Backlinks Websites That Actually Help, and Ones to Skip
By Toy Wen Da, Co-Founder · Updated · 11 min read · scored 94/100
The best backlinks websites are the ones your actual readers already trust: niche publications, review platforms, forums and free web 2.0 properties with real traffic, rather than a high number on a metrics dashboard. Picking sites at random, or buying links with no relevance to your industry, wastes money and can get a page quietly demoted.
What makes a backlinks website worth your time
A worthwhile backlinks website has topical relevance, real human traffic and editorial standards that keep spam out. Domain rating or domain authority is a useful shortcut, but it is not the whole story: a site with a DA of 90 and zero actual visitors is worse for you than a smaller blog with an engaged readership in your niche.
Before you reach out to any site, or buy a placement through a marketplace, check these four things:
| Criterion | Why it matters | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Niche relevance | Search engines weigh links more when the linking page's topic matches yours | A guest post or directory listing in your actual industry, not a generic catch-all |
| Traffic | A link on a dead page passes little value and sends no referral clicks | Reported monthly visits in the hundreds of thousands or more |
| Link type | Only dofollow links pass direct ranking signal | Confirm the platform or publisher doesn't auto-add rel="nofollow" |
| Editorial bar | Sites that publish anything for a fee get devalued over time | Evidence of genuine editorial review, not a pure pay-to-publish queue |
Dofollow vs. nofollow, in plain terms
A dofollow link tells search engines to pass authority from the linking page to yours. A nofollow link still sends readers and brand exposure, but it does not pass that same ranking signal. Many backlinks websites default to nofollow, including social profiles, some forums and most press release distributors. That is not a reason to skip them, since a varied link profile with both types looks far more natural than one built entirely from dofollow placements. If you want the fundamentals before you start outreach, read what backlinks are and how to earn the right ones.
The main types of backlinks websites
Most link-building campaigns pull from five buckets, and each carries a different cost and risk profile.
Guest-post marketplaces
These are networks of publishers who accept paid or pitched articles with a link back to your site. Pricing and traffic are usually disclosed upfront, so you can compare options before you commit budget.
Web 2.0 platforms
Free, hosted mini-sites such as WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr and Medium let you build a page under your own account and link out from it. There is no approval and no cost, but content quality is entirely on you.
Business directories and listings
Google Business Profile, industry-specific directories and review platforms like Trustpilot or G2 give you a backlink from your "visit website" field. For local and service businesses these are table stakes.
Press release and news distribution sites
They suit real announcements such as funding, product launches and partnerships. Used for routine content they read as spam, and they often carry nofollow links anyway.
Forums, Q&A sites and resource pages
Reddit, Quora, Stack Exchange and niche community boards rarely pass much direct authority. They do drive referral traffic and build the kind of contextual backlink signal that search engines read as a genuine citation rather than a planted link.
High-traffic guest-post backlinks websites, by the numbers
Guest-post marketplaces publish real metrics for the sites in their network, which beats guessing. One such marketplace lists publishers across finance, media and general-interest niches, with monthly traffic and per-placement pricing disclosed for each:
| Domain | Niche | Reported domain authority | Monthly traffic | Listed placement price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tumblr.com | Finance | 76 | 176.9M | $26.49 |
| softonic.com | Programs | 91 | 157.9M | $4,801.17 |
| interia.pl | Portals | 93 | 143.2M | $1,014.36 |
| timesofindia.indiatimes.com | Secondary education | 94 | 93.7M | $2,270.21 |
| ndtv.com | Cinema | 92 | 73M | $1,120.21 |
| dailymail.co.uk | Media and magazines | 94 | 33.3M | $10.17k |
| newsweek.com | Media and magazines | 93 | 27.1M | $4,477.56 |
| thehindu.com | Media and magazines | 91 | 36.3M | $1,083.73 |
| makeuseof.com | Computers | 90 | 9.1M | $6,930.05 |
These figures come from one marketplace's own listings, so treat them as reported rather than independently verified. They still show the spread: a single placement can cost anywhere from under $30 to well over $10,000, and traffic does not scale neatly with price. The finance-niche listing on a 176-million-visit domain costs a fraction of what a smaller, more specialized publisher charges.
Why price doesn't always track quality
A cheap placement on a massive general-interest domain can beat an expensive one on a niche site in raw authority, but relevance still wins for rankings. If you sell accounting software, a $1,000 placement on a finance-focused publisher usually beats a $26 placement buried in an unrelated lifestyle section of a bigger site. Match the niche column first, then compare price and traffic within that shortlist.
Free vs. paid backlinks websites
You don't need a budget to start. Free web 2.0 platforms report strong domain authority scores, and building a profile on them costs nothing but time:
| Platform | Reported domain authority | Link type | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blogger.com | 99 | Dofollow | Long-form posts tied to your main site's topics |
| Medium.com | 96 | Dofollow | Thought-leadership pieces, republished content |
| WordPress.com | 92 | Dofollow | A full mini-site with multiple linked pages |
| LiveJournal.com | 93 | Dofollow | Niche community engagement with embedded links |
| Wix.com | 94 | Dofollow | A branded landing page that links back to you |
| Goodreads.com | 93 | Dofollow | Author profiles and book-related niches |
| Tumblr.com | 86 | Dofollow | Short-form content with visual assets |
Paid guest posts buy you speed and an existing audience. Free web 2.0 sites buy you control, but they only pay off if you publish real, useful content on them, because a thin profile with one link looks exactly like what it is.
How many backlinks websites do you actually need?
Fewer than most people assume. The right number depends on how competitive your keyword is and how many links your top-ranking competitors already have, not on a fixed target like "100 backlinks." A page competing for a low-difficulty, long-tail term might outrank the field with a dozen relevant links, while a page chasing a crowded commercial keyword could need many times that. For a full breakdown of how to size the target to your competition, see how many backlinks you need to rank.
Measuring whether your backlinks websites are working
Once you've earned placements, you need to track them. Google Analytics shows referral traffic from a link, but it won't show links that exist and send no clicks, and it can't tell you a link's authority or whether it's dofollow. The full picture, including what GA quietly misses, is in how to check backlinks in Google Analytics. Pair it with a dedicated backlink index, and periodically review which of your B2B backlink types are driving ranking movement and which are just sitting there.
Earning links instead of just listing on sites
Submitting to directories and buying guest posts is one lane. The other is creating something other sites want to link to on their own, which scales without ongoing spend. Original data, calculators and visual assets consistently earn unprompted links because publishers can cite them without needing a relationship with you first. Turning research into a shareable visual is one of the more reliable routes, and how to turn an infographic into backlinks covers the specific approach.
Contextual placement still matters more than volume
A link buried in an author bio carries less weight than one placed naturally inside the body of an article, next to relevant text. This is the core idea behind contextual backlinks, and a big part of why ten well-placed links can outperform fifty scattered ones. Before you decide where on a page to ask for your link, read the role contextual backlinks play in rankings.
The risk side: which backlinks websites to avoid
Not every site that offers you a link is worth taking one from. Google's publicly documented spam policies for Google Search explicitly list link schemes as violations that can get pages or sites penalized in search results. These include buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, excessive link exchanges and large-scale article campaigns with keyword-stuffed anchor text.
Watch for these warning signs on any backlinks website before you commit:
- The site publishes anything for a fee with no editorial review at all.
- Nearly every outbound link uses exact-match keyword anchor text.
- The domain's content is auto-generated or barely readable.
- The "niche" changes wildly between articles with no consistent theme.
- You're asked to link back to the publisher in a clear link-exchange arrangement.
A handful of low-quality links rarely tanks a whole site, but a pattern of them signals exactly the kind of manipulation search engines are built to discount.
Building a backlinks website strategy that lasts
Link building done well is slow and compounding, not a one-time sprint before a launch. Algorithm updates regularly devalue entire categories of manipulative links, such as PBNs, link farms and bulk-bought placements with no traffic behind them. A profile built from relevant guest posts, earned citations and genuine directory listings tends to survive those updates because none of it depended on a loophole. For a deeper look at building a profile that holds up over years instead of months, see building backlinks for sustainable SEO growth.
A practical rhythm that works for most sites:
- Audit your current backlink profile and flag anything spammy for disavow.
- Identify 10-15 backlinks websites genuinely relevant to your niche, and mix free and paid.
- Pitch or publish one piece of real, specific content per site, never a reused article.
- Track referral traffic and ranking movement monthly, not just link counts.
- Add one or two new sites per month rather than bulk-submitting all at once.
FAQs
What's the difference between a backlinks website and a backlink?
A backlinks website is the platform or publisher hosting the link, such as a guest-post site, a directory or a forum. The backlink itself is the actual hyperlink pointing from that site back to yours.
Are free backlinks websites as good as paid ones?
They can be, if the free platform has real authority and you publish genuine content on it. Paid guest posts usually buy faster placement on an established audience; free web 2.0 sites buy control but require more of your own effort to make the page credible.
How do I know if a backlinks website is actually dofollow?
Check the page's HTML for a rel="nofollow" attribute on the link, or use a browser extension that flags link attributes. Many directories and social profiles default to nofollow even when the rest of the site looks authoritative.
Can buying links from a backlinks website get my site penalized?
Yes, if the links are part of a scheme designed to manipulate rankings rather than genuinely help readers. Google's spam policies specifically target paid links that pass ranking credit without disclosure.
How many backlinks websites should I be active on at once?
There's no universal number. Quality and relevance matter more than count: a dozen genuinely relevant, high-traffic sites will outperform hundreds of low-quality ones, and the right target depends on how competitive your specific keywords are.
Start with the sites that fit your niche
Pick three to five backlinks websites from your own industry this week, check their traffic and link type before you pitch, and skip anything that smells like a link scheme. If you want a clearer picture of where your current link profile stands and what it's missing, talk to the team at SearchBlueprint for a sample report built around your own site.
Resources / References
Sources
About the author
SearchBlueprint researched, wrote and scored this article with the content pipeline our customers run on their own sites. The score in the byline is what our content engine gave this page before it published. Nothing here is reviewed by hand, which is the point: it is the product's output, published where anyone can check it.