How to Get Your First Backlinks: A Playbook for New Startups

A new website starts with no links pointing at it, and that's a real problem: links are how Google finds pages in the first place, and one of the ways it judges them. Most advice on "getting backlinks" is written for sites that already have an audience, a PR team or a budget for outreach. This guide is for the other case: a product that launched last month, a founder doing the marketing in the evenings, and a domain rating somewhere near zero.

It draws on two sets of data we keep at DirPilot: the 246 startup, SaaS and AI directories we track, with link types checked on live listings in October 2026, and the 16 products launched in our Hangar.

The short version:

• Your first links are mostly about being found and trusted, not about ranking for hard keywords overnight.
• Start with places that already list products like yours: curated directories, launch platforms, integration marketplaces and communities. In our data, 70% of the directories we could check give a dofollow link, and 102 of them do it for free or on a free plan.
• Then earn links with something worth citing: a free tool, original data or expert answers to journalists.
• Skip anything sold as "1,000 backlinks" or "guaranteed DR". Google names those patterns as link spam.

Why the first links matter (and what they won't do)

Google is direct about the role of links in discovery. Its SEO Starter Guide says that "Google primarily finds pages through links from other pages it already crawled", and that "the vast majority of the new pages Google finds every day are through links". A brand-new site with no links can still be found through a sitemap in Search Console, but every relevant site that links to you is another path in for both crawlers and people.

Links also feed ranking, though not on their own. The same guide notes that PageRank, Google's link-based algorithm, is "one of the fundamental algorithms at Google" but that "there's much more to Google Search than just links". Content that answers the search, a site that works, and a clear purpose all matter as much.

Ahrefs' study of why most pages get no search traffic shows how rare it is to win without links: its index held about 20 million pages with no referring domains, and only 2,997 of them got more than 1,000 search visits a month, "roughly 1 in every 6,671". Ahrefs is careful to say this is a correlation, not proof that links cause rankings, but it matches what most founders see.

For a sense of where new products start, here's our own sample. The 16 products live in the Hangar have a median Ahrefs Domain Rating of 27.5, and five of them are under DR 20. If yours is lower, that's normal. DR runs on a logarithmic scale, as Ahrefs explains, so the first few dozen good links move it far more than the hundredth.

What Google won't count, and what can hurt

Before chasing links, it helps to know which ones are a waste of money or a risk. Google's spam policies define link spam as "creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings", and list examples that new founders run into all the time:

• Buying or selling links for ranking purposes, including sending someone a product in exchange for a post with a link.
• "Excessive link exchanges ('Link to me and I'll link to you')".
• "Using automated programs or services to create links to your site".
• "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links".
• Links with optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites.
• Links widely distributed in the footers or templates of many sites.

Note the fourth item: Google doesn't say directories are bad, it says low-quality ones are. The difference is whether a real person reviews submissions and whether real people browse the site. That's why choosing where to submit matters more than how many places you submit to.

Nofollow links are not worthless either. Since 2019, Google has treated nofollow, ugc and sponsored as "hints about which links to consider or exclude", as it explained when it changed how it handles nofollow. A nofollow link from a page your customers read still sends visitors, and visitors are how you earn the next, editorial links.

Where a new startup's first links come from

These are ordered roughly by effort, from an afternoon's work to ongoing projects. Most founders should do the first four in their first month and pick one or two of the rest.

1. Profiles you control

Your GitHub organisation, LinkedIn company page, X account, YouTube channel, Crunchbase profile and app store listings should all link to your site. Most of these links are nofollow, so don't expect them to move DR. Their job is different: they confirm who you are, they show up when people search your brand name, and they give crawlers a few more ways to find your domain.

2. Curated startup directories

Directories are the most reliable source of first links because listing products is their whole purpose: you don't need a relationship or a pitch, only a complete submission. The catch is quality, and it varies a lot. Here's what our checks found by category (a directory can sit in more than one):

Three things stand out. First, a high DR doesn't predict a dofollow link: the median DR of the nofollow directories (53) is actually higher than that of the dofollow ones (48), and 17 nofollow directories sit at DR 70 or above, GeekWire (DR 86) among them when we checked. We cover this in detail in our dofollow study. Second, free is common: 75 of the 208 directories whose pricing we know are free, 104 more have a free plan, and only 29 are paid only. Third, some links come with conditions: nine directories in our data tie their listing or link to displaying their badge, and six only give a dofollow link on a paid plan.

Waiting times matter too. Of the 79 directories that state one, the median wait is seven days. Ten list you within a day, but 23 take more than a month, so submit early in your launch plan, not the week of it. Our guide to submitting without hurting your SEO walks through preparing one set of copy and images and reusing it, and the directory shortlist tool ranks the ones that fit your product.

3. Launch platforms

Launch platforms give you a day in front of an audience that likes trying new products. Their links are a mixed bag (half of the 12 we could check give a dofollow link), but the median DR is high at 68, and the real value is the first users, feedback and the people who later write about you. We compared 13 of them on links, price and wait times in Product Hunt alternatives.

4. Integration marketplaces and partner pages

If your product connects to another tool, that tool's app directory is one of the most relevant links you can get: it's a page about your integration, on a site your buyers already use, usually reviewed by the platform. Most large platforms with a public API run one, from team chat to e-commerce to automation tools. Build the integration you were going to build anyway, then apply to be listed. The same goes for technology partners, agencies who implement you, and "built with" pages of tools you rely on, as long as the listing reflects a real relationship rather than a swap.

5. Communities

Forums like Hacker News, Reddit and Indie Hackers are not where you go for links: many mark user links nofollow or ugc, and posting only for a link gets you removed. But a genuinely useful "here's what I built and what I learned" post can bring a wave of visitors, and some of those readers write newsletters, blogs and roundups. That second wave is where community launches pay off in links. (Of the nine community sites in our data where we could check the link type, five gave a dofollow link, so it varies more than people think.)

6. Something worth citing

After the first month, the best links are the ones you don't ask for. Two formats work well for small teams:

• A free tool that solves one small problem your audience has: a calculator, a checker, a template generator. People link to tools because they're useful. Our own free tools, like the dofollow link checker, are built on this idea.
• Original data from your product or your market. Writers need numbers to back their claims, and they cite whoever published them. A survey of 50 customers or a count across your own records is enough if nobody else has it.

7. Expert answers for journalists and podcasts

Journalists and podcast hosts post requests for sources every day on platforms like Featured and Qwoted. A short, specific answer from a founder who has done the thing gets quoted, often with a link. Answer only in your area, answer fast, and give one concrete detail nobody else will. Podcast appearances work similarly: hosts link to their guests' sites in show notes.

8. Mentions that forgot the link

Once people start talking about you, some will mention your product without linking to it. Set up a Google Alert for your product name and check new mentions each week. A short, friendly note thanking the author and pointing them to the right page converts surprisingly often, because the link helps their readers too.

A 30-day plan

The launch asset kit handles the image sizes in week one, and most of the work in week two is copy you already wrote. Most links from a month like this come from directories and launch platforms, and they keep arriving after it: remember that some directories take more than a month to review. Editorial links from your asset tend to come later still, once people find and use it.

How to vet a link before you chase it

Run any opportunity through these questions. If you answer "no" to the first two, skip it whatever the DR.

1. Would your customers ever visit this site? Relevance beats every metric.
2. Does a person review what gets listed? If anything goes up instantly, unchecked, it's the kind of directory Google's policy describes.
3. Are its pages in Google? Search site:example.com. A directory whose listing pages aren't indexed can't pass anything on.
4. Is the link followable? Look at an existing listing with the dofollow link checker. Nofollow can still be worth it for traffic, but you should know which you're getting.
5. What does it cost, in money and time? Pay for an audience or for speed, not for a link.

Red flags: "guaranteed DR 50", "submission to 1,000 directories", and any offer that promises a number of links rather than a place.

How to see the links you've earned

You don't need a paid SEO suite to track your first links:

• Google Search Console: the Links report shows your top linking sites, "sorted by count of links", and your most linked pages. It's the closest view of what Google itself has found.
• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: free for sites you verify, and shows up to 1,000 backlinks at once.
• Bing Webmaster Tools: also free, with its own backlinks report from a separate index.

Expect a lag. New links can take weeks to show up in these reports, and longer to affect rankings. Check monthly, not daily.

Mistakes that cost new startups

• Buying bulk submission packages. They target the low-quality directories Google names, often with automated tools. At best they're wasted money, at worst a pattern you have to clean up later.
• Keyword-stuffed anchor text. Use your product name or a plain description. Google's link guidelines describe good anchor text as "descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant", and optimized anchors in guest posts are on its link spam list.
• Badge and link swaps at scale. One or two "as featured on" badges are normal. A footer full of them, or a page that exists only to link back to partners, is the "excessive link exchanges" pattern.
• Chasing DR over relevance. A DR 80 site your customers never visit does less for you than a DR 35 directory in your niche that sends ten signups a month.
• Submitting with an unfinished site. Reviewers reject placeholder pages, and a rejection can mean waiting through a long queue again. Launch the real product first.

Questions founders ask

How many backlinks does a new site need?

There's no fixed number, and Google publishes none. What matters is links from relevant sites compared with the sites you compete with. A useful first goal is 20 to 40 referring domains from relevant directories, launch platforms and partners, then a steady trickle of editorial links.

How long before backlinks make a difference?

Discovery can happen within days of a link being crawled. Ranking changes usually take weeks to months, and depend as much on your content as on the links.

Are nofollow links useless?

No. Google treats them as hints, and the traffic they send is real. Many of the best editorial links a startup gets start with someone finding it through a nofollow link.

Are directory backlinks safe in 2026?

Links from curated directories that review submissions and have a real audience are a normal part of a site's link profile. The risk is in low-quality directories and automated mass submission, which Google names in its spam policies.

Ready to start? Browse all 246 directories with their link types, prices and approval times, or answer five questions in the directory shortlist to get the ones that fit your product.