Key Takeaways
- A high score on its own means very little.
- Profile links are the easiest entry point.
- Directories earned a bad reputation in the low-quality-SEO era, but the curated, widely used ones still belong in a healthy profile — especially for local and B2B businesses.
- This is where the real link equity lives.
- Q&A platforms and forums earn links and referral traffic when you answer real questions well.
- Used in moderation with genuinely useful content, they're a legitimate way to host supporting pages.
- Almost every list of high domain authority sites for backlinks mixes dofollow and nofollow opportunities without saying so, which leads people to overvalue links that pass no PageRank.
The fastest way to find high domain authority sites for backlinks is to start with platforms that already carry enormous link equity and let you publish or create a profile yourself. Below is a free, categorized list of 150+ real sites — profile pages, directories, guest-post-friendly publications, Q&A communities, and Web 2.0 publishing platforms — grouped so you can pick the right type for your campaign. Each entry includes an approximate authority band so you know roughly what you're working with. The point is not to scrape every link on the list, but to choose a handful of relevant, high-quality targets and earn placements that actually pass value.
One caveat up front: "domain authority" is a third-party score, not a Google metric. Moz publishes Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs publishes Domain Rating (DR). They measure roughly the same thing — the strength of a site's backlink profile on a 0–100 logarithmic scale — but the numbers won't match between tools. In this guide we lean on DR bands because they're easy to confirm for free, and we'd strongly suggest you verify each site's DR first before you spend any time pitching or building a profile.
What makes a site worth a backlink
A high score on its own means very little. A DR 95 platform that lets anyone drop a self-made link is worth far less than a DR 70 niche publication that editorially chose to cite you. Google has been explicit that links from user-generated content and low-effort placements carry little to no weight, and many are nofollowed by default. The same guidance flags low-quality directory submissions and keyword-stuffed widget links as spam — a reminder that the platform's authority does not launder a manipulative placement.
It also helps to remember why these scores exist. Both DA and DR are attempts to model the same underlying idea that powers Google's original PageRank: a link is a vote, and votes from trusted, well-connected pages count more. Moz's beginner's guide to link building frames the goal well — earn links you would still want even if they passed no ranking value, because those are the ones that survive algorithm updates and actually send qualified visitors. That single principle should govern how you read every table below.
So before treating any name below as a "high domain authority site for backlinks," run it through three filters:
- Relevance. Is the platform topically connected to your niche? A link from a design community helps a design studio more than a generic directory ever will.
- Link type. Is the link dofollow, nofollow, or UGC? Nofollow links still have value for referral traffic and brand signals, but set expectations accordingly.
- Effort vs. payoff. Some of these placements take five minutes (a profile link). Others take a real pitch and a real article. Spend your time where the editorial bar is highest.
If your domain is still young, pairing this list with a deliberate authority-building plan matters. Our walkthrough on How to Increase Your Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR 0 to 50) covers the sequencing — what to build first, and what to ignore until later.
High domain authority websites: profile and social sites (DR 80+)
Profile links are the easiest entry point. You create an account, complete your bio, and add your website URL. Most of these are nofollow, but they're legitimate brand-presence signals, they get crawled, and they're a normal part of a natural link profile. Build them out properly — real bio, real logo, real activity — rather than leaving empty shells.
| Site | Approx. DR band | Typical link type |
|---|---|---|
| DR 95+ | Profile / nofollow | |
| GitHub | DR 95+ | Profile + project / mixed |
| DR 95+ | Page / nofollow | |
| YouTube | DR 95+ | Channel + description |
| DR 90+ | Profile + pins | |
| DR 90+ | Bio link | |
| About.me | DR 85+ | Profile |
| Gravatar | DR 90+ | Profile |
| Behance | DR 90+ | Portfolio profile |
| Dribbble | DR 85+ | Portfolio profile |
| Mastodon (major instances) | DR 80+ | Profile |
| Bluesky | DR 85+ | Profile |
Other strong profile targets in the DR 80+ range: Tumblr, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Slideshare, Flickr, Goodreads, Disqus, AngelList/Wellfound, Product Hunt, CodePen, Stack Overflow (developer profile), Trello, Notion (public pages), Patreon, Ko-fi, Linktree, Gumroad, Eventbrite, Meetup, Strava, Last.fm, ReverbNation, 500px, DeviantArt, Hashnode, Dev.to, Replit, Kaggle, and Product Hunt makers' profiles. That's roughly 35 reputable profile platforms before you even touch a directory.
Directories and business listings (DR 70+)
Directories earned a bad reputation in the low-quality-SEO era, but the curated, widely used ones still belong in a healthy profile — especially for local and B2B businesses. Citations on major business directories also reinforce your name, address, and phone consistency, which feeds local search.
| Directory | Approx. DR band | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | DR 90+ | Local businesses |
| Crunchbase | DR 90+ | Startups / companies |
| Yelp | DR 90+ | Local / service |
| Trustpilot | DR 90+ | Any brand |
| G2 | DR 90+ | SaaS / software |
| Capterra | DR 90+ | Software |
| Better Business Bureau | DR 90+ | US businesses |
| Yellow Pages | DR 85+ | Local |
| Foursquare | DR 85+ | Local |
| Clutch | DR 85+ | Agencies / B2B |
| Bing Places | DR 90+ | Local |
| Apple Maps Connect | DR 90+ | Local |
Worth adding for breadth and niche coverage: Glassdoor, Indeed (company pages), F6S, Owler, Manta, Hotfrog, Brownbook, Cylex, MerchantCircle, EZLocal, Tupalo, n49, Spoke, GoodFirms, DesignRush, Sortlist, Software Advice, TrustRadius, and your regional Chamber of Commerce site. Together with the table above, that's around 30 directory options — prioritize the ones your real customers actually browse.
A word on local SEO specifically: for a brick-and-mortar or service-area business, the directory links above do double duty as citations. Consistent name, address, and phone details across Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places, and the major aggregators feed the local pack and reinforce the same entity in Google's knowledge graph. If you run a single-location business, this category often delivers more ranking value per hour than chasing a guest post on a national publication, because the relevance is exact and the competition for those citations is local rather than global.
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Guest-post-friendly publications (DR 70+)
This is where the real link equity lives. Editorial links from publications that vet contributors are the closest thing to the links Google rewards. The bar is higher — you need a genuine pitch, a useful angle, and writing that holds up — but a single contextual link from a respected industry site can outperform fifty profile links. Read each site's contributor guidelines before pitching, and lead with value, not a link request.
| Publication | Approx. DR band | Niche |
|---|---|---|
| Medium | DR 90+ | Open publishing / any |
| Forbes (Councils) | DR 90+ | Business / leadership |
| Entrepreneur | DR 90+ | Business / startups |
| HuffPost | DR 90+ | General |
| Business Insider | DR 90+ | Business / tech |
| Search Engine Journal | DR 85+ | Marketing / SEO |
| HackerNoon | DR 85+ | Tech / crypto |
| Smashing Magazine | DR 85+ | Design / dev |
| CSS-Tricks | DR 85+ | Front-end dev |
| Dev.to | DR 90+ | Software |
| Thrive Global | DR 85+ | Wellness / business |
| The Next Web | DR 90+ | Tech |
Note that some of these (Forbes Councils, Business Insider contributor programs) are paid or membership-gated, and policies change — confirm current terms and whether the link is dofollow before investing. Additional contributor-friendly outlets across niches include Social Media Examiner, Content Marketing Institute, the Moz Blog, HubSpot guest contributions, GoDaddy Garage, Shopify community blogs, A List Apart, SitePoint, MarketingProfs, Convince & Convert, Jeff Bullas, Addicted2Success, Lifehack, Tiny Buddha, Elephant Journal, Make A Website Hub, Business 2 Community, and dozens of niche trade publications specific to your industry. Realistically, that's 25+ named guest targets — and the niche-specific ones usually convert best.
One practical note on pitching these publications: the editors who run them receive dozens of identical "I'd love to write a guest post" emails every week, and almost all of them get ignored. What gets a reply is a specific, story-shaped angle the publication has not already covered, ideally backed by original data or first-hand experience their staff writers don't have. Lead your pitch with that angle and a one-line reason it fits their audience, not with a request for a backlink. The link is the byproduct of a piece worth publishing — treat it that way and your acceptance rate climbs sharply, which is the whole reason a single editorial link from a relevant DR 80 outlet can outweigh a month of profile-link grinding.
Q&A sites and forums (DR 80+)
Q&A platforms and forums earn links and referral traffic when you answer real questions well. Most outbound links here are nofollow, and moderators remove anything that reads like spam, so the play is to be genuinely helpful and link only when a resource truly answers the question.
| Community | Approx. DR band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DR 90+ | Subreddit-specific; nofollow | |
| Quora | DR 90+ | Answer-based; nofollow |
| Stack Exchange / Stack Overflow | DR 90+ | Technical |
| Hacker News | DR 85+ | Tech / startups |
| Indie Hackers | DR 80+ | Founders / SaaS |
| Product Hunt discussions | DR 85+ | Product launches |
| Warrior Forum | DR 80+ | Marketing |
| Moz Q&A / community | DR 85+ | SEO |
| GrowthHackers | DR 80+ | Growth marketing |
| Discourse-hosted forums | DR 70+ | Varies by host |
Round out the category with niche communities that match your audience: Designer Hangout, Webflow Forum, WordPress.org support, Shopify Community, HubSpot Community, Salesforce Trailblazer, Spiceworks, the Adobe community forums, Stack Exchange verticals (Server Fault, Super User, Mathematics, and the rest), and topical subreddits in your space. Across these you have well over 20 community targets — and the conversations themselves often surface link and content ideas you wouldn't have found otherwise.
Web 2.0 and publishing platforms (DR 80+)
Web 2.0 properties let you publish long-form content on a high-authority domain and link back to your own site. Used in moderation with genuinely useful content, they're a legitimate way to host supporting pages. Used to mass-spin thin posts, they're a footprint Google ignores or penalizes — so favor quality over quantity, always.
| Platform | Approx. DR band | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Medium | DR 90+ | Articles |
| Substack | DR 90+ | Newsletter / posts |
| WordPress.com | DR 90+ | Hosted blog |
| Blogger | DR 90+ | Hosted blog |
| Tumblr | DR 90+ | Microblog |
| Notion (public) | DR 90+ | Docs / pages |
| Ghost (hosted) | DR 80+ | Publication |
| Telegraph (telegra.ph) | DR 90+ | Quick posts |
| Weebly | DR 85+ | Site builder |
| Wix (blog) | DR 90+ | Site builder |
More publishing properties worth a slot: LiveJournal, Penzu, HubPages, Evernote (shared notes), Google Sites, Strikingly, Carrd, Webnode, Site123, Jimdo, Bravenet, Edublogs, and Hashnode (which doubles as a dev profile). That brings the Web 2.0 group to roughly 23 named options.
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Dofollow vs nofollow: how much each link type is worth
Almost every list of high domain authority sites for backlinks mixes dofollow and nofollow opportunities without saying so, which leads people to overvalue links that pass no PageRank. Here's the honest breakdown. A dofollow editorial link from a relevant page is the gold standard: it passes ranking signals and sends referral traffic. A nofollow link from the same page still has real value — it drives clicks, builds brand familiarity, and contributes to the natural link diversity Google expects from a legitimate site — but it won't directly move your rankings the way a dofollow link can.
The mistake is treating the two as equals or, worse, ignoring nofollow links entirely. A backlink profile that is 100% dofollow looks engineered; real brands accumulate a healthy mix of nofollow mentions from social profiles, forums, and news coverage alongside their editorial dofollow links. So rather than filtering this list down to "dofollow only," use it to build a profile that looks the way a genuinely popular site's profile looks — varied across platform types, weighted toward relevance, and earned rather than manufactured. The profile and forum entries above are doing brand-signal work even when the link is nofollow.
One more nuance: link attributes are set by the platform, not by you, and they change. A site that was dofollow when an older list was published may have switched to nofollow or UGC after a spam wave. This is exactly why the verification step below matters as much as the score itself — you want to know both the current authority and the current attribute before you invest effort.
How to use this list without wasting time
Add up the named sites across the five categories and you're well past 150 high domain authority websites — but the goal is not to claim a link on every one. A focused approach beats a checklist every time:
- Shortlist by relevance. Pick the 15–20 platforms that genuinely overlap with your niche and audience. Ignore the rest.
- Confirm the current score. Authority scores drift, and a platform's DR today may differ from a list published a year ago. Verify before you commit time.
- Check the link attribute. Use a browser extension or view-source to see whether outbound links are dofollow, nofollow, or UGC, and set expectations accordingly.
- Lead with quality. Complete profiles fully, write real guest posts, and only answer questions you can actually answer. Thin or spammy placements get removed or discounted.
- Diversify. A natural profile mixes profiles, directories, editorial links, and community mentions — not 200 of one type.
Backlinks are one input into authority, but they're not the only one. If your DA or DR is lower than you'd like, our guide to increasing website authority covers the broader set of tactics — internal linking, content depth, and technical health — that compound alongside link building.
FAQ
What are high domain authority sites for backlinks?
High domain authority sites for backlinks are websites with a strong backlink profile — usually a Moz Domain Authority or Ahrefs Domain Rating of roughly 70 or higher — that allow you to earn or create a link back to your own site. Examples include LinkedIn, Medium, GitHub, Crunchbase, and major industry publications. A link from one of these can pass meaningful authority, but only when the placement is relevant, editorial, and not a low-effort or spammy link.
Do nofollow links from high domain authority websites help SEO?
Nofollow links don't pass PageRank the way dofollow links do, but they still have value. They drive referral traffic, build brand visibility, and contribute to a natural-looking link profile that mixes link types. Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict directive, so a mix of dofollow and nofollow links from reputable high domain authority websites is healthier than chasing only dofollow links.
How many high domain authority backlinks do I need to rank?
There's no fixed number — relevance and quality matter far more than volume. A handful of genuinely editorial links from sites relevant to your niche typically outperform hundreds of generic profile or directory links. Focus on earning links that a real person would click, from pages that are topically connected to yours, rather than hitting a target count.
Should I verify a site's DR before building a backlink?
Yes. Authority scores change over time, and a site that was strong a year ago may have declined, or vice versa. Before you spend time on an account or a pitch, confirm the current Domain Rating so you know what the link is actually worth. You can do this for free with our Domain Rating Checker — enter any domain and see its live Ahrefs-based DR in seconds, no signup required.
Are free backlink lists like this safe to use?
The sites themselves are safe — they're well-known, legitimate platforms. The risk comes from how you use them. Mass-creating thin profiles or spun Web 2.0 posts purely for links creates a footprint search engines can detect and discount. Used thoughtfully, with complete profiles and genuinely useful content on a relevant subset of the list, these platforms are a safe and effective part of a broader link-building strategy.
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Written by
Anjan LuthraManaging Partner, Indexed
Anjan Luthra is Managing Partner at Indexed. He has spent over a decade inside high-growth companies building organic search into their primary acquisition channel, and writes about SEO strategy, AI search, and revenue a…