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Resource pages look like the easiest link in SEO. Someone built a page whose whole job is to link out to useful things. If your page is useful, you just ask to be added.
Most guides on the topic say this works well and quote response rates from agencies and tool vendors. We have a different source. Mentiohunt emails sites on behalf of the businesses that use it, and every prospect is tagged with the kind of link opportunity it is. Between July 13 and October 23, 2026, 464 of those prospects were resource pages.
They replied less than any other large link type. Here's what that data shows, how to pitch resource pages anyway, and where they fit next to the link types that answer more often.
Resource page outreach, Jul 13 – Oct 23, 2026
What resource page link building is
A resource page is a curated list of links that a person maintains to help their readers: a pottery guild's "Resources for new potters", a library's guide to a subject, a "Tools we use" page on a small business blog, or a "Further reading" section at the end of a long guide.
Resource page link building means finding those pages and asking the curator to add your page because it fills a gap in the list. The link is editorial. The curator chooses it and nobody pays, which is why it's worth having.
Two things are often lumped in with resource pages, and our data treats them separately:
- "Best X" listicles. A ranked article such as a list of the best link building tools also curates, but it's a different pitch: you ask for a spot in a ranking, not a line in a list. These lists can also feed citations in AI search.
- Paid directories. A page that charges to be listed is selling ads. More on that below.
The numbers in this guide come from the same outreach data behind our link building outreach statistics, which cover all link types, reply times and price quotes.
How often resource pages reply
Here is the reply rate by link type across 3,543 prospects contacted between July 13 and October 23, 2026. A prospect counts as replying if a real person answered at any point in the sequence. Bounces and out-of-office replies don't count.
| Link type | Prospects contacted | Replied | Reply rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest post pitches | 320 | 80 | 25.0% |
| Competitor backlinks | 1,518 | 201 | 13.2% |
| Listicle roundups | 1,023 | 118 | 11.5% |
| Resource pages | 464 | 32 | 6.9% |
| All link types | 3,543 | 454 | 12.8% |
"All link types" also includes three smaller groups (user-submitted prospects, unlinked mentions and broken-link building).
Resource pages replied at about half the overall rate, and at less than a third of the rate for guest post pitches. We don't know why for certain. A likely reason is that many resource pages are older pages their owners rarely revisit, so the email reaches someone who no longer thinks about that list.
Replies are also not links. Customers marked 24 opportunities as won in this period, and 2 of them were resource pages. That's too few, and too self-reported, to give a link rate for any type.
For a wider baseline, Backlinko's analysis of 12 million outreach emails, last updated in 2019, found that 8.5% of emails got a response. Most other guides lean on surveys of what SEOs say they do, such as Aira's 2022 State of Link Building Report. Those show a tactic is popular, not whether site owners answer.
What the curators who did reply asked for
| Of the prospects who replied | Resource pages | Listicle roundups | Competitor backlinks | Guest post pitches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asked for payment | 12 of 32 (38%) | 52 of 118 (44%) | 139 of 201 (69%) | 50 of 80 (63%) |
| Proposed a link exchange | 4 of 32 (13%) | 14 of 118 (12%) | 13 of 201 (6%) | 5 of 80 (6%) |
This is the good news about resource pages. When they reply, they are the least likely of the four to ask for money. Across all link types, 58% of replying prospects asked for payment.
Exchange offers were about twice as common as on competitor backlink or guest post prospects. A one-off swap with a relevant site is a judgement call, but Google's link spam policy names "excessive link exchanges" as spam, and the same policy allows a paid link only when it's marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
If a curator quotes a price to be listed, you're looking at an ad. The closest price data we have is for sponsored listings in roundups: a median asking price of $200 across 23 sites, with the middle half between $100 and $395. The link building cost breakdown covers what sites ask for other placements.
Where resource pages fit
Put the two tables together and resource pages are a low-cost add-on, not a main channel:
- Few replies. At 6.9%, you need around 15 pitches for each reply, and a reply is not yet a link.
- Cheap replies. The curators who answer are the least likely to ask for money.
- Little extra work. Finding them uses the same research as your other outreach, and the email is short.
If you only have time for one kind of outreach, pick pages that already link to your competitors (13.2%) or "best X" lists (11.5%). The guide to finding backlink opportunities covers those. If you sell software, the SaaS backlink building guide covers which link types to start with.
A worked example: Elevation Vibe
Elevation Vibe is a goal-setting and growth mindset blog that started with no backlink profile. In its first month on Mentiohunt, resource page discovery ran alongside the other methods against its keywords and competitors, and 3 backlinks went live.
All three came from the competitor backlink method, not from resource pages:
- Sunsama's blog post on setting daily intentions cites an Elevation Vibe statistics page as further reading on goal setting.
- Weefer.co.id's SMART goals explainer names Elevation Vibe directly as the source for 15 benefits of SMART goals.
- TechCapitalNews links twice to Elevation Vibe's focus guide as an external resource.
Each one cites Elevation Vibe as a source or as further reading, the kind of link a resource page gives, but on an article that already linked to a competitor. According to the founder, the fastest went live 12 days after the opportunity surfaced, with no payment. It's one blog and one month, so it proves nothing on its own, but it fits the table: the resource-style links came from the type of prospect that replies more often.
How to find resource pages
Search operators
Pair a topic term with a phrase curators use for these pages:
[topic] inurl:resources[topic] intitle:"useful links"orintitle:"helpful resources"[topic] "further reading"[topic] "tools we use"site:.edu [topic] resources(or your country's education domain)
Use topics your buyers search for, not your product category. A clay supply shop does better with "beginner pottery" than with "clay supplier". If you'd rather watch the process, Ahrefs has a video walkthrough of resource page link building.
Pages that already list a competitor
A resource page that links to a competitor has already decided the topic belongs on its list. Pull your competitors' links with the competitor backlink gap tool and look for URLs containing "resources", "links" or "tools". This is also where the Elevation Vibe links came from.
Mentiohunt runs this kind of discovery every day, including a dedicated resource-page method, and attaches a fit rationale and a drafted email to each page it finds.
How to qualify a resource page
Most raw results won't be worth an email. Check four things before you pitch:
- It's curated by a person. Links are grouped and described, and you can see who maintains the page. A page with hundreds of unsorted links, or a "submit your site" form with a fee, is a directory. Skip it.
- Your page fills a gap on this exact list. Not a related category, this list. If it already links to three guides like yours, you need a reason yours is different.
- Someone still looks after it. Check the visible date, or paste the URL into the article publish date checker. A page full of dead links has usually been abandoned. One dead link on an otherwise current page is an opening (see the second template).
- It's indexed. Confirm it with the Google index checker. If Google doesn't index the page, the link does little for you.
Notice what's not on the list: a Domain Rating cutoff. In our data, reply rates across Domain Rating tiers sat between 11.0% and 14.0%, while reply rates across link types ran from 6.9% to 25.0%. What kind of page it is predicted replies far better than its authority. Use DR only to rule out obvious spam.
Also check what you're pitching. A curator won't list a homepage, a product page or a thin post. Guides, free tools, checklists and original data get listed.
How to write the pitch
What our data says about the email itself:
- Keep it short. For the closest pitch we track, asking to be added to a list, emails under 80 words got replies from 12.1% of prospects, against 10.0% at 80 to 99 words. The median initial email across all types was 76 words.
- Keep the subject under 60 characters. Subjects of 60 characters or more got replies from 7.4% of prospects, against 14.3% for 45 to 59 characters.
- Make the first email count. 339 of 454 replies (75%) came to the initial email.
- Send two follow-ups, then stop. The share of prospects who had replied rose from 9.6% after the initial email to 12.0% after the first follow-up and 12.8% after the second.
Name the list and the section where your page fits, and don't ask for specific anchor text. Let the curator describe your page in their own words.
The two templates below are for a made-up business: Fernhill Clay Supply, a small online shop that sells clay and glazes to hobby potters. Swap in your own page and the curator's list.
Template 1: Ask to be added
Hi Priya,
I was reading your "Resources for new potters" page and noticed the firing section has nothing on firing schedules, which is what beginners ask us about most.
We made a free chart that walks through each cone with ramp times for electric kilns:
[your URL]
If it fits under "Firing basics", feel free to add it. Thanks for keeping the list up to date.
Dana
Template 2: Point out a dead link
Hi Priya,
The "Glaze chemistry" link on your resources page now returns a 404:
[broken link URL]
It used to point to a glaze calculator. If you want a replacement, we keep a free one updated:
[your URL]
Either way, I thought you'd want to know the old one is gone.
Dana
The dead-link version gives the curator something useful even if they don't add your page. We can't yet say it gets more replies: our broken-link prospects replied at 14.8%, but that rests on 4 replies from 27 prospects. The broken link outreach template and the broken link finder cover that tactic on its own.
For subject lines, follow-ups and sending setup that apply to every kind of pitch, see the link building outreach email guide.
What to expect
Replies come fast or not at all. Across all link types, 63% of replies arrived within 24 hours of the email and 75% within three days. If a resource page hasn't answered a week after your second follow-up, move on.
We don't have enough won links to say how long a resource page link takes to go live, and nobody can promise one will. Plan on about seven replies per hundred pitches, expect a few of those to quote a price, and count each free listing as a bonus on top of your main outreach.
The takeaway
Resource pages are worth pitching, but not first. In our data they replied least of the large link types, at 6.9%, and the curators who did reply were the least likely to ask for money. Pitch them alongside pages that already link to your competitors and "best X" lists, keep the email short, send two follow-ups and stop.
If you'd rather not run the searches and the sending yourself, Mentiohunt finds resource pages, competitor links, listicles and guest post sites that already write about your topic, and emails each one on your behalf, follow-ups included. The moment a site replies, the sequence stops and you take the conversation over. It's $49/month on the Pro plan after a free preview of your first opportunities and a 7-day trial, and the site owner still decides whether to link. See pricing for what each plan includes.
FAQs
What is resource page link building?
It is asking the person who maintains a curated list of links, such as a "Resources for new potters" or "Useful links" page, to add your page because it helps their readers. The link is editorial: the curator chooses it, and nobody pays for it.
What reply rate should I expect from resource page outreach?
Low. In Mentiohunt's outreach from Jul 13 to Oct 23, 2026, 32 of 464 resource-page prospects replied (6.9%), against 12.8% across all link types. Replies are not links: customers marked 24 opportunities as won in that period, and 2 of them were resource pages, which is too few to give a link rate.
Do resource page owners ask for money?
Some do. Of the 32 resource-page prospects who replied, 12 (38%) asked for payment and 4 (13%) proposed a link exchange. A paid link is within Google's rules only when it is marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", so a paid resource listing is an ad, not an editorial link.
Should I pitch resource pages or "best X" listicles?
Both, but don't make resource pages your main channel. In our data, listicle roundups replied at 11.5% (118 of 1,023) and competitor backlink prospects at 13.2% (201 of 1,518), against 6.9% for resource pages. Treat resource pages as a cheap add-on to those.
Founder at Mentiohunt. Building distribution tools for founders and small marketing teams. Writes about backlink building and founder-led growth.
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