How to Get Permanent Backlinks from Reddit

Reddit is a nightmare for link building.

There, I said it.

If you’ve ever tried to get a backlink to stick on Reddit, you probably walked away humbled—or banned.

That’s because Reddit isn’t your typical SEO playground. It’s a fiercely moderated, community-first platform with zero tolerance for self-promotion and an uncanny ability to detect BS.

You’ve got two layers of moderation working against you:

• Reddit-level algorithms that flag suspicious behavior (like new accounts joining too many subs too fast).
• Subreddit-level rules, filters, and human moderators that can kill your post or ban your account in seconds.

It’s a minefield.

But it’s also one of the most powerful backlink opportunities on the internet right now. Why?

Because Google is in love with Reddit.

Since late 2023, Reddit threads have been dominating the SERPs, ranking for everything from software reviews to obscure technical questions.

And when your brand gets mentioned in one of those threads? You’re getting more than just a backlink. You’re getting consistent referral traffic, brand visibility, and serious SEO authority.

We know, because we’ve spent the last 4 years figuring out how to make this work.

Our Herd Links service was born from that pain, and after 18 months of relentless testing, we built the systems that finally cracked Reddit at scale.

In this guide, I’m pulling back the curtain.

You’ll learn:

• Why Reddit backlinks are brutally hard to earn, and why most brands get banned trying
• What makes them so valuable today, especially with Google now favoring Reddit in search
• How we’ve helped clients land permanent links on threads pulling thousands of monthly visitors from Google

This isn’t about fluff or theory. It’s about real-world strategies, real moderation rules, and the art of making your links stick.

Let’s get into the fire.

TL;DR: Why Getting Backlinks from Reddit is Harder Than You Think

Reddit is one of the most unforgiving forums for link-building.

Between the moderation layers, community culture, and Google’s growing love for Reddit content, it’s a minefield with massive upside — if you know how to navigate it.

Here’s what you’re up against:

Challenge	Why It’s a Problem	Impact on Link Placement
🛑 Reddit-Level Moderation	Detects suspicious account activity (joining too many subs, posting too frequently).	New accounts can get shadowbanned before they even try to post links.
🔥 Subreddit-Level Moderation	Each subreddit has its own restrictions & filter rules.	Your comment may never be seen if it triggers an auto-mod filter.
👀 Community Scrutiny	Redditors despise self-promotion & can mass-downvote posts.	Even if a link gets posted, negative karma can bury it instantly.
❌ Manual Moderator Bans	Subreddit mods can remove posts & ban accounts at will.	Accounts need a long-standing, trusted presence to survive.
📈 Reddit’s Rising SEO Power	Reddit threads now rank for thousands of keywords.	Getting a link on the right thread can drive insane traffic & SEO benefits.

Reddit link-building isn’t about “posting a link.”

It’s about surviving multiple layers of moderation, earning community trust, and making sure your brand blends in, not stands out.

This isn’t a sprint.

It’s chess. And most marketers are still playing checkers.

Why Reddit’s SEO Visibility is Changing the Game

In case you haven’t noticed, Reddit has exploded.

We’re not talking anecdotal buzz — we’re talking cold, hard numbers backed by Google’s evolving algorithm.

Thanks to a formal partnership with Google (announced in early 2024), Reddit threads are now dominating search results. Not just for random topics, but for high-conversion, high-competition commercial queries like:

• “Best CRM for agencies”
• “Alternatives to HubSpot”
• “SaaS link building”

We’ve seen Reddit threads outrank homepages, G2 reviews, and product comparison blogs that would’ve held those top spots a year earlier.

Let’s look at the numbers:

From April 2023 to November 2024, Reddit’s monthly visibility jumped from 75M to 723M visitors. That’s not a typo.

This is part of a broader algorithmic shift toward community-driven, user-generated content (UGC for short).

Google has started rewarding platforms where real people answer real questions, because users trust them more than polished brand content.

Here’s what that growth looks like across a few key UGC platforms:

Platform	Monthly Visitors (Apr ’23)	Monthly Visitors (Nov ’24)
Reddit	75M	723M
Quora	57M	144M
Spiceworks	160K	2.4M
What to Expect	80K	1.5M
Money Saving Expert	170K	789K
Fodor’s Travel Community	113K	661K
Bogleheads	38K	621K
Shopify Community	123K	545K
Squarespace Community	3.8K	52K

This is the kind of trend that creates leverage. And SaaS teams that understand how to create forum backlinks are pulling ahead, fast.

But it’s not just about dropping backlinks.

It’s about creating or contributing to threads that rank in Google and genuinely recommend your product.

That’s what we help our clients do at scale through Herd Links.

By blending in naturally, creating value-first content, and understanding each platform’s moderation filters, we’re able to place mentions that survive and perform, sometimes for years.

The power of subreddits: Tapping into niche communities

Here’s the real secret sauce behind Reddit’s marketing strategy: subreddits.

Reddit isn’t one audience. It’s millions of micro-communities. Each one focused, opinionated, and self-governed.

You’ve got subs like:

• r/EntrepreneurRideAlong with indie SaaS builders sharing tool stacks
• r/seo_saas where SEOs and SaaS marketers trade growth strategies and tools
• r/smallbusiness with owners asking for software recs
• r/marketing, r/startups, r/ai_tools, r/PPC—each with thousands of marketers and operators who actually buy

These aren’t casual browsers.

These are niche-specific tribes of people looking for solutions, debating strategies, and asking for product recommendations every single day.

Some of these subreddits for entrepreneurs have hundreds of thousands of active members. A single thread in the right one can pull 10,000+ views in under 24 hours.

And because Reddit threads now rank so well in Google, the reach doesn’t stop on-platform.

We’ve placed client links in Reddit comments that now pull more traffic from Google than from Reddit itself.

Think about that for a second.

That’s why we obsess over subreddit targeting inside Herd Links.

Because when you place the right mention, in the right thread, in the right community, you can get compound gains.

You don’t just get a backlink. You get traffic, trust, conversions, and long-term visibility on a platform your competitors still don’t understand.

How to Get Backlinks from Reddit Without Getting Banned

Reddit doesn’t hand out backlinks.

It tests you first.

And if you show up like a marketer trying to game the system, you’re done. Shadowbanned, flagged, or chewed up by the community before your link even sees daylight.

Over the last four years running Herd Links, we’ve learned (the hard way) what it really takes to get links that stick — and accounts that survive.

It comes down to discipline, strategy, and understanding that Reddit isn’t just a platform. It’s a culture.

👇 And here’s what you’re really up against:

This is a live view from inside the Reddit moderation dashboard.

Every subreddit has access to safety filters like these, and they’re brutal.

Let’s break down what’s happening:

• Ban evasion: Reddit flags and removes posts from users suspected of using burner accounts.
• Crowd control: Subreddits can auto-filter posts from users who aren’t yet trusted in that specific community.
• Reputation: Comments from accounts deemed “low quality” (low karma, spam history, or no engagement) often get silently removed.
• Subreddit-specific filters: Mods can layer in rules that instantly nuke anything containing certain keywords, links, or phrases.
• Manual moderation: And of course, human mods can ban you on sight if they sense self-promotion or manipulation.

This is why your link didn’t show up.

This is why your comment vanished.

And this is exactly what we’ve reverse-engineered over four years of trial and error.

Here’s what we’ve learned:

✅ Use aged, trusted accounts with real history — Don’t just make an account and start dropping links. Reddit rewards authenticity and your comment history matters.

✅ Engage first, link later — Spend time contributing without links. Upvote, comment, join the conversation. Build a reputation before you make a move.

✅ Blend links into genuinely valuable answers — Your comment should stand alone as helpful, even if the link was removed. The link is the bonus, not the point.

✅ Target subreddits that match your ICP — Don’t just go for big subs. Go for the right ones where your actual users ask questions.

✅ Consider running an AMA — Want a legitimate way to drop your brand link with exposure? A well-executed AMA can be gold, if you’re transparent and bring real value.

Here are some things to avoid:

🚫 Don’t post the same link across subs — That’s textbook spam behavior. You’ll get filtered or reported.

🚫 Don’t write generic one-liners — “Great tool!” isn’t helpful. Redditors smell low-effort content a mile away.

🚫 Don’t argue with mods — If you get warned or removed, take the L. Push back, and you’ll be permanently banned.

🚫 Don’t post with a fresh account — Reddit’s spam detection (or Redditors) will bury you. Even if you’re saying something useful.

Reddit isn’t like Twitter or LinkedIn. It requires deep integration, patience, and finesse.

You can’t force your way into communities. You have to earn it.

And when you do?

You can unlock backlinks that drive compound traffic, trust, and long-term SEO gains.

The Herd Links Advantage: How We Crack Reddit at Scale

Most brands don’t just fail at Reddit link building—they get eaten alive.

Why? Because they treat Reddit like it’s a blog comment section or a forum from 2007. They roll in with a brand-new account, drop a link, and expect traffic to roll in.

It doesn’t.

What rolls in is a mod ban and a shadowban—sometimes in under 60 seconds.

Here’s why most Reddit link-building efforts go nowhere:

• They don’t understand Reddit’s layered moderation systems.
• They underestimate how long it takes to build credibility across multiple subs.
• They assume they can just post a link and walk away.

It doesn’t work like that.

Reddit is a high-trust environment.

If you don’t play by its rules or know how to quietly work around them, you’re out.

That’s exactly why we built Herd Links.

At Growth Partners Media, we spent 18 months refining a bulletproof system to earn Reddit backlinks that actually stick. And more importantly, scale.

Here’s what we do differently:

✅ We use aged, high-Karma accounts that look and act like real users.

✅ We engage in real conversations before dropping any links.

✅ We monitor subreddit-specific rules to avoid triggering auto-moderation filters.

✅ We prioritize third-party mentions—so your brand is recommended organically, not self-promoted.

🎯 Example 1:

We don’t just post links, we embed them in real, value-packed conversations.

Like this next one, a helpful reply to a new agency owner with a strategic tip and a relevant guide link. No fluff, no sales pitch—just pure value.

Results?

✅ Upvotes
✅ Engagement
✅ Link indexed
✅ Zero mod issues

That’s the Herd Links difference.

It’s not just about getting a link live.

It’s about getting it seen, indexed, and clicked.

🎯 Example 2:

We don’t just drop links — we embed them naturally into conversations where people are already asking for help.

In this thread, someone was looking for an intimate wedding venue in Southern California. Instead of blasting a random link, we crafted a thoughtful reply that acknowledged their specific needs (guest count, location, budget) — and used the word “here” to point to a curated resource that fit exactly what they were asking for.

✅ Not just “here’s a link.”
✅ Not just “go Google it.”
✅ A real answer + a real solution, with the link woven in smoothly.

The destination linked through the “here” anchor wasn’t just a sales page — it was a detailed resource packed with venues, filters, pricing info, and tips, created to genuinely help users searching for wedding locations.

You can read the client case study here for the full strategy and results.

🎯 Example 3:

In this thread, a new small business owner shared progress and asked for advice. Instead of jumping straight into promoting anything, we offered genuine, detailed tips about marketing, shipping, customer experience, and growth strategies.

Toward the end, we naturally introduced Red Stag by linking the idea of professional 3PL (third-party logistics) support, rather than pitching it, suggesting it as a helpful next step if they scaled.

This made the follow-up question (“Have you worked with Red Stag?”) completely natural, not forced.

✅ Value first, brand mention second
✅ Answer the need before offering the solution

This was part of a strategic SEO campaign for Red Stag Fulfillment, one of our longtime clients. You can dive deeper into the full Red Stag campaign and results in the case study here.

Reddit link-building is an art, a science, and an engineering challenge all rolled into one.

We’ve cracked it.

Now we help our clients do the same.

Final Takeaways: Why Reddit Backlinks Are Worth the Effort

Reddit backlinks aren’t easy. That’s the point.

They’re hard to earn, hard to scale—and insanely valuable because of it.

Here’s why they’re worth every ounce of effort.

• Reddit’s SEO visibility has exploded, making it one of the most valuable platforms for long-term backlinks.
• Getting links to stick is brutally difficult—but that difficulty is what makes them powerful.
• Most DIY attempts fail. The time it takes to build aged accounts, monitor mod rules, and craft link-worthy comments is beyond the scope of most teams.

That’s exactly why we built Herd Links: a proven, scalable system for acquiring high-quality Reddit backlinks that survive moderation, earn clicks, and drive real SEO value.

Reddit isn’t for the faint of heart.

But for brands who crack it—or partner with someone who has—the rewards are massive.

If you’re ready to unlock backlinks that get seen, clicked, and ranked.

We’re ready to help.

Free resource: The Forum Backlink explainer PDF

Want to see exactly how our UGC Backlink Service helps brands dominate forum link building and rank in LLMs like ChatGPT?

We’ve just updated our UGC Explainer PDF and it’s packed with new insights.

✅ LLM & AI Visibility Strategies – How Google, ChatGPT, and other AI models track brand mentions in forums—and how to leverage this for rankings.

✅ Proven Forum Link Building Process – Step-by-step breakdown of how we place high-impact links that get engagement, not deleted.

✅ The No-BS Truth About Forum SEO – Why most businesses fail at forum link building—and how to get it right.

This PDF is the definitive guide to building high-value forum backlinks at scale—and we’re making it available for free.

📩 Grab your copy now and start leveraging forum SEO the right way.