I have been doing SEO for over 20 years now. And while everything changes, everything always stays the same.

It all starts with your site. You have to nail this down.

Now more then ever with AI you need to have this in great shape.
You need to have your content optomized to actually rank. If your site is sitting top 20 with 0 backlinks you are in good shape. Depending on the competition you may even find yourself sitting in the top 10. 

To really nail this part down I still really like seobility.net

You can use the free account and get a good idea of where you are sitting. You want everything to be in the 70 plus range for the best chances at ranking. 

There are a lot of tools out there that will do very similar things. This is just the one I like. 

Once your content and structure are in great shape.  it is time to get started with off site seo. And branding is one of the most important things you can do. 

When building out links. I still like and use my 20-20-40 rule. This seems to be time tested and never has gotten me or my clients into any trouble with the search engines.

This rule applies to anchor ratios:
First 20: is Branded anchors. IE company name.

Second 20 is a mix: I like to mix url variations and keyword anchors. There really is no magic number here.

Third is the 40: This is where generic anchors come in. I like this to be in the 40% range of all anchors coming into the site. Look at it this way. When a real site links to you. It will more then likely be a generic anchor. Not cause they want to do harm, but instead that is how most people link to other sites. 

STEP 1 Foundation Links:  https://legiit.com/MissingLink/branded-foundation-links
Everyone has a different opinion on these. After 20 years one thing has changed for me personally. I no longer want missinglink.site.com as a foundation. I now want something that is something like this seo-lincoln.site.com
There are a couple of reasons for this. Mainly due to niche relevancy. 2nd it helps me be the authority in the local area. And this is something that the LLMs are looking for.

STEP 2 Profile Stacks:  https://legiit.com/MissingLink/profile-backlink-stacks
Profiles and profile stacks are often the most overlooked type of link there really is. This is a great way to build up trust in the search engines. This gives you a great link from some stronger sites. The great things about these is they really are a set it and forget it type of link.
I like to do this for all of the pages on a site. And all too often I will add this multiple times for tougher pages on a site. I always used generic names. This way it never leaves a footprint that the site I am linking to was the one building the links. Most of the links you will get from these are going to be url variations. But, that is good as well.

STEP 3 DAS: https://legiit.com/MissingLink/local-domain-authority-stacks
DAS yes I run a DAS to every page on a site. And often multiple times. This is a natural DAS. Not a flash in the pan great DA today and gone tomorrow. This is a series of links all stacked to work on the topical relevance of a niche. This is really what you are looking for. This is something that will boost little by little as you go. And appears a lot more natural along the way.

STEP 4 400’s: https://legiit.com/MissingLink/i-will-build-out-400-web-20-backlinks
The 400’s for me are not about pushing ranking juice. I use these to get a better anchor ratio and build my link diversity.

STEP 5 Niche Relevant Stacks:  https://legiit.com/MissingLink/stacked-web-20-links
Again this is working on the building of becoming the authority for the niche. Sine I am always adding new sites to the mix. This is something I typically will run at least once a week.

STEP 6 Web 2.0 PBN’s: https://legiit.com/MissingLink/web-20-pbn-service
A web 2.0 PBN is something I have been playing with for a few years now. I keep coming back to these all the time when it comes to starting to really use my keywords for anchors. I really like these for that, for a few reasons. Mainly due to I can control everything on these.     From the posts to the niche. I never have to worry about being in a bad link neighborhood. Or I am going to end up next to a gambling site when I have a site about cars. Yet I get all the benefits form a PBN.

STEP 7 PBN’s My Final Push: https://legiit.com/MissingLink/pbns-that-will-actually-move-the-needle

SERPHAUS PBNS: https://legiit.com/SerpHaus

I have a few different PBN options these days. And it does not really matter what you go with. The main thing is your keyword ratios. These need to be your keyword anchors. Exact match and even longtail keywords. These are what is going to give you the final push you need to get where you want to be in the rankings.

Repeat the steps for links as many times as you need to. This will always vary depending on your site structure, content and competition.

ADDED BONUS:

Citation Booster:  https://legiit.com/MissingLink/citation-booster
   I see it all the time people struggling in maps or even rankings. Often there are a few simple reasons for this. Maps content is typically the biggest reason. People tend to make maps profiles about the company and not what or where they offer for services. And ten they always forget about citations. And that you have just built 300 additional websites to knock the competition out of the way. If you optimize citations correctly. You can rank these on the first page of the search engines for your keywords.

The biggest thing here is you need to build links to the ones that are indexed. And then use keyword anchors not Branded anchors.