# How to Get Backlinks for a New Startup Website > How to get backlinks for a new startup website: the links a new domain can earn first, how to vet a source, the tactics that keep working, and what to avoid. Canonical: https://abacklaunch.com/blog/how-to-get-backlinks-for-new-website Last updated: 2026-10-31 By Devvrat Hans, Founder. 11 min read. Published 2026-10-31. A new website starts with no links pointing to it, and that is the main reason it does not rank. Links from other sites are how search engines discover a site, decide how much to trust it, and judge which of its pages matter. Content and technical work decide whether a page can rank. Links decide, to a large degree, whether it does. The good news for a startup: the first 20 to 50 linking sites are not the hard part. They come from places that exist to link to new products, from your own network, and from work you are doing anyway. This guide covers them in the order that makes sense for a new domain, how to tell a useful link from a useless one, and what to avoid. ## What counts, before you start Three terms decide whether a link is worth your time. - **Dofollow or not.** A [dofollow link](https://abacklaunch.com/glossary/dofollow-link) is an ordinary link that search engines can count as a vote. A link marked `nofollow`, `ugc` or `sponsored` asks them not to. Nofollow links still send visitors and still help discovery, but they pass little or no ranking value. - **Referring domains, not link count.** A [referring domain](https://abacklaunch.com/glossary/referring-domain) is a site that links to you at least once. Fifty links from one site count for far less than one link each from fifty sites. Track the number of domains. - **Relevance and real traffic.** A link from a page that people in your field read is worth more than a link from an unrelated page nobody visits, whatever its score. ## Check a source before you spend time on it Every link opportunity costs you time, and some cost money. Spend ten seconds checking each one first. 1. **Look up the domain's authority.** The [domain authority checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/domain-rating) shows a site's Ahrefs Domain Rating, its popularity rank and its age. For a list of candidates, the [bulk domain authority checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/bulk-domain-rating) compares up to 20 domains in one table, which is the fastest way to sort a directory list. 2. **Open a real listing or article** on the site and inspect the link to the product or author. The [nofollow checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/nofollow-checker) shows whether each link on a page is dofollow, nofollow, ugc or sponsored. 3. **Check that the page is indexable.** A listing page with a noindex tag, or one blocked in robots.txt, passes nothing. The [meta tag checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/meta-checker) shows the robots tag. 4. **Ask whether a person would click it.** If the answer is no, the link probably carries little value, and it may look like spam to search engines. Domain Rating is a third-party estimate, not a Google metric. Use it to compare sources, not as a goal. A DR 30 site in your niche often beats a DR 80 site that buries your link in a list of 10,000. ## Stage 1: the links every new startup can get this month These need no relationship and no content strategy. They are the base of a new site's link profile, and you can do most of them in a week. ### Launch platforms Launch platforms exist to link to new products, and their pages are crawled often. Some give a dofollow link, some a nofollow or ugc one, and some only follow the link once you link back. The [launch platform database](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms) lists the link type for each platform, and only marks it after we checked a real listing. Start with the [dofollow launch sites](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms/best/dofollow-launch-sites), then add the ones that fit your audience even if their link is nofollow, because the visitors are worth it on their own. ### Directories that fit your product Skip the general "submit to 500 directories" packages. Most of those directories are thin pages that nobody visits and search engines ignore. Pick the curated lists that match what you build: [SaaS directories](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms/best/saas-directories), [AI tool directories](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms/best/ai-tool-directories), [developer tool sites](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms/best/developer-tool-launch-sites) or [B2B software directories](https://abacklaunch.com/launch-platforms/best/b2b-software-directories). Ten relevant listings beat a hundred random ones. ### Your own profiles and accounts - Your GitHub organization and repositories, with the site in the profile and the README. - Your company pages on LinkedIn, X, Crunchbase and similar sites. - The founders' personal sites and author bios. - Your app store or extension store listing, if you have one. Many of these are nofollow. They still help search engines find and connect your site, and they take minutes. ### The tools you use Many products you already pay for have a customer showcase, a "built with" page, an integrations directory or a template gallery. If you build on a platform, ask to be listed. If you integrate with a product, ask to be added to its integrations page. These are relevant links from sites in your field, and they are often dofollow. ## Stage 2: links you earn by being useful Once the base is in place, the links that move rankings come from people choosing to link to you. That happens when you have something worth linking to. ### Build a free tool A small free calculator, checker, generator or template related to your product attracts the same people your product does. People link to useful tools from articles, forums and resource lists without being asked, and they keep doing it for years. It is the most reliable link tactic for a small startup with no audience. Keep the tool genuinely free, with no sign-up wall, and put it on your own domain. ### Publish data nobody else has If your product touches data, a short report with real numbers gets cited by writers who need a source. A post titled "What we learned from reading every onboarding email our customers sent" earns links that a generic guide never will. The numbers must be real, the method must be stated, and the sample must be honest about its size. ### Write the definitive answer to a narrow question Pick a specific question your customers ask that nobody answers well, and answer it completely, with examples and screenshots. Narrow, practical pages get linked from forum threads and Q&A answers because they are the best thing to point at. ### Open source something For a developer product, a small library, a CLI or a set of examples on GitHub earns links from READMEs, documentation, blog posts and lists. It also earns trust from exactly the people you sell to. ## Stage 3: links you earn through people ### Podcasts and newsletters Small podcasts in your niche need guests every week, and almost all link to their guests' sites in the show notes. Pitch one specific story or lesson, not your product. The same works for niche newsletters that run founder interviews. ### Guest articles on relevant sites Write for publications your customers read, on a topic you know first-hand. One real article on a respected site in your field is worth more than ten on sites that publish anything. Avoid sites that openly sell "guest posts" for a fee: those links are paid links, and search engines treat them that way. ### Journalists and writers Writers regularly ask for expert comments on platforms that connect them with sources. Answering quickly, with a specific and quotable view, earns mentions on news and industry sites. It takes many answers to get a few placements, so treat it as a steady habit rather than a campaign. ### Unlinked mentions Once people start writing about you, some will name your product without linking to it. Search for your brand name regularly. A short, polite note asking for the name to be linked works more often than you would expect, because the writer already meant to point at you. ### Comparison and alternative pages Writers compiling "best X tools" and "alternatives to Y" lists need to know you exist. Find the existing lists for your category, check they are recent, and send the author a short note with what is different about your product. Being on the lists people read when they choose a tool is worth both the link and the visitors. ## What to avoid - **Buying links.** Google's spam policies treat links bought to pass ranking value as link spam. A paid placement should carry `rel="sponsored"`. Sites that sell dofollow links to anyone usually also sell them to spam, and that neighborhood is not where you want to be. - **Link exchanges at scale.** Linking to a partner who links back is normal. Joining a network where hundreds of sites swap links is a pattern search engines look for. - **Private blog networks and "DR boost" packages.** They raise a third-party score without helping rankings, and they can bring a manual penalty. - **Mass directory submissions.** Hundreds of low-quality directory links in a week look unnatural and add almost nothing. - **Exact-match anchor text everywhere.** If every link to you reads "best invoicing software", it looks arranged. Most natural links use your brand name or the URL. - **Comment and forum spam.** Those links are nofollow or ugc anyway, and they damage your reputation with the people you want as users. ## Point the links at pages that can rank Links work best when the page they point to deserves them. Before you push for links, make sure the target page loads fast, explains the product clearly, and has a unique title and description. Run it through the [on-page SEO checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/seo-checker) first. Then spread the value with internal links. Most outside links will point at your homepage. Link from the homepage to the feature pages, guides and tools you want to rank, using descriptive text. That passes some of the homepage's value to the pages that need it. ## Keep track of what you earn Keep a simple sheet: the source, the URL of the page that links to you, the link type, the date it went live, and the date you last checked it. Recheck every few months. Directories delete pages, platforms change link types, and articles get rewritten. Google Search Console's Links report shows the top sites linking to you, which is a free way to see what Google has found. Watch the trend, not the week. For a new startup, a steady handful of new referring domains each month is a good pace. Our guide on [how long SEO takes](https://abacklaunch.com/blog/how-long-does-seo-take) explains when those links start to show in rankings. ## A first-month plan | Week | Do this | | | 1 | Fix the target pages. Add the site to every profile you own. Shortlist launch platforms and directories, and check them with the bulk domain authority checker. | | | 2 | Submit to the platforms and directories that fit, starting with those that review by hand. Ask the tools you use for a showcase or integrations listing. | | | 3 | Launch on your main platform. Start a free tool, a data piece or a definitive guide. | | | 4 | Pitch three podcasts or newsletters. Find five "alternatives" lists and contact their authors. Log every live link. | | ## Where Aback Launch fits A listing on [Aback Launch](https://abacklaunch.com/submit) gives your startup a permanent page that links to your site. The link becomes dofollow once you add our [badge](https://abacklaunch.com/badge/how-it-works), and paying never changes the link. Launches go live every Friday at 00:00 UTC, and the page stays up after the launch week ends, so it keeps working as one of your first referring domains. ## FAQ ### How do I get backlinks for a brand new website? Start with launch platforms, curated directories that fit your product, your own profiles and the tools you use. Then earn links by building something useful, such as a free tool, original data or a definitive answer, and by appearing on podcasts, newsletters and comparison lists. ### How many backlinks does a new website need? There is no fixed number. What matters is the number of relevant, trusted sites that link to you, compared with the sites you compete with for the same searches. Look at the referring domains of the pages that rank for your main terms to see the bar. ### Are nofollow links worthless? No. They send visitors, help search engines discover your site, and make a link profile look natural. They pass little ranking value, so do not count on them alone. ### Should I buy backlinks? No. Google's spam policies treat links bought to pass ranking value as link spam, and the sites that sell them are usually the ones search engines already discount. ### How do I check if a backlink is dofollow? Open the page that links to you and paste it into the [nofollow checker](https://abacklaunch.com/tools/nofollow-checker) with your domain. It lists every link to your site and its rel value. ## Related - [How Long Does SEO Take for a New Website? An Honest Timeline](https://abacklaunch.com/blog/how-long-does-seo-take) - [How to Get Cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity: a Guide for Startups](https://abacklaunch.com/blog/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt-and-perplexity) - [How to Get Your Website Indexed by Google Fast](https://abacklaunch.com/blog/how-to-get-website-indexed-by-google) - [All founder guides](https://abacklaunch.com/blog)