Modern Creator
Edward Sturm · YouTube

How to Build Backlinks for a Brand New Website (From Zero Authority)

A daily SEO podcast reads through a Reddit thread on link building for a brand-new site and adds real-world context to the best answers.

Posted
7 months ago
Duration
Format
Podcast
educational
Views
11.6K
391 likes
Big Idea

The argument in one line.

A brand-new website should earn trust through foundational links, social proof, and genuine community participation before it ever chases guest posts or scale, because Google rewards real referral traffic and ignores links that exist only to manipulate rankings.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…
  • You just launched a website or blog and have zero backlinks pointing to it.
  • You're not sure whether to start with guest posting, directories, or outreach.
  • You want a realistic, non-spammy link building sequence for a brand-new domain.
  • You're weighing whether press releases or podcast guesting are worth the time for a new brand.
SKIP IF…
  • Your site already has established domain authority and you're past the foundational-link stage.
  • You're looking for black-hat or link-scheme tactics rather than a trust-first approach.
TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Starting a brand-new site with no backlinks, the right sequence is foundational first: social profiles, niche directories, profile backlinks, and Q&A site presence, which build trust and make the site look like a real company before anything else. Next comes patient, genuine participation in niche Facebook groups, Discord servers, and Reddit communities, since being recognized as helpful naturally surfaces link opportunities and leverage for later asks. Domain authority and domain rating don't matter; referral traffic does, so partnerships and reciprocal links with trusted, relevant sites are worth pursuing openly. Press releases (through services like AB Newswire at roughly $6 each in volume) and podcast guesting via tools like PodcastMatcher round out the toolkit for building brand visibility and links a new site can't get any other way. The through-line: quality over volume, five to ten solid links beat fifty junk ones, and consistency in small daily actions compounds faster than trying to do everything at once.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:0001:02

01 · Introduction to Backlink Building

Edward introduces the source Reddit thread from Charles Floate's r/linkbuilding subreddit: a beauty blogger with no existing authority asking how to build high-quality backlinks from scratch using white-hat methods.

01:0201:44

02 · Exploring Foundational Backlinks

The top comment's advice to start with foundational free backlinks (directory submissions, listing sites, profile backlinks, Q&A sites) before manual outreach. Edward adds that these also make a new site look like a real company off-site.

01:4403:27

03 · Engaging with Online Communities

Advice to spend two weeks genuinely helping in niche Facebook groups, Discord, and Reddit before any self-promotion, so link opportunities and leverage appear naturally. A cautionary Reddit tangent debunks a claimed local SEO hack, reinforcing that Google punishes manipulated links, not organic ones. The chapter closes with a comment arguing domain authority and domain rating are meaningless next to referral traffic, and Edward describes trusted partner-company link exchanges as the kind of link worth actually clicking.

03:2704:59

04 · Leveraging Press Releases

In response to a question about whether press releases are worth it for a new blog, Edward describes training someone to run two to three press releases a week for his own brand about real milestones, using AB Newswire at roughly $6 per release after the first 83.

04:5906:24

05 · Expert Advice from Charles Floate

Charles Floate's own reply is read in full: build foundational trust signals first, then move into selective guest posts on real-traffic sites, use collaborations and expert-quote platforms like Featured.com, and prioritize quality (5-10 solid links) over volume.

06:2407:41

06 · Social Media and Local Directories

Multiple commenters converge on starting with social profiles and homepage links before service pages, plus Google Business Profile and local directory claims for service-based sites. Edward frames this as commonly overlooked because SEOs forget non-SEOs naturally start with social media.

07:4108:15

07 · AI Tools and Podcasting for Backlinks

Edward recommends PodcastMatcher.com, an AI tool matching podcast hosts with guests, crediting it with landing him 30 podcast appearances in three months back in 2022 as a link-building play.

08:1509:10

08 · Final Tips

Closing advice: don't try to do everything at once, do a small amount daily and let it compound. Edward plugs the link-building section of his Compact Keywords SEO course and signs off, day 939 of the daily show.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

  • Foundational backlinks like directory listings, profile backlinks, and Q&A site presence matter for more than SEO; they make a brand-new site look like a real company to visitors, which drives conversions and trust.
  • The biggest link-building mistake for a new site is jumping into guest posts before establishing baseline trust signals like social profiles and niche directory listings.
  • Domain authority and domain rating are meaningless metrics; referral traffic is what actually matters when evaluating a backlink's worth.
  • Two weeks of genuinely helpful participation in niche Facebook groups, Discord servers, and Reddit communities builds link opportunities that outlast any cold outreach template.
  • Being a recognized, trusted name in a community gives leverage even a stranger doesn't have, like getting a no-follow link changed to do-follow just by asking.
  • Five to ten solid backlinks beat fifty junk links every time, especially for a domain with no existing authority to protect.
  • Reciprocal link exchanges work when both sites genuinely trust and refer real business to each other, not when they're hidden manipulation.
  • A high volume of small, consistent press releases about real business milestones compounds into brand visibility and links a static site never generates on its own.
  • Press release cost drops to roughly $6 each once a brand commits to a high-volume annual package, making it viable as a recurring habit rather than a one-off tactic.
  • Guest posting should target sites with real traffic, not AI-generated blogs built solely to sell links.
  • Expert-quote platforms like Featured.com let journalists source lifestyle and niche quotes directly from brand-new site owners, generating links without cold outreach.
  • AI-powered podcast matching services can land a new brand dozens of podcast appearances in a few months, each one a link-building opportunity with a built-in trust signal.
  • The single highest-leverage habit for new-site link building is doing a small amount every day rather than attempting every tactic at once.
Takeaway

Trust comes before scale in link building for new sites.

WHAT TO LEARN

A brand-new website earns its first backlinks by building foundational trust signals and genuine community presence, not by chasing guest posts, volume, or domain-metric scores that don't reflect real traffic.

01Introduction to Backlink Building
  • A brand-new site with zero backlinks should look for a repeatable, low-risk sequence rather than guessing at tactics one at a time.
02Exploring Foundational Backlinks
  • Start with directory submissions, profile backlinks, and Q&A site presence before any outreach; these establish baseline trust and make a new site look like a real company.
  • Foundational links pay off beyond SEO: they build the off-site appearance of a legitimate business, which affects conversions too.
03Engaging with Online Communities
  • Spend two weeks genuinely helping in relevant Facebook groups, Discord servers, and Reddit communities with zero self-promotion before expecting any link opportunities.
  • Being recognized as a trusted, helpful name in a community creates leverage a cold outreach email never will.
  • Links built at scale to manipulate rankings get penalized; organic links from real community trust don't.
  • Ignore domain authority and domain rating scores; judge a link by the real referral traffic it can send instead.
04Leveraging Press Releases
  • Use press releases for real business milestones as a repeatable, low-cost habit rather than a one-time event.
  • Volume pricing on services like AB Newswire can bring per-release cost down to roughly $6, making frequent releases viable for a small brand.
05Expert Advice from Charles Floate
  • Guest posting before establishing foundational trust is the most common new-site mistake; earn entity recognition with Google first.
  • Prioritize quality over volume: five to ten solid, relevant links outperform fifty low-quality ones.
  • Target guest posts and collaborations on sites with real traffic, not content farms built to sell links.
06Social Media and Local Directories
  • Social profiles and homepage links are the most overlooked first step, even though it's the most obvious thing a new business owner would do.
  • Local service businesses should claim a Google Business Profile and local directory listings before pursuing niche links.
07AI Tools and Podcasting for Backlinks
  • Expert-quote platforms and podcast-matching tools are underused link sources for brand-new sites because they don't require existing authority to access.
08Final Tips
  • Do a small amount of link building every day rather than attempting every tactic at once; consistency compounds faster than intensity.
Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Domain Authority (DA) / Domain Rating (DR)
Third-party scores (from Moz and Ahrefs respectively) that estimate a website's ranking strength. Widely used by SEOs but not an actual Google ranking factor.
Do-follow / No-follow link
A do-follow link passes ranking credit to the linked site; a no-follow link tells search engines not to pass that credit. Site owners can be asked to switch a link from no-follow to do-follow.
HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
A platform connecting journalists who need sources for stories with people willing to be quoted, often resulting in a backlink from the published article.
Foundational backlinks
The first layer of links a new site should build: directory submissions, profile backlinks, and Q&A site presence that establish baseline trust before pursuing guest posts or outreach.
Referral traffic
Real visitors who click through a backlink from another site, as opposed to the link's abstract authority score. Treated in this episode as the metric that actually matters.
Guest post
An article written by one site's owner and published on another site, typically including a backlink, used to gain both exposure and link credit.
Niche edit
Getting a link inserted into an already-published, indexed article on another site rather than publishing new guest content.
Resources

Things they pointed at.

04:31toolAB Newswire
05:41toolFeatured.com
05:56toolPressWhizz
Quotables

Lines you could clip.

02:29
This patience-first approach builds stronger, longer lasting links than any cold email template ever will.
punchy contrarian claim, no setup neededTikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
02:41
Don't worry about domain authority and domain rating. They are meaningless. Worry about referral traffic.
direct, quotable rebuttal of common SEO adviceIG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
06:36
For a brand new site, the biggest mistake is jumping straight into guest posts before you've built any baseline trust.
clean statement of the episode's core mistake to avoidnewsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
07:01
Quality is better than volume at this stage. Five to ten solid links beats fifty junk ones every time.
concrete number, easy rule of thumbTikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
The Script

Word for word.

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Building backlinks for a new site. Let's go. Charles Float, friend of the podcast, has a subreddit r link building.
Charles Float, he'll be on, actually. He's been on two times now. He's coming on in a couple of days.
Him and David Quaid were doing a show together. And in his subreddit, there was a thread from six months ago, and I've been meaning to cover stuff from his subreddit. The thread was, how can I effectively build backlinks for a brand new website with no existing authority?
These are always fun threads, and this is a common question that people have. How should I build links for a new site? So if you have this question or maybe you just want more ways to build links, this is gonna be a good episode.
So the person said, who wrote the post, said I've recently launched a beauty blog and currently have no backlinks. I'm looking to build high quality links from scratch using white hat methods.
Okay. Should I prioritize guest posting, niche directories, collaborations, or other strategies.
I'd really appreciate any proven tips, tools, or outreach templates that have worked well for others in a similar space. So top comment, go for foundational free backlinks first, such as directory submissions, listing sites, profile backlinks, q and a sites like Quora and Reddit, then try manual outreach, guest posting, help a reporter out, broken links, etcetera.
That's good advice. Foundational backlinks, directories, profile backlinks.
Those are just really easy to set up, and everybody should do those. It also just makes you look like more of a real company, and that help if you're new, you wanna look like you are a real company. You want it to appear off-site like you are a real company because that helps with conversions, and that helps build trust, and that helps people binge on more of your content.
So there's basis in that aside from just link building. Next comment, join beauty Facebook groups. Okay.
So niche Facebook groups, Discord servers, and Reddit communities first. Spend two weeks just helping people with genuine advice. No self promotion.
Once you are recognized as helpful, opportunities naturally appear with you and your audience. This patience first approach builds stronger, longer lasting links than any cold email template ever will.
You see this all the time on Reddit, well known people in the community using their names to answer questions. They're building up trust. It helps with click through rate in the SERPs.
It helps with leverage when you're asking for links. It could be something as small as just asking somebody to change a no follow link to a do follow link. And just because people have seen you before, they're like, oh my gosh.
Okay. I'll do it for this person. I trust them.
I don't mind giving them a do follow link. Next recommendation by doing what makes sense. Exchange backlinks with similar niches and similar localities.
Don't worry about domain authority and domain rating. They are meaningless. Worry about referral traffic.
I made a recent episode about this. I really enjoyed that episode. That was episode 936 of this show, how to build local backlinks that actually increase local rankings.
Have partner companies that you refer to as partners who you trust to send business to, and they trust you and they send business to you. Or if you're a beauty website, maybe there's a fashion blog that you really trust, and you say get the best fashion advice here. And then they link to you and they say get the best beauty advice here.
And these aren't links that you're just, like, kinda hiding. These are links where you actually want people to use these links. You want people to use these recommendations because you trust the companies that you are giving.
Alright. So somebody else said, press release first thing. And then the original poster said, I have launched a beauty blog.
Is it still worth doing a press release? And this person said, yes. Let me tell you.
I'm actually training somebody right now to do press releases for just like me as a brand. Me, Edward Sturm, as a brand. I have my social videos that come out every day.
I have this podcast that comes out every day. I have compact keywords. These are just everything just within the Edward Stern brand.
It's like, oh, compact keywords gets a new positive review or testimonial. Let's put out a press release about that. The Edward show hits nine hundred fifty days in a row.
Let's put out a press release about that. I made some video that's gotten over a million views on Instagram. Let's put a press release about that.
I had a cool guest on the podcast. Let's put out a press release about that. There's so many things within your business that you can put press releases out on, and you should.
They influence AI. They they show up in the SERPs. So AB Newswire, I've talked about this platform a lot.
You can get 83 press releases for $500. So each press release comes down to $6.
And after 83 press releases in a year, any additional press release is $6 after that. So I'm training somebody to put out two to three press releases a week about the things that I just mentioned. If you are active with your business, you are likely doing things that are press release worthy.
And then when people search your brand name or they search brand plus review or they search anything, these press releases show up and they get you links. Alright. So Charles Float responded to this.
Charles Float, legendary SEO. I was so hyped the first time he came on this show. Charles said, for a brand new site, the biggest mistake is jumping straight into guest posts before you've built any baseline trust.
Start with the foundational links first. Social profiles, legit niche slash beauty directories, brand mentions, citations, so Google understands the entity.
Then move into selective guest posts on sites with real traffic, not AI blogs made for selling links. Great advice. Sites with real traffic.
Collaborations, product swaps, expert quotes, roundup inclusions, work well in beauty, especially if you lean into visuals and firsthand use.
Help a reporter out, source of sources, featured.com. Lots of lifestyle beauty questions are asked by journalists on those platforms. Those are expert quote platforms.
Then you can use free tools slash marketplaces like us, Presswiz, which can be useful early on just to find and vet real publishers instead of blasting cold outreach blind, quality is better than volume at this stage. Five to 10 solid links beats 50 junk ones every time. Great comment from the god of SEO.
That's what that's his name on, uh, on Reddit from Charles Float. A lot of people are saying get these baseline links. The next comment is through referral, through social media, and through guest and niche edits on Google index authority websites with do follow links.
Somebody said and I'm sharing this one because the original poster even commented on this comment and said this information helps. Start with home page links first, and if it's a service based website later, build links for service pages as well. Go with niche links first as anchor placements or guest posts.
If your website is a local service based, then create a Google business profile and start with claiming your business on all local directories. It's funny how many people in this thread say just start with the social links. The reason that that's funny is because it's the most basic thing, and it's crazy how many SEOs overlook that.
Think about this when you are starting a new site. When somebody is starting a business, they're not even just like an SEO person. They're just starting a business.
Where are they gonna share those that business first? They're gonna share it on social media. They're gonna create social accounts for it if it's a real business.
They're gonna put out posts for it on x and LinkedIn. They're going to submit to directories in their niche. Last one I'll add.
I really like this one is a ipodcastmatcher.com. I share this all the time. It uses AI to match hosts who want guests on their podcasts with guests who wanna go on podcast.
I found this platform because I wanted to use it for link building, and this was in 2022 that I found it. And when I found it, I went on 30 podcasts in three months.
I was giving the language that I wanted my brand to appear with and getting links from going on podcasts. That's another one that you can start with, and it's really easy. The number one thing that I will finish this episode with, don't try to do everything at once.
Try to do a very small amount each day, and over time, this adds up. And you will be shocked at how fast this can add up. If you wanna learn more link building or you wanna see, like, my exact answers to help a reporter out questions or featured questions or my template for tracking directory submissions, I have a two hour link building section in compact keywords, my SEO course.
Compact keywords covers everything in search engine optimization. It is the way to do SEO that actually is not outdated blog content where you're writing skyscraper technique articles.
You're writing 400 to 500 word landing pages targeting people who are specifically looking to convert. The course is thirteen and a half hours.
I spent a year making it. It's gotten amazing testimonials. And if you would like to check it out, and I hope you will, that is at compactkeywords.com.
And that's all that I got for you on this episode of the show. This is episode 939 of The Edward Show, nine hundred thirty nine days in a row doing this podcast.
Have not missed a single day since starting. If you watched on YouTube, thank you so much for watching. If you listened on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you again tomorrow.
The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

A beauty blogger with zero backlinks asked Reddit's r/linkbuilding how to start from nothing. Edward Sturm reads the thread live on his daily SEO podcast and sorts the good advice from the noise, adding what he's actually seen work.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

01:02list

Foundational-links-first sequence

  1. Directory submissions
  2. Listing sites
  3. Profile backlinks
  4. Q&A site presence (Quora, Reddit)
  5. Manual outreach / guest posting / HARO / broken-link building

The order the Reddit thread converges on for a brand-new site: free, easy foundational links before any manual outreach or guest posting, so the site has baseline trust signals first.

Steal forany new product or site launch checklist before an outreach campaign
04:59list

Charles Floate's trust-then-scale approach

  1. Social profiles, niche directories, brand mentions, citations
  2. Selective guest posts on real-traffic sites
  3. Collaborations (product swaps, expert quotes, roundups)
  4. Expert-quote platforms (Featured.com)
  5. Vetted marketplaces for real publishers

A five-step sequence from a working SEO for taking a brand-new site from zero entity trust to selective, high-quality guest post placements.

Steal forany new brand's first 90 days of link building
CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK
08:18product
I have a two hour link building section in Compact Keywords, my SEO course... that is at compactkeywords.com.

Soft, single mention near the very end after the value is fully delivered, tied directly to the episode's topic (a dedicated link-building module) rather than a generic pitch.

Storyboard

Visual structure at a glance.

open
hookopen00:00
foundational links
valuefoundational links01:05
press releases
valuepress releases03:29
Charles Floate's answer
valueCharles Floate's answer05:02
course plug + sign-off
ctacourse plug + sign-off08:10
Frame Gallery

Visual moments.

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