Backlinks · Practice Guide
5 more sources for free backlinks: own resources
Seitenreport Editorial · Revised at
If company profiles and existing contacts are maintained, the next step is worthwhile: publishing something that others can actually use as a source. These five ideas complement the ten basic backlink sources with their own data, tools and working materials.
Five additions that create their own reason to link
These ideas require more work than an existing company profile. They are worthwhile if you can answer a recurring question from your target group and then maintain the resource. There is no guarantee for backlinks; just publish something that would be useful even without a single reference.
The ten basics – profiles, existing contacts, mentions and editorial cooperation – are in the first part: 10 Sources for Free Backlinks. Here are five other approaches with their own data and materials.
| Resources | Conditions | Who could point this out? |
|---|---|---|
| Own investigation | Traceable data and methodology | Specialist editors and industry blogs |
| Computer or single tool | A recurring, clearly limited problem | Guides and specialist portals |
| Useful templates | Tested workflow | Training providers and authors |
| Open source component | Functional code and maintenance | Developer documentation and tutorials |
| Own technical illustrations | Rights to material and clear explanation | Editorial and teaching materials |
1. Own data: publish a citation-ready investigation
Example: A specialist company documents anonymized measured values from its own projects and examines a narrow question. A web agency could examine on a traceably selected sample how often a certain forwarding error occurs. That would be a separate survey, not a representative statement about the entire web.
Implementation: Formulate the question first. Document selection, time period, measurement procedures, number of observations and limits. Publish results, methodology and, where permitted, aggregated raw data on a persistent HTML page. Confidential customer data or personal information do not belong in the download.
This can create a link: A specialist editorial team needs proof of exactly this question and refers to your original evaluation. A brief reference to a suitable article makes more sense than a newsletter to any editorial office.
Quality check: Can readers understand the numbers? Is there a publication date, a responsible person and a clear delineation of what the data does not show? Only a diagram without methodology is weak as a source.
2. A Free Tool: Completely Solving a Small Task
Example: A quantity calculator for a concrete material, an accessible file checker or a simple configurator. A tool does not have to be large: The Domain IP Check For example, answers a clearly defined technical question.
Implementation: Identify a task that users regularly do by hand. Provide input, comprehensible result and an explanation of boundaries. Calculate as locally as possible in the browser if no external data is required. In this way, ongoing costs remain manageable.
This can create a link: A guide explains the use case and links the tool instead of building a calculation itself. Provide a stable URL, an understandable page title and a usable mobile view.
Quality check: Test typical inputs, boundary cases and error messages. Document formulas and assumptions used. A computer with unclear units or incorrect results is not a reliable tool.
3. Templates and checklists: Facilitating a real workflow
Example: A fillable relaunch checklist with responsibility, destination URL, verification step and approval. Other options include a project briefing or a maintenance overview with a fully completed sample.
Implementation: Provide an editable file and explain on an HTML page who it is intended for. Show an example of how it is used. Give the version date and terms of use. A general list of ten keywords without a working template does not fulfill the promise.
This can create a link: A training provider or specialist author recommends the template as a supplement to their guidance. A freely accessible example makes it easier to assess whether it fits the target group.
Quality check: Let someone run the process based on the template alone. Add missing explanations and keep the download link and file format up to date.
4. Open Source: Provide a small, well-maintained solution
Example: A script that simplifies a recurring development task, or a clearly defined extension of an existing system. A repository without functioning content is not a meaningful contribution.
Implementation: Publish executable code with a suitable license, installation, example, testing, and known limitations. Remove access data and project-specific customer data. A separate documentation page can bundle examples and background.
This can create a link: Developers use the solution in a tutorial or refer to it from their documentation. Link repository and documentation so that users can find the original source and current version.
Quality check: Is installation possible from a fresh environment? Are supported versions and the state of care recognizable? Schedule time for troubleshooting before actively publicizing the project.
5. Specialist illustrations: making processes difficult to explain visible
Example: An own sectional drawing, an inscribed technical sequence or a series of photos that explains a work step in an understandable way. A decorative stock photo rarely provides a special occasion to link.
Implementation: Publish the image along with explanation, date, author and clear terms of use. Provide a readable download version and name the URL of the original source. Check the rights to all components.
This can create a link: An editorial or instructor uses the image under the specified conditions and names the source. Make license and source information transparent; hidden links or forced keyword references in embed code are not a sensible way.
Quality check: Do labels, units, and standards speak? Is the statement understandable even without color? A text description helps readers who cannot see the picture.
Make the resource known and measure its benefits
- Choose an idea: Start with the resource for which knowledge and material already exist.
- Publishing: Use a permanent URL with title, example, author or provider and date. Check the accessibility.
- Targeted presentation: Look for a few technically suitable pages whose readers benefit from it. Specifically, describe which question your resource answers without requesting a link.
- Maintenance: Correct errors, update data and document changes.
- Evaluations: Observe usages, downloads, referring visits and appropriate requests. A large number of links alone proves no business benefit.
Avoid purchased references, automated entries and mass guest articles with optimized link text. They are the ones that matter. Google guidelines for link spam. A thematically appropriate reference remains an editorial decision of the other website.
Back to the basics: Ten specific backlink sources. The following comments are from previous versions of this article; historical recommendations and provider advice are not a current editorial recommendation.
Comments (38)
Archive: Comments are historical. External links/URLs have been removed for data protection (GDPR) and spam reasons. User content is not used as a link source (UGC).
I used a tip immediately. The others are also helpful and feasible.
I don’t quite understand the last tip with the sweepstakes – does that mean that you are then mentioned and linked on pages that list sweepstakes / coupons etc.? Or does this mean that the participants in the sweepstakes place links on the page, according to the motto: Give me a text link and I throw your mail address into the box? Apart from that: Who voluntarily leaves their complete contact details (mailpam!) for “1 question to our experts”?
By the tip is meant that sweepstakes (for good prices or creative conditions of participation) are recommended well and gladly. A backlink obligation as a condition of participation is – as far as known – problematic if the competition is declared as a raffle. Contact details are not public; seriousness is important. Public would usually only be a question and an answer.
Well, sweepstakes are always such a thing, whether it is worth it at all. You do not send advertisements to the registered users as in other sweepstakes. And with smaller blogs it is probably not worth it.
Thanks for the tips. However, some of the tips cannot be implemented in all industries. For example, any extensions for download would come across as quite strange. For private and SEO blogs, this all makes a lot of sense in my eyes.
Thanks for the tips. From the last tips I have tried to multiply my backlinks especially via guestbooks. In order to find thematically suitable websites and guestbooks, I had to invest quite a lot of time. In addition, you can only find a result after a longer period of time. Then comes the tip with perseverance. You just have to take your time and let things grow. SEO means that you do not directly achieve big jumps through small changes. You really have to be patient.
And then send the sweepstakes on various sweepstakes blogs (link removed).
The Internet offers a variety of ways to leave a link to your own website. Since Google is constantly changing its algorithm for evaluating links, you should think very carefully about how to make the link structure search engine-friendly.
Thank you for the tips. We tested it immediately. Great! The recommendations can be implemented very well in practice – some of them, of course, not for all industries or users.
The question is whether these many weak links bring something. I often see pages high up that have hardly any links. Perhaps somewhere else a stronger one, which the backlink checker has not (yet) found. As I said, this is constantly changing.
Once again, great tips. Thank you.
Thanks for the tips. I used a tip immediately.
Thank you, I have never used the “public user profiles” before. I'm going to try this out now.
Thank you for this other article. This article goes to the point, I probably have to read into some topics first. But the first tip is easy to implement. The Xing profile is unfortunately still not found by Google after a few days.
Thank you very much. Especially the point of public profiles is not bad.
Very good information, I immediately implemented. I look forward to more such valuable tips!
I will gladly implement the tip with the writing of guest articles in editorial portals.
I tried this with the public profiles. Let's see if I can see a change. I will try the other tips one by one.
In our experience, they are especially guest articles on travel blogs of various people related to our destinations. On the one hand, we can draw users’ attention to our site that they would otherwise never have found. On the other hand, we can provide helpful first-hand information to blog readers.
Very insightful article for backlink building. I also tackled some of the tips.
For me as an SEO beginner, the tips are really helpful. Thank you very much and so on.
Great tips, thank you. I think everyone here will find something for their SEO development.
Very good tips for beginners. Thank you very much.
I will also try this with the competition. Class as always here.
Well, I can’t program, but that with the sweepstakes is a food for thought for my blog. Then a sweepstakes will soon be held. I just have to think about what the price is.
Of course, the time required for these tips is significantly higher, but you also have the opportunity to build up really permanent links. Thank you for the helpful summary!
Of course, not everything can be implemented for everyone, so for me personally tip 1 and 4 can be implemented! Thank you.
As always a very good article! Thanks for the tips, I will implement in a moment.
Night, very helpful contribution. I will try to get relevant backlinks. Unfortunately, this has not worked out in my attempts so far, but in this article there is some good advice. Greetings.
Thank you for that contribution. It is very effective to build an FB fanpage and then run a sweepstakes on e.g. social media – we have gained many fans with minimal effort. We have also tried this with the public profiles, but it does relatively little, since most portals are nofollow and therefore bring little link juice or a lot of traffic.
Sorry, am a layman... How do I create a public profile with you?
Thanks for the good tips! Find your site and your checker very good! (Link removed)
Clearly, something has happened at the new stage. I now find the adjustment of the tips much better. Especially the writing of guest articles I had missed in the other listing.
A very great article! Thank you for the tips and tricks. I will start implementing it right away.
I can only agree with the comments. Super helpful tips and I look forward to more articles on backlink building!
Interesting article, especially helpful for small business owners who can’t invest as much euros in advertising & SEO.
The tips are very interesting. Thank you for that. For me, the question arises as to which public user profiles could be dofollow. The pages I found shine almost all – understandably – by the nofollow attribute. That doesn’t really mean so much for backlink building.
I just had my still quite young page tested to see what to look for right at the beginning of a web project. I made a few changes right away. There is still a lot to do, because I don’t really have backlinks yet – I only paid attention to the internal linking. Thank you for the hints.