Free Dofollow Backlinks Worth Building in 2026

A spreadsheet of 3,000 "free backlinks" looks like a weekend project. It is usually a copy of an older spreadsheet.

Nick Nolan worked through one of those lists by hand and published what was left. He reported 48 sites where he could place a free dofollow link, out of more than 3,000. That is about a 1.6% hit rate. The post is dated May 23, 2025. The page still shows the same profiles: 49 external sites, plus a note to use your own Medium About page. He said the rest were expired domains, pages with nowhere to put a link, or links advertised as dofollow that were nofollow.

This article keeps that profile list and labels what each site is actually for. It also adds the categories a profile dump leaves out: journalist requests, software directories, agency profiles, sites you control, and a few local listings. Every option here is free to start.

A second pass, Collaborator's 55-site list from December 4, 2025, adds image hosts, document sites, and a few directories Nolan never mentioned. They say those 55 were checked by hand in November and December 2025, with 35 marked dofollow and 20 marked nofollow. Their dofollow tables are images, so the site names are easy to miss. Three domains show up in both columns: ProvenExpert, SlideShare, and Hacker Noon. That is why this page does not copy their Domain Authority or traffic numbers.

Dofollow status moves. We did not re-test the rel tag on every profile in October 2026. The last step on every row is the same. Open the live page and read the link.

What actually counts

A nofollow link is the site telling Google it does not vouch for the destination. ugc and sponsored work the same way for authority. A nofollow link can put a brand-new domain on the map in a small way. It does not pass authority.

A closed link passes authority. An open one, nofollow, ugc, or sponsored, does not.

The second filter is indexing. A profile Google has never seen is worth nothing, no matter what the rel tag says. Thin pages, a business name and a URL, rarely get indexed. Fill every field the form allows. On photo sites, upload real images that relate to the business.

Three habits keep the pattern from looking manufactured:

• Cap new links at 15 to 20 a day, total, even across different sites.
• Write 3 to 5 bios and rotate them. The same paragraph on 40 profiles is a footprint.
• Mix the anchors. Branded name, naked URL, and a topical phrase. Do not repeat an exact-match anchor down the list.

Work in this order

The order on the desk matches the order below. A real article, then a directory that fits, then a page you control, then profile cards.

1. Answer journalist requests. One link inside a real article beats a month of profiles.
2. Submit to directories that match the business. Software directories for a product. Agency directories for an agency. Local listings for a shop with a real address.
3. Publish a few pages you control, with actual writing on them.
4. Use the profile sites as filler and diversity, after the first three have something live.

For a local business, this whole list sits behind the Google Business Profile and review work that decides the map pack. Links are a middle-tier factor there. Citations are near the bottom. Build the foundation, then come back to profiles.

1. Journalist requests

These are the highest-value free links on this page. A reporter is already writing. You answer with something specific. If they use it, the link sits in the article.

HARO is the name people still search. Cision shut the old product down in December 2024, while it was called Connectively. Featured.com bought the brand and turned the free email digest back on in April 2025. Sources sign up at helpareporter.com and get three digests on weekdays. Pitching stays free. Featured sells ads in the newsletter, not subscriptions for sources.

The platforms that filled the gap are still worth running next to it.

Reply with one concrete fact, a number, or a short story from the work. A generic "as an expert in the space" paragraph gets skipped, and it should.

2. Software and startup directories

Use this tier for a product. A plumber does not belong on BetaList.

Some of these stay dofollow only if you display their badge. That trade is fine in a footer. Skip any directory that demands the link above the fold on your homepage.

3. Agency directories

Same idea, for a firm that sells services. Fill the profile the way you would a proposal: services, locations, a few real projects. A logo and a sentence will not get indexed.

4. Sites you control

These are dofollow because you write the HTML. Authority is low. Indexing is usually fast, which is the point. Put a real page on each one. A title, two paragraphs, and a link is the pattern that does not get indexed. Using the page only to plant a link is the gray-hat version of this tactic. The page has to be useful on its own.

Three of these, done properly, beat ten of them with a single sentence and a link.

5. Curation and bookmarks

Lower priority. Useful when you already have something worth collecting: a guide, a data page, a set of resources. A bookmark of your homepage, alone, is thin.

6. Local listings he skipped

The value here is NAP consistency: the same name, address, and phone everywhere. It is not link equity. Yelp, the BBB, and Manta are nofollow. Keep those accurate anyway, then stop buying citation packages.

7. The profile sites Nolan verified

Default placement on all of these: the website field, plus a full bio, plus links to real social profiles. Types are ours, from the domain, because the original list does not categorize them.

Open anything marked unclear before you create an account. If the site has nowhere to put a link, or the link is nofollow, move on. That was most of the original 3,000.

Photos

Upload images related to the business. A profile with no photos does not look like a page Google should keep.

Business listings

Publishing and documents

Creative shops and media

Communities, forums, and the leftovers

Your own Medium About page is the last item on Nolan's list. Keep it if you publish there. Collaborator's December 2025 pass classed medium.com as nofollow, which matches how Medium has treated most outbound links for years. Do not count that About link as authority until you inspect it.

Hacker Noon is the other split. Their web 2.0 table calls it dofollow, and their nofollow table includes the same domain. Submission there is editorial, not a profile form. Write the piece for their readers, then read the tag on the published URL.

A few profiles are worth having even when the link is nofollow, because people look you up there. LinkedIn for the company page. YouTube if you have video. GitHub if you ship code. Product Hunt on an actual launch day. Reddit and Quora only when you are answering a question you know, with the link as a reference rather than the point of the post. Collaborator filed all six as nofollow in December 2025. That is fine. The visit is the point.

Check the link, then check the index

Do this for every URL above, including the ones Nolan already marked dofollow. Tags change.

1. Create the page and put the link on the public version.
2. Right-click the link and choose Inspect.
3. Read rel. nofollow, ugc, or sponsored means no authority. No rel, or a rel that only says noopener or noreferrer, means dofollow.
4. A week later, search Google for site: plus the exact URL. Missing means the page was not indexed. Add content, or drop it and spend the time on a journalist request.

A nofollow highlighter extension makes step 3 faster when you are checking a batch. It does not replace reading the tag on anything you plan to count.

We'll build the starter set for $45

The sites on this page are free. The afternoon is not. If you want the foundational layer done for one website, we will do it for $45.

You get:

• Up to 25 profiles and listings, picked from this article for the business in front of us. A plumber does not get a BetaList page. A software product does not get a stack of nature forums.
• A different bio on each profile. Not one paragraph pasted 25 times.
• The live URL and the rel tag for every link, so you can see which ones are dofollow.
• For a local business, the name, address, and phone copied to match the Google Business Profile.

The $45 does not include journalist pitches or guest posts. A reporter either uses the quote or they do not, and a fee cannot force that. It also does not include a homepage badge deal, links on sites that do not fit, or a promise that rankings will move. We send the live URLs when the profiles are up. Indexing usually takes about a week after that.

This is hand work on a short list. It is not 500 links by Friday. On the contact form, say you want the $45 foundational link set and include the site URL.

Sources

Profile list and the pace rules: Nick Nolan, A Growing List of Free Do-follow Backlinks (May 23, 2025). The 55-site comparison is Collaborator, Free Backlinks: 55 High-Authority Sites (December 4, 2025). Their dofollow names were read off the table images, because the article body does not list them as text. Directory layer also checked against Graham Mann's SaaS directory guide and a 2026 DEV writeup on free SaaS directories. Journalist platforms: Featured's April 2025 note that HARO is back, plus roundups from eSEOspace and BuzzStream. MentionMatch is the current name of Help a B2B Writer. SaaSCity's badge and queue details come from saascity.io/pricing, which disagrees in places with their submit page, so treat that row as unverified until you see the live plan.