Profile creation backlinks: the profiles worth making and how to link them up
Profile creation is a link tactic that works only when the profile is a real page for a real presence, and the best ones are the ones that describe you the same way everywhere.
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 13 October 2026
A profile creation backlink is a link you get by making an account on a website and putting your web address in the profile. The tactic comes in two forms. The poor one is to register on hundreds of sites in a list, filling every profile with a keyword and a link. The good one is to build a small number of complete profiles on platforms where your customers, partners and peers actually look you up. The poor form carries no weight and invites the attention of Google's spam team. The good form gives you a handful of links that count, and more importantly a set of consistent descriptions of your business that people and AI assistants read.
This page separates the two, lists the profiles worth making by type of business, shows how to tie them together so that search engines understand they belong to one entity, and gives a short checklist for keeping them current.
Why the bulk version stopped working
When a profile page exists only because someone made an account to put a link on it, nothing else points to it, nobody reads it and it has no reason to rank. Spammers learned this and flooded forums and community sites with profiles carrying links, so many platforms now add nofollow or similar attributes to profile links, delete new profiles quickly, or require activity before a link shows. Google's spam policies include user generated spam and link spam among the behaviours it acts against, and forum links placed for optimisation are among its examples.
The effort in a bulk list is also lost on you. A thousand profiles from one afternoon share a creation date, an identical bio and a single address, which is the pattern a spam filter looks for.
The profiles worth making
Choose by where your buyers and your peers look. Ten complete profiles beat two hundred empty ones.
| If you are | Make profiles on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Any business | Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, LinkedIn company page | Searchers and map apps read them first |
| A software or app company | GitHub, a product marketplace such as G2 or Capterra, Product Hunt, Crunchbase | Buyers and journalists check them |
| A creative studio or freelancer | Behance, Dribbble, your portfolio platform of choice | The profile holds the work, and the work earns the link |
| A professional services firm | Your professional body's member directory, the licensing register, LinkedIn | The most credible listing you can hold |
| A local trade | Review platforms in your country, the local chamber of commerce, trade association pages | Customers read them before they call |
| An author, speaker or expert | A personal site, conference speaker pages, the publications you write for | Each one confirms who you are |
For a wider list of listings, with a test to apply to each, see backlink submission sites: the ones worth doing and the ones to skip.
How to make a profile that earns its place
- Complete every field. Name, description, category, location, hours, photos, logo, links. An empty profile is a signal that nobody tends it.
- Use the same name, address and description everywhere. Write a two sentence description once and adapt only the length. Platforms and assistants compare profiles, and agreement between them builds confidence.
- Use the same logo and a clear photograph. It lets a reader confirm they have the right company.
- Link to the most useful page, not always the home page. A profile on a design platform can link to the portfolio page. A professional profile can link to the page about that service.
- Verify the profile wherever the platform offers it. A verified profile is harder to copy or hijack.
- Add something real. A project, a post, a review reply, a certificate. A profile with activity looks like a business. One without looks like a footprint.
Tie the profiles to your site
Once the profiles exist, tell search engines that they all describe one organisation. The standard way is to add the address of each profile to the sameAs property of your Organization markup on your own site.
{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example Studio", "url": "https://www.example.com", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-studio", "https://github.com/example-studio", "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/example-studio" ]
}The names and addresses above are placeholders. Replace them with your own real profile addresses and list only profiles you control. Our guide to Organization schema gives the full block and explains which properties matter.
Keep them alive
- Put a review of all profiles in the diary once a quarter. Check the description, the links, the hours and the contact details.
- Update every profile on the same day whenever something changes: a new address, a rename, a new service.
- Close accounts you no longer use. A stale profile with an old phone number sends customers to the wrong place.
- Search your brand name once a month and look at which profiles appear on the first page. Fix the ones that are wrong.
Questions about profile creation backlinks
Do profile creation backlinks help SEO?
Profiles on platforms your customers use help, mostly because they are consulted by people and confirm your details. Bulk profile creation on unrelated sites does not help and can draw attention you do not want.
Are profile backlinks dofollow?
It depends on the platform, and many use nofollow or similar attributes for profile links. Build the profile for the audience and treat any ranking effect as a bonus.
How many profiles should I create?
Start with the four universal ones: Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and LinkedIn. Then add the three to six that fit your type of business.
Should I pay for profile creation?
No. Paying a provider to create hundreds of profiles buys the pattern that Google's policy describes. Build the few that matter yourself, or have a team member do it.
What is the difference between a profile link and a directory listing?
A profile is a page for you or your business on a platform where you hold an account. A directory listing is an entry in a list of businesses. The same rules apply to both: use them where people look.
Profiles are what the assistants read about you
The reason to complete a profile has shifted from the link to the description. When ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity is asked who offers a service, it assembles an answer from pages that describe businesses, and your profile on LinkedIn, Crunchbase or a review site is often one of the few pages that does so in plain words. If three profiles describe you three different ways, the answer will either leave you out or get you wrong. AI Knows Us asks the assistants the questions buyers in your category ask and records how each answer describes you, so you can compare it with the description you wrote and fix the profile that disagrees.