You launch a website.
You write a few useful articles.
You fix the title tags, descriptions, headings, sitemap, internal links, page speed, and everything else people usually call “SEO.”
Then you wait.
And nothing really happens.
This is where many new website owners realize something uncomfortable:
Good content alone does not automatically mean people will find you.
If nobody knows your website exists, very few people are going to mention it, share it, or link to it.
And backlinks still matter because they help search engines understand that other websites consider your page useful enough to reference.
But there is also a bad way to think about backlinks.
A lot of beginners search:
“How can I get 100 backlinks fast?”
Then they end up buying cheap links, dropping their URL in random comments, joining link-exchange groups, or submitting their site to hundreds of useless directories.
That may increase the number inside an SEO tool.
It does not necessarily increase the value of your website.
Google explicitly treats things like paid ranking links, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation, and low-quality directory links as link spam.
So if I were starting a completely new website today, I would focus less on how many backlinks I can create and more on:
Why would another real website want to link to me?
Here are a few methods I would actually use.
1. Find Broken Links and Become the Replacement
This is one of my favorite backlink methods because you are not asking someone to randomly promote you.
You are helping them fix something.
Imagine I am reading an SEO article on another website and I find this:
Their article
↓
Useful SEO guide
↓
404 Not Found ❌
The author originally linked to a useful resource, but that page no longer exists.
That is an opportunity.
If I already have a genuinely useful article covering the same topic, I can contact the site owner.
Something like:
Hi, I was reading your article about technical SEO and noticed that one of the resources you linked to is no longer available.
I recently published a guide covering a similar topic. If you think it is useful for your readers, feel free to use it as a replacement.
Notice what I am not saying:
Please give me a backlink.
That sounds like you only care about yourself.
Instead, the real conversation is:
You have a broken resource. I may have something useful that fixes it.
How to find these opportunities
You can start very simply.
Search Google for resource-heavy pages related to your niche:
"your topic" + resources
"your topic" + useful links
"your topic" + tools
"your topic" + guide
Then use a browser extension such as a broken-link checker to inspect those pages.
If you find a dead link, check what the original page was about.
Then ask yourself:
Do I already have something that is actually good enough to replace it?
If not, don't force it.
Sometimes the backlink opportunity tells you exactly what kind of content you should create next.
2. Look at Where Your Competitors Are Already Getting Links
You do not have to invent every backlink opportunity yourself.
Sometimes your competitors have already done the research for you.
Suppose you built a developer tool.
You find another developer tool in the same category that has been around for three years.
Instead of only looking at their homepage or features, look at:
Who is linking to them?
You may discover links from:
- developer blogs
- GitHub resource lists
- startup directories
- comparison articles
- newsletters
- tutorials
- university resources
- community websites
- open-source projects
Now you have a list of websites that have already demonstrated one important thing:
They are willing to link to websites like yours.
That is far more useful than sending cold emails to 5,000 random websites.
But don't copy blindly
Suppose your competitor has a backlink from an article called:
10 Best API Testing Tools
Don't immediately email the author saying:
Add my tool too.
First read the article.
Ask:
- Is my product genuinely relevant?
- Does it offer something the existing list is missing?
- Is the article still actively maintained?
- Would adding my product improve the page?
If yes, reach out.
Your message can be extremely simple.
Hey, I came across your API testing tools article while researching the space. We built [product], which focuses specifically on [useful difference]. Thought it might be relevant if you update the list in the future.
No begging.
No fake compliments.
No 700-word email.
Just give them a reason to care.
3. Create Something People Actually Need to Reference
This is where backlink building becomes much easier.
Most people create content like:
10 SEO Tips for 2026
Then they wonder why nobody links to it.
The problem is that the internet already has thousands of similar articles.
There is nothing particularly reference-worthy about it.
Instead, create something people can use.
For developers, that could be:
- a free calculator
- a benchmark
- an original dataset
- an API
- a checklist
- an open-source project
- a template
- a comparison table
- a cheat sheet
- a statistics page
- a small free tool
- an interactive demo
For example, imagine you publish:
Average AI API Costs Across 15 Popular Models
And instead of writing opinions, you actually test the models and publish:
Model Input Cost Output Cost Avg Response Time
Model A ...
Model B ...
Model C ...
Now another writer publishing an article about AI costs may think:
I need a source for this number.
That is where your backlink can happen naturally.
They are not linking because you emailed them twelve times.
They are linking because your page makes their article better.
That is the type of backlink I would rather have.
4. Find Websites Already Mentioning You Without Linking
This method becomes more useful once your website, project, product, or personal brand has been around for a while.
Someone may write:
We tested ExampleTool for generating documentation.
But they don't link to ExampleTool.
That is called an unlinked mention.
And it is one of the easiest backlink opportunities because the writer already knows you exist.
You don't need to convince them to talk about you.
They already did.
You only need to politely ask whether adding the link would make the mention more useful to readers.
For example:
Hey, thanks for mentioning ExampleTool in your article. I noticed the product name isn't linked. Would you mind linking it to our site so readers can find the tool more easily?
That's it.
Don't overcomplicate outreach.
5. Publish Useful Content Where Your Audience Already Exists
A common mistake is publishing everything on your own website and expecting the world to discover it.
Sometimes you need to participate outside your website first.
If you are a developer, that might mean writing on:
- Dev.to
- Hashnode
- Medium
- relevant newsletters
- industry blogs
- niche communities
- open-source documentation
But there is an important distinction here.
Guest posting should not simply mean writing low-quality articles everywhere for backlinks.
Google's current spam policies specifically warn against manipulative linking practices, including links in guest posts when they are primarily designed to pass ranking credit.
The useful version looks different.
Write something that genuinely belongs on that publication.
Then link to your website only when your website provides useful additional context.
For example:
You write:
How We Reduced Our API Response Time by 43%
Inside the article, you mention:
I published the full benchmark data here.
That link has a reason to exist.
The reader might actually click it.
That should be your test for many backlinks:
Would this link still be useful if Google did not exist?
If the answer is yes, you are usually thinking in the right direction.
6. Turn Your Own Experience Into Original Data
You don't need to be a huge company to publish original research.
Even small experiments can become linkable content.
Suppose you are building a SaaS product.
You could publish:
- What happened after sending 500 cold emails
- Conversion rates from your first 1,000 visitors
- Performance differences between two frameworks
- Costs of running the same AI task across multiple models
- What happened after changing your landing page
- Results from testing 20 onboarding flows
- App Store keyword experiments
- Build-time comparisons
- SEO results from updating old content
Real numbers are valuable because other writers can reference them.
Instead of:
AI tools can save developers time.
You publish:
We tested 5 AI coding tools across 100 development tasks. Here is what happened.
The second one gives people something to talk about.
And something to link to.
7. Don't Ignore Your Existing Relationships
Not every backlink needs to come from a complete stranger.
Think about the companies and people you already interact with.
Maybe you:
- use another company's API
- built something using an open-source library
- worked with an agency
- partnered with another startup
- appeared on a podcast
- contributed to a project
- sponsored an event
- provided a testimonial
There may be perfectly natural places for a link.
For example, if a company has a customer story page and you genuinely use their product, you could participate in a case study.
If you built an interesting integration with another tool, they may want to include it in their documentation or community showcase.
The key word is natural.
Avoid turning every relationship into:
You link to me and I'll link to you.
Google specifically lists excessive reciprocal linking done for ranking purposes as link spam.
Build the relationship first.
Let the link make sense because of that relationship.
What I Would Not Do
If my website were new, I would stay away from shortcuts like:
Buy 5,000 backlinks for $20 ❌
Spam blog comments ❌
Post links in unrelated forums ❌
Create hundreds of fake profiles ❌
Use automated link-building software ❌
Exchange links with everyone ❌
Submit to every directory on the internet ❌
You may see the backlink counter increase.
That does not mean your SEO is becoming healthier.
In fact, creating links primarily to manipulate rankings is exactly the type of behavior Google's spam policies are designed to detect.
A Better Backlink Mindset
Here's the way I now think about it.
Don't ask:
How can I create a backlink?
Ask:
What can I create that another website would genuinely want to reference?
That changes everything.
Instead of spending all day sending:
Dear Webmaster,
I loved your amazing article...
to hundreds of people who know perfectly well you didn't read their article, spend more time creating assets worth mentioning.
A backlink strategy might look like this:
Create something useful
↓
Find relevant websites
↓
Understand why they might care
↓
Send a short, personal message
↓
Give them a useful reason to link
It is slower than buying 1,000 links.
But it is also much closer to what a backlink is supposed to represent.
If I Had a Brand-New Website, Here Is What I Would Do
I would keep it very simple.
Week 1: Create one link-worthy resource
Not ten generic articles.
One genuinely useful resource.
Maybe:
- an original study
- free tool
- detailed tutorial
- template
- benchmark
- comparison
- statistics page
Week 2: Study competitors
Find 3–5 websites ranking for topics similar to yours.
Look at where their strongest links come from.
Create a list of relevant sites.
Week 3: Search for opportunities
Look for:
- broken links
- old resource pages
- articles missing your type of tool
- unlinked mentions
- outdated comparisons
Week 4: Do personalized outreach
Maybe send 5–10 good emails per day.
Not 500 automated ones.
Before sending each email, be able to answer:
Why would this particular person care?
If you don't have an answer, don't send it.
One Good Backlink Can Be Better Than 100 Random Ones
This is probably the most important part.
Don't become obsessed with the backlink number.
Imagine two websites.
Website A has:
2,300 backlinks
Most come from unrelated directories, profiles, spammy blogs, and automated pages.
Website B has:
85 backlinks
But they come from relevant industry publications, useful tutorials, respected blogs, open-source projects, and websites that actually receive traffic.
I would much rather build Website B.
Because the goal isn't to make an SEO dashboard look impressive.
The goal is to build authority, discovery, referral traffic, and trust.
Final Thought
Backlinks feel difficult when nobody knows your website.
And that's normal.
Nobody is sitting around thinking:
I wonder what completely unknown website I can link to today.
You have to give people a reason.
Fix something for them.
Give them useful data.
Create a tool.
Publish an experiment.
Replace a dead resource.
Help improve an article.
Build something worth referencing.
That's when backlink building stops feeling like begging strangers for links.
It starts becoming something much simpler:
creating useful things and helping the right people discover them.
And in my opinion, that is a much better SEO strategy to build on.
Top comments (1)
{"content":"do you think the strategy changes if the site is strictly for a local service or does that hurt your chances of getting these types of links"}