Listicle Link Building: Why Listicles Are a Must in 2025

Listicle link-building is a proven way to score FREE backlinks by getting your brand, website, or content featured in list-style articles on other sites.

What makes this link acquisition method so effective is the power of recommendations. For instance, if a trusted website gives your product or service a shoutout in a “Top 10 Link-Building Services of 2025” listicle, it can:

👉 Drive tons of pure referral traffic to your website — after all, who doesn’t want to check out the best services?

👉 Influence buying decisions of potential customers in your brand's favor — who wouldn’t want to go for the best services?

👉 Triple your online visibility with a fresh wave of backlinks! Again, who wouldn’t want to link to the top 10 in the industry?

You got it, EVERYONE!

To give you a clear grasp of listicle link-building, here’s what we’ll cover in this post:

🕵️‍♂️ What are listicles?

🕵️‍♂️ Why listicle link-building is a must for your strategy

🕵️‍♂️ Listicle examples we’ve built for our clients

🕵️‍♂️ How to build and monitor listicle backlinks?

What Is a Listicle?

A listicle is an article that organizes information into a list, with items, headlines, bullet points, or other easy-to-digest chunks, all centered around one main topic.

Each item is crafted to quickly explain or describe something in a simple, reader-friendly way, making it easy for anyone to explore a topic in just minutes.

You’ve definitely come across content like “Top Backlinks Software for SEO” or “Best Agencies to Boost Your Business,” packed with detailed descriptions, pricing, pros, and cons. That’s a classic listicle example — built to dish out tips, rank options, and sum up info all in one place!

Why Listicle Link-Building Is Important?

If you haven’t yet discovered the simple power of listicles for link-building, it’s time to add this gem to your strategy. Here’s why it’s a win:

Brand awareness & referral traffic

Listicles give your brand a chance to shine next to big names and top resources, getting new audiences to spot you. This creates a nice flow of organic referral traffic – when readers see you in a trusted listicle, they’re more likely to click through just because you’ve been recommended!

For example, we’ve recently made it onto WebFX’s listicle “Top Link Building Agencies That Can Boost Your Rankings”

Not only were we mentioned alongside other world’s most trusted service providers, but WebFX’es popularity gave us extra exposure to a bigger audience – especially a lot of people in our niche.

Featured snippets & top search results

Getting listicle backlinks is a pretty quick route to reaching "position zero" or top search results. 

And here’s the magic behind it:

💎 Google totally loves content that gets straight to the point! If your listicle answers those common user queries, you’re more likely to get featured in snippets, shining a spotlight on your link.

💎 Listicles with keywords like "Best," "Top," and "How-To" are prime candidates for featured snippets, as they typically show higher search volume and traffic potential. Take "best link-building services," for example.

📝 Bottom line: If your content is relevant, concise, and aligns with user intent on “how,” “best,” or “top,” your listicle websites are bound to soar to the top of the SERPs. Just look at how well this worked for Siege Media!

Homepage boost & domain credibility

Listicle link-building is awesome for leveling up your homepage as normally listicles point directly to it. And because homepage links pack a lot of SEO punch, they signal to search engines that your main page is a trusted go-to, ramping up your domain’s credibility and visibility in search results.

Timeless linking opportunities

Great listicles stay relevant over time because they’re easy to update with new information. This makes them long-term sources of backlinks, as bloggers and content creators frequently link to them as authoritative references for fresh citations.

Ease of social sharing

With social media booming and over 5.17 billion active users worldwide as of July 2024 (according to Backlinko), listicles are the perfect fit for sharing. Their scannable, headline-friendly format naturally drives engagement, and those shares and likes can triple visibility and backlinks too!

Listicle Link-Building Examples: How We Did It For Our Clients

To keep this section actionable, we'll break down some of the listicle backlink examples we've earlier delivered to our clients while working on their link acquisition strategies.

As a link-building agency, we collaborate with plenty of SaaS clients who, as you can imagine, really need listicle backlinks to attract niche audiences and stay front and center in product reviews.

See our listicle backlink wins for:

Sitechecker

We’re excited to share that our efforts paid off with a listicle backlink for Sitecheker on HubSpot's high-traffic "Best SEO Tools for Auditing & Monitoring Websites in 2024".

Look who’s rubbing shoulders with the best! 🙌

🏆 Practical value: Besides the awesome brand exposure, the real kicker was that when Sitechecker was added to this listicle in May 2023, it was already pulling in 40k+ organic visits!

Clerk Chat

Pretty much the same story: Clerk Chat, the SMS lead-gen software, needed a visibility boost. The perfect move would be to get its link featured in the “Top Lead Generation Platforms for Sales” listicle on the AIContentfy blog.

Just like that!

NewsCatcher

NewsCatcher specializes in delivering structured news data with its advanced News API. It pulls in over 1 million articles daily from 70,000+ sources worldwide, giving clients instant, real-time access to global news.

Since NewsCatcher targets both developers and businesses, we decided to secure a listicle backlink on a versatile marketing blog like Reverbico.

GanttPRO

GanttPRO is an easy-to-use online project management tool that simplifies planning, scheduling, and execution with Gantt charts.

Since GanttPRO suits industries like manufacturing, IT, staffing, marketing, and project management, a listicle backlink on the CocoSign Blog effectively targets its audience keen on digital transformation and workflow optimization.

Editorial Link

Yep, we use listicle link-building for ourselves too. If it works wonders for our homepages and helps bring in more clients, why not?

For instance, to ramp up our ranking for the “SaaS link-building services” keyword, we scored a listicle backlink on the Rock The Rankings Blog.

Here we are!

Similarly, for “Best Link-Building Companies” query, we were linked to SEO.com’s listicle on the same topic.

Feels good to be in the spotlight — especially when it comes with fresh backlinks rolling in!

How To Build Listicle Backlinks

Now that you’ve got an idea of what listicle websites look like, it’s time to get yourself listed on one. Save this handy guide if you're a newbie and need some tips!

Spot relevant listicles

Not quite ready to create your own listicle? No worries — scoring listicle backlinks is still on the table. Kick things off by scouting the web for popular listicles in your industry that are already making waves.

📌 The easiest way to start is by using specific keyword combos or Google’s advanced search tricks, like:

#Option 1:

Best [industry] tools

“Essential SEO tools” blog

“Must-have link-building soft” list 

“Best SEO software” article 

“Top SEO apps” listicle

#Option 2:

Top [field] services

“Top SEO services” + “brands”

“Best link-building providers” review

“Leading SEO services”

“Trusted SEO agencies” list

#Option 3:

Alternatives to [competitor/product]

“Best alternatives to Ahrefs”

“Top Semrush competitors” list

“Alternatives to Pitchbox” review

“Best Monday.com replacements” blog

📌 Another approach is to check out the backlinks of your competitors' listicles and spot chances to pitch your content as a better resource.

After you run your search, you’ll often come across listicles like “4 Best Free Keyword Research Tools” where Semrush is mentioned and linked. Definitely take a moment to check it out!

If it matches your search intent, check out the potential for your niche and the listicle’s ranking. It could be the perfect fit!

Sort and narrow down your prospects

Sure, it’s a bit of a grind, but it’s worth it to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities. Create a list of all the listicle leads that could be a good fit for you, then categorize them by relevance, outreach priority, or whatever other criteria matter most. This way, you’ll stay organized and focused, maximizing your chances of success.

Hunt down your leads’ contacts

Now that you’ve got your sources mapped out, it’s time to track down the right contacts so you can initiate your listicle outreach. Sounds simple, but many of the key players don’t make their contact info easy to find, so a little research is required.

Here are a few hacks to help you out:

🔍 Dig through their website

Take a look at your prospect’s website, especially the “About Us” or “Our Team” sections — this is where companies typically list their department heads. More often than not, you’ll find contact info like corporate emails or LinkedIn profiles for the folks handling content who could be the ones to negotiate your listicle backlinks.

🔍 Go to LinkedIn

If the target company’s website doesn’t list team members, hop onto LinkedIn and check out their product page. Look for employees in roles like content, marketing, brand management, or even SEO.

Many professionals include their email in the LinkedIn "Contact Info" section, so don’t forget to check the profiles of those relevant to you.

If the email is visible, send them a quick note explaining why you're reaching out. If not, try connecting on LinkedIn with a request, message, or InMail.

🔍 Use Specialized Tools

No luck with the options above? No worries! You can always turn to specialized tools to help with link-building outreach and scrape contact emails for your leads, like:

• Hunter.io

This is a super handy tool for finding and verifying email addresses tied to domains, so you can easily get in touch with website owners in your niche when you spot a good linking opportunity.

• Pitchbox

This all-in-one link-building tool helps with contact search, especially for content, so you can tackle two tasks at once!

With Pitchbox, for example, you can search for listicles using your target keywords. Once you run the search, the platform gives you a list of links to choose from.

You can click on any website in the list to see all the details, including the blog source and contact info for the people you can reach out to for the link. Super simple!

Create irresistible copy

Gone are the days of just sending an email and getting a link — competition is fierce. Plus, your listicle outreach email counts as a cold email, so you need to catch your recipient's attention in mere seconds they read the subject line. Last but not least, it’s 2025 — everyone expects personalized messages, or your pitch will just end up in the trash.

Here are a couple of templates to snag:

Option #1

🎯 Target: Morningscore’s “Best SEO Tools in 2025”

📧 Addressee: Karsten Madsen, Co-founder & CEO at Morningscore.io

🏆 Why it works: This message is laid-back, pointing out how great the listicle is while suggesting Morningscore.io’s blog can make it even better. It adds value without asking for anything upfront, keeping things friendly and leaving room for future chats.

Option #2

🎯 Target: “75 Best SEO Resources” by Ahrefs

📧 Addressee: Chris Haines, Senior SEO Specialist at Ahrefs

🏆 Why it works: This message shows you're in tune with the article and subtly shares your findings as potential additions, making the listicle even more complete. It also casually highlights the Editorial.Link blog, which could get Chris to consider it for his “Best Blogs” section in the Ahrefs listicle if it resonates with him.

Follow up!

If you noticed from above, catchy emails that can eventually bring you listicle backlinks are low-key designed with a follow-up in mind, so that you give a hook for a convo and build a relationship with a person in charge of giving you a link.

Scenario #1

If the initial message would be about establishing rapport, the follow-up could be already about telling what you actually pursue, after the listicle owner replied and nicely evaluated your content, for instance:

Scenario #2

If they don’t reply and you want to nudge them, wait a bit but ALWAYS follow up with a friendly check-in, asking if they’ve had a chance to look at your messages.

Tools like BuzzStream are just perfect for this!

Not only does it let you scrape contacts from target websites with its Buzzmaker Extension, but it also features smart email sequences with a follow-up function, ensuring you never miss a lead and can contact them on your pre-set schedule, even if they didn’t reply initially.

How to monitor listicles?

🎁 Bonus Tip!

Let’s say your listicle outreach didn’t go as planned. Sometimes, listicle websites will turn down your link, saying their participants are already set and they don’t need any substitutions. Fair enough, I guess.

But I’ve got a hack I personally use when this happens. I turn to Sken.io, a tool that helps me track changes in the content of targeted listicle websites.

Why do I do this?

Well, if you’ve reached out to website owners who’ve said they don’t add new products or services to their listicles, you can actually show proof of changes. That way, your link request isn’t just left hanging — it’s got backup! A lot of listicle owners end up changing their minds later on.

Final Words

If you haven’t tried listicle link-building yet, now’s the perfect time to add it to your SEO toolkit! It’s a fresh approach that stands out, and when done right in 2025, listicle link-building can push you to desired zero positions in SERPs — hello, more exposure and conversions!

Feeling a bit unsure about building listicle backlinks on your own? Just reach out to Editorial.Link! Contact us NOW and join the many happy clients who’ve ramped up their rankings with our expert link-building services.