Backlinks for new startups: an ethical playbook for a brand-new domain

You just bought the domain, shipped the landing page, and published a few blog posts. Then you open a search console report and see the obvious problem: nobody links to you. To search engines, your site is a stranger.

Backlinks are still one of the clearest signals that a site is trustworthy and relevant. But the internet is full of bad advice on how to get them, from buying bulk links to spamming comment sections. Those tactics can hurt a new domain far more than they help.

This playbook is about the opposite approach: earning links that make sense, from places your customers actually visit. It is slower than buying links, and it is the only approach that keeps compounding.

What makes a backlink worth having

Not all links are equal. When you evaluate an opportunity, ask:

Is it relevant? A link from a site about your industry or audience is worth more than one from an unrelated page.
Would a real person click it? Links that send actual visitors tend to be the links that matter.
Is the site legitimate? Real content, real audience, not a page stuffed with hundreds of outbound links.
Is it editorial or earned? Links you earn through merit or genuine participation are healthier than ones you pay for purely to manipulate rankings.

A handful of relevant, legitimate links can do more for a new domain than hundreds of low-quality ones.

Paid placements are fine when they are clearly labeled and you are paying for exposure, like a featured launch or sponsorship. What you want to avoid is buying links in bulk from networks whose only purpose is to game search rankings.

1. Launch platforms and curated directories

For a brand-new product, launch platforms are the most natural first links. You are not tricking anyone: you are listing a real product where people go to discover new products.

How to do it well:

Pick quality over quantity. Choose platforms with real communities and editorial standards rather than mass-submitting to every directory you can find.
Write a unique description for each. Copy-pasting the same blurb everywhere is a missed opportunity and looks lazy to readers.
Prepare good assets. Logo, screenshots, a clear tagline (see how to write a tagline that converts).
Show up on launch day. Reply to comments and questions. Engagement drives visibility, and visibility drives more mentions.

On UpstartApps, a featured launch pins your product to the top of its launch week and includes a dofollow backlink, while free launches join the weekly queue. Either way, a launch is also a reason for people to talk about you elsewhere.

2. Badges and embeds

Many launch platforms and directories offer badges ("Featured on…", "Top 3 of the week") that you can display on your site. Badges are social proof for your visitors, and they reflect a real relationship between your site and the platform.

The more interesting idea is to create your own embeddable assets:

A "Powered by" link in a widget or public page your product generates
A badge your customers can display (for example, a hypothetical "Verified uptime" badge for a monitoring tool)
Embeddable charts, calculators, or status widgets

Keep these honest: make the link optional or clearly visible, and make sure the embed is genuinely useful to whoever displays it.

3. Integration and partner pages

If your product integrates with other tools, those tools often maintain an integrations directory or marketplace. These pages are highly relevant, and they send visitors who already use a tool you work with.

Steps:

List every product you integrate with, including through automation platforms.
Check whether each one has an integrations directory, app marketplace, or partner page.
Follow their submission process carefully, with clear documentation and screenshots.
Build a matching page on your site, such as "[Your product] + [Tool]", and link to their listing.

This also works for partners: agencies, consultants, or complementary products that serve the same audience. A genuine "tools we recommend" mention is a link both sides benefit from.

4. Linkable content

People link to things that help them make a point or save them work. A few content types that tend to attract links naturally:

Content type	Why people link to it	Example idea (hypothetical)
Original data	Others cite it as a source	Anonymized trends from your own product usage
Free tools	Useful enough to share	A pricing calculator or tagline grader
Templates and checklists	Saves readers time	A launch-day checklist or SOC 2 prep template
Definitive guides	Becomes a reference	A deep guide to one specific problem in your niche
Honest comparisons	Helps people choose	A fair breakdown of approaches to a common task

The key is that the content should be good enough to deserve a link on its own merit. If you publish original data, be transparent about your methodology and sample size.

5. Founder-led visibility

As an early-stage founder, you are often more interesting to the media and community than your product is. Use that.

Podcasts. Niche podcasts frequently need guests and usually link to the guest's site in show notes.
Guest posts. Write for publications your customers read. Focus on being useful, not on squeezing in links.
Building in public. Sharing your journey earns mentions over time. See our building in public guide.
Answering questions. Thoughtful answers in communities build reputation. Link only when it is directly helpful, and follow each community's rules.
Expert quote requests. Journalists and writers often look for expert sources. Respond only where you have real expertise.

6. Reclaim and repair

Once you have some visibility, look for easy wins:

Unlinked mentions. Search for your brand name. If someone mentions you without a link, a short, polite note asking them to add one often works.
Broken links. If a relevant page links to a resource that no longer exists and you have a good replacement, let the owner know.
Your own properties. Make sure your social profiles, GitHub, app store listings, and documentation all link back to your main site.

Keep outreach short and human. One personalized message explaining why the link helps their readers beats a templated blast to hundreds of sites. And always take "no" or silence gracefully.

What to avoid

Some tactics carry real risk for a new domain:

Buying bulk links from private blog networks or link sellers
Automated comment or forum spam
Large-scale link exchanges ("you link to me, I link to you") with unrelated sites
Hidden links in themes, plugins, or widgets
Mass-submitting to low-quality directories that exist only to sell links

Search engines have gotten good at recognizing these patterns. At best they are ignored; at worst they lead to penalties that are painful to recover from.

Your 30-day backlink checklist

Choose a few quality launch platforms and schedule your launches
Prepare unique descriptions and assets for each
Add earned badges to your site
Submit to every relevant integration marketplace
Create one linkable asset (tool, template, or data)
Pitch two or three niche podcasts or publications
Link all your owned profiles back to your site
Set up a brand mention alert

Wrapping up

Backlinks for a new startup come from doing visible, useful things and making it easy for others to point to them. Launch where your audience discovers products, integrate with tools they use, publish things worth citing, and show up as a founder. Combine that with the fundamentals in our SEO for early-stage SaaS guide and your domain will steadily earn trust.

Ready to get your first relevant link? Submit your product to an UpstartApps launch week, or see how a featured launch puts you at the top of the week with a dofollow backlink.