Free Backlinks: The 7 Best Sources for Sustainable Link Building

Definition Backlinks – What are Strong Backlinks?

A backlink is a link from an external site to another site. Search engines such as Google use the frequency of these backlinks to rank the website. Therefore, strong backlinks from external websites to your own site are particularly valuable to improve your own ranking. However, numerous companies want to buy backlinks and thus influence their placement. This approach is rated particularly negatively by Google and can have the opposite effect. Better is, therefore the so-called link-building tactic for free backlinks, which costs no money as a backlink list and is not rated negatively by Google.

Top 7 Free Backlink Sources – Free Backlink Sources!

Building free backlinks can take a lot of time, and many don’t even know how to get and start backlinks for free. We would therefore like to introduce you to some link sources for free backlinks that will lead you to free backlinks:

1. Source of Free Backlinks: Guest Posts

It is very important for a strong backlink to have your website name appearing on related blogs or partner sites. You can agree with the blog or website operator to write a guest post on the blog or a suitable partner site. It makes sense to reach a personal level when making contact. This means that you should first do some advanced work and can, for example, share blog posts or suggest possible topics. Then you contact the contact person by email or social network and ask him if he would be interested in working together for free backlinks. If there is interest, you can write a guest post for your own backlink list, which refers to your website with free backlinks.

2. Source for free backlinks: PDF shares

There are various file hosting services for exchanging and archiving presentations, documents, and PDFs. There, users can upload presentations in PowerPoint, PDF, and OpenOffice formats. These include, for example, de.slideshare.net or issuu.com. But these websites can also be used to build free backlinks because you can upload and share studies, blog posts and other files there. For strong backlinks, however, the files should always contain links that point directly to your site for your backlink list.

3. Sources for free backlinks: web directories

Many still think web directories no longer exist and cannot positively influence Google rankings or free backlinks. This is a mistake because the web directories are wonderful for getting one or the other backlink for free.

The whole thing looks a little different on the pages of yellow pages, for example on the meinestadt.de page. Especially for companies from the region, a link as a strong backlink from such a site can be very relevant:

4. Source for free backlinks: press directories

A press release offers current news and announces changes, which is why it is read by many people and is suitable for building backlinks for free. Certain websites specialize in publishing press releases. Such as online-artikel.de or openpr.de. However, you should ensure that your press release offers clear added value and entices the user to read it. Otherwise, the press text will not go down well and, in the worst case, will not be read at all but clicked on. Consequently, your desire for free backlinks remains in vain.

5. Source for Free Backlinks: Social Communities

The goal of a social community is to sort certain information according to interests to then make it accessible to the readers. The following two websites can be described as social communities:

At stumbleupon.com you can register and add your website to your backlink list. Stumbleupon works like one big directory. Because the community has many users who enter interests in their profile and thus find you or your website. Websites are randomly displayed depending on your area of ​​interest. reddit.com works similarly. Because here it is possible to post pictures, videos or links to interesting websites. This means that the very active community and the free backlinks on your website can be used to your advantage.

6. Source for free backlinks: online libraries for eBooks

If you want to publish your own eBook, you can do so via online libraries. With the help of an online library, you can then increase your awareness of yourself and your eBook. As an online library – and thus a good free backlink – you can use the website omlia.de, for example. Although readers receive many eBooks for free, it is worth registering to get valuable free backlinks.

7. Source for free backlinks: forums

A forum belongs to a popular backlink helper if it is a “do-follow forum”. Because many different users discuss or ask questions on a specific topic. That’s why searching different forums for your website’s topic makes sense for a strong backlink. For example, if this is cars or car repairs, you can visit car forums and answer a few questions there. Or you can write a post yourself and start a conversation to build your backlink list. At the end of the post, there is always space for your contact details in order to build up the free backlinks.

Errors in building free backlinks

If you want to build free backlinks and are looking for suitable sources, you should follow a few rules for free backlinks. That’s why it’s essential to avoid the following mistakes to generate reputable free backlinks:

1. Identical IP addresses of the backlinks

When many backlinks come from pages with identical IP addresses, this is a sign that some links come from link networks. This process for your backlink list is rated negatively by search engines. That’s why it’s worth checking backlink IP addresses and avoiding this mistake.

2. No Google indexing of the free backlinks

Most often, when a search engine does not index a website, it is due to a violation of certain guidelines. These free backlinks should be avoided as a matter of urgency, as they indicate to Google that your website is cooperating with another dubious site, which in turn results in a negative ranking.

3. Extremely fast backlink building

If your new website is adding 30 or more backlinks per week, the search engines will quickly become suspicious and may suspect a policy violation. It, therefore, makes sense to keep the number of backlinks or free backlinks set relatively small, especially at the beginning. After a few months, the frequency of your free backlinks can then be increased slowly and evenly.

Differences Between Links – What is a Do-Follow Link?

Backlinks have one goal: Google should classify the linked article or page as particularly relevant. But a link is not just a link. A distinction is made between so-called do-follow and no follow links. The former is used more frequently and is the better solution for qualitative backlinks.

Here, Google can detect a link when crawling the website and evaluates this as trust in the linked page. If you want to generate high-quality backlinks from external providers, you should always aim for a do-follow link. A no follow link, on the other hand, is handled differently. Google does not establish the connection here, so a backlink usually does not influence the ranking.

If no attribute is specified in the HTML code, a link is always created as a do-follow link. But when should I use no-follow links? This is always useful when you include a link whose source you classify as untrustworthy. In addition, the no-follow link is often used even if the link is bought. No false recommendation of a website or platform should be suggested here.

Conclusion: build up your backlink list slowly!

Free backlinks are a useful way to improve your site’s ranking. However, there is no perfect strategy for strong backlinks, so you should try different sources and then focus on a suitable opportunity. However, keep an eye on the development of your website in order to avoid ranking crashes and gross errors caused by free backlinks.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about free backlinks