What are link building communities?

Communities for SEOs and marketers focused on earning high-quality backlinks. Slack is the main platform, with curated communities facilitating crowdsourced SEO workflows and direct outreach between site owners looking to build mutually beneficial link relationships.

Where do most link building communities live?

Slack is the most common platform in this report (54% of 13 listings).

Are most of these communities free?

77% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.

How big is a typical link building community?

Among listings with public size data, the average is 11K members and the median is 3K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.

What do these communities usually include?

Forum is the most common (62%). Others that show up often include live chat and requires application.

How does Hive Index collect this data?

Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.

Where can I see the full list?

The full directory is on Hive Index's Link Building topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Link Building Communities Report: Stats, Platforms,...

Executive Summary

We analyzed 13 link building communities listed on Hive Index to understand where people gather, what these groups offer, and which communities attract the most interest.

The big picture: In this smaller sample, link building listings cluster on Slack, while a few large groups pull member averages up.

Source: Hive Index community database · Updated 2025-02-01

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Communities: 13
Platforms: 4
Avg members: 11K
Median members: 3K

Where Link Building Communities Are Hosted

Slack
7(54%)
Facebook
3(23%)
LinkedIn
2(15%)
Reddit
1(8%)

Format mix

Chat communities
7(54%)
Forum / feed-based
4(31%)
Other platforms
2(15%)

Chat communities is most common (54%), but forum / feed-based is also well represented (31%).

Slack leads (54% of listings).

Audience Size & Access

Community size

Tiny
<20 members
0(0%)
Small
20-100 members
0(0%)
Medium
100-1,000 members
4(31%)
Large
1,000-10,000 members
3(23%)
Huge
10,000-100,000 members
4(31%)
Massive
100,000-1M members
0(0%)
Gigantic
1M+ members
0(0%)

2 communities have unknown member counts.

Free vs paid

The average is much higher than the median (11K vs 3K), which usually means a few large groups are pulling the average up.

How Link Building Differs From Other Categories

Link Building is less free-to-join, smaller, and more paid or gated, compared with typical Hive Index topics.

Metric	Link Building	Hive Index average
Free to join	77%	85%
Median members	3K	24K
Average members	11K	652K
Paid or apply-to-join	23%	15%
Live chat	46%	40%
Topic pageviews / mo	687	725

Feature Mix

Common features appear in at least 15% of listings.

Common Features

Forum
62%
Live Chat
46%
Requires Application
15%

Niche Features

Job Board
8%
Member Perks
8%
Paid Community
8%

Forum appears on 62% of listings.

What Visitors Click

Outbound clicks / mo: 200

Platform supply vs. clicks

Platform	Communities	Share of communities	Outbound clicks	Share of clicks
Slack	7	54%	164	83%
Facebook	3	23%	31	16%
LinkedIn	2	15%	3	2%

Share is calculated within this topic.

Slack hosts 54% of listings and 83% of clicks, so supply and interest line up.

Most-clicked formats

Chat communities
164(83%)
Forum / feed-based
31(16%)
Other platforms
3(2%)

Most-clicked features

Live Chat
162(82%)
Forum
104(53%)
Requires Application
104(53%)
Member Perks
68(34%)
Job Board
7(4%)
Paid Community
7(4%)

Most-clicked size ranges

Medium
102(52%)
Large
33(17%)
Huge
20(10%)

Top-clicked listings

Growth Partners
68(34%)
BackLinks
36(18%)
Link Building - ML
23(12%)

Most clicks go to chat communities and forum / feed-based communities.

Trends

Founded year

Not enough founding-year data to chart yet.

Community Quality & Ratings

Only 3 communities have ratings so far, so read this as a small sample.

4.8 average rating across 3 communities.

Rated examples

Methodology & FAQ

Methodology

This report uses communities in the Hive Index database tagged as Link Building. We exclude removed or suppressed listings. Member counts, traffic, features, reviews, and ratings may vary by source and are updated periodically.

•We only have a handful of listings so far, so treat these numbers as directional.
•Last updated 2025-02-01

FAQ

: Communities for SEOs and marketers focused on earning high-quality backlinks. Slack is the main platform, with curated communities facilitating crowdsourced SEO workflows and direct outreach between site owners looking to build mutually beneficial link relationships.
: Slack is the most common platform in this report (54% of 13 listings).
: 77% are free to join. The rest require payment, an application, or both.
: Among listings with public size data, the average is 11K members and the median is 3K. The median is usually the better signal for a typical group because a few large ones inflate the average.
: Forum is the most common (62%). Others that show up often include live chat and requires application.
: Listings are submitted by community builders and researchers, reviewed for relevance, and updated with platform, feature, member, review, and traffic data where available.
: The full directory is on Hive Index's Link Building topic page, where you can filter by platform, size, features, and more.

Keep exploring

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All Link Building communities

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