SEO Partnerships: 7 Ways to Collaborate for Natural Backlinks
We already know that backlinks are essential for SEO. But most businesses hit a wall when it comes to gaining natural and high-quality backlinks. The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone.
Collaboration is a significant, and often overlooked, way to earn authoritative backlinks. Regardless of what business you’re in, partnering with the right people can create win-win opportunities. Effective partnerships will boost visibility, grow your organic reach, and build trust among customers.
This article will explore how strategic partnerships can strengthen your business and earn you valuable backlinks that search engines love. We’ll explore co-marketing campaigns, cross-promotions, and expert roundups. Stay tuned to learn why these partnerships work and how you can find the right collaborators.
Let’s dive in:
7 ways to collaborate for natural backlinks
Google rewards backlinks that are earned naturally – and what’s more natural than two trusted businesses recommending each other’s content? Strategic partnerships work because they’re rooted in real relationships, shared audiences, and genuine value. Unlike buying links or chasing random outreach, collaborations create content that people actually want to share and reference.
Let’s explore 7 ways you can team up with others and earn organic backlinks while growing your brand visibility in the process:
1. Co-marketing campaigns
Co-marketing involves partnering with another business to create and promote a piece of content or campaign (e.g., an e-book, webinar, report, email series, or even a landing page). Both brands contribute to the creation and distribution, and both benefit from the results.
Let’s say you run a SaaS tool for inventory management, and you team up with an e-commerce platform to publish a guide on streamlining online store operations. You collaborate on content, share promotional efforts, and link to the campaign from your respective websites. That campaign page earns backlinks from both businesses and potentially others who find and share it.
You should expect:
- A co-branded piece of content you can both promote on your blogs, newsletters, and social platforms.
- Multiple natural backlinks pointing to the shared asset and possibly to individual contributions (e.g., blog posts, bios, or feature pages).
A co-marketing campaign might be right for your business if you already have strong content creation capabilities, a good relationship with a complementary brand, and overlapping target audiences. It might not be the best fit if your team is small or your resources are stretched, as you’ll need time and coordination to pull it off.
With co-marketing efforts, focus on evergreen content where possible, so the campaign continues earning backlinks long after the launch.
2. Expert roundups and collaborative articles
An expert roundup is a blog post or article that features insights, quotes, or advice from multiple industry voices. Collaborative articles go a step further; these are pieces of co-written content between you and one or more partners, sharing both the workload and the spotlight.
Here’s how it works:
You invite 5 to 15 experts, peers, or brand partners to contribute a short response to a specific question (something relevant to your niche). Once published, the piece serves as a valuable, multi-perspective resource. Most contributors will link back to the article from their own sites, portfolios, or social media, creating natural backlinks and increased visibility.
You can expect to gain:
- A high-value piece of content that’s quick to produce (as you’re crowdsourcing the content).
- Multiple backlinks from contributors who want to promote their inclusion.
- Potential for long-term SEO value as people use search terms like “best tips,” “expert insights,” or “industry predictions”.
This sort of collaboration will be perfect for your business if you’re comfortable with outreach, have an active network, and want to build relationships while boosting SEO. If your industry is quite small or super competitive when it comes to expert advice, it might be less effective.
If you do go for this method, make it really easy for contributors to share by sending them a ready-to-post graphic, a short blurb, and their link when the article goes live. The easier you make it, the more likely they are to share (and link back).
3. Podcast guest swaps or interviews
This strategy involves being a guest on someone else’s podcast or inviting relevant guests onto your own. A podcast guest swap is when two brands or experts interview each other (either on one show or across two) creating double the exposure and backlink potential.
Podcast episodes typically come with a detailed show notes page, which includes links to the guest’s website, resources, and social profiles, giving you a high-authority, contextual backlink.
You should expect:
- Opportunities to drive referral traffic and build brand awareness.
- New content to share across platforms e.g., audio clips, quotes, and embedded episodes.
- A backlink from the podcast’s show notes.
If you or someone from your team is confident speaking on a particular topic, and you’re hoping to build thought leadership, this sort of collaboration is ideal. Make sure the podcast publishes full show notes with backlinks before you commit. Also, link back to the episode from your own content to keep the exchange natural and mutually beneficial.
On the other hand, this option won’t be for you if you’re camera-shy, don’t have clear talking points, or your target audience doesn’t consume podcasts.
4. Partner resource pages
Partner resource pages are curated lists of tools, services, or collaborators that a business recommends. They often appear under titles like “Our Trusted Partners,” “Recommended Tools,” or “Resources We Love.” These pages naturally include backlinks and are typically evergreen.
How this works:
If you have a few go-to partners or service providers you regularly refer clients to – or vice versa – add them to a dedicated page on your site and invite them to do the same. For example, a SaaS company might list agencies, integrations, or consultants they work with. Each listing will include a short description and a backlink, ideally reciprocated.
You should expect:
- Simple, scalable backlinks from businesses you already know or work with.
- A helpful reference for customers or clients looking for trusted tools or providers.
If you do choose this method of collaboration, keep the list curated and selective. Google values quality over quantity, so don’t treat it like a link exchange directory. Write a short, genuine blurb for each partner that explains the value they offer.
This will be perfect for your business if you already have partners, affiliates, or vendors you recommend regularly. Likewise, it won’t be the right option if you’re just starting out or don’t yet have strong external relationships (this strategy works best when built on trust).
5. Data collaborations
Data collaborations involve teaming up with another business to create original research, surveys, or reports. You might gather new data together or combine existing insights to publish something truly unique and valuable (something that others will want to reference and link to!).
Let’s say you’re an e-commerce brand tracking marketing metrics and you partner with a content agency to survey users about 2025’s content marketing trends. Together, you will analyse the results, publish a branded report, and share it online.
You can expect:
- High-quality backlinks from journalists, bloggers, and industry sites referencing your statistics.
- Opportunities to pitch your findings to media outlets or industry publications.
- Repurposable content (infographics, blog posts, social snippets).
Make sure you give your report a clear angle, a catchy title, and include ready-made “pull quotes” or stat graphics to make it easier for others to link to and share your work.
This sort of collab is ideal if you already collect data or have access to an engaged audience you can survey. In that vein, you’ll find it tricky if you’re in a niche without much data to gather, or don’t have the time to analyse it properly.
6. Co-branded giveaways or events
This approach involves partnering with another business to host a giveaway, competition, virtual event, or challenge. The shared promotion naturally generates backlinks from both brands and often from participants, bloggers, and industry roundups, too.
Imagine your brand sells eco-friendly home goods, and you team up with a sustainable fashion brand for a “Green Living Giveaway.” You both promote it via email, social media, and blog posts, all linking back to the campaign landing page. The buzz and cross-promotion create visibility and SEO value for both parties.
You can expect to gain:
- Backlinks from both participating brands’ blogs, newsletters, and possibly their press contacts.
- Bonus links from third-party websites that share interesting giveaways or events with their audiences.
- Increased brand awareness and audience engagement, especially if there’s a strong incentive.
These sorts of partnerships are perfect if you’re keen on a high-energy campaign that gets people talking and sharing. It helps if you have a product or service that people are excited to win or experience. Similarly, it might not be the best fit if you’re unable to fulfil prizes, handle the logistics, or don’t have a partner with a similarly engaged audience.
Make sure your giveaway or event theme is super clear and specific. Generic “win a gift card” promos get ignored by audiences. Instead, focused events with a meaningful hook are far more shareable (and linkable).
7. Local or niche directory swaps
Directory swaps involve getting listed (and listing others) on curated directories or “recommended businesses” pages within your industry or local community. These aren’t mass-submission SEO directories – they’re tightly focused, handpicked collections that offer both relevance and trust.
For example, if you provide a SaaS tool for bookkeepers, you might reach out to associations, service providers, or industry blogs that maintain lists of useful tools. Or, if you’re a London-based brand, you could team up with a few local independent businesses to create a “Top Local Sustainable Brands” list. Everyone links to the page, and ideally, to one another.
You can expect:
- Easy-to-maintain backlinks that tend to be evergreen.
- Better visibility in niche communities or regional searches.
- A small but steady stream of referral traffic from relevant audiences
If no good directory exists in your niche, it’s a great chance to create one! Make sure you position it as a curated resource, not a link farm. You might choose to include short reviews, category filters, or added value that makes the page genuinely useful.
This sort of approach works if you’re part of a tight-knit niche or active in a geographic area with a supportive business community. On the other hand, global or enterprise-level businesses won’t suit this type of partnership as they don’t rely on community-level visibility.
8 best practices for SEO partnerships
Partnerships can be one of the most effective ways to earn natural backlinks, but only if they’re done thoughtfully. Without the right approach, even well-meaning collaborations can suffer confusion, wasted effort, or SEO missteps. Before you start reaching out to potential partners, take a moment to understand the principles that make these collaborations truly work:
1. Relevance is more important than reach.
You must partner with brands that speak to a similar audience to your own. A backlink from a small but highly relevant site will carry more weight than one from a big-name site in a completely different space.
2. Collaborations should be mutually valuable.
An effective partnership is two-way. Both businesses should benefit from the collaboration, and each of their audiences should be receiving real value – not just a backlink for you.
3. Always be transparent about your goals.
These collaborations will run best if you’re clear and upfront about your intentions. Are you aiming for backlinks, increased traffic, brand exposure, or all of the above? Clear goals make sure that everyone’s aligned from the beginning.
4. Ensure that links are natural and contextual.
Backlinks should only be placed where they make editorial sense. Instead of feeling like an overstuffed and out-of-place add-on, backlinks should feel like helpful resources. Otherwise, they can raise red flags to audiences and search engines.
5. Steer clear of over-optimised anchor text.
Google is quick to spot overly aggressive linking tactics. One classic example of this is keyword stuffing. The anchor text used for your backlinks must be natural and easy to read. If not, flags will be raised about your use of ‘black hat’ tactics.
6. Avoid link-for-link schemes.
Don’t fall into the trap of “you link to me, I’ll link to you” at scale. While occasional mutual linking can happen naturally, doing it systematically across multiple sites looks like a link scheme to Google. This can dilute their SEO value or, in the worst-case scenario, result in a penalty. Focus on partnerships that make sense independently, even if no link is exchanged.
7. Vet your collaborators.
Before teaming up with another brand, check their backlink history, spam scores, and the quality of their content. Listen to your gut if you sense any red flags; partnering with low-quality or shady websites will affect your reputation and credibility.
8. When content is sponsored, be honest!
Any time you pay for a placement (whether it’s a sponsored blog post, a product review, or a feature in a newsletter) the link should be clearly marked as paid. Failing to disclose this (or trying to disguise a paid link as an organic endorsement) goes against Google’s guidelines and can lead to search penalties.
Transparency not only protects your rankings but also builds trust with your audience and partners. When in doubt, label it.
Final thoughts
Earning high-quality backlinks doesn’t have to mean cold outreach and hoping for the best. By partnering with other businesses, you can create genuinely valuable content, reach new audiences, and build links in ways that are strategic, sustainable, and mutually beneficial.
As with anything in SEO, quality and intent matter. Thoughtless link exchanges or rushed campaigns can do more harm than good; while the right collaborations can lead to lasting relationships, growing authority, and long-term results. Remember, partnerships don’t have to be one-and-done deals. The strongest backlinks often come from long-term allies who genuinely want to support and promote your work over time.
For further assistance with your SEO or marketing needs, reach out to us here at purpleplanet. We offer a whole suite of digital solutions: