Backlink Sites: 9 Types of Websites Where You Can Earn Quality Links

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How should you get links from other websites?

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Does your site already have useful content?

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Looking for backlink sites usually starts with a list of "high-DA sites to get links from". Those lists age fast and lead to the same overused platforms. A better approach is to know the types of sites that link naturally, then find the ones in your niche. This guide covers nine of them, how to qualify a site in five minutes, and what Google considers spam. If you are new to the topic, start with our definition of a backlink.

What makes a good backlink site?

A link helps when it comes from a site that Google and readers trust, on a page related to your topic, placed in the content where a reader might click. Five quick checks:

Authority scores such as Domain Rating or Domain Authority help sort a list, but they are third-party estimates, not Google metrics (see what domain authority really measures). A relevant site with a modest score often brings more than a generic one with a high score. The free backlink analysis tool shows a site's referring domains before you approach it.

9 types of websites where you can earn backlinks

1. Industry media and blogs

Trade publications, specialized blogs and industry news sites. They link to sources of data, expert quotes and useful tools. Offer an angle, not a link request: original figures, a case study, an expert comment on news (see our guide to digital PR).

2. Partners, suppliers and customers

The easiest links to get: an integration page, a list of resellers, a supplier's "where to buy" page, a customer case study. Ask the companies you already work with.

3. Niche and local directories

A few directories still matter: the reference listings of your industry, professional associations, chambers of commerce, and local business directories. Avoid general directories that accept anyone (see business directories for the ones worth it).

4. Guest articles on relevant sites

An article written for another site's audience, with a link where it helps the reader. It works when the host site is selective. Google's spam policies list guest posts that pay for links with ranking credit or optimized anchors as link spam. Our guide to guest posting explains how to do it cleanly.

5. Sites that already mention you

Articles, lists or forums that name your brand without linking. A short, polite message asking to add the link has a high success rate because the author already chose to cite you (see unlinked brand mentions).

6. Comparison and resource pages

"Best tools for X", "resources for Y" pages that list solutions in your category. Find them by searching your category with "best", "alternatives" or "resources", then show the author why your offer belongs there.

7. Communities and Q&A sites

Reddit, specialized forums, Q&A sites. Most of their links are nofollow, but they bring visitors and, increasingly, visibility in AI answers: our Reddit AI citation study shows how often assistants cite these discussions. Contribute answers, not promotions.

8. Podcasts, events and interviews

Show notes, speaker pages and event programs link to their guests. One interview often brings a link, a mention and an audience.

9. Universities, associations and local organizations

Sponsorship of a local event, a scholarship, a talk at a school or membership of an association. These sites have strong trust and few commercial links, so their links weigh.

Which backlink sites should you avoid?

Google's spam policies name the practices that can cost you rankings or a manual action. Among them: buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive reciprocal linking ("link to me and I'll link to you"), using automated programs to create links, low-quality directory or bookmark site links, links in widely distributed footers and templates, and forum comments with optimized links. In practice, stay away from:

• Link farms and private blog networks: sites built only to sell links, with no audience.
• Mass directories and bookmarking sites that accept every submission.
• "Guaranteed DA 50+ links" offers, often on hacked or abandoned sites.
• Comment and profile spam across hundreds of forums.

When a link is paid, it must carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", as explained in Google's guide to qualifying outbound links. Our articles on buying backlinks and toxic backlinks go further.

How many backlinks do you need, and how fast?

There is no fixed number: it depends on the competition on your keywords. Compare the referring domains of the pages that rank in the top 5 for your target queries; the gap tells you the effort needed. A regular rhythm of relevant links is better than a burst. Our guide how many backlinks do I need details the calculation.

Backlinks and AI visibility

Links remain a signal of trust for Google, and the mentions that come with them also feed AI answers: assistants recommend brands that credible sites talk about. Earning quality backlinks from the sites above therefore works twice, for rankings and for citations in ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.

The bottom line

The best backlink sites are the ones your audience reads and that have a reason to cite you; helpful, people-first content worth linking to does most of the work. For the full method, read how to get backlinks and the types of backlinks. Sorank, SEO and GEO software that runs on autopilot, also obtains natural backlinks automatically from the sites of its 5,000+ users while it publishes your content. See the Sorank plans, with a 3-day free trial.