Backlinks are still one of the strongest ranking signals, but getting them as a small site is brutal: cold outreach nobody answers, forums full of link farms, or paid links that risk a Google penalty.
The thing that actually works is a link swap between two relevant sites: I link to you, you link to me, both in content where it makes sense. The problem is finding relevant partners who are also up for it. That's the part that eats all your time.
So I built AnyBacklink to remove that step. You add your site, tag it with a few keywords, and it shows you verified site owners covering the same topics who are open to a swap. You agree on the link directly with them; there's a chat for each swap, and it checks that the link actually goes live. It's free, nothing is bought or sold, and there's no commission.
A few things I deliberately did to keep it clean rather than spammy:
- Every site is verified (file, DNS, or Search Console) before it's visible, so you're not dealing with fake domains.
- Matching is on topic, not "link with anyone", because irrelevant swaps at scale are exactly what Google penalises.
- No public directory of who's swapping, so nothing advertises the arrangement to Google.
Happy to answer anything about how I approached the SEO side, or the build. If it's useful to you, it's free to try: anybacklink.com
Would also genuinely welcome feedback from anyone who's done link building the hard way: what would make this actually worth using for you?
Source: r/StartupsHelpStartups · by /u/KensingtonWatches