OPML Blogrolls: The 2004 Web Tactic That Still Generates Backlinks
In 2004, blogrolls were how the internet discovered new content. A sidebar list of "Blogs I Read" was standard on every WordPress site. Visitors clicked through. Google followed the links. Discovery happened through human curation, not algorithmic matching.
Blogrolls fell out of fashion in the late 2000s as social media became the primary discovery channel. But the underlying mechanism — curated lists of recommended feeds — never stopped working. And in 2026, blogrolls are experiencing a revival powered by an old standard called OPML, the rise of federated social media, and a renewed interest in the open web.
After deploying OPML blogrolls across our 52-site network, we generated 47 organic backlinks in three months — from sites that discovered us through the blogroll network. Zero outreach. Zero guest posts. Just a curated list of feeds that other bloggers discovered and reciprocated.
What OPML Is
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for exchanging lists of feeds. Originally designed for sharing RSS subscription lists between feed readers, it has become the standard format for publishable blogrolls.
An OPML blogroll file looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="2.0">
<head>
<title>The $100 Network Blogroll</title>
<ownerName>J.A. Watte</ownerName>
<ownerId>https://the100dollarnetwork.com</ownerId>
<dateModified>2026-04-14T00:00:00Z</dateModified>
</head>
<body>
<outline text="Content Strategy" title="Content Strategy">
<outline text="The $20 Dollar Agency"
title="The $20 Dollar Agency"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="https://the20dollaragency.com/feed.xml"
htmlUrl="https://the20dollaragency.com" />
<outline text="Anil Dash"
title="Anil Dash"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="https://anildash.com/feed.xml"
htmlUrl="https://anildash.com" />
</outline>
<outline text="Real Estate Data" title="Real Estate Data">
<outline text="The Resale Trap"
title="The Resale Trap"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="https://theresaletrap.com/feed.xml"
htmlUrl="https://theresaletrap.com" />
<outline text="Calculated Risk"
title="Calculated Risk"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/feeds/posts/default"
htmlUrl="https://www.calculatedriskblog.com" />
</outline>
<outline text="Web Technology" title="Web Technology">
<outline text="CSS-Tricks"
title="CSS-Tricks"
type="rss"
xmlUrl="https://css-tricks.com/feed/"
htmlUrl="https://css-tricks.com" />
</outline>
</body>
</opml>
The file is published at /blogroll.opml and linked from your site's HTML:
<link rel="blogroll" type="text/x-opml" href="/blogroll.opml" />
Feed readers, blogroll aggregators, and other sites can discover and parse this file to find the feeds you recommend. It is a machine-readable version of the classic "Blogs I Read" sidebar.
Why Blogrolls Generate Backlinks
The mechanism is social reciprocity combined with content discovery:
-
You include quality sites in your blogroll. Not randomly — sites you genuinely read and respect in your niche.
-
Those site owners discover the reference. Through referrer logs, backlink monitoring (Ahrefs, Search Console), or blogroll aggregators that notify listed sites.
-
A percentage reciprocate. They add your site to their own blogroll, or mention it in a post, or link to it in their own recommendations. The reciprocation rate in our experience is approximately 15-20% of included sites.
-
The reciprocal link is a genuine editorial backlink. It is not a paid link, not a link exchange scheme, not a PBN. It is one publisher recommending another — exactly the kind of link Google values most.
-
The blogroll network expands. Visitors to either site discover both blogrolls and may explore further. Other bloggers find the blogroll and include some of the same sites in their own. The network grows organically.
The Network Effect Across 52 Sites
For a multi-site network, blogrolls create a particularly powerful dynamic. Each site in the network maintains its own blogroll, and each blogroll includes:
- 3-5 sibling sites from the network (topically relevant ones)
- 15-25 external sites that are genuine quality resources in the site's niche
This creates a dense internal linking graph through OPML references — not the kind of HTML link exchange that Google might view skeptically, but a feed-level reference that signals topical affinity. AI agents parsing the blogrolls understand that The $100 Network and The $20 Dollar Agency are related publications.
The external references create outbound discovery paths that invite reciprocation. When 52 sites each include 15-25 external blogroll references, the total outreach surface is 780-1,300 distinct external sites — most of which will eventually discover the reference.
Building a Blogroll Page
Beyond the OPML file, create a human-readable blogroll page on your site:
## Blogroll
These are the sites and feeds I read regularly. Recommended for
anyone interested in content networks, SEO, and web technology.
### Content Strategy
- [The $20 Dollar Agency](https://the20dollaragency.com) — AI-powered marketing for small businesses
- [Anil Dash](https://anildash.com) — Technology, media, and the open web
### Real Estate Data
- [The Resale Trap](https://theresaletrap.com) — 25-year cost of ownership analysis
- [Calculated Risk](https://www.calculatedriskblog.com) — Economic and housing data analysis
[Download my full blogroll as OPML](/blogroll.opml)
This page serves three purposes:
- SEO: The outbound links to quality sites are editorial signals that Google can evaluate. Linking to authoritative, relevant sites is a positive trust signal.
- Discovery: Human visitors explore your recommendations and discover new resources. This builds goodwill and community.
- Reciprocation prompt: Site owners who visit the page and see their site listed are more likely to reciprocate than site owners who only discover the OPML reference through backlink monitoring.
OPML in the AI Discovery Stack
The OPML blogroll connects to the broader AI discovery infrastructure:
- Your agent card (
/.well-known/agent.json) references related agents — the A2A equivalent of a blogroll - Your llms.txt file lists key resources and references
- Your OPML blogroll lists recommended feeds
Together, these three files create a comprehensive discovery network: the agent card for AI agents, the llms.txt for LLMs, and the OPML for feed readers and other publishers. An AI model that reads all three understands not just what your site does, but what ecosystem it belongs to.
The Results
After three months of operating blogrolls across the 52-site network:
- 47 organic backlinks from sites that discovered us through blogroll references
- Average domain authority of linking sites: DA 28 — mid-tier, topically relevant sites
- 12 reciprocal blogroll additions — sites that added us to their own blogrolls
- Referral traffic from blogroll links: 180+ visits per month
- Time investment: 2 hours for initial blogroll creation across the network, 30 minutes per month for maintenance
The backlinks from blogroll reciprocation are among the highest-quality links in our profile. They are:
- From topically relevant sites (because we curated the blogroll by topic)
- Editorial (the site owner chose to link to us)
- Permanent (blogrolls are maintained pages, not time-decaying social posts)
- Contextually appropriate (listed alongside other quality resources)
For comparison, a link-building outreach campaign that generates 47 links of this quality would cost $2,000-$5,000 in agency fees or 40+ hours of manual outreach. The blogroll generated them for zero cost and zero outreach.
Getting Started
The minimum deployment:
- Create your OPML file. List 20-30 sites you genuinely read and respect in your niche. Organize by topic category.
- Create a blogroll page. A human-readable page listing the same sites with brief descriptions.
- Add the
<link>tag. Link to your OPML file from your HTML head. - Promote. Mention the blogroll in a blog post, on social media, and in your newsletter. Let the listed sites know they are included.
- Monitor. Watch for reciprocal links in your backlink monitoring tool and referrer logs.
The entire setup takes under two hours. The backlink generation starts within weeks and compounds over months.
The complete OPML blogroll strategy — including the multi-site network topology, the reciprocation tracking system, and the blogroll maintenance workflow — is covered in The $100 Network by J.A. Watte. Chapter 31 covers blogroll networks for content portfolios.
This article is based on techniques from The $100 Network. If you're just getting started, begin with The $97 Launch to build your first site, then The $20 Agency to set up your marketing stack.