How to Get Backlinks for Your Business (Without the Hacks)

No one really likes hearing this but...

There's really no hack for getting backlinks for SEO.

You actually have to have something worthwhile to offer or trade (shocker, I know).

Reaching out and saying "I'm in a similar space, wanna trade links?" just doesn't work (trust me, I've tried it lol).

You need to have something of value worth linking to. That's the whole game.

There are so many ways to do this, and you'll have to pick the ones that fit your business, but here are the ones I've seen actually work.

What a backlink is, and why mentions count too

A backlink is just a link on someone else's website that points to yours. If a local wedding blog writes "we love working with [your studio]" and links your name to your site, that's a backlink.

Google treats links from other sites a bit like votes. A link from a real, relevant site (a local news site, an industry association, a well-known blog in your niche, etc) tells Google other people think your page is worth reading. A link from a random spammy site generally does nothing, and a pile of them can look like you're trying to game the system, which is exactly the kind of thing Google targets with spam policy updates and manual penalties.

A mention is when another site names your business, with or without a link. Mentions matter more than they used to. When ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews or Perplexity answer a question, they often search the web first, read a handful of pages, and name the businesses those pages talk about. They read the text, so a mention with no link still counts there.

So everything below is about getting both: links for Google, and mentions on the pages AI engines read. Most of the time the same work gets you both, and the most important thing to remember is quality over quantity. A highly contextually relevant link from a high authority site is worth about 100 or 1000 generic, spammy or low authority links.

A couple of other terms you'll see:

• Anchor text: the words that contain the link, like "Austin bookkeeping services" or "this guide". You don't control it on other people's sites, and that's fine, but anchor text is one of the things Google's algorithms look at to determine whether a link is relevant or generic.
• Roundup: an article that lists several businesses or products, like "10 best wedding photographers in Nashville" or "best bookkeepers for contractors". These are some of the most valuable pages to be on, for both Google and AI answers.

1. Publish a study with data nobody else has

Create a research piece or study with unique data you compiled on your niche. Then reach out to the businesses or sites you featured in the study and see if they want to link to it on their site.

This works because it features them, not you. Everyone likes being able to show their customers "look, we came out on top in this", and a study gives them a reason to link to you that has nothing to do with doing you a favor.

It sounds daunting, but a study can be pretty simple:

• Ask the questions your customers ask. Type 20 or 30 real buying questions into ChatGPT and Google ("best wedding photographer for a small courthouse wedding", "how much does a bookkeeper cost for a construction company") and write down which businesses and sites come up. That alone is data nobody else has published for your niche.
• Compile prices. Look up what 30 local businesses in your category charge and put the ranges in a table. A plumber could do "what 25 Denver plumbers charge for a water heater install". A photographer could do average wedding photography packages by hour.
• Survey your own customers. Ten questions in a free form, sent to your past clients. Anonymize the results and publish (with permission from survey participants, of course). For example, as a wedding photographer you could publish stats on "How far in advance did couples book their photographer?". Wedding blogs and AI engines love quoting these kinds of specific stats.
• Count something public. Reviews, response times, how many businesses in your city list prices on their website. Run a comprehensive check against public data and build your own analysis or benchmark, then write up a study and publish it.

How this worked for Peak Answer

Peak Answer runs studies like this for its own niche. One of them asked ChatGPT 25 questions a startup would ask when hiring a brand designer, 6 times each, and recorded every site it cited: 302 different sites across 150 answers.

Every one of those 302 sites is a business that might want to show its customers it was cited. So I emailed the ones whose own pages came up, told them exactly what the study found about them, and pointed them to the page. A few of the businesses featured in Peak Answer's studies linked to them from their own blog posts with normal links, and one of them quoted the 302 number in its own article.

One lesson from doing this: be exact about what you found. "ChatGPT cited your pricing guide in one answer" and "ChatGPT recommends you" are very different claims, and the careful people (the ones whose links are worth having) will ask for your evidence. Say exactly what happened, with the date, and keep your notes.

The email

Subject: You came up in my [niche] study

Hi [name],

I put together a study on [what you studied, in one line] and [their business] came up in it. [The specific thing, like: your guide on choosing a wedding florist was one of the pages ChatGPT cited when someone asked "how do I pick a florist for a small wedding" on 7 October.]

Here's the full study if you want to take a look: [link]

If you think your customers would find it useful, feel free to share it or link to it from your site. No pressure either way.

Thanks, [Your name]

Keep it short. You're giving them something, so there's no need to oversell it.

2. Write a roundup on an adjacent niche, then ask to be featured back

Write a roundup or listicle on an adjacent niche (not your direct competitors) and feature smaller players trying to gain a foothold in the market. Then reach out and ask if they'd feature you in exchange. You can even write the piece for them.

This works exactly because they're not competing with you, and they benefit from it too.

The trick is picking the right niche. You want businesses that serve the same customers you do, but sell something different. Or maybe sell the same thing, but to slightly different customer profiles. A few examples:

• A wedding photographer writes "the best wedding florists in Nashville for small weddings" and features five newer florists. Florists already have "vendors we love" or "preferred vendors" pages, so asking to be on theirs is a natural next step.
• A residential contractor writes "the best interior designers in Phoenix for kitchen remodels". Designers refer contractors all the time, and many have a "trusted trades" page.
• A bookkeeper for construction companies writes "the best estimating apps for small contractors" and features a few smaller apps. Those apps often have a partner or "find a bookkeeper" directory.
• A dog groomer writes "the best dog walkers in [neighborhood]".
• A B2B marketing SaaS selling to ecommerce brands writes "best marketing tools for small local businesses" and features tools targeting local business instead of ecommerce.

At first, go for the smaller, newer businesses. The big names don't need you and won't reply. A florist who opened two years ago will be thrilled to be on a list, and much more likely to feature you back. Once you've built some authority, then you can move up the chain.

Write the roundup properly. Say something specific about each business (what they're best for, a price range if they publish one, who they're a good fit for), so it's a page people would actually use. A thin list of names won't help anyone, including you.

The email

Subject: Featured you in my list of [category] in [city]

Hi [name],

I just published a guide to the best [category] in [city] for [type of customer], and [their business] is in it: [link]

I wrote [one specific line about them, like: you're the pick for couples who want a garden style on a smaller budget]. If anything's wrong or out of date, let me know and I'll fix it.

Also, I noticed you have a [preferred vendors / resources / partners] page. If you're ever open to adding a [your category], I'd love to be on it. I can write the blurb for you so it's no work on your end.

Thanks, [Your name]

Publish first, then ask. Sending them a live page they're already featured in is a gift. Asking for a swap before anything exists just turns into the "wanna trade links?" email.

One thing to keep in mind: an occasional, genuinely relevant mutual feature is normal business (vendors recommend each other all the time). But if most of your links come from "you link me, I link you" deals, that's the pattern Google's link spam policy calls excessive link exchanges. Keep it to businesses you'd actually recommend to a customer.

3. Get added to the roundups you're missing from

Similar to 2, find roundups and listicles (from non-direct competitors) where you're not listed but should be. For example "best tool for X", and you are the best tool for X (I'm sure you're not at all biased lol).

Reach out and ask if you can be added, and write the section for them. Link back to their site so they get a backlink too. There's less in it for them than with 2, but it's also a smaller ask.

For a local business that might be "best bookkeepers in Austin" on a local business blog, "top wedding photographers in Nashville" on a wedding planning site, or "best roofers in Tampa" on a home improvement site. The key word is non-competitor: a list written by another bookkeeping firm that ranks itself #1 isn't going to add you.

This one has enough to it that I wrote a separate guide to getting into "best of" lists. It covers how to find these lists, how to tell a neutral list from a competitor's, and exactly what to send.

Bonus: link magnets

A lot of the time, in the process of creating these and publishing them on your site, you end up with a "link magnet", i.e. something that brings in traffic and that people will cite and link to without being asked.

A study gets quoted by bloggers who find it on Google. A really good roundup becomes the page people link to when they need a list. A pricing guide with real numbers gets cited when a writer needs a number. AI engines do the same thing: in Peak Answer's podcast editing study, cost guides from independent editors were some of the pages ChatGPT cited on cost questions, right next to Upwork and Fiverr.

Most publishers are using AI these days too to research and write their own articles, so if you can get your studies or pages picked up by AI engines, you're also likely to start getting linked in more and more external sites.

This is how you build quality links without driving yourself crazy doing outreach. The outreach gets the first few links, and then the page keeps earning them on its own.

The pages that tend to become link magnets:

• A study or survey with numbers people can quote.
• A pricing guide with real price ranges, for example "how much a wedding photographer costs in Nashville in 2026", with what's included at each level.
• A free calculator or checklist. A contractor's "kitchen remodel cost calculator", a bookkeeper's "month-end close checklist" as a free download (no email required), a planner's "wedding day timeline template".
• The best answer to a common question in your niche, written so a stranger could act on it.

4. Get mentioned on the pages AI engines already cite

This one is newer, and it's where links and AI search overlap the most.

When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews "who's the best wedding photographer in Nashville", the engine reads a handful of pages and builds the answer from them. If those pages don't mention you, you basically can't be in the answer, however good your own website is.

So the job is to find out which pages those are, and get onto them. You can do it by hand:

1. Write down 10 questions your customers would ask.
2. Ask each one in ChatGPT and in Google, and write down every site the answer links to or cites.
3. Count which sites come up the most.

Usually a few sites account for most of it, and they're often not who you'd expect. In Peak Answer's wedding photography study, Reddit, Facebook, WeddingWire and The Knot each showed up on a third or more of the 30 questions, while photographers' own sites took 58% of the 399 citations, split between lots of small studios.

That list is your target list. Some of it is a profile you can claim today (The Knot, a Google Business Profile), some is a thread you can answer, and some is an article you can pitch. It's often the same list that explains why a competitor gets named and you don't.

5. Fix wrong or outdated info about you

This is one of the easiest asks there is. Search your business name and read what other sites say about you. You'll often find an old price, a phone number that changed, a service you don't offer anymore, or a description that's just wrong.

Email the site with the correction. You're helping them keep their page accurate, so the reply rate is much higher than a cold pitch. And while they're editing, it's a natural moment to ask if they'd link your name to your site.

Subject: Small correction on your [page title]

Hi [name],

Thanks for including [your business] in [page title]. Quick heads up, the price you list ($X) is from a couple of years ago. My packages now start at $Y: [link to your pricing page].

If it's easy to link my business name to my site while you're in there, that'd be great too, but the price is the main thing.

Thanks, [Your name]

This matters for AI answers too. Engines that search the web read the page as it is today, so an old price on a directory can end up in the answer someone gets about you.

6. Turn unlinked mentions into links

Sometimes a site names your business but doesn't link to you. A local news story mentions your bakery, or a blog post recommends your shop by name.

Find these by searching your business name in Google in quotes ("Riverside Bookkeeping"), and skip the results that are your own site and profiles. For anything that mentions you without a link, send a short thank you and ask if they'd add the link. It's a tiny ask, since they already chose to mention you.

Hi [name], thanks so much for mentioning [your business] in [article]. Would you mind linking the name to [your URL] so readers can find it? Either way, really appreciate it.

This doesn't do much for AEO/GEO because the mention is what matters anyway, but it helps for traditional SEO (Google and Bing).

7. Ask the people you already work with

You probably already have relationships that could be links, and you've just never asked.

• Suppliers and brands you use or sell. Many have a "where to buy", "find an installer" or "certified partners" page.
• Associations and chambers. Your local chamber of commerce, your trade association or a professional body often lists members with a link.
• Businesses you refer work to. The caterer you always recommend, the accountant who sends you clients.
• Events you take part in. A wedding show, a local market, a charity run you volunteer at.

These are some of the best links a small business can get. They're local or industry-relevant, they're real relationships, and they take one email.

8. Answer journalists and podcast hosts

Writers need experts to quote, and podcast hosts need guests. There are services where journalists post what they're looking for (like Qwoted or Featured), and you answer the ones in your area of expertise. When they use your quote, the article usually names you and often links to you.

A few tips:

• Answer fast. The early answers get used.
• Answer the actual question in two or three sentences, with one specific detail from your own experience. Writers skip generic answers.
• Pick the requests in your lane. A bookkeeper answering a question about small business taxes has a good shot. A bookkeeper answering a question about marketing doesn't.

Podcasts work the same way. Local business podcasts and niche industry shows are always looking for guests, and the episode page usually links to you.

9. Get listed on the directories and review sites that actually show up

Directories get a bad rap, mostly from the "we'll submit you to 50+ directories for $99" packages lol. Those are a waste of money. But a handful of directories really matter, and they're the ones that show up when you search for your business type.

How to tell which ones: search "[your service] in [your city]" and see which directories are on the first page. Do the same in ChatGPT and look at what it cites. For wedding vendors that's usually The Knot and WeddingWire. For contractors it's often Houzz, Angi or Yelp. For accountants and bookkeepers it can be the QuickBooks or Xero advisor directories. For SaaS it's likely Product Hunt, G2 and Capterra.

Fill each profile out completely, with the same business name, description and details everywhere, and ask happy customers for reviews there. Consistency matters for AI answers: if every site describes you the same way, the engines have one clear picture of what you do.

Reddit, Quora, YouTube and LinkedIn are platforms that come up in citations consistently across niches. These aren't directories, but posting on them and linking back to your domain can send some useful authority signals.

10. Answer questions where your customers ask them

When someone asks on Reddit, a Facebook group or a local forum "can anyone recommend a good bookkeeper for a small construction company?", a genuinely helpful answer from you, saying who you are, is a mention that real buyers read. AI engines read these threads too: Reddit was one of the sites that came up on a third or more of the questions in the wedding photography study.

Keep it honest. Say you're the owner, answer the question properly, and don't post in groups that ban self-promotion. One good answer a week beats 20 copy-paste replies, and people can tell the difference.

What to skip

Some things look like shortcuts and basically cost you money or risk:

• Buying links. Paying a site to link to you (outside of clearly labeled ads or sponsorships) is against Google's rules. If Google notices, the best case is that the links are ignored, and the worst case is a penalty on your site.
• Link exchange networks and swaps at scale. Groups where everyone links to everyone are exactly what Google's link spam policy describes. If one site in the network gets flagged, the whole network tends to go with it.
• Bulk directory packages. "500 directory submissions for $49" gets you 500 links from sites nobody visits. They don't help in Google, and AI engines don't cite those sites.
• Private blog networks. Sites someone built only to link out to clients. Same problem, bigger risk.
• Blog comment and forum spam. Dropping your link in comments doesn't work and mostly gets deleted.
• Fake reviews. They put your real reviews at risk, and review sites are getting better at catching them.

The pattern is the same for all of them: nobody chose to link to you, so the link doesn't mean anything.

How many links do you need, and how long does it take?

There's no magic number. A handful of real links from relevant local or industry sites will usually do more for a small business than hundreds of junk ones. The bar depends on your niche: in a small local market, five or ten good links can move you up a lot, and in a crowded national one you'll need more.

Expect it to take a while. Outreach replies come in over a few weeks, and Google usually takes a few weeks to a couple of months to reflect new links. A realistic pace for one person is a few hours a week: one study or roundup a month, plus the quick wins (corrections, unlinked mentions, partners) in between.

Expect a low reply rate on cold pitches too. Two replies out of ten emails is a good result. The corrections and partner asks will do much better.

A simple plan for the first month

1. Week 1: claim and fill out your Google Business Profile and the two or three directories that show up for your service. Search your business name for wrong info and unlinked mentions, and send those emails.
2. Week 2: email the suppliers, associations and partners you already work with.
3. Week 3: run 10 buying questions through ChatGPT and Google, and list the sites that come up most. A free check will run 5 of these questions in ChatGPT for you.
4. Week 4: start your first study or adjacent roundup, and pitch the first roundup you're missing from.

Then keep going: one bigger piece a month, and the small asks as they come up.

Where Peak Answer fits

If you'd rather not do the "who gets cited" part by hand, Peak Answer's AI visibility tracker runs your buying questions on 6 AI engines, records every page they cite, and ranks the sites worth getting onto. It drafts the outreach emails and directory submissions for you too, alongside the content, social and technical work. It never buys links or runs link exchanges.