How do I get backlinks for my startup?
Get backlinks for a new startup by earning them from sites that already have trust, not by buying them. Five channels work with no budget: list your product in curated directories, publish original data or a free tool that others cite, write guest posts and give expert quotes to blogs your buyers read, turn integrations and customer stories into linkable pages, and use launches (Product Hunt, Hacker News) as link-earning moments. In your first year, 20-50 relevant links from real sites beat hundreds of spammy ones — Google weighs relevance and trust far above volume, and one link from a site your audience respects can lift your domain rating more than fifty directory listings. Avoid paid link networks and private blog networks entirely; they risk a manual penalty that is far harder to undo than slow, honest link-building.
Why backlinks still matter — and which ones count
A backlink is another site linking to yours, and search engines still read links as votes of confidence: a page with links from trusted, relevant sites ranks more easily than an identical page with none. Links are one of the clearest signals behind E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust), and they move your domain rating, the 0-100 score tools use to estimate a site's link authority. AI answer engines lean on the same trust signals when they decide which sources to cite, so a strong link profile helps you get found in ChatGPT and Perplexity, not just on Google.
- Relevance — a link from a site in your niche is worth far more than a random one.
- Authority — a link from a trusted, established domain passes more weight than a brand-new one.
- Editorial, not paid — links given because your content is useful, not bought or exchanged.
- Dofollow where it counts — dofollow links pass authority; nofollow links (most social, forums) still drive traffic and discovery.
- Contextual — a link inside relevant body copy beats a link buried in a footer or link list.
Where a new startup actually gets links
You do not need PR connections or a budget to start. The realistic channels for a founder with a live product, roughly easiest first:
| Channel | How you earn the link | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Curated directories | List your product in reputable, relevant directories (Product Hunt, startup and niche indexes). Skip low-quality mass-submission lists. | Low |
| Free tool or calculator | Ship a small, genuinely useful free tool; people link to tools they use. | Medium |
| Original data or research | Publish a survey, benchmark, or teardown with numbers others want to quote. | Medium |
| Guest posts + expert quotes | Write for blogs your buyers read, or answer journalist and creator requests with a usable quote. | Medium |
| Integrations + customer stories | Get listed on partners' integration pages; co-publish stories with customers. | Medium |
| Launches as link moments | A Product Hunt or Hacker News launch earns coverage and links you can't buy. | High (one-off) |
This is the same discipline as digital PR: create something worth referencing, then make sure the right people see it. For the broader ranking context, see how do I do SEO for a brand-new website, and for the earned-media angle, how do I get press for my startup.
What to avoid — and how to run link-building without a team
Skip anything that buys or fakes the vote: paid link packages, private blog networks (PBNs), mass reciprocal-link schemes, and comment or forum spam. Google's link-spam policies target exactly these, and a manual action is far more expensive to recover from than the links were ever worth. Quality and relevance beat volume every time — a handful of links from sites your buyers trust does more than a thousand from link farms.
Link-building is slow, recurring outreach: find relevant sites, write the pitch, follow up, and keep publishing link-worthy pages. That is a lot for a solo founder. Ceres — the AI Growth Officer (agentceres.com) runs it as a managed AI marketing team: specialists draft the linkable SEO content, the outreach, and the launch work, and — because outreach is outbound — every email stays behind a human approval step, so you review what goes out before it ships. The team does the drafting and chasing; you stay the editor. For the AI-citation side of the same trust signals, see the GEO Strategist role.
FAQ
- How many backlinks does a new startup need?
- There is no fixed number — relevance and quality matter far more than count. In the first year, aim for a steady trickle of 20-50 genuinely relevant links from real, trusted sites rather than chasing hundreds. One link from a respected site in your niche can outweigh fifty low-quality directory listings, and a slow, honest profile is what compounds and stays safe from penalties.
- Should I buy backlinks?
- No. Buying links violates Google's link-spam policies and risks a manual penalty that can tank your rankings and is hard to reverse. Paid link networks, PBNs, and 'guaranteed DR' packages are exactly what search engines hunt for. Earn links editorially instead — through useful content, tools, data, directories, and outreach — so the authority you build is durable rather than a liability.
- What is the fastest way to get a few first backlinks?
- Curated directories and launch platforms. Listing your product in reputable, relevant directories and running a Product Hunt or Hacker News launch can earn your first real links in days, not months. From there, layer in slower-but-stronger channels: a free tool, original data, and guest posts. See how do I get press for my startup for the outreach playbook.
- Do backlinks help with AI search and ChatGPT citations?
- Indirectly, yes. AI answer engines favor sources that look trustworthy, and a strong, relevant link profile is one of the signals of that trust — the same E-E-A-T foundation search engines use. Links won't get you cited on their own, but combined with quotable, well-structured content they raise your odds of being the source an AI names.
Want this done for you?
Ceres is a managed AI marketing team — specialists draft the work, you approve what ships. 14-day free trial, from $19/month.