Design & media

gr-backlinks

Try it

Systematic backlink building for indie founders. Covers 5 channel types ranked by GEO + SEO ROI: Wikipedia (entities), authoritative media (PR), industry reviews (G2/Capterra/Product Hunt), Reddit/Quora discussions, and HARO/Featured.com expert quotes. Designed for 0→1 sites where domain authority is the bottleneck. Aligns with 2026 Google/Bing GEO guidance: backlinks are the strongest brand-authority signal AI search engines use to decide citations. Defaults to dev/B2B link sources; for 2C products (education, consumer apps) authority links differ — see gingiris-seo-geo/references/2c-adaptation.md.

What it does

Systematic backlink building for indie founders. Covers 5 channel types ranked by GEO + SEO ROI: Wikipedia (entities), authoritative media (PR), industry reviews (G2/Capterra/Product Hunt), Reddit/Quora discussions, and HARO/Featured.com expert quotes. Designed for 0→1 sites where domain authority is the bottleneck. Aligns with 2026 Google/Bing GEO guidance: backlinks are the strongest brand-authority signal AI search engines use to decide citations. Defaults to dev/B2B link sources; for 2C products (education, consumer apps) authority links differ — see gingiris-seo-geo/references/2c-adaptation.md.

The skill document

⚠️ 2C 产品的外链调整

本 skill 的 5 类渠道(Wikipedia / 媒体 PR / G2 评测 / Reddit-Quora / HARO)偏 dev/B2B。2C 消费品 / 教育 的权威链接来源不同:

  • 教育:学校 / 留学机构 / 考试论坛 / 教育媒体 > 普通付费外链。
  • 通用 2C:行业垂直媒体、地区 KOL、社区高赞帖。
  • G2 / Capterra(B2B 软件评测站)对 2C 基本无效 → 换 App Store 评分 + 垂类榜单 + 应用媒体测评。
  • YMYL 品类:权威机构背书的链接权重远高于数量;切勿买链/造评(Google 数天内识别)。

完整 2C 渠道数据库 + 公开来源见 → gingiris-seo-geo/references/2c-adaptation.md


Why this skill exists

Phase 2 missing piece: We do title/content/schema/cluster optimization but have zero systematic backlink work. Article research (2026-05): backlinks are the #1 GEO signal — LLMs decide citations partly by brand authority, which is downstream of backlink graph.

Iris now runs two independent domains: gingiris.tools (content/blog, Vercel) and analook.com (product). Both are young domains with near-zero backlink profiles — gingiris.tools restarted from scratch after the 2026-05-27 migration off the banned GitHub Pages account (old github.io link equity is permanently lost, unrecoverable), and analook.com's only inbound links so far are low-DA directory submissions. On-page work alone cannot beat Wikipedia / Hootsuite / Wired for head terms on either domain — only backlink quality + count can. The upside of independent domains: every earned link now accrues to an asset we control, not to a github.io subpath.

Before planning any backlink work, read data/backlinks-status.md first — it records what's already been spent/submitted (directory batches, refunds, pending claims) so we don't re-buy or re-submit.


The 5-Channel Priority Matrix

Adopted from 2026-05 WeChat article + JeffLi1993 / AgriciDaniel / zubair-trabzada skills audit:

ChannelSEO ValueGEO ValuePriorityEffort/week
Wikipedia dedicated entry⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐MAX3-6h (one-time setup, ongoing edits)
Authoritative media (PR)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐MAX2h (HARO + outreach)
Industry reviews (G2/Capterra/PH)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐HIGH1h (one-time submission)
Reddit/Quora discussions⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐HIGH2h (sustained presence)
Generic backlinks (directories/blogs)⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐MEDskip until top 3 done

Rule: Start from highest GEO value. SEO-only signals (DA passing) are less leveraged than 2-3 years ago.


When to use this skill

  • "I want to build backlinks for my site"
  • "How do I get into Wikipedia?"
  • "How do I do HARO / Featured.com?"
  • "What's a Reddit / Quora strategy that doesn't get me banned?"
  • "How do I get into G2 / Capterra?"
  • Phase 2 monthly checkpoint shows domain authority capping ranking

Channel 1: Wikipedia (highest GEO leverage)

Reality check before you start

  • Wikipedia is notability-gated, not effort-gated
  • Threshold: 5+ independent reliable-source articles discussing your subject substantively (not in passing)
  • Listicle mentions, PR releases, sponsored content do NOT count
  • Paid Wikipedia services (Fiverr / WikiExperts / Wiki Mavericks): 80% of articles deleted within 6 months — they fail notability not because of editor skill

Correct sequence

  1. Build the case file first (4-12 weeks)

    • Earn 5+ independent press articles via Channels 2 + 3 below
    • Document them in a data/wikipedia-prep/ folder
    • Format: {publication, date, url, key_quote, indepth_or_passing}
  2. Wikidata first, Wikipedia second

    • Create a Wikidata entity (much lower notability bar) → builds a structured record AI crawlers find
    • LLMs heavily weight Wikidata for entity recognition
  3. Use Articles for Creation (AfC)

  4. Hire a real editor (optional)

    • Search Upwork for "Wikipedia editor 1000+ edits 5+ years"
    • Rate: $80-200/hr
    • Must disclose payment per WP:PAID — non-negotiable
    • Avoid agencies charging fixed $2k+ for "guaranteed" articles (banned by 2026 standards)

Checklist before submission

  • Subject has 5+ deep independent sources (not press releases)
  • Each notability claim has a citation
  • Neutral point of view (no marketing language)
  • Wikidata entity exists
  • All paid contributors disclosed
  • Article has 600-1,500 words (too short = "stub" rejection)

Channel 2: PR / Authoritative Media

Path A: Inbound — HARO / Featured.com / Connectively / Qwoted

Journalists request expert quotes daily. Reply with concise, citable answers → published article with backlink.

⚠️ Step 0 — 渠道存活验证(先做,再排周任务):HARO 品牌 2024-25 经历多轮重组(Connectively 一度关停后 2025-04 重开;HARO 品牌 2025-05 被 Featured.com 收购),"HARO" 老地址/老流程随时可能失效。排任何周任务前,先逐个验证:平台还活着吗?能注册吗?注册后真的收到 query 邮件了吗? 教训:2026-05-26 审计发现周提醒任务空跑数周——0 个订阅存在,funnel 是空的(memory project_haro_backlinks.md)。当前状态见 data/backlinks-status.md

  • Connectively: connectively.us — 2025-04 重开,AI-spam 较多但可用(Iris expert profile 已建)
  • Qwoted: qwoted.com — verification-based,质量最高(Iris source profile 已建)
  • Featured.com: featured.com — 2025-05 收购 HARO 品牌,量最大(可选补充)
  • 免费补充:Source of Sources (sourceofsources.com) / Help a B2B Writer

验证通过且 query 邮件真的进 inbox 之后,才把该平台排进 weekly cadence。

Reply template (works ~15-25% of the time):

Hi [Journalist],

I'm Iris Wei, ex-COO of AFFiNE (60k+ GitHub stars). For your question
about [topic], here's a 3-sentence answer with concrete data:

[ANSWER: lead with a number, give the mechanism, end with a takeaway.
50-100 words. Cite a specific personal experience, not generic advice.]

If you need a longer quote or follow-up, happy to share more.

— Iris
Site: https://gingiris.tools
Twitter: @WeiYipei

[Disclosure: I run gingiris.tools — no expectation of a link, just a useful quote.]

Pace: 3-5 responses/week. Time/response: 8-12 min. Expected: 1-2 links/month.

Path B: Outbound — Targeted journalist outreach

For deep-dive features, not 1-line quotes.

  1. Identify 10 journalists who cover your niche (use Twitter / Muck Rack)
  2. Build 3-week warm-up (read + comment on their posts, no DM yet)
  3. Pitch a specific story angle (not "want to feature my product")
  4. Offer exclusive data, customer interview, or unique angle

Best pitch types for Iris:

  • "I led AFFiNE from 0 → 60k GitHub stars. Here's the playbook." (TechCrunch / The Information)
  • "Why most OSS marketing playbooks are wrong" (Wired / The Verge)
  • "Real data: 30 Product Hunt #1 launches in 4 years" (Fast Company / Forbes)

Channel 3: Industry Reviews (G2 / Capterra / Product Hunt / SourceForge)

One-time submissions (high ROI for any SaaS / open source)

PlatformURLWhat to submitBacklink type
G2g2.com/products/newProduct + featuresProfile + reviews
Capterracapterra.com/vendors/sign-upProduct + pricingProfile + reviews
Product Huntproducthunt.com/posts/newEach major versionListing
SourceForgesourceforge.net/projects/addOpen source onlyProject page
AlternativeToalternativeto.netFreeProfile + alt-listing
StackSharestackshare.ioTech stackProfile

Once submitted, ask early users for genuine reviews (5-10 reviews unlocks featured placement on most platforms).


Channel 4: Reddit / Quora / Hacker News

Anti-pattern (gets you banned)

  • Drop your URL in a top-level post
  • Generic "check out my tool" comments
  • Multiple accounts (sockpuppeting)

Reddit:

  1. Build account karma to 500+ over 4-8 weeks (comment in non-promotional subs first)
  2. Find 5-7 subreddits where your audience hangs out
  3. Answer questions deeply with real experience — link to your blog only if it directly answers (1 in 10 responses)
  4. Once respected: AMA in r/SaaS, r/Entrepreneur, r/IndieHackers, r/OpenSource

Quora:

  1. Pick 3 topics where you can speak with authority
  2. Answer specific questions, not topic-wide overviews
  3. Each answer: 200-500 words + 1 personal anecdote
  4. Link to blog only when blog has the deeper version of your answer

Hacker News:

  1. Build karma to 50+ before posting
  2. Show HN: best slot Tuesday 9am ET (see existing /gr-oss-marketing for details)
  3. Engage with every comment in first 6 hours

Why this matters for GEO

LLMs heavily weight Reddit / Quora content during training:

  • ChatGPT cites Reddit ~12% of its responses (2026 Q1 audit)
  • Perplexity grounds 18% of answers in Reddit/Quora
  • Claude weights Quora answers for "how to" queries

Directories, guest posts on low-DA sites, blogger network exchanges. Low GEO value in 2026.

Don't waste time here until Channels 1-4 are mature.


Workflow: First 30 days for Iris

前置读入data/backlinks-status.md(已花的钱、已铺的目录、待领的资产——避免重复购买/提交)。

Week 1

  • 渠道存活验证(Channel 2A Step 0)+ 补齐缺的平台注册
  • Create 1 Featured.com answer per day = 7 responses
  • Submit AFFiNE + Gingiris to G2, Capterra, AlternativeTo, StackShare (Channel 3)

Week 2

  • HARO/Featured: 5 responses
  • Identify 10 journalists covering OSS / SaaS growth (Channel 2B prep)
  • Start Reddit karma build in r/SaaS, r/Entrepreneur (Channel 4)

Week 3

  • HARO/Featured: 5 responses
  • Pitch 3 journalists with specific story angle (Channel 2B)
  • Quora: answer 3 questions in your domain

Week 4 + Monthly retro

  • HARO/Featured: 5 responses
  • Count backlinks earned (use scripts/backlinks-audit.py — Tier 0 free)
  • Update Wikipedia case file (Channel 1 prep)

Months 2-3

  • First Wikidata entity submission
  • First AfC Wikipedia submission (if 5+ independent sources accumulated)
  • Reddit AMA in 1 high-fit sub

Scripts

Uses Common Crawl + verification crawler to get baseline:

  • Inbound link count from common crawl
  • Verify each known link (HTTP 200 + still links to us)
  • Domain-level metrics: in-degree, PageRank approximation, harmonic centrality

Run monthly to track growth.

scripts/haro-helper.py (planned)

  • Parse incoming HARO emails
  • Auto-suggest which to respond to (based on Iris credentials)
  • Draft 3-sentence answer skeletons

Tracking

Maintain data/backlinks.jsonl (one line per backlink):

{"date":"2026-05-15","from":"techcrunch.com","to":"gingiris.tools","anchor":"AFFiNE","channel":"PR","tier":1,"context":"60k stars article"}

Use this for:

  • Monthly retro (Channel mix vs target)
  • Phase 2 checkpoint (correlate backlink growth with SERP rank changes)
  • Wikipedia case file building

Anti-patterns (avoid)

  • Paid agency Wikipedia services — sockpuppet farms, articles deleted
  • Reddit coordinated fake accounts — gets you banned permanently
  • Generic HARO replies — quote rate <2% without specific credentials
  • Buying links — Google's algorithm now flags within days
  • Asking friends to write inauthentic reviews on G2 — flagged + removed
  • Guest posting on link farms — negative SEO
  • Prefer legitimate ecosystem placement: relevant Awesome Lists, integration partner pages, package registries, template galleries, conference resources, and README “works with” sections.
  • Earn the link with a working integration, useful example, benchmark, or original dataset; follow each repository/site's contribution policy.
  • Log date, hypothesis, source, destination, asset, outreach, status, referral visits, activated users, 30d outcome. A live link without relevant visits or activation is not automatically a win.
  • Never disguise sponsored placement as editorial coverage; retain disclosure and evidence for every paid or reciprocal placement.

Cascade recommendations

  • Channel 2 PR success → gr-blog-post reference that media article in our content (build social proof)
  • Channel 4 Reddit AMA → schedule via gr-oss-marketing
  • Wikipedia entity created → update gr-geo-cite to track Wikipedia citations in AI responses (highest-priority test)
  • Backlinks accumulated → re-run gr-seo-patrol to measure rank impact

API dependencies

ServiceEnv varTierCost
Common Crawl (CDX index)none0 (always)Free
Moz APIMOZ_TOKEN1 (optional)$99/mo
Bing Webmaster APIOAuth2 (optional)Free with verified site
DataForSEO BacklinksDATAFORSEO_B64 (existing)3 (you have)Pay per query

Start at Tier 0 + Tier 3 (DataForSEO already configured for gr-seo-patrol).

Related skills

Use when the user asks about backlinks, referring domains, link building, broken links pointing at them, or link gaps versus competitors. Analyzes a backlink profile and produces a human-reviewed link-opportunity plan — reclamation, competitor intersection, linkable assets, unlinked mentions. Import/direct-provider modes; never automates outreach or disavow.

1 installs

Backlink profile analysis: referring domains, anchor text distribution, toxic link detection, competitor gap analysis. Works with free APIs (Moz, Bing Webmaster, Common Crawl) and DataForSEO extension. Use when user says backlinks, link profile, referring domains, anchor text, toxic links, link gap, link building, disavow, or backlink audit.

Route product-growth requests to one Gingiris specialist skill. Use when broad or explicit requests about launch, Product Hunt, GitHub/open-source growth, SEO/GEO, B2B/PLG, ASO, interviews, competitors, KOL, UGC, community, content, backlinks, or README conversion, including 出海增长、产品发布、找增长渠道、竞品分析、 用户访谈、社区运营. Ask short multiple-choice questions only when the route is unclear; then load and run one specialist rather than the full collection.

1 installs

Gingiris growth toolkit 主入口。当用户问"怎么做增长"、"怎么发 PH"、"SEO 掉了"、"写篇博客"、"分析对手"等出海增长问题时调用。 根据问题类型自动路由到对应子 skill(gr-seo-patrol / gr-blog-post / gr-ph-launch 等)。