Despite the purchase and sale of links being directly against Google’s guidelines, you’ve probably noticed that it isn’t really stopping anyone.
And, chances are, you’ve tried reaching out to some webmasters only to be met with a price.
Don’t pay them!
Instead, learn how to get free backlinks below.
For some strategies, however, you may need to provide an indirect link in return – but it’s not the same as straight up paying for it.
Link building cheat sheet
Linkable Assets
Creating linkable assets is a foundational strategy for acquiring free backlinks.
These assets, sometimes called “link magnets,” are pieces of content designed to naturally attract links from other websites.
They’re valuable because they help you rank for a broader range of keywords and uncover more link-building opportunities.
Think of it this way: you need something compelling to offer when asking for a link.
It’s much easier to secure relevant backlinks for informative and helpful content, like blog posts, than it is for generic homepage or product pages.
Linkable assets provide that value.
Almost any type of content can be a linkable asset – a blog post, an infographic, a video, a tool, or even a well-crafted image.
However, some formats are more effective than others at organically attracting backlinks.
Original research, industry studies, and data-backed content tend to be particularly successful because they offer unique insights that others want to share and reference.
However, in reality, you can’t expect the content to generate backlinks – at least in a substantial amount – on its own.
You have to do proactive outreach to get good backlink placements, which leads us to the next section.
Claim Unlinked Mentions
One of the easiest ways to acquire free backlinks is by capitalizing on unlinked mentions.
These are instances where your brand or business is mentioned online, but the mention doesn’t include a hyperlink back to your website.
Think of it as someone talking about you in a conversation but forgetting to give their listeners a way to find you.
This is a low-hanging fruit opportunity because the very fact that you’re mentioned suggests that the website owner already considers your business relevant to their content.
By reaching out and politely suggesting they add a link, you can often convert these existing mentions into valuable backlinks with minimal effort.
It’s a win-win: they enhance their content by providing a helpful link for their readers, and you gain a backlink.
To effectively find unlinked mentions, you’ll need a tool that can identify unlinked mentions of your brand, such as Ahrefs or Respona.
Several backlink tracking and outreach platforms offer this functionality.
Guest Posting
Guest posting remains a highly effective link-building strategy, offering a versatile and relatively straightforward way to earn valuable backlinks.
It involves creating and publishing content on other websites, allowing you to tap into their audience and boost your own site’s authority.
A significant advantage of guest posting lies in the sheer number of websites that accept contributions.
Finding guest posting sites is often as simple as conducting a targeted Google search using phrases like “write for us” combined with your relevant keywords.
Guest posts typically allow you to include at least one high quality backlink back to your own website, often within the author bio or the body of the article.
Many sites also allow links to other relevant resources, creating an opportunity for strategic collaboration.
By linking to your partners’ content in your guest posts, you can build a network of ABC link exchanges. These partners can then reciprocate by linking back to your site from their own guest posts or website content, creating a mutually beneficial web of backlinks.
While manual guest posting outreach is possible, tools like Respona can significantly streamline and automate the process.
Here’s a breakdown of how to leverage Respona for a guest posting campaign.
Begin by creating a new campaign in Respona.
You’ll provide two key pieces of information: the general topics you plan to write about and a sample of your writing.
The topic helps Respona target relevant opportunities, while the writing sample is pulled into your email template, quickly personalizing it.
Click “Use this template” once these are filled out.
Respona offers a pre-built email outreach sequence – but we encourage you to treat it as inspiration for creating your own.
Besides changing the exact wording, ensure compliance with spam regulations by including unsubscribe links, and adjusting the timing of follow-up emails.
We also recommend using the AI-powered Icebreaker variable.
It generates unique, personalized content for each guest post opportunity, based on each opportunity’s website content.
It can even suggest potential guest post topics.
Respona offers two default AI variables (Icebreaker and “P.S.”) and allows you to create custom ones.
The next step is to find guest posting opportunities.
Respona automates this using search operators with common “write for us” variations and your target keywords, and running multiple Google queries.
You can then refine the results using SEO filters based on criteria like domain authority and traffic.
Click “continue” once again for some more advanced settings.
Respona automatically locates the contact information for content and SEO managers at the websites it identifies.
But, you can always customize the search to look for specific employees at your target companies – and even seniority levels, depending on your goal.
Next, you can provide guidelines for your AI variables.
Here, you can specify the desired tone, give examples and requirements for each personalization, share examples of your own writing style – or select topics it should generate guest post ideas around.
Just below, activate the recurring campaign option.
This will automatically rerun the search every few weeks, adding new guest posting opportunities that have popped up in the meantime to your campaign.
Click “Run automation” to start searching for opportunities, find contact information, and personalize emails using AI.
Results are displayed in real-time, as soon as they are found.
In the last step, you can review all the variables, both standard and AI-generated, and add any manual personalizations as needed.
Respona also provides LinkedIn profiles in addition to email addresses – we recommend sending a connection request to your prospects to increase your chances of getting a reply.
As part of the final pre-launch check, Respona performs looks for unsubscribes, recent contacts, and empty placeholders and lets you know if there are any issues.
After launching the campaign, monitor the responses and begin writing your guest posts!
Respona’s shared inbox centralizes all your email accounts, eliminating the need to navigate multiple tabs.
ABC Link Exchanges
ABC link exchanges, also known as three-way link exchanges, are a link building strategy designed to mitigate the risks associated with reciprocal linking.
In a reciprocal exchange, site A links to site B, and B links back to A. This direct swap is easily detected by search engines and can be devalued or penalized.
An ABC link exchange, however, involves three sites: A links to B, B links to C, and C links back to A.
This indirect approach can be more difficult for search engines to identify, potentially passing link equity more effectively.
What Exactly is Link Building? – Respona
While considered safer than reciprocal links, ABC exchanges are not entirely risk-free.
Search engines are constantly improving their ability to detect external link schemes, including patterns that suggest coordinated link building.
Especially if you fall for link farms.
The safest and most effective way to implement ABC link exchanges is through guest posting, which we just talked about.
Competitor Backlinks
Analyzing competitor backlinks is a highly scalable link building strategy.
Every site linking to a competitor but not you represents a potential link opportunity.
This analysis also provides valuable insights into your competitors’ off-page strategies, allowing you to refine your own.
Identifying these “backlink gaps” is crucial for catching up to competitors in search results.
The process begins by identifying your true search competitors.
While you likely know your main competitors, you might be surprised by the number of other businesses you compete with on search engine results pages, especially for long-tail keywords.
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or even free backlink checkers can then be used to analyze these competitors’ backlink profiles.
Focus on dofollow links from high-authority domains (DR 30+ or similar) with significant traffic (1K+ monthly visits is a good starting point).
These are the links that will have the most impact on your SEO.
Most SEO tools offer a “link intersect” or “gap analysis” feature.
This allows you to compare the backlink profiles of multiple competitors and identify websites that link to them but not to you.
These are prime targets for outreach.
Export this list of potential link opportunities for the next phase.
Podcasting
Podcast guest appearances offer a wealth of benefits for building brand authority, expanding reach, and acquiring high-quality backlinks.
They provide a unique opportunity to connect with a highly engaged audience, as podcast listeners are often deeply invested in the topics discussed, making them receptive to your message.
This targeted exposure can translate into increased brand awareness, driving traffic to your website and generating leads.
Our Co-Founder, Farzad Rashidi, exemplifies this, having secured appearances on over 100 podcasts in just over two years through strategic outreach.
One of the most significant advantages of podcast guesting is the ability to showcase your expertise.
Unlike written content, podcasts allow for in-depth conversations, sharing knowledge and insights in conversation.
This builds trust and credibility, positioning you as a thought leader.
This format fosters authentic and relatable content, making it easier for listeners to connect with you and your brand.
For example, Farzad’s appearances often involve discussions on SaaS growth strategies, email marketing best practices, and the future of online outreach, showcasing his expertise and building his reputation within the industry.
Broken Link Building
Broken backlink building, particularly using tools like Ahrefs, is a highly effective, though sometimes niche, strategy for acquiring quality backlinks.
The core concept involves finding broken links on relevant websites and then reaching out to the site owners, suggesting your content as a suitable replacement.
This offers a win-win scenario: the website owner fixes a broken link, improving their site’s user experience, and you gain a valuable backlink.
Ahrefs simplifies the process of identifying these broken link opportunities. By analyzing the outgoing links of competitor websites or sites within your niche, Ahrefs can pinpoint broken external links.
These are prime targets for your outreach.
The effectiveness of this strategy often depends on the niche; larger niches with more websites generally offer more opportunities.
A particularly fruitful scenario arises when a website in your niche shuts down.
In these cases, the entire backlink profile of the defunct site becomes a prime target, as many websites will still be linking to it.
Resource Pages
Resource page link building, while not as dominant as it once was, can still be a valuable search engine optimization strategy, particularly in niche markets.
It involves acquiring organic backlinks from web pages specifically designed to curate valuable resources on a given topic.
These pages, often categorized by niche, provide readers with quick access to helpful and relevant links.
While the sheer volume of links on some resource pages has diluted their individual value over time, securing a placement on a reputable resource page, especially one curated by an industry expert, can still offer significant benefits beyond just SEO.
Even if the “link juice” isn’t as potent as it once was, inclusion on a relevant resource page run by a respected figure in your field offers valuable social proof.
It enhances your site’s authority and makes it more appealing to other bloggers and potential link partners.
These pages also tend to attract a highly engaged, niche-specific audience.
Take, for example, Neil Patel’s link building resource page:
Directing even a small portion of that audience to your website can be incredibly impactful, especially for businesses with higher-priced products or services.
Local directories also fall under this category and are essential for local SEO.
Citation Link Building
Citation link building is a crucial strategy for businesses aiming to improve their visibility in local search results.
When potential customers search for services or products “near me,” citations help ensure your business appears prominently on platforms like Google Maps.
Citations are essentially mentions of your business online, including your name, address, and phone number (NAP).
These mentions can appear on dedicated business directories like Yelp or Google Business Profile, but they can also come from social media platforms, local blogs, or even niche-specific websites.
The benefits of building backlinks through citations are twofold. First, they drive highly targeted traffic to your business.
People searching for local businesses are actively looking for what you offer, making them hot leads.
Second, citations often include backlinks to your website, which contribute to your local search ranking.
These backlinks signal to search engines that your business is a legitimate and relevant entity within your local area.
While some directories offer nofollow backlinks only, which don’t directly pass link equity, they still play a crucial role in improving local visibility and driving customer traffic.
“Dofollow” links, on the other hand, do pass link equity and contribute to both local and global SEO.
Beyond structured citations on directories, unstructured citations, which are mentions of your business on other relevant websites, can also be valuable, especially if they include dofollow links.
Blogger outreach can be a powerful way to secure these unstructured citations.
Getting Media Coverage
Digital PR, the modern evolution of public relations, focuses on securing online media coverage to build brand awareness, drive website traffic, and earn valuable backlinks.
Instead of traditional media like TV and print, digital PR leverages online platforms and publications to reach target audiences.
This approach offers several key benefits for link building.
Firstly, links earned through digital PR often come from highly authoritative sources. Publications like TechCrunch, The New York Times, or leading industry blogs have established credibility and domain authority.
Like the recent coverage of Archive getting Series B funding on TechCrunch:
Links from these sources signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy, boosting your search engine ranking.
Secondly, these links are typically embedded within relevant and valuable content.
Journalists covering your story provide context and relevance, further strengthening the link’s value in the eyes of search engines.
Thirdly, digital PR can drive significant referral traffic to your website.
Established publications have large and engaged readerships, and an inbound link from their site can expose your business to a wider audience of potential customers.
Finally, being featured in reputable publications enhances your brand’s credibility and reputation.
It positions you as an expert in your field and builds trust with potential customers.
This positive brand association is an indirect but powerful benefit of digital PR.
Link building cheat sheet
Now Over to You
By this point, you have a pretty good idea on how to get free backlinks.
You should:
- Regularly publish linkable assets
- Proactively reach out to webmasters to secure link placements
- Set up ABC link exchanges with your partners (and avoid reciprocal exchanges)
Need help getting more links?
Don’t hesitate to start your 14-day free trial with Respona to see how we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the best way to get free backlinks?
There’s no single “best” way, as the most effective approach depends on your specific circumstances and goals.
However, creating high-quality, linkable assets and conducting outreach to promote them is generally a very effective strategy.
Guest blogging is another excellent way to earn backlinks, and broken link building can also be fruitful.
How can I get backlinks without paying for them?
Many strategies outlined in this article, such as creating linkable assets, claiming unlinked mentions with a branded anchor text, guest posting, and broken link building, can be done without directly paying for links.
However, some may involve offering reciprocal links or other forms of value exchange.
How do I get backlinks from high domain rating websites?
Creating exceptional content that naturally attracts links is key.
Focus on original research, in-depth guides, or unique data that provides genuine value to your target audience.
Digital PR, securing guest posts on authoritative sites, and building relationships with industry influencers can also help earn high-authority backlinks.
How long does it take to get free backlinks?
Building high-quality backlinks takes time and consistent effort.
There’s no magic bullet or overnight solution.
It requires creating valuable content, conducting outreach, and building relationships.
It often takes several months to see significant results from your link-building efforts.
Are all backlinks created equal?
No, backlinks from high-authority, relevant websites carry more weight than those from low-quality or irrelevant sites.
A dofollow backlink passes link equity, while a nofollow link does not.
Contextual links within relevant content are also generally more valuable than links in sidebars or footers.
