and mixed behaviour. Pitch when relevance is strong, otherwise expect higher variance.

Tier 4: Business and news

Generally stable. News can retire pages, but while a page is live, links often remain intact.

Tier 5: SaaS, eCommerce, and service company blogs

Typically the safest. These sites publish to support authority and customer trust. They have fewer reasons to revisit and edit outbound links.

Visual 2: Failure modes, by tier

The key takeaway is not the exact percentages. It is the dominant failure mode. Review and affiliate models skew toward link intervention, while product and service businesses skew toward stability.

Visual 3: DR curve and why both ends can be risky

DR still matters for authority, but it does not guarantee stability. Focus on business model first, then layer DR as a secondary filter.

What to do with this

Practical approach:

Prioritise Tier 4 and Tier 5 when you want long term link reliability.
Use Tier 1 and Tier 2 selectively, with clear expectations and monitoring.
Track known repeat offenders and stop pitching them early.
Judge targets by incentives and habits, not just brand name or DR.

Client safe takeaway: HARO is still effective in 2026, especially when placements are selected with a focus on site incentives and link intervention risk.

Evidence based stats for the footer

~90%+ link health is achievable once repeat offender domains are removed from targeting.

Most decay can be traced to a small number of domains that repeatedly remove, nofollow, or delete pages.

Product and service sites show the highest long term stability compared with affiliate driven models.

DR has a curve effect with higher risk at both extremes for different reasons.

Nofollow changes are typically policy driven and applied after publication, not an accident.

Behaviour beats time as a predictor of decay: incentives and editorial habits explain most outcomes.

Tagged haro seo