Free backlinks have a bad name because most of what is offered under that heading is worthless. These twenty are not: they are ordinary platforms where a listing or a profile happens to be free, and they are the same entries our paying users work from.
What free actually means here
Every platform on this page publishes a link without charging for it. Some are national business registries, some are review platforms, some are blogging services. What they have in common is that they exist for a reason other than hosting links, which is the property that makes a link worth having.
What you will not find is a submission tool, a network of blogs, or anything that produces links in bulk. Those are free in the same way that a hole in the hull is free ventilation.
The twenty
Difficulty is our own assessment of how much a first-timer has to have ready before starting. Time is how long the sign-up and listing usually takes, not counting any moderation queue.
Denmark
| Platform | Type | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|
| Europages.dk | Local Directories | Script-link | Easy | 15-30 min |
| Hotfrog.dk | Local Directories | dofollow | Moderate | 20 min |
| Virksomhedsoplysninger.dk | Local Directories | dofollow | Very easy | 20-25 min |
| Startsiden.dk | Link Directories | dofollow | Easy | 15-25 min |
| IT-Jobbank.dk | Job Sites | dofollow | Moderate | 45-90 min |
| Viergroenne.dk | CSR Certifications | dofollow | Easy | 30-45 min |
Sweden
| Platform | Type | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|
| Hitta.se | Local Directories | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| Svenskalänkar.com | Local Directories | dofollow | Very easy | 15-25 min |
| Blogg.se | Free Blogs | dofollow | Easy | 30-45 min |
| Eniro.se | Business Directories | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
Norway
| Platform | Type | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|
| Freak.no | Forum Communities | nofollow | Easy | 30-40 min |
| Blogg.no | Free Blogs | dofollow | Easy | 30-45 min |
| Gulesider.no | Business Directories | dofollow | Moderate | 45-60 min |
Germany
| Platform | Type | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|
| Das Örtliche | Business Directories | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| 11880 | Local Directories | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| WebWiki Deutschland | Link Directories | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
International
| Platform | Type | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|
| Academia.edu | Author - Content | dofollow | Easy | 25-35 min |
| SlideShare | Author - Profiles | nofollow | Easy | 30-45 min |
| Tumblr.com | Free Blogs | dofollow | Easy | 15-20 min |
| Trustpilot | Business Directories | nofollow | Very easy | 15 min |
How to work through them
- Write the descriptions first. Three versions, at roughly 50, 150 and 300 words. Half the time otherwise goes to rewriting the same paragraph in each form.
- Keep the details identical. Company name, address and phone number in the same format everywhere. Inconsistency between listings undoes their value.
- Do ten a night, not all twenty. The last five of a long session are always the sloppy ones, and a half-filled listing is worse than none.
- Record what you submitted. Six months from now you will need to update a phone number, and no one remembers where the listings are.
What comes after the free ones
Once the baseline is covered, the next step is not more of the same. It is deciding which type of link is worth your time, and that depends entirely on what you sell and to whom.