Member Avatar for cornholebagtoss

Hi,

I just finished creating a website a month ago and now have started focusing on backlinking. Does anybody have some good ideas on obtaining the best backlinks. I've read it's good to get into directories, forums, blogs, article sites, and social bookmarks, but is there any that search engines look at more than another.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by aymindi

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Good move starting with competitor research — and are on the right track. A quick reality check for anyone reading this years later: Yahoo Site Explorer was shut down (it stopped offering public backlink reports in 2011), and Google stopped exposing public Toolbar PageRank in 2016, so chasing “PR” or relying on YSE is obsolete. (en.wikipedia.org)

A practical, repeatable workflow that builds on those replies:

  1. Pick 3–5 direct competitors (pages that rank for your target terms).
  2. Pull their referring domains with a modern backlink tool (Site Explorer / Backlink Analytics). Filter for pages with topical relevance and real traffic, not just raw count. (ahrefs.com)
  3. Prioritize prospects by intent (resource pages, previously linked research, broken pages) and group outreach by type (resource request, replacement, guest/editorial). For your own site, use the Links report in Google Search Console to get Google’s view of your inbound links. ()

Tactics that actually convert (not generic directory scraping): broken‑link reclamation, the Skyscraper approach (create a demonstrably better resource and outreach to linkers), and reclaiming mentions/mislinked URLs. Ahrefs’ broken‑link playbook shows the practical steps: find 404s with lots of referrers, create a better replacement, then outreach. Backlinko’s Skyscraper explains the “find → improve → outreach” loop. (ahrefs.com)

Quick outreach template (short, personal, no hard sell):

Hi [Name] — I noticed your page [URL] links to [dead resource]. I built an updated guide on the same topic here: [your URL]. It covers X, Y and includes [unique asset]. Thought it might be useful if you want to replace the broken link. No pressure — thanks for considering.

Measure link quality with third‑party scores (DR/DA/TrustFlow) as proxies, but always eyeball topical relevance and referral traffic first. Avoid scale-for-scale paid/link‑exchange schemes — Google’s spam/link‑scheme guidance warns against manipulative programs and large‑scale link buying; editorial, contextually relevant links will win in the long run. (help.ahrefs.com)

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for AirForceOne

Hi,

I think all above mentioned in your post would be effective back linking channels. Personally, I think analyzing your top 10 competitors' sites would usually be effective in finding right back linking sources.

As for back link quality, contextual back links with your targeted keywords as anchor text from niche relative authority sources would be the best ones.

all the best,

Member Avatar for ezestseo

Find your competitors and analyze their backlinks and build according to competitors backlinks wherever possible...

Member Avatar for Dani

The best backlinks are, of course, from sites which have a high ranking themselves. Just about all the methods you mentioned are free, so it can't hurt to constantly build as many as you possibly can.

Member Avatar for jasonason

What do you guys use to analyze your competitors' sites?
Yahoo site explorer is ok, but i am looking for something that shows page rank too. Thanks!

Member Avatar for AirTechniques

Try another like press release submissions and article submissions.

Member Avatar for jzlau86

Hi,

I just finished creating a website a month ago and now have started focusing on backlinking. Does anybody have some good ideas on obtaining the best backlinks. I've read it's good to get into directories, forums, blogs, article sites, and social bookmarks, but is there any that search engines look at more than another.

you can use google ad words to find a good keyword list and then search those words on google for quality links pertaining to your affiliated keywords. Heres a good article that might help as well

Edited by jzlau86 because: n/a
Member Avatar for aymindi

Press release, article marketing and social bookmarking are the best. Obviously the most important factor is the niche competition.

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