The Best Free Websites for Backlinking

Posted by Lindsay Pietroluongo, in Blog

Backlinks are links that go from another website to your website. They’re also referred to as inbound or incoming links. This is different from internal linking, which is when a link goes from one page of your website to another page of your website. There are all sorts of websites for backlinking, from news sources that cover your business to your own social media platforms.

The reason why backlinks are so helpful for your website’s SEO is because search engines look at them as a vote of confidence for your site. This signals to Google that your content is valued, which encourages a higher ranking position.

Earning backlinks is difficult, though. And while you may naturally earn backlinks over time, you can also take this strategy into your own hands and start building them. In this article, we’ll cover a number of free websites for building your backlink profile.

Should You Buy Backlinks?

When it comes to playing the SEO game, you always want to keep Google happy. And according to the search engine’s spam policies, buying (or selling) backlinks is considered spam. So are link exchanges, even if money isn’t involved — “I’ll link to your site if you link to mine,” for example.

You can read more about buying backlinks here, but in general, if it’s going to hurt you more than help, stay away from it. The last thing you want is for Google to punish your website for a poor backlink strategy.

The Best Websites for Backlinking

We’ve gathered several of the best websites for backlinking to help increase your own search engine result page (SERP) ranking.

The best backlink sites are ones with high Domain Authority (DA). Moz created the DA ranking score to predict the likelihood of a website ranking in SERPs. The DA range goes from 1 to 100, and the higher the score, the = better the possibility of a high ranking.

You can check the DA of a website with this free tool, and if you run out of freebie checks, Ahrefs has one too.

AllTop

The AllTop aggregator automatically logs the RSS feed of your blog every time you create a new post. What could be easier?

BizSugar

BizSugar may look like something from the first days of the internet, but according to the Ahrefs Website Authority Checker, it has an unexpectedly high Domain Rating of 70.

Business professionals share and vote “Sugars” for small business news and tips, kind of like Reddit but just for SMBs and entrepreneurs. Since you can include links in your posts, it’s a solid backlink builder.

Business 2 Community

Similar to BizSugar but with a more updated look, Business 2 Community is a place for professionals to share business and marketing information. You can also use the platform to syndicate content. Plus, you can add backlinks to your content and profile.

Crunchbase

Crunchbase provides business information about both private and public companies. In addition to searching Crunchbase to network and find data for your target audience, you can list your company with a free profile.

DeviantArt

Digital artists, whether their medium is fine art, GIFs, or photography, can upload work to DeviantArt and include a backlink to their main website.

GitHub

If you’re a developer with some type of application, get involved in GitHub. This repository lets developers store and manage their source code, and you can add a backlink to your profile.

Google My Business Profile

If you have a local business, you definitely want to set up a free Google Business Profile, which includes important business info for visitors, including backlinks.

Additionally, it’s also smart to create a Yelp business profile for the same reasons.

Google Sites

So long as you have a Gmail account, you can set up a simple Google Site for free and add backlinks to your main website. An extra benefit of using Google Sites is that they’re indexed fast.

More Google Assets for Backlinks

Beyond Google Sites, you can use other Google assets to create backlinks to your website. This SEO strategy is called Google Stacking, and it basically uses Google’s own platforms (like Blogger and Drive) to improve your website’s backlink profile.

GrowthHackers

The GrowthHackers Community of digital marketers can help you grow your marketing business. You’re able to post both original and syndicated content to build backlinks, and you can link directly to individual pages on your website instead of sending traffic just to the home page.

HARO

HARO, which stands for Help a Reporter Out, connects you to journalists who are looking for sources who they can quote for articles. If a reply of yours is featured, it’ll usually include a backlink to the home page of your website.

SourceBottle works in a similar way, connecting brands and individuals to media opportunities for the sake of publicity.

Issuu

Issuu is a service that lets you upload PDF files and have them turned into flipbooks. Not only can you add backlinks to your Issuu profile, but you can also embed them in the PDFs. Oh, and look at its Authority rating:

LinkedIn

Not only does LinkedIn let you network with others and find great candidates to hire, but you can add numerous backlinks to your website, blog posts, products and more.

LiveJournal

LiveJournal may not be what it was in 1999, but it’s still kicking with a Website Authority of 86.

Depending on who you ask, it’s a platform for Redditors who didn’t actually make it over to Reddit or sci-fi writers who like to blur the lines between blogging and social media. Whatever your purposes, it could be a great addition to your backlink-building strategy.

Medium

With Medium, you can publish articles and connect with other Medium writers and readers. You have a ton of control over what you write on Medium, so you can add as many backlinks as you like to your main website. Also, by using canonical links, you can repost content from your website without splitting the link juice.

Mix

Never heard of Mix? Don’t count it out — its Authority rating is 91. This website lets you curate your content and add backlinks to your web pages. Plus, it’s super visually appealing.

Quora

If you’ve ever Googled a question, chances are Quora showed up high in the search results. There are a few places where you can include backlinks on Quora, including in your profile and when replying to a question.

Reddit

Reddit can be a great place to get backlinks to your site. First, you can put a number of links in your Reddit profile and customize their labels to better explain what you’re linking to. Second, you may be able to add a backlink when you post on Reddit — just make sure you’re following the community guidelines for the subreddit so you don’t get downvoted or kicked out. A lot of subreddits don’t allow self-promotional posts.

Scoop.it

Scoop.it lets you publish a topic page and then post curated content to it, which then gets distributed to your network. You can also add backlinks to your website.

SlideShare

Repurposing content is a cornerstone of great content creation and marketing, and among the many ways to do so is by creating SlideShare presentations. These publicly visible presentations can include several backlinks.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is an audio- and music-sharing platform for podcasters and musicians to post their work. You can post your audio track, then add backlinks to your website.

Trustpilot

By listing your business with Trustpilot, you can add a backlink to your website and also have a place where customers can leave reviews, which improves brand authority and trust.

For travel-focused businesses, Tripadvisor provides the same benefits.

Tumblr

Tumblr skews young, with the audience made up mostly of Gen Z. If this fits with your website’s demographics, consider micro-blogging on Tumblr. You can post short-form content that links back to your website.

Unsplash

Photographers who want to share their work (and possibly gain new clients) use Unsplash, which hosts high-quality images. Your profile page can include a backlink to your website.

Flickr works in a similar way, though there’s not as high a focus on quality photos.

Wattpad

Wattpad is kind of like LiveJournal, but if LJ (a) stayed super popular and (b) focused on storytelling. Whether you’re an author or a reader (or both), you can create a profile that includes a backlink.

Even More Websites for Backlinking

We’ve only scratched the surface of free backlinks sites. Here are more ideas:

Brand Mentions

The more popular your brand becomes, the more people are going to be talking about it online. Hopefully, you’re using a brand mention monitoring tool to keep track of who’s talking about your company and what’s being said. When you find a neutral or positive brand mention, reach out to the author or website owner to kindly ask for a backlink to your website.

Directory Sites

We already went over creating a Google My Business Profile, but there are tons more directory sites to consider. There’s a big list of these sites here. The purpose of these sites is solely for creating backlinks — you don’t have to put much effort in other than submitting your information.

Industry Blogs

Industry blogs and websites are excellent places to go for backlinks because they’re already niched down and targeting your audience. Reach out to these blogs to ask if you can post a guest article. Often, you’ll be allowed to link to your website in the article body, CTA or author profile.

Social Media

Several of the websites we’ve listed could be called social media, but here we’re talking about the biggest players, like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube. All of these platforms let you post backlinks to your website, and some audiences, like Twitter’s, are more tolerant of constant link-posting than others.

We’ll lump Vimeo in here, too, because it’s so much like YouTube.

Wrapping Up

Since you don’t want to upset Google by paying for backlinks, you have two choices: build them yourself or wait to earn them over time. The best strategy incorporates both tactics. And with so many free backlink websites available, many of which let you include as many links as you want, this part of your SEO effort is fairly painless, if a little tedious.

Want to learn more about the importance of inbound links? Check out our article about it.