Backlink providers
Browse backlink provider guides with backlink value, effort, cost, and link-type signals.
IMDb
Value19IMDb is an entertainment database with public External Sites sections on eligible title and name pages. The backlink path is a reviewed citation submission for an official or clearly relevant page, not a place to drop generic SEO links.
Microsoft Q&A
Value16Microsoft Q&A is Microsoft's public technical question-and-answer community on Microsoft Learn. Users can ask questions and post answers for Microsoft products, and relevant answers can cite outside resources with visible external links.
Reddit is a social news and discussion platform organised into topic-based communities called subreddits. Users submit links, images, and text posts that are voted on by the community, making it one of the most visited websites globally and a powerful source of referral traffic and SEO visibility.
Adobe Community
Value15Adobe Community is Adobe's public support and product discussion forum. Users can create an Adobe account, ask or answer product questions, and include helpful external resources when they genuinely support the discussion.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
Value15Link depends on a third-party placement or approval path.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) connects journalists who need expert sources with people who can contribute quotes, context, and interviews. It is a high-effort PR backlink opportunity: useful pitches can earn credited media mentions, sometimes with a link back to the source's website, but publication and link attributes depend entirely on the journalist and outlet.
wikiHow
Value15wikiHow is a moderated how-to wiki where signed-in contributors can improve articles and cite outside sources. The backlink path is limited to neutral references or rare instruction-critical links, not self-promotional placement.
Quora
Value14Quora is a question-and-answer platform where users ask questions and receive answers from the community, often from subject-matter experts. Quora for Business reports 400M+ monthly unique visitors, and Quora content ranks heavily in Google search results, making it a valuable channel for brand visibility and referral traffic.
BuzzFeed
Value13BuzzFeed Community lets signed-in users submit quizzes and posts that can be published on BuzzFeed after editorial review. It can host direct external source links, but it is a poor fit for self-promotional link building because the rules explicitly ban brand, client, and spam plugs.
SitePoint Forums
Value13SitePoint Forums is a Discourse community for web developers and designers. A backlink can fit when it appears inside a useful forum question or answer, not as a standalone promotion.
IBM Community
Value13IBM Community is IBM's public Higher Logic community for product users, partners, IBM Champions, and technical contributors. The useful backlink path is not a simple profile edit; it is an approved community blog contribution with a relevant contextual external link.
Airtable Marketplace
Value12Airtable Marketplace is the public directory for Airtable extensions, scripts, templates, and interfaces. Developers who build a useful Airtable extension or script can submit it for review, and approved listings can include publisher details, contact information, and a support website link that points back to the developer's own documentation or product site.
AlternativeTo
Value11AlternativeTo is a software discovery directory where community members suggest apps, compare alternatives, and maintain public software pages. A verified app listing can include an official website link, app-store links, social profiles, screenshots, descriptions, and category tags, making it useful for legitimate software products that want a public directory citation.
Goodreads
Value11Goodreads is a book discovery and reader community owned by Amazon. Verified authors can claim an author profile and add an official website link that appears on a public Goodreads author page.
SourceForge
Value11SourceForge hosts open-source software projects and gives each project a public page for downloads, code, discussion, and project metadata. A legitimate software project can include an external project website link on its SourceForge project page.
Motley Fool Community
Value10Motley Fool Community is the public discussion forum attached to The Motley Fool. Members can publish investing discussions and replies, and relevant external source links appear inside public Discourse topics.
GitHub Repositories
Value10GitHub hosts public code repositories, documentation, and project metadata on github.com. A legitimate public repository can expose your project's website in the repository sidebar and README, making it useful for software, templates, documentation, open-source tools, and technical resources.
Medium
Value10Medium is a publishing platform where writers can create public profile pages and publish stories under a Medium URL or Medium subdomain. A legitimate story or profile bio can include an external link, but inspected story links are user-generated nofollow links rather than dofollow authority links.
MySQL Forums
Value10MySQL Forums is Oracle's public discussion forum for MySQL users, administrators, developers, and connector/tooling questions. A backlink can appear inside a public technical thread or reply when the linked resource genuinely helps solve a MySQL problem.
TED
Value10TED is the conference and media organization behind TED Talks and the independently organized TEDx program. The practical backlink path is not a normal TED account profile; it is the public TEDx event page that can list an approved event's official website and social links.
Instructables
Value9Instructables is a public tutorial and maker-project community where members publish profiles, how-to projects, and collections. It can host a backlink in a member profile website field or inside a genuinely useful tutorial when the link helps the reader.
Internet Archive
Value8Internet Archive hosts public uploads for books, audio, video, software, images, and other digital material. A legitimate uploader can include a relevant external URL in an item description, but inspected description links are marked nofollow/UGC.
Behance (Adobe)
Value8Behance is an online platform where creative professionals can showcase their projects, which may include images, videos, and other media. Each project is assigned a unique URL, facilitating easy sharing and public viewing.
Joomla Forum
Value8Joomla Forum is the official phpBB-powered support forum for the Joomla CMS community. A real forum account can expose a public author-card website link, while links inside posts are moderated and should be treated as nofollow community links.
npm
Value8npm is the public package registry for JavaScript and Node.js. Publishing a legitimate public package can create a public npm package page where your README, homepage, repository, and package metadata may point to an external project, documentation site, or company page.
ProvenExpert
Value8ProvenExpert is a customer-review platform for businesses and service providers. A public ProvenExpert profile can include website links alongside contact details, reviews, and rating information, so it can work as a backlink source for real companies that are willing to maintain a credible review profile.
Simple Machines Community Forum
Value8Simple Machines Community Forum is the official support forum for Simple Machines Forum (SMF), the open-source PHP forum software. It can host backlinks through relevant support posts and public member details, but the opportunity only makes sense for people who genuinely work with SMF sites, themes, mods, hosting, or forum administration.
ThemeForest
Value8ThemeForest is Envato Market's marketplace for website templates, WordPress themes, UI kits, and related web assets. The backlink opportunity is not a quick directory listing: it comes from a public author profile or item page after you become an approved seller.
Blogarama
Value7Blogarama is a long-running blog directory that indexes submitted blogs and republishes recent posts as directory listing cards. A real blog can earn public Blogarama pages with links back to the original posts, making it useful for bloggers and publishers rather than generic landing pages.
Parallels Forums
Value7Parallels Forums is the public support community for Parallels Desktop, Parallels Remote Application Server, and related virtualization products. A backlink can appear when a relevant support question or answer needs to cite an external resource, but the forum marks those outbound links as nofollow.
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where users connect to build business relationships, share industry knowledge, and explore career opportunities. It enables professionals and companies to create profiles, showcase expertise, and engage with a global network for career growth and recruitment.
SlideShare
Value7SlideShare is a document and presentation sharing site where public profiles and uploaded decks can point readers to an external website. The cleanest backlink path is a complete public profile with a website link, supported by legitimate presentations or PDFs that belong on the platform.
Alpha Coders
Value6Alpha Coders is a visual-content community for wallpapers, phone wallpapers, GIFs, avatars, and related media. A creator can submit original or permissioned content and include a relevant external link in the public item’s additional information, but inspected links are nofollow.
Dailymotion
Value6Dailymotion is a video hosting and social video platform with public creator profiles and public video pages. A backlink can be added through a profile website field or as a contextual URL in a legitimate video description, but the inspected public links were nofollow.
Dribbble
Value6Dribbble is a portfolio and discovery platform for designers, studios, and creative teams. A public profile can include a direct website/contact link, making it useful when your brand genuinely fits the design audience.
Flickr
Value6Flickr is a photo-sharing community where people publish public photo profiles, albums, and About pages. The useful backlink path is the dedicated profile website field, not links dropped into photo or profile descriptions.
Imgur
Value6Imgur is an image and album hosting community where public posts can include linkified URLs in their descriptions. The link path is useful for referral traffic and visibility around visual content, but the rendered outbound links are nofollow.
Know Your Meme
Value6Know Your Meme is a moderated internet-culture encyclopedia where signed-in users can submit meme entries and supporting references. The backlink path is a neutral source or additional-reference link that genuinely documents a meme, not a promotional profile or directory listing.
OpenSea
Value6OpenSea is an NFT and onchain marketplace where creators can publish collection pages. A collection owner can add an external website link on the public collection overview, but inspected collection links are nofollow.
Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users can explore, save, and share ideas through images and links called Pins. It's a hub for inspiration across various interests, such as home decor, recipes, fashion, and more. Users can create boards to organise Pins and discover external content linked to each image.
StartupHub.ai
Value6StartupHub.ai is an AI-startup directory and intelligence platform with public pages for startups, investors, people, products, and AI agents. Accepted startup profiles can include a Website button that points to the company's canonical site, making it useful for legitimate AI companies that fit the directory.
Stripe Climate
Value6Stripe Climate lets Stripe users fund carbon removal through Climate Commitments and publish a Stripe-hosted commitment page. That public page can link back to the business website, but the inspected example marks the link as UGC and nofollow.
247WebDirectory.com
Value5247WebDirectory.com is a human-edited general and regional web directory. Accepted submissions get listed on category pages with a title, description, and external website link, so it can work as a straightforward directory citation for suitable English-language sites.
9Sites
Value59Sites is a human-edited general web directory with public category pages and latest-listing pages. A submitted site can receive a direct outbound listing link after review, with a free regular option and a paid premium placement option.
Dev Resources
Value5Dev Resources is a curated, community-maintained directory of programming, design, API, hosting, productivity, and developer-tool resources. Accepted submissions get a public resource detail page that can point to the submitted project's canonical URL, making it useful for legitimate developer products and educational resources that fit the directory.
DeviantArt
Value5DeviantArt is an online social community that enables artists and art enthusiasts to connect through the creation and sharing of various art forms, including digital art, photography, and traditional media. The platform fosters interaction among users by allowing comments, critiques, and the formation of groups based on shared artistic interests.
Gravatar
Value5Gravatar is Automattic's public avatar and profile service for people who want one identity across WordPress and other sites. A Gravatar profile can include a visible Links section, so it works as a simple nofollow profile citation or link-in-bio page rather than a high-equity SEO backlink. Its real leverage is that the same profile follows your email address onto every WordPress, WordPress.com and bbPress site that shows avatars.
Facebook Pages
Value5Facebook Pages let businesses, creators, organisations, and local brands publish a public presence on facebook.com. A Page can show one or more website links in its About/contact information, but Facebook routes those links through its own linkshim and marks them nofollow.
Find-Us-Here.com
Value5Find-Us-Here.com is a business and community directory for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A free listing can include a public website URL on a dedicated business page, with paid upgrades mainly affecting placement and extra listing features.
Flipboard is a social magazine and content-discovery platform where users collect links, articles, videos, and notes into public Magazines. A backlink comes from flipping your own useful URL into a public Magazine, but the inspected web link is routed through Flipboard and marked nofollow.
Issuu
Value5Issuu turns PDFs and other static files into public flipbooks. A legitimate publication can include external web links inside the document, making Issuu useful for content-distribution backlinks when the PDF itself is worth reading.
LiveJournal
Value5LiveJournal is an older blogging and community platform where public journals and profile pages can include external website links. The most predictable backlink path is the profile Website field, which renders as a direct public link on the user's LiveJournal profile.
OpenAlternative
Value5OpenAlternative is a curated directory of open-source alternatives to popular proprietary software. Accepted project pages can link to a product website and repository, but inspected public links currently include `rel="nofollow"`, so treat it as a referral and discovery citation rather than a dofollow SEO shortcut.
Hatena Profile
Value5Hatena Profile is the public profile service for Hatena IDs. A profile can show an owned website link and identity links on a `profile.hatena.ne.jp` page, but the inspected owned-site link was nofollow.
Habr Q&A
Value5Habr Q&A is a Russian-language question-and-answer community for IT specialists. The practical backlink path is a public profile website link, not promotional questions or answers.
Wattpad
Value5Wattpad is a reading and writing community where authors and readers publish stories and maintain public profiles. The practical backlink path is the profile website field, which can point to an author site, book landing page, portfolio, or related project.
1000.tools
Value41000 Tools curates and reviews a wide variety of online resources. It helps users discover new tools for different tasks. The platform aims to simplify the search for useful digital solutions.
about.me
Value4about.me lets people publish a simple public profile page at an about.me username URL. The backlink opportunity is a profile button or social/website link, not an editorial citation, and inspected public examples mark those outbound links as nofollow.
Diigo
Value4Diigo is a bookmarking and research tool where users save, tag, annotate, and share web resources. A public Diigo bookmark can put your URL on a Diigo page, but the inspected public surface shows mixed link attributes, so treat it as a discovery and reference signal rather than a clean dofollow SEO link.
Discogs
Value4Discogs is a community-built music database and marketplace for physical releases, used by collectors, sellers, DJs, labels, and artists. A public user profile can display an external website link, which makes it a simple profile-citation opportunity for music-related brands.
Disqus
Value4Disqus is a hosted commenting and community platform used by publishers to add discussion threads to their sites. A free Disqus account also creates a public profile, and the profile About tab can display a website URL as an external link.
FileSharing Talk
Value4FileSharing Talk is an old vBulletin forum for file-sharing, Usenet, BitTorrent, software, and general technology discussions. The useful backlink path is the member profile homepage link; forum-post and signature links should be treated more cautiously because sampled archived threads used nofollow and dereferer wrapping.
GPTs Hunter
Value4GPTs Hunter is a directory for custom GPTs and AI chatbots. A listed GPT can show the builder's verified website next to the creator name, giving GPT makers a discoverable but nofollow backlink from a GPT detail page.
Mixcloud
Value4Mixcloud is an audio streaming platform for DJs, radio stations, labels, podcasters, and music communities. A public creator profile can include external links in the profile text, which makes it useful for branded discovery and referral traffic rather than clean dofollow SEO value.
MyAnimeList
Value4MyAnimeList is an anime and manga cataloging community with public user profiles. The safest backlink path is the profile sidebar's website/social link area, which appears on public profile pages under "Also Available at."
Myspace
Value4Myspace is a social entertainment and music-profile platform where public user and artist profiles can include short profile text, posts, media, and connections. The practical backlink path is a public profile About link, which Myspace may rewrite through its own `mysp.ac` shortener.
Portfolium
Value4Portfolium is Instructure's ePortfolio network for students, alumni, and educators to publish portfolio projects. A public project entry can include an external source URL, giving legitimate portfolio work a visible backlink from a Portfolium project page.
Press Release News
Value4Press Release News is a free press-release wire with public article pages and an RSS feed. Users can submit one press release per month after creating an account, and accepted releases can include contextual links plus a company website link.
Smashwords
Value4Smashwords is an ebook store operated by Draft2Digital. A registered user can create a public Smashwords profile and add a personal website, blog, or social link; the resulting external profile link is direct but explicitly nofollow.
SoundCloud
Value4SoundCloud is an audio hosting and discovery platform for musicians, labels, podcasters, and other creators. A public creator profile can include website and social-profile links, but SoundCloud routes external URLs through its gate.sc redirector and marks profile links as nofollow/UGC.
Twitch
Value4Twitch is a livestreaming platform where creators publish channel pages with bios, social links, and custom About panels. The practical backlink route is a creator profile link, not an editorial placement.
X (Twitter)
Value4X, formerly Twitter, is a social network where public profiles and posts can include external links. The most defensible backlink path is the public profile website field, not spammy replies or low-effort promotional posts.
Sony Electronics Community
Value4Sony Electronics Community is Sony's public support community for consumer electronics questions, answers, and member profiles. The backlink opportunity is a conservative profile/About Me URL, not a place to drop promotional support posts.
Vimeo
Value4Vimeo is a video hosting and publishing platform for creators, companies, educators, and production teams. A legitimate public video page can include a contextual hyperlink in the video description, while paid profile pages can show profile links; both should be treated as conservative nofollow or referral-oriented links rather than guaranteed SEO equity.
Beacons.ai
Value3Beacons is an all-in-one platform for creators, offering tools to manage and grow their online presence. It allows creators to build customisable link-in-bio pages or websites to promote links, products, and social media. The platform also helps creators own their audience by building subscriber lists, sending emails, and automating direct messages.
ClassifiedsFactor Articles
Value3ClassifiedsFactor Articles is an article-publishing subdomain connected to ClassifiedsFactor. It offers a public article-submission workflow, and published article pages can include external links. The current site is behind a Cloudflare challenge, so treat the link opportunity as useful but higher-friction than a normal open directory.
EZ Web Directory
Value3EZ Web Directory is a free Osclass-powered business directory where public listings can include linked URLs in the description. It can provide a simple directory citation for real businesses and services, but the site is broad and should be treated as a low-friction, higher-spam-risk opportunity.
GitLab
Value3GitLab user profiles can carry a public website link, and a profile README can add context around that link. Both inspected link types are direct but explicitly nofollow, so this is most useful as a credible developer identity and referral surface rather than a dofollow SEO placement.
H1Ad Articles
Value3H1Ad Articles is a small article-directory site tied to the H1Ad network. It accepts free article submissions through a category-based workflow and can host links inside published articles, but sampled article links were nofollow and the live site showed Cloudflare verification to automated checks.
Linktree
Value3Linktree is a tool to help you share everything you are, in one simple link, making your online content more discoverable, easier to manage.
LiveInternet
Value3LiveInternet is a Russian web statistics and public site-rating service. A site owner can register a website, install the LiveInternet counter, opt into a rating category, and potentially receive a public listing that links back to the registered site.
mssg.me
Value3mssg.me is a mobile website and link-in-bio builder for multilink pages, landing pages, and small stores. A free account can publish a mssg.me-hosted page with outbound buttons, making it a lightweight profile-page backlink source.
Podbean
Value3Podbean hosts public podcast websites and episode pages. A creator can place a relevant external source or resource link in an episode's show notes, where the inspected Podbean-hosted example renders it as a direct crawlable link.
ReverbNation
Value3ReverbNation is a music-promotion platform where artists can publish public profiles, songs, events, and industry-opportunity submissions. The practical backlink path is the public artist profile link area, where an artist can list an official website alongside other web links.
Scoop.it
Value3Scoop.it is a content curation platform where users create topic pages and publish links with short commentary. A public curation profile can contain direct links to the original external resources, but web-indexed visibility is tied to paid plans.
Google Sites
Value3Google Sites is a free website builder tied to Google accounts. A public Google Sites page can host buttons, text links, embedded content, and resource pages that point to an external project or company site.
Telegraph
Value3Telegraph is a minimalist anonymous publishing tool built by the Telegram team. Anyone can write a richly formatted article and publish it instantly to a public, server-rendered page at telegra.ph, with no account or signup required. Outbound links in articles are direct but carry rel="nofollow".
WallClassifieds Articles
Value3WallClassifieds Articles is a small article-directory site connected to the Wallclassifieds network. It accepts category-based article submissions and can host contextual links inside published articles, but live pages showed Cloudflare verification to automated checks during research.
AllMyFaves
Value2AllMyFaves is a visual bookmarking and homepage service where users organize favorite sites as logo-based tiles. A free account can create a public My Faves page with external favorite links, but the self-service links should be treated as nofollow citation and referral links rather than authority-passing backlinks.
Backlink Badger
Value2Backlink Badger is a curated directory of backlink providers and services. A legitimate provider can earn a backlink by emailing a complete suggestion that explains the backlink path and passes manual review.
Buy Me a Coffee
Value2Buy Me a Coffee lets creators publish a public support page for one-time donations, memberships, shop items, and profile links. The backlink path is the website or social link on a creator page, but verified examples are nofollow and may be noindex, so treat it as a referral and brand-citation link rather than an authority play.
Carrd
Value2Carrd is a platform that enables users to create simple, responsive one-page websites for various purposes, including personal profiles, portfolios, landing pages, and project showcases. It's user-friendly, offering customizable templates and a streamlined interface, making it easy for anyone to set up a professional-looking site quickly.
Future Tools
Value2Future Tools is a curated directory of AI tools and AI-news resources run by Matt Wolfe. A legitimate AI product can be submitted for review and, if accepted, receives a public tool page with a Visit button that routes visitors to the product website.
GitHub Pages
Value2GitHub Pages publishes static websites from GitHub repositories on a github.io subdomain or a custom domain. It can host portfolio pages, project docs, small landing pages, and other static content with ordinary outbound links.
Neocities
Value2Neocities is a free static-site host in the spirit of GeoCities, serving over a million hand-built personal sites at username.neocities.org subdomains. You upload or edit raw HTML directly, so any outbound link on your site is ordinary crawlable markup that you control completely.
Weebly
Value2Weebly is a website builder for publishing small business sites, blogs, portfolios, and simple online stores. A legitimate Weebly page can host text, button, image, or navigation links to an external site, including on a free `weebly.com` subdomain.
Bitly
Value1Bitly creates short redirect links for campaigns, social posts, SMS, QR codes, and offline materials. It is useful for cleaner sharing and click tracking, but it is not a direct authority backlink.
SB Nation
Value1SB Nation is a sports media network with public fan discussion feeds and team communities. A signed-in user can create Feed posts that include external links, but inspected links are nofollow and the observed Feed pages are noindex.
ShortURL
Value1ShortURL is a free URL shortener from NameSilo that creates public redirect links for sharing long URLs. It can give you a clean, trackable short URL, but the result is a redirect rather than a normal backlink on an editorial page.