How to Get High-Authority Backlinks for Free
Backlink agencies charge thousands to get companies featured in high-profile publications like Forbes or the New York Times. Because they are the holy grail of SEO.
I used to think I’d never get backlinks for my teeny business. I didn’t have money to spend on agencies, and I figured there was some secret network that agencies were part of that I would never get access to. I pictured secret meetings with hooded cloaks and sacrifices to the algorithm gods…
But it turns out building backlinks isn’t reserved for big companies with deep pockets. In fact, I got my teeny business featured in Forbes, Business.com, Hostinger, and TechBible completely free.
In this post, I’m going to show you how I get high-authority backlinks, why it’s important for SEO, and how you can get started today.
DIYing your website copy & SEO doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
The Website Growth System walks you through how to write high-converting copy and optimise your entire website so you can confidently boost traffic, inquiries, and sales. Packed with templates, copywriting scripts, and tutorials, it’s everything you need to make your website shine on a budget.
What is a Backlink?
A backlink is just a fancy word for a link from someone else’s website to yours.
To Google, backlinks are basically votes of confidence. The more reputable websites that link to you, the more trustworthy and valuable your site looks, which pushes you up the rankings and gets your website in front of way more people.
So if you're wondering why you're stuck on page 243 of Google while someone with half your talent is outranking you? It’s probably backlinks.
Related: How to Build Website Traffic with Pinterest (Without Living on Social Media)
Do I Really Need Backlinks?
Yes! Backlinks are a must for small business websites. It’s how you show Google and clients that you know what you’re talking about. It’s especially important if you're:
Trying to rank on Google for anything other than your brand name.
Blogging to bring in leads or clients.
Tired of relying on social media to get seen.
Ready for your content to actually do something after you hit publish.
Backlinks help you start building long-term visibility. They’re one of the fastest ways to build authority without constantly churning out new content.
Types of Backlinks (and Which Ones Are Actually Worth It)
Not all backlinks are created equal. Some will seriously boost your visibility, while others are basically background noise. Here’s a quick breakdown:
High-Authority Backlinks
These backlinks are the gold standard. Think sites like Forbes, Business Insider, HubSpot, GoDaddy, Hostinger, or trusted publications in your niche.
They carry major weight with Google because they’re already well-established, and getting a link from them tells search engines: “Hey, this person knows what they’re talking about.”
You can see if a website is “high authority” with Moz’s free domain authority checker.
A domain authority (DA) score over 40 is widely considered good. Anything over 60 is excellent.
I’ll admit, I’m nowhere near 40 yet—it’s tough to get that high. But getting high DA websites to link to your website helps drag your score up.
Guest Post Backlinks vs Feature Backlinks
If you write a blog for someone else’s website, and they link back to your site either in the post or in the “about the author” section at the end, that’s a guest post backlink.
If you get featured as an expert in someone else’s blog, that’s a feature backlink.
Featured backlinks is how I got my website featured in Forbes. Unless you’re an established journalist, it’s almost impossible to get a post published over there. But journalists are always looking for experts to quote in blogs they’re already writing.
Want to know exactly how I did this? I walk you through it (and give you all my outreach templates) inside the Website Growth System ⟶
Directory Backlinks
These are low-effort, low-impact backlinks, but still worth getting.
These are links in industry directories, local business listings, or even your local Chamber of Commerce.
They won’t skyrocket your website SEO overnight, but they do help build your backlink profile. Plus, they’re much easier to get at the beginning because they’re open source and free.
Just make sure you’re only signing up to high-quality directories. Low-quality backlinks hurt your rankings just as much as good ones boost it.
Spammy Backlinks
Spammy backlinks are the ones that ruin your SEO. They’re the ones that try and trick Google into thinking your website is linked to a lot when really, all the links are fake.
You’ll know spammy backlink opportunities when you see them:
Too cheap to be legit
Promising “1000 backlinks in 24 hours!”
From irrelevant or low-quality website farms (groups of websites set up for the purpose of backlinking)
Google’s much smarter than that. These won’t help you, and in most cases, they’ll hurt your rankings and get your site blacklisted.
How to Get High-authority Backlinks
I used to spend hours reaching out to random websites looking for guest post opportunities and it didn’t work. But after plenty of trial and error, I figured out a strategy that actually gets backlinks.
1. Publish High Quality Content
You won’t get random backlinks from websites unless you have incredibly useful content (like calculators, stat round-ups, independent research results, software tools, etc.).
However, if your website doesn’t have high-quality content, you’ll struggle to get backlinks offered to you.
No website is going to willingly link back to a low quality website. So, before you go out looking for backlinks, make sure your own website showcases your authority and expertise.
Related: 9 Unconventional Blogging Tips to Book More Clients
2. Find Guest Post Opportunities with Ease
Finding guest post opportunities used to be a chore. I’d manually search for websites in my niche open for guest posts, do an audit to see if the website was high-authority, check the content aligned with my brand, and then go through the process of pitching an idea.
Most of the time, I’d get ignored entirely, which was a bit of a kick in the stomach after all that legwork.
But guest posting is now worlds easier with PitchWorthy.
This is a brand-new indie guest post website that:
Lists hundreds of websites actively looking for guest posts.
Shows the website authority score and traffic info so they’re worth pitching.
Gives a description of what the site publishes and what they’re looking for from contributors.
Includes direct links to the guest post guidelines.
It’s the exact tool I wished I had years ago when I got started. And I know it’s a genuinely useful tool because I helped audit the websites included in the database!
There’s me on the About Page along with Steve, the incredibly talented founder:
The directory is free to search, so take a look through and find some niche-relevant websites to pitch to.
We’ve included tags and descriptions to make it incredibly easy to find the best sites that are most likely to accept your pitches.
3. Get Featured as an Expert
If you want to land links from big sites like Forbes or Business Insider, it’s all about positioning yourself as a go-to expert with a story journalists want to share.
I use platforms like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) to connect with journalists looking for sources.
The process is simple: Answer their requests, get quoted, and earn backlinks from major publications.
Here’s a few of my recent features:
The process here is a little different from guest post pitching because you are actively competing with other experts to get a single feature.
But I share my exact outreach templates that get me consistent features in the Website Growth System so you don’t have to stress!
Building High-Authority Backlinks: The Takeaway
If you want to start building backlinks for your small website today, there are three easy steps:
Start with high-quality directories for quick-win backlinks.
Use PitchWorthy to get the best guest post opportunities
Use my easy templates to reach out to journalists to get backlinks in massive publications.
If you dedicate an hour a week to consistent outreach, you’ll be shocked by how many backlinks you’ll have within just a month. And once the traffic starts building, you’ll be glad you started today!
