Link-building enthusiasts are always on the lookout for new link exchange opportunities. They hop from group to group, and platform to platform to earn that one high-quality backlink.
An Ahrefs study suggests that around 40% of websites that practice link exchange get good traffic on Google. What if we make the job easier by compiling a list of active, buzzing link exchange communities for 2024?
That’s what this article is about. Before we start with our list, let’s have a refresher on what link exchange actually is.
Is Link Exchange Safe?
The straightforward answer is that link exchange is completely safe if you practice it ethically and organically. The last two parts are essential here since excessive link exchange is viewed as a link scheme that violates Google’s Spam policies.
If the algorithm identifies your backlinking as inorganic or manufactured, it will automatically devalue these links, and by extension, your website. Your website might also be subjected to manual action, leading to a SERP rank demotion.
That being said, if you practice it in pursuit of actually creating value for your audiences, instead of chasing rankings you should have no problems.
Top 10 Link-Building Communities for You in 2024
Without further ado, let us jump right into the most active link exchange communities for you to access.
Linkly
- Community type: Paid
- Approval requirement: Not required
- Link to join: https://app.linkly.digital/login
- Membership type: Monthly/Yearly/Every 3 months
- Ideal for: Everyone
- Type of members: Active
- Why join: To generate backlinks
- How to join: Click on the above link and signup
- Current size of the community: 2400+ members and companies
Linkly is an amazing platform with a vibrant community that is always ready to provide you with the exact support and backlinks your website needs. It will become an invaluable asset in your SEO toolkit as it acts as a backlink marketplace; a bridge between link takers and link givers.
If you’re seeking links, easily find opportunities for guest posts and backlinks. As a provider, showcase your site to receive requests for backlinks and guest posts
Pros
- Linkly consolidates link opportunities from high-quality sites, saving significant time spent on manual prospecting and outreach. You can get your job done 5 times faster when compared to conventional link exchange practices
- It selects high-value backlink options, steering clear of low-quality and spam-filled sites
- Diverse options for link exchange including reciprocal link exchanges, guest post contributions, and free backlink opportunities, catering to different preferences and budgets
- Users can track acquired backlinks through Linkly, ensuring the preservation of SEO benefits
- Linkly streamlines link-building efforts, making it easier for users to secure valuable backlinks
- You get access to more than 2400 companies with amazing reputations, including StoryXpress, Ranktracker, Snov.io, and more.
Overall, Linkly is one of the most active platforms for backlinks with over 2400+ active link builders. You can connect with this vast community to build backlinks through A-B-C link exchange, guest blogs, and more.
CRO Growth Hacks
- Community type: Restricted but free
- Approval requirement: Requires community approval
- Link to join: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJRql2n9BJ7iGR8UX-ZdMaSDvYAIphOIbKbyph25OgMf8LeA/viewform
- Membership type: Eternal
- Ideal for: Individuals looking to increase conversion rates by implementing SEO techniques
- Type of members: Active
- Why join: To explore SEO and other strategies while generating quality backlinks
- How to join: Click on the above link, fill out the form, and you will get a notification within a week or two if your request is accepted.
- Current size of the community: Undisclosed
CRO Growth Hacks is a dedicated Slack community where digital marketing enthusiasts come together and dive into discussions on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) hacks aimed at boosting growth through techniques like Search Engine Marketing (SEM), SEO, email marketing, and strategic business approaches.
You can explore diverse channels like social media, SEO, chatbots, and more.
Pros
- Opportunity to talk about CRO and exchange ideas with like-minded peers
- Regular Q&A sessions and giveaways for members
- Platform for members to promote their businesses, blogs, and videos, as well as networking opportunities
- Option to host or join webinars, meetings, and regular chats to share insights
Cons
- Exclusive group requiring a review process for membership
- Review submissions may take up to a week or two, and acceptance notification is not guaranteed
Since this is a membership-dependent project, most group members are active and come from reputable organizations. This not only helps you get expert insights but also builds authority and credibility when backlinking using this platform.
Growmance
- Community type: Public
- Approval requirement: Requires invite
- Link to join: https://slofile.com/slack/growmance
- Membership type: Free forever
- Ideal for: Real growth hackers who want to discuss their strategy and get help from community
- Type of members: Supportive and active
- Why join: Conversion rate optimization through various strategies and link exchange
- How to join: Click the above link and request for an invite
- Current size of the community: Close to 18,000
Another Slack community, Growmance finds its place among the top link exchange platforms due to its extremely supportive community. While it was initially established as a forum for Growmance inventor, Ondrej Kubala to share his ideas; it has since evolved into an active hub for experts.
It serves as a great platform for obtaining backlinks and delving into different facets of digital marketing, ranging from PPC and social media to copywriting.
Pros
- Thriving global community discussing marketing and growth hacking strategies
- Dedicated channel for mutual assistance among marketers, fostering idea sharing and support
- Offers a diverse range of 30+ channels covering various marketing needs, including affiliate marketing and content marketing
- Active #guest-posting and #link-exchanges channels with daily backlink requests
Cons
- Has a membership-only mode of joining
- Few members ever venture out of the mainstream and default channels, making some channels virtually dead
Growmance has over 16k members with a lion’s share of them being active at any time you log in. The icing on the cake comes from the fact that these members hail from all around the globe, thus helping you generate unique backlinks that give you entry into international markets.
Backlinks
- Community type: Public
- Approval requirement: Not required
- Link to join: https://brainspin.typeform.com/to/EC0vg7
- Membership type: Free forever
- Ideal for: Members who want to share the latest trends and discuss reliable methods for link exchange
- Type of members: Professional and active
- Why join: For industry-specific and general insights into SEO and backlinking
- How to join: Click the above link and fill in your details
- Current size of the community: Undisclosed
Established by the Utah-based digital marketing agency Brainspin, Backlinks is ideal for business owners, SEO experts, content marketers, and industry leaders seeking relevant link-building opportunities. It has a simple three-channel bifurcation system that keeps things decluttered.
Of course, it also allows members to discuss marketing insights, link-building strategies, and other queries.
Pros
- Open to a diverse range of participants, including link builders, business owners, and content marketers
- Highly active community for link-building, receiving numerous requests for guest posting and link exchanges
- Members can tailor notification preferences to receive alerts from specific channels they find relevant
- Provides networking opportunities and a platform for building relationships while seizing guest posting chances within the Slack community
Cons
- The application process can be time consuming
- You can sometimes not get notifications in the event of a refusal
Buffer
- Community type: Public
- Approval requirement: Not required
- Link to join: https://discord.com/invite/aQdKKr6kDY
- Membership type: Free forever
- Ideal for: Social media marketers who want to explore blogging, content marketing, entrepreneurship, social media marketing, video marketing, and web development
- Type of members: Encouraging and active
- Why join: For expert insights on SEO, content creation, and backlinking
- How to join: Create a Discord account and click the above link to get an invite
- Current size of the community: 7,000+
The Buffer Community, launched in 2015, is an excellent, resource-rich place for marketers and entrepreneurs to interact with fellow marketers in real-time. Buffer’s Slack Community is diverse, with a mix of software developers, social media marketers, content creators, video creators, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. Here, members are encouraged to share challenges and receive valuable advice, support, and inspiration from others.
While Buffer is popular on social media, their Slack community offers the best platform for real-time interaction and connection. The Buffer community encourages a sense of connection through various channels. People can share their weekly goals, discuss books, or simply unwind with funny content. There are even dedicated channels for members from specific regions around the world.
Pros:
- Buffer promotes discussion and support among the membership
- It is more general and laid back compared to other link exchange communities
- There are a wide variety of channels to engage with
Cons:
- Buffer is loosely moderated
- You won’t find high growth results by being just a part of this community alone
The Buffer community is quite active. The Discord Community is the largest among them. There are other social communities, such as a Facebook community, a Twitter community, a LinkedIn community, and more.
Marketing Lad
- Community type: Paid; one-time fee of $20
- Approval requirement: Not required
- Link to join: https://marketinglad.io/slack-form/
- Membership type: One-time free
- Ideal for: Beginners and veterans who want to advance one another’s content, for introductions, promotions, updates, SEO, and more
- Type of members: Active
- Why join: Discussions, guest-posting, link opportunities, and blog sharing
- How to join: Fill in your details through the above link; make a payment of $20 through Paypal; then receive the invite
- Current size of the community: Undisclosed
Marketing Lad’s Slack group is all about bringing like-minded people together, especially SEO marketers. It is a highly-ranked SEO community for link building built by Shahid Shahmiri. The primary focus is on insightful discussions, link opportunities, blog promotion, and guest posting. There are different channels dedicated to digital marketing, growth, tips, and more.
Marketing Lad’s Slack community makes it significantly faster for you to get responses compared to traditional email outreach programs. This community thrives on content marketing collaboration from high authority sites such as G2, Snov, and Planable.
Another area where Marketing Lad’s community stands out is how easy it is within the community to pitch your ideas to brands and start collaborating right away.
Pros:
- Focused community with verified members only
- Dedicated channels for promotions
- Easy to find SEO and Link Building Opportunities
- No spammers
- A sea of opportunities for building high authority backlinks
Cons:
- The community is relatively small
- Invite-only access means joining is not a smooth process
Marketing Lad’s community, although small at just over 800 members, is quite active. The signup page touts more than 400 weekly active members. Community activity is decent, what you’d expect from a link-building platform. You would not have to wait days for replies, they are fairly quick.
OnlineGeniuses
- Community type: Free; requires you to fill a form for verification that can be skipped by paying $50 for instant access
- Approval requirement: Required
- Link to join: https://onlinegeniuses.com/sign-up/
- Membership type: Free but you can pay $50 for instant access
- Ideal for: For anyone looking to improve their SEO strategies, and form link exchange partnerships
- Type of members: Professional experts
- Why join: Engage with a vibrant community to learn about SEO, analytics, social media, and more. Benefit from bi-weekly AMAs featuring industry experts like Uber, Red Bull, and Petco execs. Explore hiring opportunities and access our Talent Network for freelancers, consultants, and job seekers
- How to join: Click the above link to submit your form and wait for approval. You can also pay $50 to get instant access.
- Current size of the community: 38,000+
David Markovich started OnlineGeniuses as a way for digital marketing experts to connect. This free community began as a casual chat group on Skype, but it’s blossomed into a wonderful community for digital marketers, SEO specialists, and even IT pros. The community is huge and filled with talents across SEO, analytics, social media marketing, and more.
Members discuss digital marketing comprehensively, clarifying doubts, sharing industry trends, aiding job hunts, and fostering connections. They also host live events and regular Q&A sessions across the US, featuring marketing gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk, Rand Fishkin, and Dmitry Gerasimenko.
But what keeps the OnlineGeniuses community thriving is their commitment to quality. Every new member gets the thumbs-up before joining to ensure the group stays top-notch.
Pros:
- Really interactive and engaging in terms of community engagement
- Bi-weekly AMAs from executives of top companies such as Uber, Red Bull, Petco and more
- A dedicated section for hiring and open positions; a job board is also present
- Dedicated access to a thriving talent network
Cons:
- Can be confusing for new entrants
- The expert and novice ratio is not satisfactory; there are significantly more amateurs than industry experts
- Instant Access requires a fee of $50
The OnlineGeniuses community is one of the largest link-building communities, with over 38,000 members from a diverse range of professions. Site activity is excellent; entrants can talk and interact with experts in no time.
Demand Curve
- Community type: Public
- Approval requirement: Required
- Link to join: https://www.demandcurve.com/community#join
- Membership type: Free, but you will be kept on a waitlist until the community is restructured
- Ideal for: Growth operators looking to build authoritative and powerful connections
- Type of members: Active, professional, and experts
- Why join: Gain access to the top 10% of growth operators and build connections from reputed companies
- How to join: Click the above link to fill out the form and join the waitlist
- Current size of the community: The community is in the process of rebuilding. However, the previous community reached over 10,000 members
If you want to launch your startup to new heights, check out Demand Curve, a growth hacking and link-sharing platform backed by Y Combinator.
What truly sets them apart is their free, private Slack channel. Here, you’ll find a community of skilled marketers who are the who’s who of internet companies. Many are founders or growth leaders from industry giants like Microsoft and Zendesk.
The Demand Curve team is composed of industry veterans. Co-founders Justin Setzer and Neal O’Grady boast impressive backgrounds in growth roles at Grammarly and Segment\. Rounding out the team is Julian Shapiro, an active angel investor whose open-source contributions have even been recognized by Forbes.
Pros:
- A focus on growth within the community
- Plenty of channels to pick your interests
- Industry professionals will readily answer your queries
Cons:
- The top 10% of growth operators are stashed behind a premium community; to join this, you need to be on a waitlist
- The channels are often filled with newcomers seeking answers and not many insightful discussions
Demand Curve’s community is quite active. There were more than 10,000 growth operators from brands such as Webflow, Unity, Medium, Reddit, and more in the first iteration alone. Since then, the community has been growing steadily, and a second iteration is already in the works.
Get Authority Backlinks With Linkly
Well, now that you know the top 10 platforms to use for your linkbuilding efforts, you must be pondering on which platform is just right for you. Let us make the choice easier for you.
If you are looking for a comprehensive link exchange community to help you get quality backlinks 5 times faster, Linkly is your best bet. The best part is that it’s extremely simple to use.
All you need to do is register and verify your website on the platform. And voila! You are now in the playground with 2400+ link exchange enthusiasts. Simply filter sites by DA, niche, industry, or business, send a text, and start negotiating.
You can also manage exchange links with the Backlink Manager, save created backlinks in Link-Monitor, and handle backlink requests in the Link Giver Admin dashboard.
Linkly makes it a breeze to generate backlinks, manage them, and interact with the overarching community. So, what are you waiting for? Try Linkly now for free!