Finding link building donors has moved beyond simply checking DR or backlink counts. In 2025, the landscape is smarter, competition is tougher, and risks are costlier. That’s why link builders must balance domain quality, natural link profiles, and budget constraints. Frameworks, in turn, help structure the process, accelerate decision-making, and allow you to scale results without relying too much on personal judgment. In this article, we’ll break down where to find donors, what a quality site looks like today, and which frameworks will save time and support strategic work.
What a Good Donor Looks Like in 2025
Domain Rating may still serve as a starting filter, but it says nothing about the real value of a link. It’s worth looking deeper — at live traffic, growth dynamics, behavioral signals, and content quality.
Traffic
The first thing that matters is the traffic distribution across pages, available via Ahrefs — Top Pages. If the traffic is inflated by bots or concentrated on a single 10-year-old article, that’s a red flag. Instead, look for steady, organic growth, a stable number of referring domains, and relevant search queries. You can check manually in the SERP or via Semrush — Positions, to see whether the site ranks many similar pages for the same keyword.
Topical Relevance
Majestic’s Topical Trust Flow helps assess whether the site fits your niche. If you're promoting a financial product, a link from a fashion blog — even with a high DR — won’t carry SEO weight. Indexation is just as critical. If the site isn’t indexed (check via site:domain on Google), it means Google has already delivered its verdict — and it’s not in your favor.
Content People Actually Read
A good donor publishes and updates content, engages a live audience, receives comments, and maintains social media interaction. If the site structure is logical and links appear organically within the body of the text — not stuffed in the footer or SEO stubs — that’s another strong signal.
The Site Explorer has a Content changes feature — you can enable it through the menu in Overview → Performance chart. This function displays change markers ("bubbles") and allows you to compare page versions in Page inspect. If the content hasn’t been updated for 3 years — it’s a “dead” site.
Behavioral Signals
And finally, behavioral signals. If a website has a low bounce rate and users spend more than 1–2 minutes on its pages — that’s a trust indicator. Add to that the fact that the site ranks its own pages in Google for target queries (not just brand searches) — and you’ve got proof of authority (that same E-E-A-T Google loves so much).
Use Ahrefs to determine whether traffic comes from branded queries. If 80% of it is “site name + review” or “site name + login” — that’s not the kind of traffic that will pass value to you.
Where to Find Donors
Let’s start with the obvious — tools everyone knows but should use correctly.
When analyzing competitor backlinks in Ahrefs, filter them carefully. Focus on links from “live” pages that have at least some organic traffic (e.g., 100+ visits/month). Make sure the site’s language matches your market — a link from a Swedish-language site likely won’t benefit an English-language SaaS. Next — only Dofollow, and only links placed within the main body content.
To track the number of outbound links on a page in Ahrefs, go to Site Explorer, enter the URL, and open Outgoing linksfrom the left-hand menu — it will show all links leading from the analyzed page to external sites. If there are more than 40 — that’s a red flag. Your link will likely get lost among dozens of others and pass almost no value.
Another effective, though often underrated, method is manual SERP analysis. Just enter a target query in Google (e.g., “project management tools”) with a modifier like inurl:blog and check domains manually. It’s slower than using Ahrefs, but in return, you’ll find “alive” blogs that haven’t yet made it into link marketplaces or been spammed by other link builders.
- Use GPT with prompts like: “Generate 20 informational queries users search for when choosing [your product/niche].” Then take each query and search Google with inurl:blog, intext:guest post, intitle:"how to" — and uncover websites untouched by outreach spam.
Don’t forget about niche directories — their strength lies in accumulated trust. For SaaS projects, platforms like G2, Product Hunt, or AlternativeTo work great. In healthcare, top-tier informational portals like VeryWellHealth or Healthline are gold. These sites aren’t always open to guest posting, but if you get in — it's a huge win.
If you’re using a ready-made donor list — pay attention to moderation. Ideally, sites shouldn’t just be grouped by DR or link count, but manually reviewed for relevance, quality, and page activity. For example, the Links-Stream database is hand-curated, thematically grouped, and constantly updated. This approach can save you dozens of hours in analysis — especially when launching into a new niche.
Another resource often overlooked: Reddit communities, Discord servers, Facebook groups. You might not always get a “classic” SEO link there, but you can discover donors that haven’t been overused. Someone mentions a blog run by a friend, someone else drops a useful resource list — all of these are ways to find strong sites before your competitors do.
- Don’t stop at the first 30 Ahrefs URLs. Dig deeper. The ones who look outside the box are usually the ones who win.
Frameworks for Donor Selection: How to Structure the Process
Well-segmented, prioritized, and content-aligned opportunities — that’s a strategy ready to scale. Here are the frameworks to implement it step by step.
TIER Framework
The first layer of systemization is breaking donors into tiers by value.
- Tier 1 — the flagships: large portals, thought leaders, sites that are hard to access and often expensive. Reputation and link impact matter most here.
- Tier 2 — mid-level: niche blogs, media, industry-specific sites. Easier to approach, more open to content-based collaborations.
- Tier 3 — younger sites still gaining authority but topically aligned. Keep them on your radar — some will grow into Tier 2s.
For example, promoting a crypto niche startup:
Tier 1 = giants like Coindesk, Cointelegraph
Tier 2 = mid-sized blogs like Forklog or select Medium channels
Tier 3 = Ukrainian crypto blogs that are still growing but attract the right audience
ICP — Ideal Contributor Profile
The Ideal Contributor Profile framework helps define which donor is most beneficial for your project. It’s not just about metrics — but audience relevance, content format, and niche fit.
For an edtech platform selling online courses in the US, an ideal donor is an English-language site in the education space, publishing content on productivity, career growth, self-learning, sharing case studies, and open to guest contributions. That kind of link builds brand and authority.
To build your own ICP, define:
- Niche (category)
- GEO
- Target audience
- Accepted formats: guest posts, case studies, interviews
Link Opportunity Scoring
Now — prioritization. Your donor list is raw material. This framework turns it into action. Assign scores (e.g., 0–10) across key criteria: topical relevance, traffic, openness to collaboration, social presence.
Example: topicality — 4, traffic — 4, communication ease — 2, social activity — 2.Put this into a table (Google Sheets is best), and you instantly see where to start. The top 20 domains are your pitch list.
Content Fit Matrix
The final framework maps your available content types to the kinds of links you want to earn. Not every format fits every placement.
- A how-to article is great for guest posts and roundups
- An analytical piece is versatile — perfect for mentions, interviews, or guest contributions
- Product-focused content is harder to pitch as a guest post, but works well for brand mentions or native placements
Create this matrix for your niche — it becomes a roadmap for matching each donor with the right content offer.
The key here is not to get stuck using frameworks for the sake of frameworks. They’re here to simplify your life, free your brain from routine, and give you space for real tactics. When your donor search and selection is structured, decisions are faster, quality is higher, and results — predictable and clear.
How to Automate Donor Discovery and Evaluation
The simplest yet most effective setup is connecting Google Sheets with the Ahrefs API. It works almost like a link building CRM: metrics like DR, traffic, number of referring domains, anchors, and page types are pulled automatically. Then, in Sheets, everything is visualized — red highlights what fails basic filters, green marks the top prospects. The best domains automatically float to the top.
Another case: automated classification of SERP results. We parse them using SEO Minion, paste the URLs into a table, and add a GPT formula: “Rate the topical relevance to [X] on a scale from 1 to 5.” The result? A ready-labeled list with no need to click through every page manually. This saves hours and lets you focus on pitching.
By the way, one perfect tool for working with a donor in depth is Screaming Frog. When we spot an interesting site, we crawl it entirely — pull all blog pages, author profiles, and contact info. Then we use that data for precise outreach: we contact a specific author, on a specific topic, and reference their own article. This approach works far better than generic pitches.
How We Choose Donors Across Different Niches
What works in B2B SaaS might completely flop in gambling — and vice versa. That’s why we don’t just reuse frameworks blindly — we adapt them to the market, audience expectations, and most importantly, acceptable risk levels.
In B2B SaaS, we focus on thought leadership. It’s not just about getting a link — it has to support the brand and authority. That’s why we target platforms that publish deep content: Medium, HackerNoon, IndieHackers. You don’t need dozens of links — just three that perfectly match your ICP.
In gambling/adult, the logic flips. The first checkpoint isn’t content — it’s indexation. If the site isn’t indexed, no other metric matters. Then comes deep toxicity analysis: domain history, anchor profile, referral spam level — all critical in a high-risk niche.
As for donor types, niche blogs, review aggregators, and forum placements work great. Think AskGamblers, or even niche-specific forum threads — far better than forcing gambling content into “white-hat” media. In this niche, we also run broad but heavily filtered link campaigns — where speed and volume matter, but quality control remains strict.
While these are very different cases, what unites them is structure — and ditching one-size-fits-all logic.
Conclusions
Successful link building isn’t about budget — it’s about structure, prioritization, and automation. Frameworks give you a clear action model: what to do with each donor type, how to move them through the funnel, and when to walk away.If you’ve read this far — audit your own approach. Do you have a working TIER framework? Can you describe your “ideal” donor without improvising? Do you evaluate sites with scores — or just gut feeling?
If even one answer is “no” — bookmark this article. It could be the turning point where your process shifts from manual chaos to a scalable, structured, and highly effective system.
