35:I[930187,["/_next/static/chunks/114wbd9ige96y.js","/_next/static/chunks/0ol0hyn56uouj.js","/_next/static/chunks/0q3hkql4odous.js","/_next/static/chunks/0re002fzz9dte.js","/_next/static/chunks/06cqh17azdkzm.js","/_next/static/chunks/1r_7iebxs8sb0.js","/_next/static/chunks/15m-xgatd3s-h.js","/_next/static/chunks/3faabsbahxmk0.js","/_next/static/chunks/3lgb67x5t3bnn.js","/_next/static/chunks/0cqukwylibds4.js"],"ArticleToc"] 36:I[282247,["/_next/static/chunks/114wbd9ige96y.js","/_next/static/chunks/0ol0hyn56uouj.js","/_next/static/chunks/0q3hkql4odous.js","/_next/static/chunks/0re002fzz9dte.js","/_next/static/chunks/06cqh17azdkzm.js","/_next/static/chunks/1r_7iebxs8sb0.js","/_next/static/chunks/15m-xgatd3s-h.js","/_next/static/chunks/3faabsbahxmk0.js","/_next/static/chunks/3lgb67x5t3bnn.js","/_next/static/chunks/0cqukwylibds4.js"],"HtmlContent"] 37:T4fb5,

We launched a brand-new website on September 10, 2023.

Within 130 days, by January 18, 2024, the website, along with most of its pages, was ranking in positions 1 to 3 on Google in a highly competitive niche.

During this period, organic traffic grew from 0 to 33,500 monthly visitors.

The primary growth driver?

High-quality, relevant backlinks.

If you’re new to SEO, asking “how to get backlinks for my website” isn’t enough.

The real question is:

How do you earn backlinks from relevant websites in your niche that actually move rankings?

That’s exactly what this guide answers.

In this case study, you’ll learn:

How to get backlinks for a new website.
How many backlinks you actually need to rank.
Which backlink types help rankings — and which ones don’t.
How to build backlinks that improve authority, not just link count.

If you’re an SEO professional, website owner, or marketer who wants to build backlinks but isn’t sure what works today, this guide will walk you through the exact process I used.

I’ll share the step-by-step backlink strategy that helped this website reach page #1 on Google without relying on shortcuts or risky tactics.

Before diving into the backlink process, I strongly recommend understanding link building metrics and quality signals.

Knowing how to evaluate backlinks will help you make better decisions and avoid links that look good on paper — but hurt rankings in the long run.

Things that complement backlinks

Backlinks play a major role in SEO but they don’t work in isolation.

Relying on backlinks alone is one of the most common reasons websites fail to rank, even after acquiring a large number of links.

Google evaluates multiple ranking signals before deciding where a page deserves to appear in search results.

So what actually supports backlinks and helps them translate into rankings?

1. Keyword Targeting and Content Quality

Keywords and content form the foundation of every successful SEO campaign.

Before building backlinks, it’s essential to identify search terms that are both relevant and achievable.

For keyword research and competitor analysis, I rely on Ahrefs to understand:

Search intent
Keyword difficulty
Ranking potential

When it comes to content, AI tools are useful for research and idea generation, but every page is written and refined manually to ensure originality, accuracy, and topical depth.

High-quality content gives backlinks something meaningful to support.

2. Technical SEO and User Experience

Even the strongest backlinks won’t help if a website is technically weak.

Key technical factors that directly influence rankings include:

Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Mobile responsiveness
Clear site structure and internal linking

A fast, well-structured website improves crawlability, keeps users engaged, and allows backlinks to pass maximum value.

3. Topical Authority and Niche Expertise

Google favors websites that demonstrate expertise and relevance within a specific niche.

This means:

Publishing focused content
Covering topics comprehensively
Building consistent topical signals over time

When a website shows clear authority in its niche, backlinks become significantly more effective because they reinforce an already trusted entity.

How These Factors Work Together

Backlinks amplify results only when combined with:

Strong keyword targeting
High-quality, relevant content
Solid technical foundations
Demonstrated niche expertise

This combination is what turns backlinks into a ranking advantage, not just a vanity metric.

With these fundamentals in place, I’ll now walk you through the exact backlink strategy I used to build high-authority links for a brand-new website and push it to the #1 position on Google.

How to Get Backlinks for Your Website

Building backlinks is not about volume or shortcuts.

The goal is simple:

Earn relevant backlinks from trusted websites at the right pace.

There are different types of backlinks, but only a small percentage consistently contribute to higher rankings.

In this case study, I’ll show you exactly which backlinks I built, why I chose them, and how they helped a brand-new website reach page #1 on Google within 130 days.

Project Background

The client approached me on September 1, 2023 with a new website idea.

He had a strong technical background and a solid understanding of SEO fundamentals, but needed a structured backlink strategy to compete in a crowded niche.

The objective was clear:

Build authority safely
Accelerate rankings
Avoid unnatural link patterns

By focusing on relevance, timing, and quality, the website reached top positions on Google in just over four months.

Below is a breakdown of the backlink types that contributed to that growth.

1. Profile & Review Backlinks (Foundation Layer)

Since the website was brand new, the first priority was to establish a natural-looking backlink profile.

This meant starting with a balanced mix of:

NoFollow links
UGC (User-Generated Content) links

Let me be clear upfront:

Profile backlinks alone do not improve rankings, and I generally do not recommend relying on them.

So why were they used in this case?

Competitor Analysis Insight

When analyzing competitor backlink profiles, one pattern was consistent:

Almost every competing website had profile and review backlinks
These links were accumulated naturally over time
Most were NoFollow or UGC in nature

Waiting years to acquire these links organically wasn’t practical for a new website competing in a fast-moving niche.

Strategic Execution

Instead of mass submissions, I took a controlled approach:

Selected 10–15 relevant, high-quality profile and review platforms
Ensured links were NoFollow or UGC
Focused on brand consistency and accuracy

This helped replicate a natural baseline backlink profile, reduced footprint risk, and aligned the site with established competitors — without relying on low-quality tactics.

With this foundational layer in place, the next step was to expand visibility and indexing through social platforms.

2. Social Media Profiles (Indexing & Trust Signals)

Creating social media profiles for a website isn’t a new concept.

Almost every business does it.

However, what most websites fail to do is use social profiles strategically.

The problem isn’t the platforms themselves — it’s how they’re handled.

Why Social Media Profiles Often Fail

In many cases:

Profiles are created and abandoned
No optimization is done
There is little to no activity

As a result, these profiles often:

Remain unindexed
Provide no real trust or discovery signals
Fail to support SEO in any meaningful way

For this project, the initial plan was similar — create profiles and leave them idle.

Instead, I took a more deliberate approach.

Strategic Use of Social Profiles

Before moving into authority link building, I asked the client to create profiles on all major and relevant social platforms.

Once the profiles were live, the focus shifted to optimization:

Complete and consistent brand information
Clear descriptions aligned with the website’s niche
Proper placement of the website URL
Light, natural activity to encourage indexing

These steps helped ensure that the profiles:

Were crawled and indexed
Generated natural NoFollow backlinks
Acted as early trust and discovery signals for a new domain

By September 29, all social profiles and related website pages were indexed successfully.

Why This Step Matters

While social media links do not pass direct ranking power, they play an important supporting role by:

Improving indexation
Reinforcing brand legitimacy
Supporting a natural backlink profile

With this foundational layer in place, the website was ready for the next phase, building real authority through high-impact backlinks.

3. Guest Posting (Authority & Relevance Links)

Finding high-quality guest post opportunities has become increasingly challenging.

Many websites that accept guest posts today fall into one of two categories:

Inactive sites with declining organic visibility
Link-heavy websites that exist primarily for link placement

Both scenarios pose a risk.

Low-quality or irrelevant guest post links can:

Dilute topical relevance
Reduce trust signals
Negatively impact long-term SEO performance

Because of this, I avoided mass outreach and focused on precision-based guest posting.

Competitor-Driven Guest Post Research

The starting point was competitor backlink analysis.

By reviewing where top-ranking competitors were publishing guest content, I was able to identify:

Websites already trusted by Google in the niche
Domains with proven ability to rank
Link placements that had already contributed to search visibility

This approach works because it removes guesswork, it shows what’s already effective within the same competitive landscape.

Guest Post Selection Process

Once the initial list was compiled, I followed a strict filtering process:

Shortlisted 23 websites where competitors had published guest posts
Confirmed that links were placed contextually within content
Evaluated each website’s organic traffic and keyword trends using Ahrefs
Eliminated sites with declining visibility or unstable performance

After filtering, 15 high-performing websites remained as viable guest posting opportunities.

Nofollow links have their own impact but here, I was aiming to secure do-follow backlinks.

Outreach and Placement Strategy

Outreach emails were intentionally kept simple and direct.

While most websites requested a placement fee, decisions were based on:

Organic performance, not metrics alone
Relevance to the niche
Editorial quality of existing content

Only websites that met these criteria were selected for publication.

Content Approach for Guest Posts

To avoid promotional footprints and maintain editorial integrity, each guest post followed a review-style, third-person format.

The process involved:

Providing detailed background information
Using ghostwritten content where appropriate
Maintaining an objective, informative tone

This ensured the content:

Blended naturally with existing articles
Added value to the host website
Strengthened authority rather than appearing transactional

Why This Guest Posting Strategy Worked?

By focusing on relevance, organic performance, and editorial quality, guest posts acted as genuine authority signals instead of isolated backlinks.

This laid the groundwork for the next phase, curated and editorial link placements that further accelerated rankings.

4. Niche edits

A curated backlink tends to beat all others in terms of providing page rank and link equity.

For niche edits backlinks, I did some manual work and used ReputePost.

The plan was to build 30+ niche edits in the next 2 months, and I created a total of 41.

At the end of november, the DR of the website was 31.

A mix of Follow, NoFollow, UGC backlinks were pointing to this website already.

From traffic’s perspective, the website was still not getting more than 5+ organic clicks a day.

The client asked me about this situation because he was a bit nervous.

I explained to him the strategy I was applying and told him the organic visitors will come soon.

5. Editorial backlinks

December 2023 started, and I had only 15 days to execute this particular area.

Christmas was coming so I wanted to do all things before the holidays started.

I used some of my personal connections and used the guest blogging marketplace by ReputePost.

The marketplace has a lot of editors and authors so working in this area wasn’t difficult.

The next 15 backlinks which I was to create were going to be extremely crucial.

The make or break kind of situation.

I filtered 15 opportunities, paid to all 15 and got 12 backlinks in return 🙂

You might be thinking of me being crazy here.

But, I did this for a purpose.

Creating editorial backlinks wasn’t the ending part.

I know I’ll need to build a lot more backlinks to push this website to number 1 in Google Search.

I used the remaining opportunities for convincing other high quality websites 😉

I will talk about this a bit later.

During this work, the website got its first push.

First real sign of search rankings and a lot of pages finally ranked against main terms.

This is a screenshot of the website's performance from December 01, 2023 to December 31, 2023.

I resumed working on January 15, 2024 and the website was ready to do wonders.

At that time the website had 37 total pages and a lot of time was appearing on the second page of Google.

After building editorial backlinks the domain rating went to 40.

The website now had 76 referring domains and 212 backlinks in total.

A lot of general review websites started listing this website.

6. Broken backlinks

I shared the backlinks I was creating earlier.

The client asked me about broken backlinks.

Building broken backlinks isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t usually work on this but it is still a very good link building method.

I tried (not by heart) and got two backlinks in return.

I called this campaign off because I knew I could build similar backlinks quickly.

So these were the main things I did to create backlinks for a brand new website.

Talking about the organic progress, the website managed to rank and rank on number 1.

On January 18, 2024, all the main pages and blogs were ranking 1-5 positions against their main terms.

7. Forum backlinks

In between recent Google updates and SERP volatility, forums are back into the action.

I never wrote forums as a link building strategist.

Forums are extremely valuable for branding.

As I was focusing on other high tier backlinks, I manually created forum backlinks.

The purpose was to diversify backlink profile and do some unlinked brand mentions.

I believe this is the best way to use forums in your link building strategy.

And since you mostly get nofollow links, this shouldn't be your go-to strategy!

8. Web 2.0 backlinks

Web 2.0 backlinks are dead.

But, I wanted a dead man walking.

Ever heard about tier link building?

I wanted to maximize the page rank and link equity coming to my website.

For this, I used guest posting and my own web 2.0 backlinks strategy.

To execute this correctly, I first filtered all the web 2.0 sites on which my pages will be indexed.

I created a few broad niche sites using web 2.0 and got them indexed on Google.

After that, I linked my previous niche edit and guest post backlinks.

This process helped the website in two ways.

The backlinks got crawled and indexed.

The number of backlinks increased that means the page rank will pass even more.

9. Good solid content

The common advice is to create high-quality content for your website so it can naturally attract backlinks over time.

But let’s be honest—this approach isn’t always practical:

Fewer pages, fewer chances: My client wasn’t planning to create a lot of content for the website.
Competitive niche: The likelihood of naturally gaining backlinks in a competitive niche was minimal.

So, what did I do instead?

I turned the strategy on its head.

While my competitors were relying on AI-generated content for guest posting and link-building activities, I chose a different path:

Human-Written Content > AI Content

Although AI is advancing rapidly, it still falls short of human creativity when it comes to uniqueness, authority, and topical coverage.

So, I decided to go with human-written content for link building purposes.

What are some other methods to create backlinks?

There are lots of other backlink you can create but they don’t work as per your expectations.

With this website, I wanted to rank quickly.

I had to skip the sandbox period.

As I got above mentioned backlinks, the website didn’t wait for 8 months to start ranking higher.

Instead, it only took 130 days to grab the number 1 position in Google search.

Talking about other backlinks, I don’t recommend building comment backlinks for seo or to buy backlinks on forums.

Forum backlinks do work but you just can’t make it your go-to strategy for building backlinks.

Similarly, just keeping on listing your website on irrelevant websites isn’t good either.

If you want to create high quality backlinks, you need to have a proper strategy.

I mixed good backlinks with average to diversify their nature.

This way Google or other search engines will never be able to find if backlinks are created and not natural.

I worked on this project till April 30, 2024.

Before moving away, I make sure the website will stay where it was.

The reason for leaving was the client didn’t want to scale the website from here.

It means the website will stay at this place and not beyond that.

Although I still have its Google Search Console access, I don’t work on it any more.

And, this is the latest performance of this website.

Wrapping up

Building backlinks is so much easier if you are aware of the process.

Not all types of backlinks work, you have to be precise and watchful.

To create genuine backlinks, study your competitors and industry.

Try to outclass them with quality.

If you’ll try to build the same backlinks as your competitors, you’ll never be able to beat them.

At ReputePost, we help individuals SEO specialists and webmasters to build high-authority backlinks.

We also offer white label guest posting services and solutions to the SEO agencies.

Being in this industry for a long time, we know which type of backlinks work.

And, the consequences of building toxic backlinks.

If you’re just starting out, this guide will help you learn more.

Just keep learning and do SEO, the right way.

33:["$","div",null,{"className":"mx-auto grid max-w-[1200px] grid-cols-1 gap-10 px-6 pt-8 pb-5 md:px-[76px] md:pt-14 lg:grid-cols-[262px_1fr] lg:items-start lg:gap-[58px]","children":[["$","$L35",null,{"authorName":"Hamza Haroon","authorDesignation":"Content Lead","authorAvatarUrl":""}],["$","div",null,{"data-article-body":true,"className":"p-0","children":[["$","$L36",null,{"html":"$37","variant":"article","className":"max-w-[760px]"}],"$L38"]}]]}]