09:10Edward Sturm · Podcast
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.
January 29thThe argument in one line.
Small niche bloggers and micro-influencers crave validation more than money, so inviting them onto a niche podcast earns natural backlinks that cold outreach emails almost never get.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A niche site owner or small business trying to build backlinks and industry credibility without a large content or PR budget.
- Someone comfortable hosting or co-hosting a recurring podcast, or willing to start one specifically to build relationships with adjacent creators.
- An SEO-focused marketer who has tried cold backlink outreach and gotten mostly ignored, and wants a warmer alternative.
SKIP IF…
- You want backlinks this week; this is a multi-month relationship play, not a fast outreach hack.
- You have no interest in producing recurring podcast episodes, since the entire method depends on having a show to invite people onto.
The full version, fast.
A niche backlink strategy built on the same psychology that makes podcasts work for B2B lead generation: people who ignore cold pitches will say yes to a podcast invite because it lets them flex being invited and feel important. Start a niche podcast, invite small bloggers and micro-influencers with low domain authority first, ask genuine questions instead of pitching, then connect on social media afterward and stay visible for a few weeks before asking them to write about you or list you as a partner. Avoid reciprocal link patterns, since a cluster of mutual niche-blog links can trigger Google's spam signals. Level up to higher-authority guests as your show's credibility builds.
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00:00 – 00:56
01 · Why partnerships and niche blogs win backlinks
Background context: partnerships, friends, and niche blogs (that aren't backlink farms) are already the best sources of natural, contextually relevant backlinks.
00:56 – 02:17
02 · How podcasts already work for lead generation
The borrowed playbook: invite a decision-maker onto your podcast, they say yes because it lets them flex being invited, you build a real relationship, then connect on social media afterward to stay top of mind until trust makes the sale easy.
02:17 – 03:19
03 · Applying the playbook to backlinks instead of leads
Swap leads for backlinks: invite niche bloggers with low-authority blogs and micro-influencers instead of decision-makers, and start small since a new podcast won't get big guests yet.
03:19 – 04:13
04 · Map and prioritize targets by domain authority
Build a list of blogs and small businesses in your niche or adjacent niches, sort by domain authority, and work from the bottom up before pitching the highest-authority targets, who want proof you're already legitimate.
04:13 – 05:42
05 · The nurture sequence after recording
Just vibe during the interview, don't pitch. Afterward, connect on social media, keep posting updates so they see you regularly, then after a few weeks ask if they'll write about you or list you as a partner. Backlinks are worth far more than an unlinked brand mention, and offering reciprocal social posts is a fair trade for the link.
05:42 – 06:39
06 · Avoid reciprocal link patterns
Warns against a visible pattern of mutual linking between your site and every niche blog guest, since that pattern can look suspicious to Google and devalue the links.
06:39 – 07:35
07 · How the show actually gets produced
Points to his own article on producing guest podcasts in 90 minutes, the software and settings he uses, his AI prompts for titles and descriptions, Jitter for animated subscribe/like buttons, and placing the business promo within the first four minutes so guests who share the episode expose their audience to it.
07:35 – 08:39
08 · Sourcing guests without cold DMs
Recommends registering your show on a podcast-matching site so guests pitch themselves, prioritizing people with active blogs and businesses relevant to your niche, and leveling up to bigger bloggers and journalists as your show's authority grows.
08:39 – 09:45
09 · Why this beats cold pitches, plus the course plug
Public-facing people and niche bloggers routinely ignore pitch calls and backlink-request emails but will go on a podcast. Pivots to promoting his SEO course, Compact Keywords, which includes a two-hour section on link building.
09:45 – 10:16
10 · Sign-off
Notes this is episode 1,146 of his daily show, recorded in a cafe, and thanks YouTube/Spotify/Apple Podcasts listeners before signing off.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Cold backlink emails get ignored, but the same people will often say yes to a podcast invite because it lets them flex being invited.
- Niche bloggers making little or no money crave authentic validation even more than decision-makers who are already profitable.
- Pitch the lowest domain-authority sites first; higher-authority targets want to see you already running a legitimate show before they'll say yes.
- A backlink is worth far more than an unlinked brand mention, even though most people treat a mention as good enough.
- A pattern of niche blogs linking to you while you link back to all of them looks suspicious enough to trigger Google's spam signals.
- After the podcast, connecting on social media and staying visible for a few weeks builds the trust needed before you ever ask for a link.
- Podcast episodes tend to rank well on Google, so the show becomes its own backlink and traffic source beyond the guest relationships it creates.
- Offering to post about a guest across your own social channels is a fair trade for one article mention or partner listing.
- The low-authority guests you interview first become the network that gets you introductions to bigger bloggers and journalists later.
- Registering a show on a podcast-matching service lets guests pitch themselves to be on it, instead of you sourcing every guest by hand.
Turn podcast invites into a scalable backlink machine
WHAT TO LEARN
Cold backlink pitches get ignored, but the same small bloggers will say yes to a podcast invite, and that relationship is what earns the link months later.
01Why partnerships and niche blogs win backlinks
- Partnerships, friends, and niche blogs that aren't backlink farms are already the best natural sources of contextually relevant backlinks.
02How podcasts already work for lead generation
- Decision-makers say yes to podcast invites they'd never grant a sales meeting for, because the invite itself lets them flex being seen as important.
- A real, unhurried conversation on the podcast builds the relationship; the follow-up sale (or link) only becomes easy once trust exists.
03Applying the playbook to backlinks instead of leads
- Swap the target from leads to backlinks and the same podcast playbook works on niche bloggers and micro-influencers instead of decision-makers.
- New podcasts need to start with small, low-authority guests since a show with no track record won't land bigger names yet.
04Map and prioritize targets by domain authority
- Sort prospective guests by domain authority and work from the bottom up; high-authority targets want proof the show is already legitimate before they'll agree.
05The nurture sequence after recording
- Don't pitch during the interview itself; ask genuine, thoughtful questions and let the guest enjoy hearing themselves talk.
- After recording, connect on social media and keep posting updates so the guest sees you repeatedly before you ever ask for anything.
- Wait a few weeks after the episode airs before asking the guest to write about you or list you as a partner.
- A backlink is worth substantially more than an unlinked brand mention, so that should be the specific ask, not just a shout-out.
06Avoid reciprocal link patterns
- Avoid a visible pattern of reciprocal links between your site and every guest's niche blog; clusters of mutual linking can read as manipulative to search engines.
- Offering to post about a guest across your own social channels is a reasonable trade for one article mention or partner listing.
07How the show actually gets produced
- Publish the article on how you produce guest episodes, and reuse the same tools and settings rather than reinventing the production process.
- Place your own business promo within the first few minutes of each guest episode, since guests who share the episode expose their audience to it too.
08Sourcing guests without cold DMs
- Registering a show on a podcast-guest matching service lets prospective guests pitch themselves instead of you sourcing every invite manually.
09Why this beats cold pitches, plus the course plug
- Public-facing people who ignore backlink-request emails and pitch calls will frequently still accept a podcast invite, making this a reliably warmer channel than cold outreach.
Terms worth knowing.
- Domain Authority (DA)
- A third-party score predicting how well a website's link profile will help it rank in search engines, used here to rank and prioritize outreach targets.
- Reciprocal link
- A backlink exchange where two sites link to each other in return, a pattern search engines can flag as manipulative if it happens too often.
- Unlinked brand mention
- A mention of a brand or business name on another site without a clickable hyperlink back to it, valuable for awareness but not for SEO.
- Top-of-mind awareness
- The marketing effect of a prospect thinking of you first when a related need arises, built through repeated, low-pressure visibility rather than a single pitch.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
03:06
“People will go to great, great lengths to get validation.”
04:07
“The sweetest sound to somebody is their own voice.”
05:22
“Backlinks are so much more valuable than an unlinked brand mention.”
08:14
“You're basically acquiring a Rolodex of top influencers in your industry.”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogy
This is a new backlink method we're trying. This is relevant to people in remote areas, especially people with new sites. Or you know what?
Even if you're in a big city, it's relevant to you too. For people who wanna get backlinks in their niche as well as credibility, as well as industry allies, it is a crazy technique.
You have to understand the background for this link building method. The background is partnerships are and always have been a great source of backlinks.
Somebody lists you as a partner in their footer or writes an article about you as a partner, that is a great backlink to have. This person, they link to your site, and it looks very natural, sounds great, contextually relevant, awesome backlink.
Friends are also great sources of backlinks. You know somebody, they will link to you as a partner. They will write something about you.
Friends and industry allies are great sources of backlinks. Niche blogs, everybody loves niche blogs. Niche blogs that are not backlink farms are very powerful for backlinks.
And then people have been using this is the next part of this formula, of this idea, which we are literally executing on right now. People have been using podcasts for lead generation for the last six years.
So the way that podcasts work for lead generation, typically, you invite a decision maker onto a your podcast who you want to do business with or sell to. The decision maker will say yes because they never get invited onto podcasts, and then they can flex this on LinkedIn and look and feel important.
Wow. I just went on this podcast. Look at me.
Super cool. Then you actually try to have a good podcast. Try to ask good questions, thoughtful questions.
Try to vibe. Don't have it appear like you just invited this person on to sell to them. Over the podcast, create a relationship with the decision maker.
Afterwards, connect with them on social media, then they see you posting on social media so you get top of mind awareness. Trust is built, and sales are basically enabled through this. Becomes so much easier to sell somebody who you already know who trusts you.
And the podcast is also a good excuse to just talk about what you're doing and maybe they will be into it. So how does this apply to backlinks? Well, instead of trying to get leads, you're trying to get backlinks.
So you start a podcast in your niche. You invite on niche bloggers with low authority blogs, and you invite on micro influencers, and then you level up.
But you gotta start small because if your podcast gets no views or listens, you gotta start small. But that's okay because small niche blogs are a great source of backlinks as we established. Small businesses are also a great source of backlinks as we established.
And similar to the decision makers, very small niche bloggers, they likely have not had coverage yet, and they undervalue their voices.
They're not making much or any money. They're eager for authentic validation that they are important.
Decision makers are making money, but they still want validation. Niche bloggers aren't making any money if they're just starting. If they're new, they're not making any money or very little, and they certainly don't have a lot of real validation.
And so you invite them on for a podcast. People will do a lot for validation. People will go to great, great lengths to get validation.
So how you start is you map blogs and small businesses in your niche or in adjacent niches. These blogs and businesses, they could write an article about you.
They could list you as a partner, and you organize them by domain authority or by domain rating. And you work your way up. Before pitching the high authority sites, the high authority people, start with the low authority ones.
The highest authority ones will care a lot more about seeing that you are legit. So when you pitch these people, you want to already have done a bunch of podcasts in the niche to make it look like you're more legitimate. So invite on people who have blogs or businesses in your niche or adjacent niches and start with the smaller sites, the lower authority sites.
When you do the podcast, just try to vibe. Don't have it appear like you invited this person on to try to get something from them. Just try to have a good time.
Maybe talk a little bit about what you do, but ask them a lot of questions. . People love to hear themselves speak.
Try to give somebody a good experience. Afterwards, connect with them on social media.
They will connect with you back. Then they will see you announcing different podcast guests, different milestones within your business, new products, thoughts, and insights in your niche that you have. And as they see you make update to update to update, you're literally establishing top of mind awareness so these people just constantly think of you.
You seem more familiar, more trusted, and it feels like you're going places when you're constantly sharing updates. And then after a few weeks to a month, then return to this person and ask if they will write an article about you or list you as a partner. And if you're active on social media, like my business, this business that I'm funding, we are active.
We're very active on social media because we are targeting keywords with videos, as I say so many people should do. We put up one video a day, and many of these videos are targeting keywords. What you do is you ask the people who have come on your podcast if they will write an article about you or list you as a partner.
And if they do that, they're naturally going to link to you. And a lot of people might just do it anyway, but if you are making content, then you can offer to make a few social media posts about them. When you make social media posts about them, they're gonna get an unlinked brand mention.
And most people don't realize that backlinks are so much more valuable than an unlinked brand mention. You can offer to make a few social media posts about them, and all they have to do is write one post on their website about you or just link to you as a partner.
And in return, you're gonna make several social media posts about them across platforms. But even after you do the podcast initially, people might even just write about you anyway. A lot of people who are active with blogs, they need content.
And so if they think you're nice, if they think you're cool, they just might write about you anyway without you even offering them anything or asking them for something. I would recommend not doing reciprocal links. So saying, like, you know, you write about me and I write about you because it would be weird if you just had this pattern of all these niche blogs are linking to you, and then you are linking to all these niche blogs.
Here and there, it's fine if you just do a handful. But if all of your niche blog backlinks look like this, that's kind of suspect. It's kind of suspicious.
It sets off some flags within Google, and these links might not be as valuable. So if you're active on social media, you're using social media to target keywords, or you're just active on it, you just say, I'm gonna write some posts about you. And it would be great if you could write an article about me or recommend me as a partner.
In terms of actually making the podcast, I have this article on my website, how I produce guest podcasts in ninety minutes that help me rank in Google. And I share the software that I use, the settings within the software, my prompts for coming up with titles and descriptions, everything that I do to make guest episodes, which I do on this podcast several times a week.
So you can just copy me. I'd recommend also using jitter.video to get, like, the follow buttons that I have, the subscribe button, the like button, all those buttons.
And with your guest episodes, in the same way that I have the compact keywords promo in my guest episodes, I would recommend that you have a promo for your business and your guest episodes because if you do it well, these people are gonna share the guest episodes on social media. And then people in your niche will see your promo.
Put that promo within the first four minutes. In terms of actually reaching out to these people, if you don't want to cold email or DM, you can use a ipodcastmatcher.com, which I'm always recommending.
I'm always recommending it to get on podcast as a guest, but you can also register your show and have guests pitch you. And you would wanna prioritize people, again, with active blogs and websites and businesses that are relevant to you.
What's so cool about this is the more you do it, the more you level up. So the more you do podcasts with people in your niche, the more you can invite on bigger bloggers and journalists from top publications that have even higher authority, real authority. And then you stay in touch with the people who come on your show afterwards, and you're basically .
Your connections become better than any PR person. The backlinks that you will get will be some of the most natural, niche quality backlinks that you can get, and you're building out your brand through podcast episodes that rank that rank on Google because podcasts rank super, super well.
The industry allies and connections you get will also help you in so many ways beyond backlinks. When it comes down to it, public facing people or niche bloggers or business owners, they don't want to say yes to a pitch call. And most will just straight up ignore backlink request emails.
But these same people do wanna go on podcasts, or at least a lot of them do. So I hope you will try this. We just had our first podcast for this business that I'm funding, and I am extremely hyped about this strategy.
If you want more creative link building methods, my SEO course, compact keywords, has a two hour section on link building. Compact keywords is about how to do search engine optimization that makes you money. It's about how to find keywords where people are searching for what your brand sells.
These searchers want to become users. They wanna become customers. They wanna make a discovery call.
They have a problem that they are trying to solve, and they are willing to pay to get that solved. They are turning to search engines and large language models to get this taken care of. Compact keywords shows you how to find these people, how to target them with conversion based SEO landing pages, how to structure your site for these pages, to do an SEO technical audit, and so much more.
I hope you will check it out. Visit compactkeywords.com. Save years learning search engine optimization that makes you money.
I spent so long making this course. You will love it. This is all for episode 1,146 of the podcast.
One thousand one hundred forty six days in a row doing this show. Recording this one in another crazy cafe just like yesterday. Got my latte here.
Feeling great. If you watch us 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.
Bye now.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Most backlink-request emails go straight to the trash, but the same small blogger who ignores that email will happily accept an invite to be interviewed. This video turns that gap into a repeatable link-building system built entirely around starting a niche podcast.
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:17model
Podcast-for-Backlinks Method
- Map niche blogs and small businesses, sort by domain authority
- Invite the lowest-authority guests first
- Ask genuine questions, don't pitch during the interview
- Connect on social media afterward and stay visible for weeks
- Ask for an article mention or partner listing once trust is built
- Offer reciprocal social posts as the trade
- Level up to higher-authority guests as the show gains credibility
A direct port of the podcast-for-lead-generation playbook, retargeted to earn backlinks instead of sales leads.
Steal forany niche site, SaaS, or small business building backlinks without ad spend or a PR budget
03:39list
Podcast Outreach Progression
- DA 66
- DA 53
- DA 32
- DA 21
- DA 21
- DA 19
- DA 13
- DA 12
- DA 10
- DA 06
On-screen example list of ten prospective niche-blog/business guests ranked by domain authority, illustrating the bottom-up outreach order.
Steal foran outreach-target spreadsheet template for any link-building campaign
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
09:12product
“If you want more creative link building methods, my SEO course, Compact Keywords, has a two hour section on link building... Visit compactkeywords.com.”
Delivers the entire free method first, then pivots to the paid course as 'more like this' rather than gatekeeping the core technique behind a paywall.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
Visual structure at a glance.
