Profile Creation Sites 2026: 506 of 1,133 Still Work

Profile creation lists keep getting longer. 500 sites, 1,000 sites, 9,000 sites. Nobody checks whether the old ones still load.

I had the same problem. The previous version of this page listed 300 sites with a "DoFollow" column I had never verified.

So this time I checked. I pulled every site named on at least two of 18 profile creation lists ranking on Google, and loaded all 1,133 of them. 506 still work. Then I opened real profiles, including my own, and read the rel on the profile link.

In this guide, I'll break down:

• What profile creation sites and profile backlinks are
• What I found in all 1,133 sites, and the famous ones that have shut down
• Which profile backlinks are actually followed, from real profiles
• 293 profile creation sites that still work, grouped by type
• How to create profiles that help, without the spam footprint

It is written for business owners, freelancers and SEOs who want their name to show up properly across the web.

What are profile creation sites?

Profile creation sites are platforms where you can make a public profile page with your name, a short bio and a link to your website. LinkedIn, GitHub, Gravatar, Behance and Crunchbase are classic examples.

A profile backlink is the link from that profile to your site. Some lists call them profile submission sites or profile backlink sites. It is the same thing.

The pitch has always been easy, high-authority backlinks at scale. The reality is different. Most platforms mark profile links as nofollow, and Google names automated link creation as link spam.

What a good profile does give you is presence. The same name, bio and URL on the platforms people check is how search engines and AI answer engines connect you to your site.

How many profile creation sites still work in 2026?

About four in ten. I took 18 lists ranking in US Google results for "profile creation sites", pulled every site each one named, and kept the 1,133 named on at least two lists. Then I loaded each one and labelled what it actually serves.

"Not a place to create a public profile" covers sites like Netflix, Zillow, Slack and Evernote. They have logins, but no public page that shows your name and link to anyone. The lists include them because of their domain authority.

Even the 506 need a second look. Forty of them are forums on a company or community subdomain, like the Best Buy, Lenovo and Sony support forums. The profiles are real, but nobody browses a forum profile, and moderators delete promotional ones.

My own old list did better than the average, but not well enough. Of the 300 sites in the previous tables, 243 still work. The other 57 were dead, closed, changed, or never had public profiles.

Which profile creation sites have shut down?

A lot of famous names on these lists no longer exist.

• Flattr, named on 9 lists, shows a "404 | Service No Longer Exists" goodbye letter.
• BlogTalkRadio (8 lists), ASKfm (7), KnowEm (7) and Debate.org (5) have no working DNS address, so they cannot load anywhere.
• 8tracks (8 lists) returns a Cloudflare origin error.
• Typepad (7 lists) shut down on 30 September 2025.
• AddThis (7 lists) now redirects to Oracle's homepage.
• GroupSpaces says it is "now discontinued".
• Polywork, which was on my old list, has no DNS records either.

Some losses are quieter. Ten of the 11 Mighty Networks communities named on these lists are inactive. Open one and you land on Mighty's homepage with a banner saying the network is no longer available.

Worse are the 17 hijacked domains. Ello, the old artists' network, named on 8 lists, now redirects to a casino comparison site. InfoBarrel, also on 8 lists, now ranks US online casinos. Others now serve adult ads or slot games, or carry a "dangerous site" warning from my ISP.

Are profile backlinks dofollow?

Mostly not. I opened real profiles and read the rel attribute on the profile link. Two of them are my own: GitHub and WordPress.org.

The about.me row corrects my own old page, which said its link "is often followed". It was not.

LinkedIn, Pinterest, Crunchbase, Reddit and Behance showed my checker a login or bot wall, so they are not in the table. I would rather leave them out than guess.

Google treats nofollow and ugc as hints, not strict rules, and platforms change these settings. So right-click your own profile link, choose Inspect, and read the rel yourself.

Which profiles are worth creating first?

If you only do fifteen, do these. They are big, widely used, and either send real visitors or anchor your identity.

293 profile creation sites that still work in 2026

These are the 243 sites from my old tables that passed the check, plus 50 well-known platforms from the census that were missing. I have left out the support forums, regional sites and niche hobby communities among the 506, because a profile there helps almost nobody.

1. Social media and networking (21)

2. Professional and business networks (19)

3. Developer and tech communities (28)

4. Blogging and publishing platforms (15)

5. Creative, design and photography (24)

6. Video, audio and music platforms (23)

7. Education and research (19)

8. Q&A sites and forums (17)

9. Document and content sharing (20)

10. SEO, marketing and bookmarking tools (13)

11. E-commerce, travel and lifestyle (26)

12. Website builders, tools and productivity (18)

13. More sites that passed my check (50)

Do profile creation sites still help SEO in 2026?

Yes, but as groundwork, not as a ranking lever.

• Entity consistency. The same name, photo, bio and URL across LinkedIn, GitHub, Crunchbase and the rest helps search engines and AI answer engines connect your brand to your site.
• Referral visits. A good profile on Quora, Product Hunt or Dribbble sends people who want to know more.
• A natural link mix. A real site has a few followed and many nofollow links. Profiles are part of that mix, not the whole of it.

What profiles do not do is move rankings on their own. Links only survive core updates when they are built for the audience first, and a profile nobody visits is not built for anyone.

If you want links that move rankings, my link building strategies guide covers the approaches that hold up.

How do you create profiles without spamming?

This is the routine I use for my own profiles.

1. Pick platforms that fit your work. A developer on GitHub and dev.to, a designer on Behance and Dribbble, a business on LinkedIn, Crunchbase and the local listings for its country.
2. Complete every profile. Photo, full bio, location, links. A half-empty profile looks like spam and helps no one.
3. Keep the details identical. Same name, same short bio, same URL everywhere. That consistency is the signal.
4. Use your brand or plain URL as the link. Never a money keyword like "best SEO services". Keyword-anchored profiles are the spam pattern.
5. Space them out. A few profiles a week looks like a person. Two hundred in a day looks like a bot.
6. Check the link once it is live. Read the rel, and make sure the profile page is public and loads without a login.

More free link-building guides

Profiles are one small piece. Here are my other lists, checked the same way where I have rebuilt them:

• Video sharing sites: 52 of 337 still host video
• Web 2.0 sites: 117 of 306 still work
• Article submission sites: 39 of 495 still work
• Social bookmarking sites: 58 of 488 still work
• 182 directory submission sites: business listings that still accept new sites
• Competitor backlink analysis: see where your rivals actually get their links

Final take

Most profile creation lists are half graveyard. Out of 1,133 sites, 506 still work, and many of those are support forums nobody reads.

The good platforms are still good. Build complete profiles on the ones that fit your work, keep your details identical, and link with your brand name.

Skip the 9,000-site lists, and read the rel on your own profile before you believe anyone's dofollow claim.