Since quality content become more and more important,

I would say that is very debatable with AI ripping-off so many sites these days. If you read through this forum you will find many complaints regarding massive traffic losses even though their sites may have many quality links.

Personally I've never, ever bothered with developing them.

Or, ahem, you could set aside all thoughts of “building” and “developing” and instead stick to specific links that might be interesting or useful to your human visitors. If you make an assertion to which a human might reasonably say “Says who?” or “How do you know?” that’s where you point to your source.

thanks, guys.

Yes - but earn links rather than manufacture them: target relevant trade publications, associations, partners, resource pages and unlinked mentions using original research, useful tools, expert commentary and digital PR.

Google warns against paid, exchanged or manipulative links, while SEO experts say authoritative links still matter - but brand mentions, trusted citations, reviews and real-world reputation increasingly influence Google and AI visibility from what I'm hearing, but not personally experiencing. So depending on what subject vertical you're in, and how competitive your area is, a few well placed mentions could be helpful, i feel.

Also invest in internal linking, technical SEO, genuine expertise, user experience, communities and PR coverage - even when the mention does not include a link.

You may benefit from running through some posts on the Link Building Forum over here: [webmasterworld.com...]

Oh, my bad, I was thinking of outlinks.

But if it's in your power to do so, keep an eye out for human visitors with a referer other than a search engine or legitimate directory. Those mean you've already impressed someone. I mean, of course, actual humans, not referer spam, whether that's old-style robot showing up in logs with putative referer, OR new-style all done in analytics.