How to Get Backlinks Organically: A Live Experiment in Building a Linkable Asset
Most advice about backlinks starts in the wrong place.
It starts with outreach templates, guest post swaps, cold email sequences, or lists of websites to pitch. Those tactics can work, but they usually skip the harder question:
Why would anyone link to this in the first place?
That is the question we are testing at All Great Things.
We are running a live experiment to see whether a small site can earn backlinks organically by creating a genuinely useful, source-worthy asset instead of chasing links one by one.
The asset is our new GitHub CRM Index, a monthly data page that tracks CRM-related repositories on GitHub, including total CRM-tagged repositories, verified CRM projects, activity, stars, forks, languages, and commercial CRM context.
This post explains the experiment, the strategy behind it, and how we are thinking about organic backlink growth.
The Basic Idea
Organic backlinks usually come from one of four things:
- Original data
- Clear explanations
- Strong opinions
- Useful references people can cite
Most websites publish blog posts that summarize what already exists. That can help with search, but it rarely gives another writer, journalist, founder, analyst, or AI system a reason to cite the page.
A linkable asset needs to do more than answer a keyword. It needs to become a reference.
That is the bet behind the GitHub CRM Index.
Instead of writing another generic article about “best open source CRM software,” we built a data page that tracks the open-source CRM ecosystem using GitHub repository metadata. The page includes methodology, caveats, charts, rankings, and commercial CRM context so it can be cited as a living reference.
What We Built
The experiment has three parts.
First, we created a data asset: the GitHub CRM Index.
It tracks CRM-related repository activity on GitHub and separates the broad topic:crm universe from a manually reviewed set of verified CRM projects. That distinction matters because not every repo tagged CRM is actually a full CRM product.
Second, we added methodology and caveats.
This is important for trust. A backlink-worthy page cannot just throw numbers on a screen. It needs to explain where the data comes from, what the data includes, what it excludes, and what readers should not assume from it.
Third, we are supporting the asset with internal links.
This blog post links to the CRM Index. The CRM Index links back into relevant CRM and automation content. We will also link to both from an already indexed post so Google can discover the new page naturally and understand how it fits into the site.
That internal linking step matters because even a good asset can underperform if it launches as an orphan page.
Why This Can Earn Backlinks Organically
The page has a few traits that make it more linkable than a normal blog post.
It contains original data.
Even if the data comes from public GitHub metadata, the aggregation, filtering, methodology, and presentation create a new reference point.
It has a clear citation use case.
Someone writing about open-source CRM software, CRM alternatives, self-hosted CRM tools, or GitHub software trends can cite the page as a source.
It updates over time.
A monthly index has more long-term utility than a one-time listicle.
It includes caveats.
This makes the page more credible. It is not claiming to be a count of every CRM in the world. It is specifically a GitHub ecosystem index.
It connects to commercial context.
By including a separate commercial CRM comparison section, the page can support both open-source and commercial CRM research journeys.
The Organic Backlink Strategy
The strategy is simple:
Build something worth citing before asking anyone to cite it.
For this experiment, the backlink plan is not to blast thousands of generic emails. It is to create a page that can naturally fit into existing research, articles, comparison pages, newsletters, and AI-generated answers.
The promotion path looks like this:
Publish the asset.
Make sure the page is crawlable, indexed, internally linked, and technically sound.
Publish supporting content.
Write posts like this one that explain the strategy, methodology, and use case behind the asset.
Link from existing indexed pages.
Use already-discovered content to help search engines find and contextualize the new asset.
Monitor impressions and backlinks.
Track whether the page starts earning search visibility, referral traffic, mentions, or links.
Improve the asset monthly.
Refresh the snapshot, improve the methodology, and expand the analysis based on what people actually search for and cite.
What We Are Not Doing
We are not buying backlinks.
We are not publishing fake data.
We are not creating a thin “stats” page just to bait links.
We are not pretending the experiment has already worked.
This is a live test. The question is whether useful data, clear methodology, and strong internal linking can create enough trust and discoverability to earn links over time.
That is a slower approach, but it is also a more durable one.
How to Apply This to Your Own Site
If you want to get backlinks organically, start by asking what your market repeatedly needs to reference.
That could be:
- A pricing benchmark
- A software index
- A glossary with original examples
- A statistics page
- A teardown library
- A comparison database
- A calculator
- A benchmark report
- A curated list with real methodology
The key is to make the page useful even if nobody links to it yet.
A good linkable asset should answer these questions:
What does this page help someone prove, explain, compare, or decide?
Is there original data or original organization?
Would a writer, founder, analyst, or researcher have a reason to cite this?
Is the methodology clear?
Is the page internally linked from relevant content?
Can it be updated over time?
If the answer is yes, you have the beginning of an organic backlink strategy.
The Experiment We Are Watching
For our own test, we will be watching a few signals.
Search impressions for CRM and open-source CRM queries.
Referral traffic to the GitHub CRM Index.
New backlinks or citations.
LLM visibility and whether AI systems begin referencing the page.
Engagement from users who land on the index and continue into related CRM automation content.
The goal is not just to get links. The goal is to build a useful reference asset that can compound.
That is the part most backlink advice misses.
Organic backlinks are usually the result of usefulness, trust, and discoverability working together.
The GitHub CRM Index is our test of that idea.
You can follow the live asset here: GitHub CRM Index.
