Promoting a link-building post to developer communities works very differently than promoting to general marketing or SEO audiences. Developers are skeptical of self-promotion, so the key is value first, promotion second. Below is a practical, developer-friendly playbook.
✅ 1. Re-frame the post for developers
Developers usually don’t care about “link building,” but they do care about:
automation
data extraction or APIs
scripts to streamline tasks
SEO implications for technical documentation
real engineering challenges behind content marketing
So before promoting, ask:
“What part of this post is useful to a developer?”
Examples of developer-friendly angles:
How you automated link prospecting using Python
How you built a scraper to collect targets
Using GitHub Actions to run link-checking
Comparing backlinks using APIs (Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush)
Making an open-source tool for link outreach
If your post is none of these yet, consider publishing a developer-oriented companion post.
✅ 2. Share in communities where devs discuss tooling, automation & SEO
Best platforms:
Reddit
r/SEO (okay to share SEO content)
r/Entrepreneur (must contribute value, not spam)
r/InternetIsBeautiful (only if your post includes a tool)
r/Python, r/learnprogramming, r/webdev — only if you include code or technical depth
Tip: On Reddit, always summarize the key insights, then link as an optional resource.
Hacker News
HN hates marketing — but loves:
scraping projects
technical deep dives
case studies
automation workflows
Convert your post into something like “How I automated link acquisition with Python + APIs”, post the full value in the HN text field, and link at the bottom.
Dev.to
Ideal for technical + marketing crossover content.
Posts that work well:
SEO for developers
API-driven link research
Python automation tutorials
Open-sourcing a link-building script
Stack Overflow Collectives / Documentation (indirect)
You cannot promote directly but you can:
create a small code example related to backlink checking
publish a GitHub repo
link to your article in the repo README
(Developers often discover content through GitHub, not blogs.)
✅ 3. Package it as something developers need
Developers respond to:
open-source projects
scripts they can fork
examples of automation
data sets
technical constraints and benchmarks
Ask: Can I turn part of my link-building process into a GitHub repo?
Even a small script is enough to make developers care.
✅ 4. Use social platforms developers trust
X (Twitter) – Dev circles
Tag relevant keywords like:
buildinpublic
SEO
webdev
python
Post a short thread describing the technical problem and how you solved it.
LinkedIn Dev/Marketing crossover groups
Some examples:
Technical SEO groups
Web development communities
Content engineering groups
Here, you can promote directly if the content is high-value.
✅ 5. Use content formats developers prefer
Developers prefer:
code samples
diagrams
automation flows
CLI demos
architecture breakdowns
If you can extract these from your link-building post, your reach doubles.
✅ 6. Build trust before posting the link
Before dropping a link in dev communities:
answer a question
share a snippet of your process
contribute in discussions
Then share your post only where it feels relevant and organic.
🧪 Example promotional snippet that works for developers
Here’s how you might post on r/webdev or Dev.to:
I needed to automate part of my link-building workflow, so I built a small Python script that:
• scrapes domain prospects
• filters them by relevance
• checks their outbound link structure
• generates a CSV with quality scores
I wrote up the full process + shared the script here (all code included): [link]
This focuses on the technical work, not the marketing agenda.
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