How to Get Free High Authority Backlinks: 35 Easy Methods

Do you want to know how to build free backlinks for your new website? If they are also high authority backlinks, the benefit is doubled. right?

Backlinks play a vital role in SEO and traffic. Search engines consider them as upvotes for your content and rank it higher in SERPs based on the number of backlinks.

A good backlink tells search engines that another site trusts your content. High-authority backlinks lift your site in search results more than low-quality links. If you can get free backlinks from trusted sites, you boost visibility without spending on link networks or paid placements.

Today, we’ll explain different link-building strategies that can help you create authoritative, free backlinks and bring your business to new heights in 2026.

What are High-Authority Backlinks?

A backlink is any link from one website to another. Search engines treat it like votes. But not all votes carry the same weight. Links from established sites — such as news publishers, niche industry blogs, university pages, and government sites — hold more influence. Those are high-authority backlinks.

Key differences to track:

• Dofollow vs nofollow. Dofollow links pass link equity. Nofollow links can still direct traffic and yield indirect SEO benefits, but they do not pass the same direct ranking signals.
• Referring domain quality. A link from one strong domain is more valuable than many links from weak domains. Tools label this as Domain Authority, Domain Rating, Trust Flow, or similar metrics.
• Context and relevance. A link inside relevant editorial content is more effective than a sitewide footer link on an unrelated page. Search engines consider topical relevance when evaluating links.

High-authority backlinks do three things:

1. They help pages rank higher.
2. They drive referral traffic from readers who click the link.
3. They help search engines trust your site for a topic.

How To Build Backlinks for Free in 2026?

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Before choosing a website to get backlinks, ensure it has a high domain authority.

Visit Moz to run a free domain analysis and check DA, referring domains, ranking keywords, and top pages on any website.

Ahrefs free backlink checker is another useful tool for checking the SEO metrics of a site, including its Domain Rating (DR) and backlinks.

If your target site has a good DA or DR, proceed to the next step. Contact webmasters for guest posting opportunities or getting linkbacks.

Let’s get started.

1. Guest Posts

Guest posting is the most popular method for link building. Find the reputed websites in your niche to publish your content as a guest author. There are several blogs in tech, travel, business, and other categories where you can submit posts to get free backlinks in return.

Start by pitching to low or medium-level websites. Write epic posts on your favourite topic and respond to the comments you receive to build relations.

Before writing posts, ensure your target website is in the same niche. Otherwise, the posting may not drive the results as you expected. High domain authority and do-follow backlinks are additional points to confirm before finalizing an opportunity.

Read these posts to know more about guest blogging:

• List of 400+ Best Free Guest Posting Sites 2026 [High DA]
• How to Create Epic Blog Posts That Attracts Repeat Readers

It’s easy to find guest posting opportunities using Google search. Search with keywords like ‘blogging’, ‘WordPress’, ‘SEO’, etc., to get relevant link suggestions. Open pages and contact blog owners by showing your interest in sharing knowledge.

If you are unable to retrieve the contact details of a blog, consider installing the Hunter browser extension for Chrome to quickly find email addresses. It is also useful for obtaining names, phone numbers, and social media accounts associated with a website.

There are several ways to find guest blogging sites. You can easily find opportunities by searching for one of the following keywords,

“Submit guest post”

“Write for us”

“Guest post”

“Guest post guidelines”

“Become a contributor”

“write for us” + “keyword” blog

“Keyword” + “accepting guest posts”

“Keyword” +” contribute”

“Keyword” + “guest post”

“Keyword” + “become a contributor”

“Keyword” + “guest author”

“Keyword”+ inurl:guest-posts

“Keyword”+ inurl:write-for-us

“Keyword”+ inurl:contribute

Open relevant pages and read their guest post guidelines carefully. If they align with your interests, submit your request along with topic suggestions.

2. Use Quora to Build Backlinks

Quora is a popular question-and-answer website that helps clear doubts on any subject. Search for keywords like best SEO tips, food, travel, or others related to your content topic.

Identify the most frequently asked or unanswered questions and provide a detailed response with relevant examples, where possible. You can also provide a blog post link to let readers know more. But be careful not to spam. Otherwise, Quora may ban you for violating its policies.

3. Infographics

An Infographic is a popular content type that can reach thousands or millions of social media users in short moments. However, do you know that it is also the best choice for building high-quality, free backlinks?

Create a beautiful infographic in your niche using a free infographic maker. You can also hire a freelance designer to create professional-quality infographic templates at affordable rates.

If thousands of people visit your website regularly, you can publish that infographic exclusively on the site. Otherwise, you should promote the content maximally through social media channels to improve visibility. Influencer marketing and blogger outreach are other common methods to publish infographics on similar niche websites and get backlinks.

4. Broken link building

Broken link building is one of the effective methods in the link building process. Needless to say, broken links can negatively impact a website’s SEO and online reputation. However, it is practically impossible for large websites to check each page regularly for dead links.  Right?

Check My Links is a simple browser extension for Chrome that easily detects broken links on any webpage. First, install and activate the extension on your browser. Open your target page to see if there is any link highlighted in red color. It is a broken link.

Contact webmasters, inform them about your research, and ask them politely to replace the outdated link with a similar blog post on your site. Most likely, they will respond favorably to you because of your supportive attitude and the possibility of cleaning up their page by deleting unwanted links.

If you are not getting any response, don’t forget to send a follow-up email after 2-3 days. In this way, you can build free backlinks from even authoritative sites easily.

5. Create High-Quality Content

Create in-depth, comprehensive guides on trending topics around your blog category. It will help you naturally earn massive traffic and backlinks.

Conduct keyword research to ensure the chosen topic has a growing demand. Search Google to find the top webpages ranked for your keyword and go through them. Prepare a note of the main points mentioned in those pages to cover them in your post.

Write detailed, high-quality content that people will love. So they will mention and link it from relevant pages even without sending any requests.

6. Mention Influencers

Mentioning influencers in your articles is another way to build free backlinks. Find key influencers in your industry and link to their viral posts when needed.

Linking to authoritative sites is also a good idea to boost your domain authority and educate search engines about your content type. For example, SEO blogs will have links to Semrush and Ahrefs.

On the other hand, it is not necessary for cookery websites to link to such SEO tools. If your site has links to Semrush, search engine bots will realize that the site is related to search engine optimization and will treat your links accordingly.

Mere linking is not enough to come into the influencer’s attention. Search Twitter for their official accounts and tweet them with your post link and words like ‘You’ve mentioned here’. So they will be aware of your outbound link. It is like a give-and-take policy that will work in your favor in the future.

Retweet influencers’ tweets and share their posts on your social media channels (especially Twitter and Facebook) to draw their attention. You can also leave meaningful comments on their pages. These strategies will help you build a strong connection with influencers and get high-authority backlinks.

7. Join Hands with HARO

Are you familiar with HARO? Help A Reporter, aka HARO, is an online platform to connect journalists and sources. It helps journalists to find sources for upcoming stories and publishers to get free backlinks from top authority websites.

Journalists can post their pitches on HARO, and sources can respond to them with their content links.

HARO has free and premium subscription packages. Free members will get three email notifications a day with opportunities. Premium members can set alerts for certain keywords to know about the latest opportunities as they are published.

How to use HARO

1. Create a free HARO account.
2. Pick the topics that match your field.
3. Check new requests each day.
4. Reply within an hour if the question fits your skill.
5. Keep your answer short and direct.
6. Add your name, business, and a link to your website.

Try to respond to queries as quickly as possible, because reporters receive many replies. A short answer gets more attention than a long one.

8. Spy on Competitor’s Backlinks

Competitor analysis is a proven way to build backlinks from influential websites and boost your traffic.

Spy on your competitors to detect their powerful backlinks and develop more comprehensive, link-worthy content on the same subject. Contact referring websites and ask them to link to your page, as it contains more relevant information than the competitor.

Broken backlink analysis is another part that lets you build free backlinks easily. Visit Semrush or Ahrefs and enter a website URL to find its broken backlinks.

Contact referring domains and inform them that the corresponding link is broken, and ask them to replace it with your similar link. Most likely, they will accommodate your request, especially if your post has a good quality and is worth mentioning.

9. Ask for Backlinks

Once you start getting decent traffic, you will get several link placement requests, even from niche influencers and authoritative websites. Hence, you should not feel ashamed for requesting free backlinks.

Search for relevant keywords in your industry and reach out to website owners for potential backlink opportunities. Inform your willingness to share their content on your social media pages and communities in return. Make regular follow-ups, up to 5-6 times, until you receive a response.

It’s better to use professional email addresses rather than free email accounts to get a fast and positive response from parties. Many web hosts let you create free, unlimited email addresses with your domain name through cPanel.

10. Recover Your Lost Backlinks

Broken backlink analysis is an inevitable part of the SEO and link building process. We have already seen how to identify broken backlinks of your competitors in the steps above. The same strategy will also work for recovering your own lost backlinks.

Open a domain analysis tool and enter your domain address to explore your lost backlinks. Approach referring websites and ask them in a friendly manner to update the links.

If your page has changed the address recently, don’t forget to redirect the old post to the new address via .htaccess update or an SEO redirection plugin.

11. Create a Free Tool

Creating free tools can help you get backlinks from small blogs to large websites. You don’t need any development knowledge to do it. Today, there are many no-code platforms that help you create various types of tools in a short time.

Examples:

• ROI calculator
• Calendar
• Small to-do list app
• Email subject line generator
• Website speed test tool

Join Reddit communities, Quora, and niche forums to understand what kind of tool people are looking for. Once it is created, inform members about your new experiment and collect feedback to make improvements. You can promote it on X and LinkedIn, also.

12. Podcasts (as a Guest)

Podcast guest spots offer natural backlink opportunities. Hosts invite guests who can share their experience or insights in areas of expertise. When they publish your episode, they will add show notes. These notes usually link to your website and social profiles.

To find relevant podcasts, search for your topic on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Look for shows that conduct expert interviews. Send a short message to the host with a few ideas you can talk about. Keep the pitch simple and friendly.

During the interview, focus on sharing real stories from your work. Audience appreciates practical, easy-to-follow details. After the episode goes live, the show notes page becomes a trusted backlink to your site.

13. Interview Experts

Interviewing experts lends your site more credibility and naturally attracts backlinks. Most experts like to share interviews with their own audience. They may also add the link to their website’s press or media page.

To create an interview, reach out to people who speak on topics related to your field. Offer a short list of questions and ask for brief answers. Publish the interview once you collect the responses. Then send the live link to each expert.

This approach helps you develop strong relationships and earn organic links from respected voices in your niche.

14. Offer Free Templates or Downloadables

Templates attract backlinks because they save time for people who need ready-made solutions. You can create Google spreadsheets, email scripts, Notion templates, or design files. Add a brief explanation and provide users with free access.

Writers often link to templates in their guides and share them with others. A good template can earn links for months, especially if it solves a common problem.

Make your templates easy to use and update them with improvements as you learn more from user feedback.

15. Skyscraper Technique

The Skyscraper Technique helps you earn backlinks by creating a better version of content that already ranks well. Start by searching for your main keyword. Open the top pages and study what they cover. Look for gaps, outdated points, new search trends, or missing examples.

Create a fresh version that offers more detailed and helpful explanations. Add new data, new angles, and clearer steps. Keep your structure easy to read, and ensure the topic feels complete for beginners.

Once your new guide goes live, review the sites that are still linking to the older versions. Send a short message to those site owners. Inform them that you have a more comprehensive, updated guide that may assist their readers.

Keep your message polite and brief. If your content is stronger, many websites will mention it on their pages.

16. Relationship Building

Develop a strong relationship with other niche writers, marketers, your regular clients, and social media followers. Interact with them frequently to share thoughts on various topics and leave content feedback.

Impressed with a post written by one of your fellow authors? Share it on your social media profile to boost its reach. You can also mention it in an upcoming post, which will strengthen your relationship. Naturally, they will do the same for you.

17. Provide Royalty-Free Images

Are you a photographer? Or do you have a passion for designing?

If so, you can build unlimited free backlinks by offering royalty-free images on free stock photo websites like Flickr.

Take stunning photos or create attractive designs and provide them for free in exchange for attribution credits. Thus, you can earn as many backlinks as you need from different websites or content types.

18. Expert Roundups

Niche websites and blogs often conduct roundups to collect feedback from experts on various topics relating to their sectors. Such expert roundups will help you attract more traffic, build relationships, and earn backlinks from trusted sources.

19. Write Testimonials

What is a testimonial? It is an opinion expressed by verified customers about a digital product or an online service. Companies or agencies use it to attract new customers and expand their business.

Write a testimonial about a hosting service, an SEO consultation firm, and any other product you use. If approved, your testimonials will be published on the product’s homepage along with a link to your site. It is another proven way to earn free backlinks from popular business websites.

20. Forum Backlinks

Are you using forums to ask questions and build backlinks? If not, you are making a big mistake.

Forum link building is a great method to build quick, free backlinks, but you should use only relevant forums for the purpose. Otherwise, you may get the Google Penguin penalty.

Participate in threads related to your niche and add links only when necessary. Avoid placing unnecessary links, as spamming will hurt your website’s SEO and reputation.

21. Link Roundups

Do you know what a link roundup is? They are weekly or monthly collections of the best blog posts in an industry, such as SEO, Marketing, Social Media, Business, etc., with links to the original content.

Such link roundups will help you build both traffic and backlinks to your pages.

Search for “link roundups” on Google and social networking sites to find posts with the keyword ‘link roundups’ in the title. Alternatively, you can use search operators to see relevant posts in your category.

Try these keyword combinations,

“Your keyword” + ” link roundup”

“Your keyword” + “roundup”

“Your keyword” + inurl:roundup

“Your keyword” + intitle:roundup

These search operators will pick links from all over the web, and some of them may have been published many years ago. If you are using Google Search, click Tools, and choose ‘Past month’ or apply a custom date range to view the most recent link roundup posts.

22. LinkedIn Articles

LinkedIn gives you a space to publish long-form content. These posts reach professionals, writers, and reporters. Many of us use LinkedIn to look for sources or reference material.

Create short versions of your main articles and publish them as LinkedIn posts. Add one or two links to your website where they fit naturally.

Share the article with your network. When your post gains views, you increase the chance of earning backlinks from others who find your content useful.

23. Internal links

Internal linking is a powerful SEO tactic that helps reduce your bounce rate and directs readers between pages. It also holds a unique place in link building.

Submitting URLs to search engines may not be sufficient to ensure they are indexed correctly. Therefore, you should link content internally to enhance its visibility and boost website SEO.

They should have a dofollow attribute and rich anchor texts if possible. So search engine bots can locate and index them correctly. Internal linking will also help your visitors find relevant posts without needing to make any additional web searches.

24. Blogging Directories

A blog directory is a platform where you can connect with bloggers across various categories, such as SEO, tech, fashion, food, and more, and establish connections. It also allows you to promote blog posts, get traffic, and create high DA backlinks for them.

RSS feed integration is a major advantage of blogging directories. Submit your RSS feed URL, and it will update your profile page with your recent posts as they are published on the main site.

25. Submit Your Blog to Feed Aggregators

Feed aggregators collect blog updates and display them to users who follow specific topics or interests. When you submit your site, these platforms link back to your blog and automatically publish new posts.

Sites like Feedly, Alltop, Flipboard, and Innoreader attract readers who follow niche topics. Listing your blog helps more people discover your content. Some of them may even mention your posts in their own articles, giving you new backlinks.

26. Wikipedia Backlinks

Wikipedia is a reliable knowledge source for obtaining honest information on virtually everything. Google places great emphasis on Wikipedia pages, and that’s why you see them at the top of SERPs.

Don’t you think Wikipedia backlinks will be very beneficial for your online business? But is it possible?

Yes, certainly. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit articles in various categories, including technology, history, science, health, and more.

For that, you should create a Wikipedia user account first. Next, identify the pages on Wikipedia that contain broken links. Replace them with your own links if they match the context.

27. Web 2.0 Websites

Web 2.0 websites help you build free backlinks by publishing content on platforms with strong authority. These sites allow you to create your own pages, post articles, and link back to your main website. Search engines index these platforms well, so your links gain visibility early.

Some popular Web 2.0 platforms include Medium, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress.com, Weebly, Wix, and Jimdo. Each one gives you a place to write articles and share your ideas. You can publish summaries of your main posts, short guides, or quick tips. Then, add a link to your full article as a source.

Use new content for each platform. Avoid copying your blog posts word for word. A small rewrite or condensed version works best and helps you avoid duplicate content issues.

28. Case Studies

Writers trust pages that include real-life experiments and case studies. Data-backed content earns backlinks because people use it to support arguments, reports, and in-depth articles.

You can publish surveys, yearly stats, comparison posts, or benchmark studies. Even a small dataset can attract attention if it fills a gap. Update your content regularly with fresh numbers.

These pages become long-term backlink magnets. Once your data gets referenced, new backlinks start coming naturally.

29. Content Repurposing

Content repurposing helps your work reach new audiences. One article can turn into videos, slides, infographics, short posts, or email sequences. Each version provides you with another opportunity to earn backlinks.

A strong blog post can become a script for a YouTube video. You can turn key stats into a simple infographic. You can rewrite part of the post as a LinkedIn slide or a Medium article. Each piece links back to your main guide.

The more platforms your content appears on, the more likely it is that someone will reference it and link to the original article.

30. Blog Commenting

Follow authoritative blogs in your industry and share your honest opinions about the articles. Blog commenting is one of the easiest methods to create free backlinks to your site and sometimes, individual page links. It is also beneficial to establish a relationship with the authors and explore new possibilities.

Drop My Link is a simple tool that helps you find backlink opportunities through blog comments, link roundups, forum posts, guest posts, and resource pages, among others. Enter your keyword, and choose a category.

Then, it will list all websites and forums within your niche or containing your keyword. Visit them to build backlinks through guest posting, blog comments, forum posts, and other methods.

31. Press releases

When it comes to link building, a press release is a highly underrated technique. Some people still think press releases are for news only, and there is no way to build dofollow backlinks using them. But that’s not true.

If you know how to write a press release and submit it to the right websites and publications, you can certainly increase your chances of getting new customers and boost your search engine rankings. However, ensure that the link you are trying to build has a strong domain authority of at least 40 or higher. It will ensure that your links are effective.

32. Resource website

Creating a resource website is another method to build authoritative free backlinks for your site.

Businesses often develop resource websites that can act as an informal hub for their industry. It features high-quality content, including breaking news, trending topics, and expert advice. Wikipedia is the best example of a resource website.

This type of website has considerable potential, especially when targeting a specific niche. People will always need information to help them with their lives, careers, hobbies, and other interests.

A resource-rich website can be utilized to establish high DA backlinks for your website, thereby enhancing its SEO rankings.

33. Trending topics

Google loves content on trending topics. When a new online trend is created, it’s likely to be discussed extensively. It will be mentioned in forums, news articles, blogs, and various social media sites.

However, a lot of people don’t realize this, and they’re missing out on a big opportunity to get free backlinks from reputed sources and improve search visibility. That’s because when a new trend emerges, many businesses tend to create content related to it.

34. Local Business Listings

If you have a local business, you know how important it is to be listed on Google Business, Yelp.com, Yahoo Local, and other local directories. Getting listed on these directories is a great way to obtain a high DA backlink to your site, which will drive a significant amount of traffic to it.

You can reach out to the webmaster of the directory and request to be listed, but this may take some time. Sometimes, they allow you to create an instant free listing with a link to your site. These backlinks are natural and pass significant value to your SEO efforts.

35. Private Blog Network (PBN)

There are several ways to build high DA backlinks for your website. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is to establish a private blog network.

A private blog network is a group of blogs owned by the same person, which are interconnected with each other. In fact, these links are sometimes referred to as the invisible web of links.

When a potential customer is searching for a specific type of product or service, they often turn to a search engine to find the best results. If your business is listed high in the search results, you can be sure to receive a significant amount of qualified traffic.

One of the most important things to remember about a private blog network is that it is all about the long term. You can’t expect to build a network like this overnight. It takes time and effort. That is why you need to be committed to the network and the long-term benefits it offers.

Do you have more link building strategies to share? Let us know through comments.

Related posts:

• 200+ Top Social Bookmarking Sites 2026 to Get High DA Backlinks
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