To get free backlinks, claim your business profiles, turn brand mentions into links, replace broken links, answer journalist requests, and ask partners, tools you use and relevant publishers to link to you. Free backlinks are never free of time. Not one. Each method below comes with an honest estimate of the hours it costs, so you can pick the ones that fit your week.

Last updated: November 9, 2026

Every time figure here is a rough planning estimate, not measured data. Your numbers will differ with your niche, your writing speed and how well people know your brand. Track them.

You get free backlinks by trading time for links in eight ways, and they fall into three groups: claim what you're owed, fix what's broken, and earn new mentions.

  1. Profiles and citations: claim your listings
  2. Unlinked mentions: ask sites that already name you to add a link
  3. Broken link building: offer your page in place of a dead one
  4. Journalist requests: answer reporters' questions as an expert
  5. Resource pages: get listed on curated lists in your niche
  6. Partners and suppliers: ask businesses you work with
  7. Testimonials: review tools you pay for
  8. Free guest posts: write for publishers that accept contributors

Look at the bars below. The first five methods cost minutes per link; the last three cost hours.

Rough time per earned link, by free method
  • Partners and suppliers ~10 min
  • Unlinked mentions ~10 min
  • Testimonials ~15 min
  • Profiles and citations 15–30 min
  • Journalist requests, per pitch 20–30 min
  • Resource pages 1–2 hours
  • Broken link building 3–6 hours
  • Free guest posts 4–8 hours
Planning estimates, not measured data. Bars use the top of each range on an 8-hour scale.

Before you start, check what you already have. Google Search Console's Links report is free and lists your top linking sites, top linked pages and top linking text. Its tables cap at 1,000 rows, which is plenty for most small sites.

Profiles and citations get you free backlinks by listing your business on map, review and directory sites that allow a website link. Time cost: about 15 to 30 minutes each.

When you start, pick the profiles your customers actually use: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple's business listing for Maps, plus one or two review or trade sites in your field. Use the exact same name, address and phone number on every one. Our list of backlink websites by type shows which profile sites we checked this month.

Honestly, don't expect rankings from this step. Many of these links are nofollow, so open each one and check the attribute with our guide to checking dofollow links. They still matter for trust and for customers who look you up. Do them once, then move on. Most people overdo this part and spend 3 weekends on 40 directories nobody reads, when 6 or 8 listings that customers actually use would have done the same job.

Unlinked mentions become free backlinks when you find pages that name your brand without linking and politely ask the author to add the link. Time cost: about 10 minutes per email once you've found the mention.

Here's the routine:

  • Set up Google Alerts for your brand name, your founder's name and your product names. As of November 2026, it offers three frequencies: as-it-happens, at most once a day, and at most once a week.
  • Open each alert. When you find a page that names you with no link, look up the author or editor.
  • Send two or three sentences. Thank them, give the exact URL, and say why it helps their readers.

The hit rate tends to be high, because the writer already chose to mention you, already likes your product enough to write about it, and only has to paste one URL into a page that's already live. Most people forget this step entirely. Don't skip it.

Broken link building earns free backlinks by finding dead links on relevant pages and offering your working page as the replacement. Time cost: roughly 3 to 6 hours per link, because most pitches get no reply.

  1. Find pages. Look for resource pages and guides in your niche.
  2. Check for 404s. Run their outbound links through a broken-link checker or a backlink tool.
  3. See what was there. Look up the dead page in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
  4. Match it. Make sure your page covers the same thing, or better.
  5. Email the owner. Name the broken link and the page it sits on, then offer yours.

Don't forget the follow-up. One polite reminder after 7 days is fine. Two is pushy. Keep the email short. Site owners like the tip even when they don't use your page, and in practice a friendly 60-word note beats a 300-word pitch every time. When a whole page from a defunct competitor went dead, several sites may have linked to it, which makes one good replacement page worth more than one link.

Journalist request platforms still give free backlinks, and HARO is back, but under a new owner. Time cost: about 20 to 30 minutes per pitch, with a low hit rate.

So what happened to HARO? Cision moved it into a platform called Connectively, then sold the HARO brand to Featured.com in April 2025, and Featured brought back the email format. We checked the HARO site in November 2026: it was live, said "Powered by Featured", and offered free daily media queries.

Two alternatives we confirmed the same month:

  • Source of Sources, run by HARO founder Peter Shankman, sends queries by email up to three times a day, and it's free.
  • Qwoted connects journalists with expert sources and offers a free account.

Pitch only when you're a real expert on the exact question. Don't bother with the rest. Answer in the first line, add one number or example the reporter can quote, and keep it under 150 words. Not every article links to its sources, so some wins are a mention, not a link. Still worth it for brand reach.

Resource pages give free website backlinks when your page is a genuinely useful addition to a curated list on a related site. Time cost: roughly 1 to 2 hours per link, including the search.

Find them with searches like these:

  • intitle:resources + your topic
  • inurl:links + your topic
  • "useful links" + your topic

Check that the page is maintained, that it links to real businesses and guides, and that it isn't a page of 300 random links. Skip the ones last edited in 2019. Then pitch one specific page of yours. Skip the homepage. A free calculator, checklist or template has the best chance.

Partners are the fastest way to get free backlinks because the relationship already exists, so one email often does it. Time cost: about 10 minutes per ask.

Think about suppliers with stockist pages, software you integrate with, agencies you work alongside, and events or clubs you support, because every one of them already has a page where partners get listed and an editor who answers email. Ask nicely. It works. Ask to be listed where they already list others. Keep it real, though. Google's spam policies name "partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking" as link spam, which our guide to backlink exchange risks explains in detail.

Testimonials can get you a free backlink when a tool or supplier you genuinely use publishes customer quotes with links. Time cost: about 15 minutes each.

In practice, the quotes that get published are specific. Write two or three sentences with a result, such as "cut our invoicing time from 4 hours to 1 a week." Offer a headshot and logo. Only review products you use. A fake testimonial is a bad trade for one link, and when you've praised a tool you dropped, readers notice.

You get free backlinks from guest posts by writing a useful article for a publisher that accepts contributors and earning a link in the author bio or body. Time cost: roughly 4 to 8 hours per article, including the pitch.

Pitch three specific titles that fit the site, not a vague offer. Then write better than the site's average post. When you send a draft that needs no editing, the editor remembers you, and the second pitch to that site usually takes a 5-line email instead of a week of follow-ups. Don't use a keyword-stuffed anchor here. Keep your link natural: Google's spam policies list links with optimized anchor text in guest posts as link spam, so use your brand or a plain description. Our guide to guest posting sites shows how to find and vet them.

Some publishers ask for a fee. Then it isn't free.

This decision table compares the eight free backlink methods by rough time cost and the type of link you'll usually get.

Method Rough time per link Typical link Start here if
Profiles and citations 15 to 30 minutes Often nofollow Your listings are missing
Unlinked mentions 10 minutes per email In body, often dofollow People already write about you
Partners and suppliers 10 minutes per ask Often dofollow You have 3+ business partners
Testimonials 15 minutes Mixed You pay for B2B tools
Resource pages 1 to 2 hours Often dofollow You have a free tool or guide
Journalist requests 20 to 30 minutes per pitch Mention, sometimes linked You're a real expert
Broken link building 3 to 6 hours In body You can build a replacement page
Free guest posts 4 to 8 hours Bio or body You can write well

All times are planning estimates. Move down the table as the cheap options run out. Most people miss that order and start with guest posts, the slowest method on the list.

Not sure where to begin? Start at the top of this flow and stop at the first “yes”.

Decision flow for choosing a free backlink method, starting with missing profiles, then existing mentions, partners, a free tool, and finally journalist requests or guest posts

Worked example: 20 hours a month for 3 months

Hypothetical example, round numbers. Say you run a project management app and can give free link building 20 hours a month for 3 months, 60 hours in total.

  • Month 1: 3 hours on 8 profiles. Then 2 hours on 12 unlinked mentions, which win 5 links. Then 1 hour on 6 partner emails, which win 4. The other 14 hours go into a free template page.
  • Month 2: 10 hours on broken link building around that template, which wins 3 links. 10 hours on 20 journalist pitches, which win 2 linked mentions.
  • Month 3: 16 hours on 2 guest posts, which win 2 links. 4 hours on resource page pitches, which win 2.

That's 18 earned links in 60 hours, about 3.3 hours each, plus 8 profiles. Look closely, though. Nine links came from the first 3 hours of outreach, while the 16 hours of guest writing in month 3 produced just 2, which is why this is how to get free backlinks without burning out: cheap wins first, always.

Free backlinks stop being enough when competitors have far more referring domains than you can earn in your available hours, or when one important page needs links fast. At that point you choose between more time, a specialist, or paid placements.

LinkBasket is our marketplace, so factor that in. Be clear on the risk, and honestly, this is the part most sellers skip: Google's spam policies treat links bought to manipulate rankings as link spam, and no paid link is risk-free. What lowers the risk is relevance, real organic traffic, editorial sites, a sponsored tag where the publisher adds one, natural anchors and no link farms. LinkBasket checks each live link weekly for 12 months.

Four edge cases change how you get free backlinks: a brand with no mentions yet, a local business, a sensitive niche and a site with an old spam profile.

  • No mentions yet: skip Step 2 and build one linkable page first.
  • Local business: local news, clubs and chambers beat national lists. Our local link building guide covers them.
  • Health, finance or legal: journalists want credentials. Pitch with a qualified author.
  • Old spam links: if you've bought bulk links before, audit before you build.

Call a specialist when Search Console reports a manual action, when you have no hours to spare, or when a digital PR campaign needs data and media contacts you don't have. Our digital PR service handles campaigns like that. For a manual action, hire an auditor with nothing to sell.

Before you hire anyone, check where you stand:

  • Search Console's Manual actions report shows no issues.
  • Steps 1, 2 and 6 are done.
  • You've tracked hours per link for 2 months.
  • You know how many referring domains the top 3 competitors have.

FAQ

Yes, the earned kinds are. Unlinked mentions, partner links and broken link replacements come from relevant sites by choice, which is exactly what a good backlink looks like. Mass profile and submission links are rarely worth the time.

Usually a partner or supplier link. One email to a business that already lists partners can win a link in a day. Unlinked mentions come a close second.

Is HARO still free in 2026?

When we checked in November 2026, the HARO site offered a free sign-up for daily media queries, now powered by Featured. Plans and terms can change, so check the site before you rely on it.

It depends on your hours. In our hypothetical example, 20 hours a month produced about 6 links a month. Track your own ratio for 2 months and plan from that.

Start with Steps 1, 2 and 6 this week. They're quick. Then pick one linkable page for Steps 3 and 5. If you need more links than your hours allow, read our page on how to buy backlinks on LinkBasket, or learn what to look for in our guide on what makes a good backlink.