Author Logs 10,926 Sites Hunting Free Backlinks; Only 15 Links Stay Live

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Between 20 October and 12 November 2026, a developer trying to earn free backlinks for a small B2B software site kept a log of 10,926 candidate domains and rejected each one with a recorded reason. Only 15 domains carried a live, followed link on a publicly indexable page when re-checked on 12 November, and the most common rejection reasons were nofollow attributes, noindex tags, reciprocal-link requirements, paid-only or long-queue access, and dead sites. The author also tested a paid press release service, finding its sample links were nofollow and the page was marked noindex. Most of the surviving links came from software directories and a few came from articles the author wrote for newsletters and community blogs. The author noted that Google and Bing report different link counts and that it is not yet clear whether the remaining links will be counted.

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