How to find websites to build backlinks for free with AnyBacklink
You can find relevant websites to swap backlinks with for free, in minutes, using AnyBacklink: add your site, pick your keywords, and you’re matched with verified owners in your niche who are open to a link. Here’s the full process, step by step.
Where people usually find backlinks, and why it’s slow, or expensive
Before AnyBacklink, it’s worth knowing about the common routes, because each one is where most people’s time disappears.
Forums and Facebook groups
Posting "does anyone want to swap links with my website?" and waiting. Most replies are irrelevant to your niche, link farms, and you have no way to tell if they actually own the site they are offering or plan to sell you junk links instead.
Paid backlink marketplaces
Fast, but you are buying links, not building genuine ones. Paid placements fall under Google’s link-spam policies, and the good ones are expensive, the cheap ones are mostly junk. Both scenarios can lead to you being removed from Google.
Cold outreach
Emailing strangers to ask for a link. Low reply rates, hours per placement, and the people you reach were not looking to swap in the first place.
The pattern is the same each time: you spend your time and effort filtering out sites that aren’t relevant, will cost you money, or talking to people who can’t actually place a link. AnyBacklink solves all these problems.
Use AnyBacklink to find genuinely relevant backlinks
- 1
Add your site and verify you own it
Prove control of your domain before anything else. On AnyBacklink you can verify your site by uploading a file, adding a DNS record, or connecting Google Search Console. This one step is what keeps the whole network in the hands of real owners.
- 2
Choose the keywords that describe your site
Pick a few keywords that describe your site. These decide which sites you are matched with, so relevance is set from the start rather than left to chance.
- 3
Find relevant sites
Sites that share your keywords show up on your dashboard, you can search any keyword directly, and we’ll email you when a new site that matches joins the platform. Every result will show what keywords overlap with your website, as well as a link to view their content, so you can judge whether a link genuinely makes sense before you reach out.
- 4
Send your backlink swap request
Propose your swap: the page you will link from, how the link will appear, dofollow or nofollow, and what you would like in return. The other owner can accept, decline, or counter.
- 5
Agree it in chat
Every swap has its own chat, so you can settle the details, agree anchor text and placement, or ask a question directly with the other owner before anything goes live.
- 6
Confirm it is live
Both sides publish and submit their page. AnyBacklink checks each link is actually live, and once both are confirmed the swap is complete and added to your history.
What a relevant site looks like when you find one
When you search a topic, each result is a card like this. The keywords you share are highlighted, so you can see at a glance why a site is relevant before you send anything.
chronopost.co.ukShopping and ecommerce
Independent reviews of microbrand dive watches, field watches and their movements.
2shared keywords
1completed swap
Website owners who don’t publish within 7 days after a link is placed for them are unable to request further swaps until they publish, preventing abuse of the platform and keeping our users happy.
What about backlink tools like Ahrefs or Linkody?
Worth clearing up, because it’s a common mix-up. Tools such as Ahrefs, Linkody and BuzzStream mostly monitor and manage the backlinks you already have, or help you run outreach campaigns. They tell you about links; they don’t find an owner to swap with.
Finding relevant sites whose owners want to exchange a link is a different job, and that’s the specific thing AnyBacklink does. The two aren’t rivals; a monitoring tool watches your existing links, AnyBacklink helps you build new ones.
Common backlink building questions
How do I find websites to build backlinks for free?
Add your website to a free platform like AnyBacklink, choose a few keywords that describe it, and you will be shown verified websites in the same subject area that are open to a link swap. You then agree a link directly with the other owner.
This is faster than forums, groups or cold outreach because the sites you see are already relevant to yours and already looking to exchange links, so you skip the part where most of your time usually goes.
Is building backlinks for free actually possible?
Yes. A link swap between two relevant website owners costs nothing but the time to agree it. What you are trading is a link from your site for a link from theirs, rather than money.
You still have to judge whether each link genuinely fits, agree the details, and place it. AnyBacklink removes the slow part, finding relevant, verified owners, but the decision about whether a link belongs is still yours.
How do I know the other website is real and owned by who they say?
On AnyBacklink every site is verified before it can be listed or request a swap. Owners prove control by uploading a file, adding a DNS record, or connecting Google Search Console.
That is the difference from a forum or group, where anyone can offer a link on a site they do not actually control. Here, if a site appears, someone has proven they own it.
Do free backlink swaps still work for SEO?
When the two sites are relevant to each other, yes. A link from a site covering your topic, placed where a reader would click it, is a genuine signal.
Google warns against excessive link exchanges done purely to manipulate rankings, the same policy that makes buying links risky. The way to stay on the right side of it is relevance and restraint: swap with sites in your subject area where the link is useful to readers, not with anyone and everyone, and never pay for placements. Matching on topic first is built around exactly that.
How long does it take to find a backlink this way?
Setting up takes a few minutes: add your domain, verify it, and choose your keywords. After that, finding a relevant site is easy, it’ll be on your dashboard if you have any matches, in a search if you want to find more, or in an email we’ll send when you have a new match.
How long until a link is live depends on the other owner agreeing and both sides publishing, but the finding part, which is the slow bit everywhere else, is immediate.
Start finding relevant sites
Add your site, choose your keywords, and see who you match with. It’s free, and every site you see is a verified owner in your subject area.
Add your siteWant the full picture first? Read the complete backlink guide for straight answers on link building, exchanges and what to ignore.