How to get backlinks: ethical strategies that work

Most businesses wait for backlinks to happen naturally. They publish content, hope it gets noticed, and nothing happens. The difference between sites that rank and sites that don't isn't luck. It's knowing how to get backlinks by actively building them through strategies that actually work.

The key word is "earn." You can't build high-quality backlinks by accident or through shortcuts. But when you understand what websites want to link to, and you give them a reason to link to your site, backlinks follow naturally.

The philosophy: backlinks come from value, not requests

Forget the old idea of swapping links with other sites or reaching out with vague requests. Sites don't link to you because you asked nicely. They link because your content serves their readers.

Before you start any backlink strategy, build something worth linking to. This could be original research, a comprehensive guide that fills a gap in your industry, a tool that solves a real problem, or a piece of content so useful that other sites can't resist pointing their readers toward it.

Without something valuable to promote, all the outreach in the world won't work. With it, you'll be surprised how many links come by asking.

Tactic 1: Create genuinely useful guides and resources

If you look at which pages rank highest and get linked most often, most of them are comprehensive guides that solve a real problem. These aren't quick blog posts. They're deep dives—the kind of articles someone would save and reference later.

What makes a guide "linkworthy"? It has to go deeper than existing content on the same topic. If every article about "how to start a blog" says the same things, yours won't get links. But if you create a guide that includes mistakes people make, tools most articles skip over, and specific step-by-step examples, other sites notice. They want to send their readers to the best resource available.

A realistic approach: pick one important topic in your industry. Spend real time researching it. Talk to customers, read what competitors wrote, check Reddit and forums for the questions people actually ask. Then write the most complete guide available on that topic. Aim for 2,000-3,000 words minimum—most linkworthy content is substantial.

Once you publish it, you'll promote it through your network. Other sites will find it through Google. And you'll have a piece of content that brings links for years.

Tactic 2: Do original research

Websites love to link to original data and research. If you can conduct a survey, analyze data, or publish research your industry hasn't seen before, you have link gold.

You don't need a big budget. A simple survey of your customers or audience can become research. An analysis of how your industry compares to competitors. Insights based on your own business data that reveal broader trends.

When you publish research, you naturally get linked from sites citing your data. News outlets covering your industry might pick it up. Industry blogs will mention it. Universities and academic sites reference original research.

The effort is front-loaded—research takes time. But the backlinks keep coming long after publication.

Tactic 3: Guest posting on relevant sites

Guest posting means writing an article for someone else's website, with a link back to yours. It works if you do it right—which means not trying to post on every site that will take you.

The strategy: identify 10-15 websites your actual customers and competitors read. These are the sites with real traffic, established audiences, and content your target market cares about. Reach out to their editor with a specific, original article idea—not "can I write a guest post?" but "I'd like to write about [specific topic] for your readers because [why this matters to them]."

Most rejections happen because the pitch is generic or the idea is irrelevant to that site. A specific pitch that shows you understand their audience gets acceptances. A guest post that's actually good—well-researched, useful, not thinly veiled promotion—gets amplified by their team to their readers.

Realistic goal: one quality guest post per month on a relevant site. That's 12 backlinks per year from sites with actual authority and real traffic.

Tactic 4: Broken link building—filling gaps

This one works because you're solving a problem for another website. Find relevant sites in your industry, identify broken links on their pages (links that point to pages that no longer exist), and suggest your content as a replacement.

The pitch is simple: "I noticed one of your pages links to a resource that no longer exists. I have a similar resource that might work better for your readers." If your content is genuinely relevant and useful, many sites will swap the broken link for yours.

Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help you find broken links on competitors' sites and sites in your industry. It takes time to identify them, but each one is a specific, legitimate opportunity for a backlink.

Tactic 5: Resource pages and roundups

Many websites maintain "resource pages"—curated lists of the best tools, guides, or articles on a topic. These pages attract links naturally because they're useful references.

Reach out to sites that have resource pages relevant to your content. "I noticed your resource page on [topic]. We just published [specific guide/tool]. It might be useful to include on your list." Short, specific, no pressure.

You can also create a resource page on your own site and promote it to other sites. "Here are the 20 best tools for [topic]" naturally gets linked because it's the kind of page people save and reference.

Tactic 6: Leverage existing relationships

Most small businesses overlook the easiest source of backlinks: the relationships you already have. Customers, suppliers, partners, other business owners in your network—many of them have websites.

Reach out to them personally. "We published a guide about [topic] I thought your audience might find useful." A personal ask to someone you know works better than a cold outreach to a stranger.

You can also ask happy customers for reviews on Google, Yelp, and industry directories. These aren't traditional backlinks, but they serve the same purpose—signaling credibility and relevance to search engines.

Tactic 7: Public relations and press coverage

When your business is mentioned in a news article or industry publication, those links carry serious weight. Google sees news coverage as third-party validation.

You don't need a PR agency (though one helps). You can pitch your own story: a milestone, a partnership, interesting data from your research, or a unique perspective on a trending topic in your industry.

Reach out to journalists and bloggers covering your industry. Many use platforms like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to find expert sources. Respond to queries in your area of expertise, and journalists often include a link to your site.

What NOT to do

Be clear on what doesn't work and what can hurt. Don't buy links from services that sell bulk links. Don't participate in link schemes or link exchanges where you only link to sites if they link back. Don't place links on your site just for trading—Google sees these patterns. Don't use private blog networks (PBNs) or other deceptive tactics.

Google is very good at spotting artificial link patterns. The penalty for getting caught is worse than not having the links in the first place—your rankings drop, and recovery takes months of legitimate work.

Building backlinks realistically for a small business

If you're a small team with limited resources, you won't compete with big brands on sheer volume of links. But you can compete on relevance and quality.

A realistic starting point: pick two or three of these tactics that fit your situation. If you're running fitnessstudio.com with WEMASY and you're good at writing, focus on guest posting and comprehensive guides. If you run coachingbusiness.com and have interesting data, lean into original research. If you run an online boutique like designerboutique.com with strong industry relationships, leverage those.

Set a goal for one new quality backlink per month on a relevant site. That's 12 per year from sites that actually matter to your business. A small number of high-quality links beats a huge number of irrelevant ones.

WEMASY and backlink building

With WEMASY's website builder, you can create the high-quality pages that attract backlinks. Write detailed guides using WEMASY's content editor, embed images and videos to make guides more valuable, and track which pages are getting linked and driving the most traffic through your analytics dashboard.

WEMASY also makes it easy to build the kinds of resources websites want to link to—whether that's a detailed guide, a comparison tool, or a case study showcase. Once you publish, you have the data to see which content is working and worthy of more promotion.

Frequently asked questions