How To Get Free Backlinks: The Comprehensive Guide

Figuring out how to get free backlinks gives you an advantage in search engine optimization (SEO). That’s because having lots of high-quality backlinks is still a factor Google and other search engines use to evaluate and rank pages.

If you haven’t discovered the tricks of the trade yet, we’re going to help you out. Find out why backlinks are so important, how to get them for free, and the best ways to build natural backlinks.

Why You Should Know How To Get Free Backlinks 

Free backlinks build your website’s authority and visibility in various ways.

Drives More Traffic and Better Leads

First, an inbound link from another site is an additional source of traffic to your domain. If the linking page is popular, that means you’ll likely get a sizable uptick in traffic. When a linking page is reputable, you get higher-quality leads who are more likely to convert into customers. 

Boosts Search Engine Rankings

Search engine web crawlers pay attention to increased traffic and the number of incoming links you get from popular and authoritative domains. These are stamps of approval showing you have “people-first” content that’s worthy of sharing. As a result, search engines decide your page is worth ranking higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Yields Higher Return on Investment Than Paid Ads

Paid ads can provide a short-term boost to traffic, but you’re paying for every lead. When you know how to get free backlinks, you enjoy more long-term benefits. Backlink management with high-quality content has a long shelf life that continues to strengthen your reputation, deliver traffic, and drive leads without high costs.

Builds Your Professional Network

Getting backlinks means someone thought enough of you to send their audience your way. Hopefully, that reference is someone you respect and who can add value to your business. You can often use a backlink request or a “thank you” to expand your professional connections, too. 

The 9 Best Ways To Build Natural Backlinks for Free

The following methods are the best ways to get free backlinks to improve your SEO.

1. Write a Lot of Great Content

The foundation of a successful SEO strategy includes creating consistent, high-quality content. Fact-driven information that answers what people want to know is a magnet for inbound links. 

Good writers are always looking for reputable sources to back up the statements they make in their articles. Create well-researched material with helpful data, and others will naturally want to link to you. 

Plus, as you write good content that gets more traffic, you show up higher on SERPs. That positioning increases the odds people find your page when searching for links in areas of your expertise.

2. Link to Other Sites in Your Blog

You should be linking to reputable pages to add credibility with your readers. Naturally, these sites should have some relation to yours. For instance, when an apparel company writes about how to put together a stylish outfit, they might link to makeup tips.

Other companies that have good SEO practices and know how to get free backlinks will see that you’ve mentioned or linked to them. Now that you’re on their radar, they’ll be more likely to link to you when relevant.

3. Get a Friendly Favor

Getting links can be as simple as just asking for them. Business is full of “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours” partnerships. 

Ask your friends, colleagues, and existing contacts in complementary industries to provide helpful backlinks. Be appreciative and willing to return the favor for them through backlinks or some other fair exchange.

4. Ask for Them From Other Sites

You could also do cold outreach to companies and sites you don’t already have relationships with. How do you get free backlinks this way without being too “sales-y”? Success with this pitch requires a genuine and natural approach.

A good strategy is to primarily reach out to companies you’ve already linked to on your site and tell them how much you enjoy their service or content. You could suggest an article or two of yours that might be fitting for them to link to on their pages. Try this tactic with industry publications, too. 

Even easier targets are sites that have already mentioned your brand, products, or services but don’t have a backlink to you. Contact them, express your appreciation, and ask if they’d be willing to insert a hyperlink to the corresponding page. Again, linking to them on your site in an appropriate context can give them extra motivation to do so.

5. Take Inspiration From Your Competition

When it makes sense, try to get backlinks on domains that mention your competitors. Doing so requires a little more research and finesse in your presentation, but you should learn how to get free backlinks with this method as well. 

Instead of doing a regular web search to find these opportunities, use specialized link-building tools that give you a full breakdown of which domains have linked to your competition. Give primary attention to the sites that have high authority.

The easiest targets are resource pages or recommendation pages (such as “best of” articles and listicles) that present the top services and tools in a specific vertical. For example, a site that teaches authors about independent publishing may have a list of companies that offer translation. A translation service that isn’t on the list can reach out and make a case for why they should be there. 

Of course, be sincere and gracious. Share the fact that you understand that the person might not provide the backlink but you’re still grateful for their time and what they do.

6. Ask Sites To Fix Broken Links

After you’ve discovered how to get free backlinks, you have to continue to monitor them to ensure they still work and provide benefits. Broken links hurt your crawl budget and SEO efforts. Just as you reach out to people who mention you and have no links, contact those who refer to you but have broken backlinks or the wrong link.

Again, thank them for having already mentioned you and trying to link to you. Share that you’ve linked to their site or will do so if it makes sense. Then, provide the link that you would like them to use instead.

7. Write Guest Posts

One of the best ways to get free backlinks is to write blogs for other sites. Most businesses are trying to maintain a steady flow of content, so you can offer to write a post for someone else when it’s practical.

Guest blogs are a marketing win from multiple angles. Having material on another domain means you’re reaching individuals outside of your existing audience. Obviously, you should include a link or two back to your site in the text and your bio. 

Be sure to follow the brand’s guidelines on linking back to your site and other good SEO practices. For instance, the site owner will likely want some internal links back to their own site and won’t want you to stuff the article full of your links and keywords. You generally shouldn’t link to their competitors in your post, either. 

8. Do Interviews and Podcasts

In addition to guest blogging, you can reference your site when someone interviews you for an article. Mention blog posts and resources on your domain where the audience can find additional relevant information. 

Try to get invited on podcasts, either as a host or a subject. You’ll likely find that various industry shows are looking for guests, so you can make a request on their inquiries pages. You could also pitch yourself as a guest in a cold email. How do you get free backlinks through a podcast?

During the interview, make sure to reference relevant and genuinely helpful pages on your site. If the show provides an online transcript, the backlinks may show up there. Also, ask the host to put those links in your bio or the show notes as resources.

9. Work Strategically With Influencers

Influencer marketing still works if you do it right. Create a list of influencers in your industry whose audience largely intersects with your ideal customer profile. Merely writing an article about them and how much you like what they do could be enough to get them to link back to your page to show off to their fans.

Beyond that, try to collaborate on content with them. If you interview them, they will most likely link back to that on their sites. 

If you don’t think you can get enough material out of one influencer for a whole article, spotlight a few to create a more substantial piece. You could also have them write guest posts on your site, which they will link back to.

The Worst Ways To Build Backlinks 

As you’re determining how to get free backlinks, you’ll probably encounter someone offering you a fast and easy solution. As the adage says, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

These scammy tricks have gained the name “black hat” link-building. That stands in contrast to white hat techniques (like we do here at BKA Content). 

Legitimate strategies include the ones above for building natural links and require at least a few months before you notice their full impact. With that in mind, stay away from the following black hat strategies for building backlinks.

Paid Links or Link Mills

Unlike legitimate link-building from a digital agency with custom outreach, link mills involve just paying someone to insert backlinks into a group of low-quality websites. It could also take the form of spinning out AI-generated articles full of too many backlinks. 

Google gets better every day at discovering these types of black hat attempts and is just chomping at the bit to penalize domains using these tactics. Quality means more than quantity with links anyway, so stay away from anyone who says they can quickly boost your SEO with links for a fraction of what a reputable agency can. Only try to get free backlinks that are natural and organic. 

Links in Forums and Comments Sections

Many reputable sites usually put a nofollow attribute on links that are within site forums or comment sections. That tag tells Google’s crawler not to follow those links and use them for SEO. Trying to build free backlinks that way is a often waste of time. 

Hidden Links

Another old trick from the black hat repertoire is hiding links within a site. For example, some put the link URL in the same color as the background to make it invisible. Other manuevers include:

• Making the text so small that it’s practically invisible
• Hiding links in the site’s code or graphics
• Putting a hyperlink in a piece of punctuation
• Keeping links off to the side of a page where the viewer can’t see them

These tricks violate the cardinal rule of creating links (and any content, for that matter) that provide value to the viewer. While it appears to be an easy shortcut, hiding links is not how you get free backlinks that help SEO. 

Anything Spammy

Unfortunately, you could spoil good white hat tactics by getting lazy or going about things the wrong way. For example, you could target irrelevant sites. When Google determines that you’re not getting much traffic from relevant links, expect to get penalized.

Remember, too many backlinks can hurt you. Never have someone cram an article with your URLs. That kind of content gets flagged almost immediately. Only pursue links on quality pages and domains.

What To Do After You’ve Learned How To Get Free Backlinks 

Free only gets you so far in business. At some point, you have to invest resources to remain truly competitive. In fact, “free” is never completely without cost because you have to invest your time, which is your most valuable resource.

Once you understand how to get free backlinks and do as much as you can with those methods, talk to us at BKA Content. We offer custom white hat link-building services to enhance your visibility and brand reputation.