Strategy•8 min read

Link Building Without Budget: Practical Tactics That Work

You can't afford to buy links or hire an agency. Here's how to build backlinks with more effort than money.

Filip Samveljan

Filip Samveljan

Co-Founder at Soro·

Backlinks matter for SEO. They're one of Google's strongest ranking signals. Every guide will tell you to "build links."

Then you look at link building agencies charging $500-2,000 per link. That's $5,000+ for 10 quality backlinks. Most small businesses can't afford that.

So what do you do when you need links but have no budget?

You trade money for time. Here are tactics that work when cash is limited.

Let's be honest: paid link building is faster. Agencies have systems, relationships, and scale.

Budget link building is:

  • Slower (weeks/months per meaningful link)
  • More labor-intensive (hours of outreach, content creation)
  • Lower success rate (expect 5-15% response rates on cold outreach)
  • But free (if you don't count your time)

The question is whether your time is worth less than the agency cost. For many small businesses, it is — especially early on.

Strategy 1: Create linkable assets

The best link building isn't outreach — it's creating content people want to link to naturally.

Tools and calculators

Free tools attract links because they're genuinely useful:

  • ROI calculators
  • Pricing calculators
  • Graders/analyzers
  • Simple utilities for your industry

Examples:

  • A mortgage site builds a "mortgage calculator" → earns links from personal finance blogs
  • A marketing agency builds an "ad spend calculator" → earns links from marketing resources

Effort: High upfront (build the tool), low ongoing (links come naturally)

Effectiveness: High — tools earn links for years

Original research

Data others can cite attracts links:

  • Survey your customers and publish findings
  • Analyze public data in your industry
  • Create benchmark reports
  • Compile industry statistics

Example: Survey 500 customers about their buying habits. Publish "2026 State of [Industry] Report." Industry blogs cite your findings.

Effort: High (conducting research, analyzing data)

Effectiveness: High — research gets cited and linked

Comprehensive guides

Truly exhaustive coverage of a topic becomes the reference:

  • 5,000+ word guides covering everything about a topic
  • Regularly updated with current information
  • Better organized than anything else available

These become "the resource" on a topic, earning links from people referencing them.

Effort: High (creating and maintaining)

Effectiveness: Medium-high — depends on topic and competition

Related reading:

Strategy 2: Partner and vendor relationships

The most overlooked link opportunity: businesses you already work with.

Who to ask

Your vendors and suppliers:

  • Software you use (many have customer directories)
  • Services you pay for (many feature customers)
  • Suppliers (some showcase their customers)

Your partners:

  • Integration partners
  • Referral partners
  • Co-marketing relationships

Your customers (B2B):

  • Case studies featuring them
  • Testimonials they're proud of
  • Success stories they'd share

How to ask

Simple email:

"Hey [name], we've been using [product] for [time] and love it. I noticed you have a customer page / case study section. Would you be interested in featuring us? Happy to provide a testimonial or case study content."

Response rate: Higher than cold outreach because relationship exists

Effort: Low — just asking

Effectiveness: Medium — not every partner has link opportunities

Create linking opportunities

Proactively create reasons to link:

  • Write a case study about how you use their product
  • Mention them in a blog post (then tell them)
  • Create a "tools we use" page linking to all your vendors
  • Propose co-created content

Strategy 3: Guest posting (done right)

Guest posting has a bad reputation because people abuse it. Done right, it still works.

What not to do

  • Mass outreach to irrelevant sites
  • Paying for guest post "opportunities"
  • Targeting link farms disguised as blogs
  • Writing thin content for links

This gets you low-quality links that don't help (or hurt).

What to do

Target relevant sites:

  • Sites in your industry
  • Sites your audience actually reads
  • Sites with real traffic (not just high DR)
  • Sites that have editorial standards

Pitch value:

  • Unique angle or expertise you bring
  • Topic ideas that fit their audience
  • Evidence you've read their site

Write quality content:

  • Same quality as your own blog
  • Actually valuable to their readers
  • Natural link back (not forced)

Finding opportunities

Search operators:

  • "[your industry] write for us"
  • "[your industry] guest post"
  • "[your industry] contribute"
  • "[topic] + accepting guest posts"

Look for:

  • Sites with recent guest posts (accepting submissions)
  • Sites in your space that seem open to contributors
  • Industry publications that feature external experts

Effort: High (finding sites, pitching, writing)

Success rate: 5-15% for cold pitches

Find broken links on other sites. Offer your content as a replacement.

The process

  1. Find resource pages in your industry
  2. Check for broken (404) links
  3. Create or identify your content that could replace the broken link
  4. Email the site owner suggesting the fix

Email template

"Hi [name],

I was reading your [page name] resource page and noticed a broken link to [describe what it was].

I've written about [topic] and thought it might be a helpful replacement: [your URL]

Either way, wanted to let you know about the broken link.

Thanks,
[name]"

Effort: Medium (finding opportunities, checking links, outreach)

Success rate: 5-10% (many won't respond)

Effectiveness: Medium — links you do get are often good quality

Strategy 5: Resource page link building

Find pages that list resources. Get your content included.

Finding resource pages

Search operators:

  • "[your topic] + resources"
  • "[your topic] + useful links"
  • "[your topic] + recommended reading"
  • "inurl:resources + [your topic]"

Qualifying opportunities

Good resource pages have:

  • Active site (recent updates)
  • Relevant topic focus
  • Editorial discretion (not link farms)
  • Actual traffic

Outreach approach

Position your ask as helping their readers:

"Hi [name],

I came across your [topic] resource page while researching for an article.

I recently published [brief description of your content]. If you think it'd be valuable for your readers, feel free to add it.

Thanks for putting together such a comprehensive resource."

Effort: Medium (finding pages, qualifying, outreach)

Success rate: 5-10%

Strategy 6: HARO and journalist requests

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) connects journalists with sources. Free for sources.

How it works

  1. Sign up as a source
  2. Receive daily emails with journalist queries
  3. Respond to relevant queries with your expertise
  4. Get quoted (often with links)

Tips for success

  • Respond quickly (journalists work on deadlines)
  • Be genuinely helpful (not self-promotional)
  • Provide quotable expertise
  • Follow submission guidelines exactly
  • Focus on queries where you have genuine expertise

Alternatives to HARO

Effort: Low-medium (monitoring and responding daily)

Success rate: 10-20% for well-matched queries

Effectiveness: High — press links are valuable

Local links are often easier to get and particularly valuable for local SEO.

  • Chamber of Commerce
  • Local business associations
  • Local news features
  • Community event sponsorships
  • Local charities you support
  • Business improvement districts
  • Local blogs and news sites

How to get them

Many require simply joining or being a member. Others require outreach or creating newsworthy content about your business.

See Local SEO for Small Business for more.

What doesn't work (avoid)

Sites that exist solely to sell links are recognized by Google. Links from them don't help and may hurt.

PBNs (Private Blog Networks)

Networks of sites created to link to each other. Google actively penalizes these.

Irrelevant guest posts

Getting a link from a gardening blog when you sell software. Irrelevant links provide minimal value.

Comment spam

Links in blog comments are almost always nofollow and provide zero value.

"I'll link to you if you link to me" schemes are detectable and devalued.

Setting realistic expectations

With consistent effort (5-10 hours weekly):

  • Linkable asset creation: 0-2 assets/month (generating links over time)
  • Guest posts: 1-2/month (if lucky)
  • Partner/vendor links: 2-5/month (finite opportunities)
  • Broken link / resource pages: 1-3/month (low success rate)
  • HARO: 1-3/month (variable)

Realistic total: 3-10 quality links monthly with significant time investment

Timeline to see results

Links take time to impact rankings:

  • New links: 2-3 months to see ranking impact
  • Cumulative effect: 6-12 months for meaningful authority building

Don't expect quick results from link building.

The honest bottom line

If you have time but no money: The strategies above work. They're slow, labor-intensive, and have low success rates. But they're free.

If you have more money than time: Consider outsourcing. The economics might favor paying an agency over spending 20 hours monthly on link building.

Either way: Focus primarily on content that naturally attracts links. The best long-term link building is creating things worth linking to.

Related reading:

Link BuildingSEOBacklinksBudget SEO
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