How to Use a Free Strikingly Site for Web 2.0 Backlinks

Web 2.0 sites are free platforms where you can publish your own pages. Used well, they give you a place to publish helpful content that links to your main site. A post in the "Free backlink" series on X picks Strikingly, the site builder, as backlink number 9. Here is what the post suggests, what Strikingly's free plan actually gives you, and what I couldn't verify.

What is Strikingly?

Strikingly is a website builder aimed at simple one-page and small multi-page sites. Its free plan gives you a site at a yourname.mystrikingly.com address, and Strikingly's help center explains how to change that URL. Its homepage says every site includes a "Simple Blog", where each post has its own page. Custom domains are only available after you upgrade.

DR and link attributes

Domain Rating: the source post doesn't give a DR figure, and I haven't verified one. Check mystrikingly.com and your specific subdomain in your own SEO tool.
Link type: unknown. The post doesn't say whether links from Strikingly sites are dofollow. Strikingly's help page on adding links shows no nofollow option. That only means the editor doesn't expose one. It doesn't prove how the links are published. Check a live page's source.
Cost: free for the plan the post describes.
What the post reports: one free site "gave us 15+ linking pages", meaning the author got more than 15 pages linking back. It doesn't explain how, so treat it as one person's result.

Step-by-step: how to use it

The post gives four steps.

Step 1: Build a free mystrikingly site

Step 2: Add a few useful blog posts

Use the built-in blog to publish a few posts that are actually useful to readers: tutorials, comparisons, or guides related to your niche. Write original content that you'd be happy for a stranger to read, not spun or copied text.

Step 3: Link back to your main site naturally

Inside the posts, add links to your own site where they genuinely help the reader. In the Strikingly editor, highlight text, click the link icon and enter your URL.

Step 4: Check the result

After publishing, open the page source and look at the rel attribute on your link. Check whether the pages are indexed in Google (a site: search works). Repeat for each post.

Caveats and common pitfalls

Nofollow or dofollow is unverified. Don't report these as dofollow until you've checked.
You don't own the domain. On the free plan your site lives on Strikingly's subdomain. SEO writer Patrick Stox's Strikingly SEO guide warns that authority accrues to Strikingly, not to you, and cites Strikingly's own docs saying other sites on the same free subdomain can affect your indexing if they break Google's policies.
Free plan limits. The same guide lists a 5-page limit, no custom domain, no custom code and Strikingly branding on Free.
Thin content won't help. A Web 2.0 page with one paragraph and a link is unlikely to be indexed or valued. The post says "useful blog posts" for a reason.
Don't build a network of junk sites. Google's spam policies target link schemes and low-quality pages. Treat this as a few good pages, not a scale play.
I couldn't verify how long the pages take to be indexed, or whether Strikingly's terms limit this use. Read the terms before you start.

Which sites is this good for?

New sites that want a few extra editorial-style links and some branded results.
Brands that already produce guides and tutorials and can republish an adapted version.
A poor fit if you can't write useful content, or if you need only dofollow, authority-passing links.

Source

This guide is based on this post by @theseohacker on X ("Free backlink #9: Strikingly"). Product details were checked against Strikingly's website and help center.