How to get backlinks for a contractor website without buying them

You've installed one manufacturer's shingles for years. You open its "find a roofer" page and type in your zip code. Three companies come up, you've bid against two of them, and yours isn't one.

A listing like that is a backlink: a link on someone else's website that points to yours. If you hold the certification and still aren't on the page, start with an email.

Does Google still count links?

Yes, and Google says so itself. It runs systems that read how pages link to each other, to work out what a page is about and how useful it might be. PageRank, its original link-based system, is still part of its core ranking systems.^[1]

Map listings count them too. Google's Business Profile help says how well-known a business is depends partly on how many websites link to it, and on its reviews.^[2]

There's no single trust score for a website, though. Google calls trust the most important quality in content and says it's judged from a mix of signals.^[3] A link from a company with a real reason to mention you is somebody else vouching for you.

The AI assistants that search the web read those same pages, though nobody outside the AI companies knows how they choose. If an assistant keeps naming your competitors, read our piece on why ChatGPT names competitors.

That's a correlation across 75,000 brands with established websites, and the company that ran the study says correlation isn't causation.^[4] I'd still take a mention with no link over no mention at all.

Which links are worth having for a contractor?

The ones that exist because of something true about your company. Google's starter guide says word of mouth is effective and long-lasting.^[5] Online, word of mouth looks like this:

• The manufacturer's find-a-pro page. If you install shingles, furnaces or generators, check the locator. Make sure you're listed, the details are current and your website is there.
• Your trade association and the chamber. Check the member directory before you pay dues. If it lists a website for every member, ask for yours. If not, the dues buy a network, not a link.
• Local news. Reporters covering storms, permits or home prices need someone who knows the trade. Offer one fact you can back up and say you're happy to be quoted.
• Partners who send you work. Realtors, inspectors, architects and builders sometimes keep a preferred-vendor page. Ask to be on it.
• A team or cause you sponsor. The league may thank sponsors on its site. Sponsor it for the neighbors who see your name, not for the link. Google says a paid link is fine when it carries rel="sponsored" in the page's code, so never ask anyone to drop the label.^[6]
• One page worth citing. Something customers keep asking, explained plainly from your own jobs. If the only pages another site could link to are your homepage and a contact form, you have nothing to point at. Our signal catalogue shows how to check.

How do you see who already links to you?

Search Console shows you, once it's set up for your site. Open the Links report to see the sites that link to yours, the pages they point at and the words they use.^[7] Google says it's a sample, so a link you know exists can be missing.

Then look for unlinked mentions: pages that name your company but don't link to your site. Search your company name in quotation marks and set a Google alert for it.^[8] When you find one, send a short note:

Hi Dana, thanks for mentioning us in your story about the new ball field fence. Would you add a link to our website where our name appears? It would help neighbors find us. No worries if not.

Ask for your plain company name as the link text, not "best roofer in Frisco". Google's own advice is short, descriptive link text without stuffed keywords.^[9]

What can you do this week?

Do the free checks first, then ask the people who already know you:

1. Open the Links report and write down who links to you now. Twenty minutes.
2. List who you already work with: manufacturers, suppliers, associations, the chamber, realtors and builders who send you jobs. Thirty minutes.
3. Check each one's website for a dealer, member or preferred-vendor page. If you qualify and aren't listed, email your contact. An hour.
4. Search your company name, set the alert, and send the short note to anyone who names you without a link. An hour.
5. Pick a question customers keep asking, like what a roof replacement involves in your city, and draft a plain answer from your own jobs. An afternoon.

Here's how a roofing company in Frisco might spread the same work over twelve weeks.

Which link shortcuts should you skip?

Skip anything that pays for a link or invents a reason for one. Google's spam policy names buying or selling links for ranking, whether the payment is money, goods or services. A free repair in return for a link is the same thing.^[6]

• Packages sold by "authority score". Those domain authority scores are made by software companies, not by Google. A high number on a seller's menu is still a link you paid for.
• Link networks and swaps at scale. The policy targets excessive exchanges and partner pages built only to cross-link. A realtor who really sends you work and lists you is something else.
• Directory blasts. Yelp, BBB, Apple and Bing profiles are listings you want anyway. A paid run through a hundred directories nobody reads is what the policy calls low-quality directory links.
• Paid guest posts. A post on a blog nobody reads, with a keyword link back to you, is on the same list.
• A page on someone else's strong site. Google's site reputation policy (once called site reputation abuse) covers third-party content published on a strong site mainly to borrow its standing. A paid "best roofers in town" page fits. Earning a spot on a local list is different.
• Links in comments and forums. The policy lists forum comments with optimized links as link spam. Google also asks sites to label visitor-posted links ugc, and says it generally won't follow a labeled link.^[10] A link dropped in a forum thread usually isn't the backlink people hope for.

The money is wasted, too, if Google's systems catch them. Google says that when its systems strip out the effect of spammy links, the ranking benefit is lost and can't be regained.^[11]

Skip the "toxic link cleanup" too. Google calls its disavow tool an advanced feature that most sites don't need. It says it works hard so that what other sites do doesn't hurt yours.^[12]

When does doing this yourself stop paying off?

When the asking turns into a standing chore. The first pass takes a few evenings. Keeping it up takes an hour or two a month, and that part slips in busy season.

For a second opinion on the pages and profile a link would point to, our local SEO audit checks them. The Expert Action Plan ($149) is the complete audit report plus a 30-minute consultation. If you'd rather hand the asking off, the monthly plans on our local SEO page include earned-mention work.

What a good link still won't fix

A link from the manufacturer won't repair a thin website, a half-finished Google profile or a pile of unanswered reviews. It sits on top of those.

It's also slow. A reply can take weeks and a listing can sit in a queue. Google notices a new link on its own schedule, so judge the work over months.

I'd rather have one link from the manufacturer than fifty from sites no customer reads. Nobody outside Google can say how much any one link moves your results. So skip anyone who sells you a number of links, a date or a score.