How to Get Backlinks in 2026: 17 Ways to Earn Links Worth Having
Getting a backlink is easy if the only goal is to make another URL point at your site. Getting a backlink that a real editor chose, a reader might click, and an SEO team would still be comfortable defending a year from now is harder. This guide focuses on the second kind.
The short answer: create a reason to cite you, then put it in front of the right people
Most backlink tactics are variations of the same idea. You either earn a link because your page is genuinely useful, ask someone to consider citing it, or create a legitimate citation through a directory, partnership or contributor relationship. The weakest approaches reverse that logic: they start with “I need 50 links” and only later look for somewhere to put them.
A stronger process starts with the destination page. What would make an editor comfortable sending a reader there? A useful statistic? A clear explanation? An expert biography? A calculator? Original research? A better comparison than the one they currently cite? If the page gives you no answer, improving the asset is usually more productive than sending another hundred outreach emails.
What makes a backlink worth pursuing?
“High quality” gets reduced to Domain Rating far too often. Third-party authority metrics are useful screening signals, but they do not tell you whether a publication is legitimate, whether the article is relevant, whether the page is indexed, or whether the link exists in a context a reader would trust.
For practical prospecting, we use five questions:
| Question | What you are checking | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is the publisher real? | Editorial identity, coherent audience, normal content history | A metric can be manipulated; a genuine publication is harder to fake. |
| Is the topic relevant? | Relationship between the publication, article and destination | Relevance makes the citation easier to justify editorially. |
| Is the page useful? | Original insight, evidence, tool, explanation or expert credibility | Editors need a reason to send readers away from their own site. |
| How was the link acquired? | Earned, contributed, sponsored, directory, partnership, etc. | Acquisition method affects control, disclosure and risk. |
| Would you want the mention without SEO? | Referral, credibility, audience, brand association | This is a useful sanity check when a placement looks good only in a spreadsheet. |
That is also why our backlink quality framework looks beyond a single authority score.
17 practical ways to get backlinks
1. Journalist-source outreach
Journalists regularly need credible practitioners, founders and subject-matter experts. When your experience genuinely matches the question, a concise answer can lead to a quote, brand mention or backlink. The editor controls what is published, so the right mindset is contribution rather than placement ordering.
This works especially well when the expert has clear topic boundaries. A real-estate operator answering a property question is credible; the same person suddenly commenting on nutrition, cyber security and tax law is not. Our HARO-style outreach guide explains the qualification and approval process in more detail.
2. Proactive digital PR
Instead of waiting for a request, build a story journalists may want to cover. Original data, a useful industry analysis, a timely expert angle or a transparent public-data study can all work. The key is that the story must stand on its own even if no backlink existed.
Digital PR is resource intensive, but it can create more than links: journalist relationships, branded search, syndication and repeated citations. See our digital PR process.
3. Publish original data people can reuse
Data becomes linkable when it saves someone else research time. That does not require a million-row proprietary dataset. A carefully documented sample, recurring benchmark, pricing analysis or public-data synthesis can be enough if the methodology is transparent.
Avoid designing the conclusion first and reverse-engineering the “research.” If a journalist cannot understand how the number was produced, the asset is fragile.
4. Build a genuinely useful free tool
Calculators, templates, checkers and generators earn links because they perform a job. A small tool can outperform a long article when it becomes the easiest way to solve a repeated problem. The best tools usually answer a narrow question clearly rather than trying to become an entire software suite.
5. Create a reference page instead of another opinion post
Definitions, glossaries, process diagrams, cost breakdowns, checklists and comparison pages are easier to cite than generic thought leadership. Before publishing, ask: “What sentence would another writer use this page to support?” If you cannot imagine one, the page may not yet be a reference asset.
6. Reclaim unlinked brand mentions
If a publication already mentions your company, product, founder or research, the editorial hurdle is partly cleared. Check whether a link would genuinely improve the reader experience, then send a short note with the most useful destination. Do not turn a friendly correction into an aggressive demand for exact-match anchor text.
Use our unlinked brand mention guide for the workflow.
7. Replace broken resources
Broken link building works when you find a dead resource that still has live citations and you have a relevant replacement. The outreach should be helpful: identify the broken URL, show where it appears, and suggest a replacement only when yours genuinely covers the same need.
8. Earn resource-page links
Universities, associations, companies and specialist sites maintain useful-resource pages. The tactic is simple but qualification matters. A “resources” page created mainly to exchange links is not equivalent to a curated industry reference page.
9. Use competitor backlink gaps
Look at pages ranking for the query you want, then identify referring domains that link to several competitors but not to you. The useful question is not “Can I copy this link?” but “What pattern does this reveal?” Maybe competitors are repeatedly cited for statistics, tools, templates or expert definitions. That tells you what kind of asset the market rewards.
Our backlink gap analysis guide goes deeper into this.
10. Contribute expert commentary to industry publications
Trade publications often need experienced operators who can explain a trend, contribute a practical example or challenge a common assumption. The strongest contribution is useful without being promotional. A company mention may be enough; the editor should decide the final link treatment.
11. Write selective guest contributions
Guest posting is not automatically good or bad. A real contribution to a relevant publication can build audience and authority. Scaled article campaigns created mainly to manufacture keyword-rich links are a different thing. Treat guest content as publishing, not as a link vending machine.
12. Turn partnerships into useful citations
Suppliers, software partners, associations, accelerators and professional networks often maintain member, integration or case-study pages. If the relationship is real, a citation can be natural. Do not create fake “partners” simply to exchange links.
13. Appear on podcasts and expert interviews
Podcast show notes, interview pages and episode resources can produce durable branded citations. More importantly, a good interview can create future invitations and secondary mentions. Choose shows for audience overlap rather than domain metrics alone.
14. Create quotable expert pages
If your team is repeatedly pitched as experts, give journalists a clean source page: biography, areas of expertise, credentials, headshot, approved company description and examples of previous commentary. This reduces verification friction and helps editors understand what the person is genuinely qualified to discuss.
15. Refresh outdated pages that already attract citations
You do not always need a new asset. If an old guide already earns links, update the statistics, screenshots, definitions and examples. A refreshed reference can regain citations more efficiently than publishing a near-duplicate URL.
16. Create local and industry citations that humans actually use
Relevant chambers, professional bodies, accredited directories and niche associations can be useful for discovery and entity corroboration. The value is very different from mass profile creation across hundreds of unrelated sites. Ask whether a prospective customer or journalist might realistically use the directory.
17. Make your best pages easier to discover internally
Internal links are not backlinks, but they influence which assets external visitors find and cite. If your research, tools and strongest guides are buried five clicks deep, journalists and bloggers are less likely to discover them. Build topical hubs and descriptive internal anchors so the site itself points people toward your most reference-worthy pages.
Backlink method comparison: effort, control and editorial upside
The chart below is an Editorial Backlinks practical assessment, not a Google metric. The score reflects how much editorial upside the method can offer when executed well.
| Method | Typical control | Speed | Best for | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journalist outreach | Low | Variable | Expert-led brands | Overstating credentials |
| Digital PR | Low | Medium/slow | Brands with stories or data | Weak evidence or forced angles |
| Research/tool assets | High over asset, low over links | Slow compounding | Long-term authority | Building something nobody needs |
| Guest contributions | Medium | Medium | Expertise and audience building | Scaled low-quality publishing |
| Directories | High | Fast | Local/entity discovery | Mass low-value submissions |
A repeatable backlink workflow
- Choose the destination. Decide which page deserves more authority and why a third party would cite it.
- Study the current SERP. Review the pages ranking for the target query and the kinds of domains citing them.
- Improve the reason to link. Add data, examples, a clearer framework, a tool, a better visual or stronger sourcing.
- Pick one acquisition route. Journalist outreach, PR, resource outreach and guest publishing have different workflows. Do not mix them into one generic prospect list.
- Qualify hard. Relevance, editorial legitimacy and context come before a spreadsheet metric.
- Personalize the reason, not the greeting. “Hi Sarah” is not personalization if the rest of the pitch could go to 2,000 people.
- Track outcomes honestly. Separate submissions, mentions, followed links, nofollow links, syndications and unlinked mentions.
Backlink mistakes that waste time or create unnecessary risk
The biggest mistake is treating every link as interchangeable inventory. Google’s current spam policies explicitly call out buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges and automated link creation. Commercial relationships need appropriate handling and publishers may use rel="sponsored" or nofollow where required.
- Chasing only DR: high authority does not repair poor relevance.
- Forcing exact-match anchors: editorial links should read naturally.
- Scaling before qualification: a bad prospecting rule becomes a bigger problem at 10,000 prospects.
- Publishing thin “link bait”: people link to useful assets, not to pages that merely say they were created to attract links.
- Ignoring the target page: outreach cannot compensate for an untrustworthy or weak destination.
How to get backlinks for a new website
A new domain usually has a credibility problem before it has a link-volume problem. Start with a small number of pages that clearly establish who you are, what you know and what deserves citation. Build the About page, author profiles, one or two genuinely useful guides, and any relevant industry or business citations first.
Then choose one linkable asset and one outreach method. A focused campaign teaches you more than trying 12 tactics at once. If the asset gets no interest, improve it before scaling outreach. If journalists repeatedly ask the same follow-up question, add the answer to the page. Link building should improve the content system, not sit outside it.
Frequently asked questions
How can I get backlinks for free?
Earned journalist outreach, unlinked mention reclamation, broken-link outreach, partnerships, useful directories and creating linkable resources can all be done without paying a publisher. They still require time, expertise and often software or staff.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
There is no universal number. The requirement depends on the query, competing pages, referring-domain quality, your content, internal links, site authority and other ranking systems. Compare the specific pages you want to outrank rather than chasing a sitewide quota.
Are nofollow backlinks useless?
No. A nofollow link may still produce referral traffic, brand visibility, discovery and corroboration. It should be reported accurately rather than treated as identical to a followed link.
Should I buy backlinks?
Buying or selling links for ranking credit conflicts with Google’s spam policies. If money changes hands for placement, the publisher should handle disclosure and link qualification appropriately. Do not disguise commercial arrangements as independent editorial endorsements.
What is the safest backlink strategy?
The most defensible strategy is to create useful assets and credible expertise, then earn editorial citations from relevant publications. No tactic is risk-free, but relevance, transparency and publisher independence reduce avoidable risk.