Ten links you can earn without knowing anybody

Your domain has nothing pointing at it, which is one of the reasons search engines have no opinion about it yet. These ten are available to everybody, cost nothing, and are entirely legitimate.

Run the free check

A new domain with nothing pointing at it has no external evidence that it exists or matters. Ten legitimate first links are available to any product: your own profiles and repository, directory and comparison listings, a Product Hunt page, communities where you genuinely participate, a piece of original writing only you could produce, and anyone you already do business with.

What links are actually doing

A link from another site is a small piece of evidence that somebody thought your page was worth pointing at. Search engines use accumulated evidence of that kind to decide how much to trust a domain they know nothing about.

For a new domain the important part is not the volume, it is going from zero to some. A site with nothing pointing at it looks, from the outside, like it may not be part of the web at all. A site with a dozen honest links from real places looks like a thing that exists.

That first transition is the one worth working for. Everything after it accumulates more slowly and matters less per link.

The ones you already control

Free, immediate, and almost universally forgotten. Do these today.

  • Your repository description and readme, if any part of the project is public.
  • Every profile you maintain: your personal profiles on any platform where you are active, and any organisation or company page.
  • Your email signature, which is not a link search engines see and does put the address in front of people repeatedly.
  • Any other project or site you own, where a link genuinely makes sense to a reader.
  • Your own writing published anywhere else, such as a guest post or a contribution to somebody else's publication.

The ones you apply for

These take an afternoon each and are open to anybody.

Directory listings, chosen with the checks described elsewhere in this section rather than submitted in bulk. Comparison and alternatives sites, where your product is placed alongside others. A Product Hunt listing page, which is permanent regardless of how the launch day went.

In each case the link is not the only benefit and often not the main one. The third-party description of your product is worth as much, sometimes more.

Note that some of these mark their outbound links so that no weight passes. That is fine. The listing still describes you, still sends people who click, and still contributes to the picture of a product that exists in more than one place.

The ones you earn slowly

These are the best links available to you and the only ones that cannot be rushed.

Participate genuinely in the communities where your users are. Answer questions completely, without links, for weeks. Eventually somebody else mentions your product in a thread because it genuinely answers what was asked, and a link somebody else chose to place is worth more than any link you placed yourself.

Write the one thing only you could write. Not a general guide about your category, which exists already in fifty versions. The specific thing you learned building this product: the problem that took a week, the assumption that was wrong, the measurement that surprised you. That is genuinely new information and it is the kind of writing other people link to.

This is slow. It is also the only route to links that a competitor cannot simply replicate by filling in the same forms.

What not to do

The temptation at zero links is to buy some, and it is worth being direct about why that is a poor trade rather than merely against the rules.

Paid link schemes are detectable, and the sites selling them are selling to everybody, which means your links sit alongside a large number of other purchased links on pages that exist for no other purpose. The pattern is exactly what detection is built for.

The downside is asymmetric. The upside is a modest gain in a signal that is one of many. The downside is a penalty against a domain you have owned for two months and cannot easily replace.

The same applies to reciprocal link exchanges, comment links, and the various services offering hundreds of links quickly. If it can be bought in bulk, it is worth roughly what everybody who bought it also got.

How much this matters relative to everything else

A caution, because link building attracts more attention than it deserves at your stage.

Ten honest links will not make a new domain rank for a competitive term. What they do is move you from having no external evidence to having some, which is a real change and a modest one.

If your app is not indexed, has one page, blocks crawlers, or is on a free subdomain, every one of those matters more than your link count. Fix them first.

And for a genuinely new product, the AI channel is available now in a way that classical search authority is not, because an assistant answering a question does not weigh your domain's link history the way search does. Get the links, honestly, and do not let them become the thing you focus on.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Getting listed. The other parts:

Questions people ask

How do I get backlinks for a brand new website?
Start with the ones you control: your repository, your profiles, any other site you own. Then the ones you apply for: directory listings, comparison sites, a Product Hunt page. Then the ones you earn slowly through genuine participation in communities and by writing the specific thing only you could write.
Why does a new domain need links at all?
Because a site with nothing pointing at it looks, from the outside, like it may not be part of the web. The valuable transition is going from zero to some, which makes you look like a thing that exists. Links accumulated after that matter less per link.
Do links that pass no weight still count for anything?
Yes, for reasons other than search weight. The listing still describes your product in a place you do not control, still sends anyone who clicks, and still contributes to the picture of a product that exists in more than one place, which is what assistants draw on.
Should I buy backlinks?
No, and the reason is the asymmetry rather than only the rules. The upside is a modest gain in one signal among many. The downside is a penalty against a domain you have owned for two months and cannot easily replace, on pages that exist for no purpose other than selling links to everybody.
What is the best link I can get?
One somebody else chose to place, because your product genuinely answered what was being discussed. That comes from participating properly in communities over weeks without linking, and it is the only kind a competitor cannot replicate by filling in the same forms.
How much do backlinks matter compared to everything else?
Less than they get attention for at this stage. If your app is unindexed, has one page, blocks crawlers, or sits on a free subdomain, every one of those matters more than your link count. Ten honest links move you from no evidence to some, which is real and modest.

Fix the things that matter more than links

The free Get Found Check tells you whether indexing, rendering or crawler access is still costing you more than your empty link profile is.

Run the free check Have Licheo do it for you