How to Get Backlinks as a Business (Without Buying Them)

Most business owners hear "you need backlinks" and picture something shady: link farms, paid guest posts, strangers emailing offers of "high DA links". Honest link building is much more ordinary. It's getting the organisations you already work with, the places your customers read, and the people your content helps to point to you. Here's how to get backlinks that actually help, in the order we'd tackle them.

First, what makes a backlink worth having#

A link is valuable when it comes from a site that's relevant to your business or area, that people trust, and where the link makes sense to a reader. One link from your regional chamber of commerce, an industry association or a local news story is worth more than a hundred from directories nobody visits. Our guide to checking backlinks explains how to see what you already have.

1. Claim links you already deserve#

Start with people who know you. These links are the easiest to get and often the most relevant:

• Suppliers and manufacturers with a "stockists" or "where to buy" page.
• Partners you work with regularly, such as a caterer and an event venue, or a web designer and a hosting company.
• Associations and chambers you're a member of, which often have member directories.
• Clients who might mention you in a case study or a "thanks to" note, if it fits naturally.
• Events you sponsor or organisations you support, which typically list sponsors.

A short, friendly email is usually enough: "We noticed our business isn't on your stockists page yet. Here's our address and website, if you'd like to add us."

2. Turn mentions into links#

Search for your business name in quotes and look for pages that mention you without linking: a news article, a blog post, an event page. The writer already likes you enough to mention you; asking them to add a link to your site is a small, reasonable request. Many will say yes.

3. Get listed where your customers look#

Some directories are genuinely useful: your Google Business Profile, trusted local directories, industry-specific listings, and platforms your customers actually use to find businesses like yours. Fill them in completely and consistently, with the same name, address and phone everywhere. Skip directories that exist only to sell links; if you've never heard of it and neither have your customers, it won't help.

4. Create something people want to cite#

Content earns links when it's the best answer to a question people in your field keep asking. Ideas that work for businesses:

• Local data or prices: "What a wedding costs in [City] in 2026", built from your real quotes.
• Practical guides that answer questions properly, with steps, examples and numbers.
• Free tools or templates: a calculator, a checklist, a sample contract.
• Original photos of your area, products or process that others can use with credit.

Then tell the people who'd care: bloggers who write about the topic, associations that share resources with members, journalists covering your industry. Content nobody hears about earns no links.

5. Local press and community#

Local news sites are among the most valuable links a local business can get, and they need stories. Good angles: a new branch or service, a milestone, a community project, an unusual customer story shared with permission, or local expertise, such as a pharmacist commenting on a health campaign. Keep it short, factual and easy to publish, with a photo.

Community involvement brings links naturally too: sponsoring a school event, running a free workshop, supporting a local cause. The link is a by-product of doing something people want to talk about.

6. Outreach that doesn't feel like spam#

When you contact someone you don't know, make it about them:

• Address them by name and mention something specific they published.
• Explain in one or two sentences why your resource helps their readers.
• Make the request small and clear.
• Don't send the same template to 500 people. Ten thoughtful emails beat 500 ignored ones.
• Follow up once, then leave it.

What to avoid#

Google's spam policies describe link schemes it treats as manipulation. For a business, the practical list is:

• Buying links, including "sponsored guest posts" on sites that sell them to anyone.
• Link exchanges in bulk: "I'll link to you if you link to me".
• Private blog networks and sites built only to host links.
• Keyword-stuffed anchor text requested across many sites.
• Spam comments and forum signatures stuffed with links.

These tactics are at best ignored and at worst lead to a manual action that removes your site's rankings. Paid placements and sponsorships are fine when the links are marked as sponsored, which tells search engines not to count them for ranking.

Make your own site link-worthy#

People link to pages that are useful and easy to cite. Before outreach, make sure the page you want links to is clear, fast, accurate and up to date, with a clean URL. Link to it from other pages on your own site too, since internal links help search engines find and value it. Our SEO audit checklist covers the technical basics.

Track what you earn#

Keep a simple list of every link you asked for, who you asked and the result. Check your backlinks monthly with Search Console or a backlink checker, such as the one in the Tekservix SEO tools, to see new links as they appear. When a new link lands, note whether related keywords move over the next few weeks. That tells you which kinds of links matter in your market.

A worked example#

Imagine an interior design studio with a new website and almost no links. In the first month, it asks its three furniture suppliers to list it as a partner designer, joins the regional business association, and fills in its Google Business Profile and two respected local directories. In month two, it publishes "What it costs to furnish a two-bedroom flat in [City]" using real, anonymised project figures, and emails it to a home-and-lifestyle blogger and a local property website, both of which reference it. In month three, a local news site covers the studio's free workshop for first-time homeowners. Nine new links, all relevant, none bought, and the studio starts appearing for local design searches it never ranked for before.