To build backlinks, start with the people who already know you: the associations you belong to, the businesses you partner with, and the suppliers whose “where to buy” or stockist pages could list you. Ask each one to link to your site, then build a page worth citing and tell the people who’d care about it. Those links are relevant, they’re easy to ask for, and they sit comfortably inside Google’s rules. Paid links are a separate route, and Google’s spam policy says they must carry rel="sponsored" or nofollow.
Last updated 30 October 2026.
Why start with people who know you
Most backlink advice starts with strangers: cold emails to bloggers, guest-post pitches, outreach lists of five hundred sites. Every cold pitch has to persuade a stranger, and every link costs you hours of writing and follow-up.
The people who already know you are different. They have a reason to say yes, because listing you helps them too. A trade association wants its member directory to be useful. A supplier wants buyers to find shops that stock its products. A software partner wants customers to see which tools connect to theirs.
There’s a Google reason as well. Google says it uses links “to find new pages to crawl” and as a signal of relevance, on its link best practices page. A link from the body that represents your trade, or from the maker of the products you sell, is about as relevant as a link gets. If you’re new to the topic, our guide on what link building is covers how Google uses links in more depth.
Step 1: the groups you belong to
Make a list of every group your business or its owners belong to. Think wider than you’d expect.
- Trade and professional associations
- A local chamber of commerce or business improvement district
- Certification or accreditation bodies (a registered installer scheme, a food hygiene body)
- Alumni groups, accelerators or incubators
- Local community or volunteer groups you support
Many of these keep a member directory, and many directories link to each member’s website. Look up your own listing. If it has no link, or links to an old address, ask the person who runs the directory to fix it. That’s usually a two-line email, not a pitch.
When you check a listing, look at the link itself, not just the page. Some directories link plainly, some mark every outbound link nofollow, and some show your name with no link at all. All three are normal. A nofollow link from a relevant body still sends visitors and still helps Google find you; our guide to dofollow vs nofollow links explains the difference.
Step 2: the businesses you work with
Next, list the businesses you work alongside: firms you subcontract for, firms that subcontract to you, regular referral partners, venues you deliver to, the agency that built your site.
Many of them have a partners page, a “who we work with” section, or case studies that name clients. If you make software, the most common version is an integration listing: the tool you connect with often has a directory of apps that work with it, and each listing usually links to the app’s site.
Ask with something useful attached. Send your logo, a two-sentence description, and the exact page you’d like them to link to. Make it easy to say yes.
Most people miss one detail here. Google’s spam policy names “Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking” as link spam. A partner page that lists businesses you actually work with is normal. A page of fifty sites that swapped links with you is not. The test is whether a real customer would find the page useful.
Step 3: the companies you buy from
If you sell products made by someone else, the maker probably has a “where to buy”, “stockists” or “find a retailer” page. If you install or service a brand’s equipment, they may have an approved-installer finder. Both often link to each listed business.
Write to the supplier’s marketing or trade-account contact. Tell them you stock their products, share your shop’s address and website, and attach your logo. If they run a dealer portal, the listing form is often in there.
Don’t forget the other direction. Google’s policy lists “Requiring a link as part of a Terms of Service, contract, or similar arrangement without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link” as link spam. So if a supplier asks you to link back as a condition of the deal, that’s their call to make, but the link should be one you’re free to mark nofollow.
A worked example: a new bakery’s first month
Here’s a realistic scenario with round numbers. A bakery opens with a new website and no links at all. The owner has about two hours a week for four weeks.
| Week | Who they contact | Time | Likely result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Local business association, town chamber of commerce, food-hygiene scheme listing | 2 hours | 2 directory listings |
| 2 | Flour mill and coffee roaster they buy from (stockist pages) | 2 hours | 1-2 stockist listings |
| 3 | Two cafés and a wedding venue they supply | 2 hours | 1-2 partner mentions |
| 4 | A local food blog and a “where to eat” community page, with the bakery’s allergen guide | 2 hours | 0-1 earned links |
After eight hours, the bakery might have four to seven links, every one from a local or food-related site. In practice, that’s a better start than fifty links from unrelated blogs, and it costs nothing but time. Honestly, the week-four result is the least predictable, which is exactly why it comes last.
Link building for a new website: get found first
If you’ve just launched, links have a second job: helping Google find you at all. Google’s sitemap overview lists this exact case, “Your site is new and has few external links to it,” and warns that “Googlebot might not discover your pages if no other sites link to them.”
So do the free work before you chase links:
- Verify the site in Google Search Console and check that Google can read your important pages.
- Consider submitting a sitemap. Google says it helps, but “it doesn’t guarantee that all the items in your sitemap will be crawled and indexed.”
- Link every important page from your home page or menu. Google says “If your site’s pages are properly linked, Google can usually discover most of your site.”
Then use the three steps above. Each early link is a door into your site, so pick doors people actually walk through.
Step 4: earn links with a page worth citing
Once the easy asks are done, the next links come from pages people want to cite. Google’s SEO starter guide says content people find “compelling and useful will likely influence your website’s presence in search results more than any of the other suggestions in this guide.” It also says “Other sites linking to you is something that happens naturally over time.”
Good link-earning pages are specific. A plumbing firm’s guide to bleeding a radiator. A SaaS tool’s public template library. A travel blog’s month-by-month weather table for one region. Each one answers a question other writers need to answer too.
Then tell people. The starter guide calls word of mouth “One of the most effective and lasting ways” to promote a site. It adds a warning: “you can overdo promoting your site and actually harm it.” Send your page to the handful of sites where it genuinely helps, not to everyone. Fixing dead links on other sites is another honest way in, covered in our guide to broken link building.
What about paid links?
Paying for a placement is the fastest route, and it’s the one with a rule attached. Google’s spam policy lists “Buying or selling links for ranking purposes,” including “Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links,” as link spam. It also says paid links are fine “as long as they are qualified with a rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” attribute value.” Turns out the same rule applies whether your site is a week old or ten years old.
If you do pay for visibility, ask the publisher to mark the link sponsored, and check the live page yourself.
Common mistakes when building backlinks
Skipping the easy asks. Associations and suppliers are often the quickest links you’ll ever get, and most people never send the email.
Asking for a link to a page that isn’t ready. A link that lands on a thin page wastes the favour.
Chasing volume. Five relevant links beat fifty you can’t explain.
Using keyword-stuffed anchors. Let people link with your business name or a plain description. Google lists “optimized anchor text” in guest posts and press releases as link spam.
Never checking. If you’ve got a list of links, look at each one every few months. Listings move, sites redesign, links disappear.
FAQ: building backlinks
How do I build backlinks to my website for free?
Start with associations, chambers of commerce, partners and suppliers who can list you, then create a page worth citing and tell the sites it would help. None of that costs money, only time. Skip the free directory blasts; Google names “Low-quality directory or bookmark site links” as link spam.
How do I build backlinks for a brand-new website?
Get found first: verify the site in Search Console, consider a sitemap and link every key page from your home page. Then ask the groups and businesses that already know you to list your site. Those first links help Google discover you as well as judge relevance.
How many backlinks do I need?
There’s no number Google publishes. A few relevant links from your trade, your suppliers and your local area usually matter more than a large count. Work on the next useful link rather than a target.
How long do backlinks take to work?
Google has to find the linking page, crawl it and weigh it alongside everything else, so there’s no fixed timeline. Our guide on how long backlinks take to work covers what Google does say.
The short version
- Start with who knows you: associations, partners and suppliers’ stockist or dealer pages.
- Ask with your logo, a short description and the exact page to link to.
- New site? Verify in Search Console, add a sitemap and link key pages from your home page first.
- Then earn links with a specific, useful page, and promote it without overdoing it.
- Paid links must carry
rel="sponsored"ornofollowunder Google’s spam policy.