Norwegian Backlinks in Bokmål and Nynorsk

Norwegian has two official written forms. Bokmål is what most Norwegians write; Nynorsk is the standard in much of western Norway and in many smaller communities elsewhere. Public bodies are required to use both, and many schools in the west teach in Nynorsk first. Spoken Norwegian is a family of dialects on top of that, so people are used to variety, but written text is expected to be one standard or the other.

For links, the standard matters in three places:

• Your own pages. Most businesses should write in Bokmål. A business rooted in Vestland or Møre og Romsdal may do better in Nynorsk, or in both.
• The article that carries the link. It must be written in the standard the outlet publishes in. A Bokmål guest piece in a Nynorsk local paper reads like a press release from Oslo.
• Your hreflang. Norwegian has three codes, nb, nn and no. Use the ones that describe each page, and the same ones everywhere.

This is the argument we hear most: everyone in Norway speaks English, so English pages and English links are enough. People may read English, but most of them search for local products and services in Norwegian, and Google answers those searches with Norwegian pages.

Then there is the translated-site problem. A business translates its pages into Norwegian, often from Danish or Swedish material, sometimes by machine, and publishes them. The domain may have good English links, but no Norwegian site refers to the Norwegian pages. With nothing local pointing at them, search engines have no reason to prefer them over a Norwegian competitor's pages, which do have Norwegian links. The translated section stays on page five.

That problem comes back to links. Backlinks still matter no matter the date. They are not the only factor, and we look at content, speed and structure too, but without some really good backlinks a Norwegian page will never pop up in search, will not rank and will be drowned out by the competition. Links remain a major indicator that a website should even be looked at by search engines, and by AI search: Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT search and Copilot draw on pages that other sites already cite.

Norway has an unusually dense local press. Towns that would have no paper in most countries have one here, often online first, and readers trust them. Much of it belongs to a handful of media groups, and much of it sits behind a paywall, which affects how links are placed and read. Alongside the press, we look at:

• National news and business sites. Expert commentary and features on subjects your business knows well.
• Regional and local papers. Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Tromsø and the smaller towns, read by the customers a regional business needs.
• Niche blogs and magazines. Norwegian writers on outdoor life, fishing, home and interiors, food, parenting, technology and personal finance.
• Influencers with real sites. Creators who publish articles on their own blogs as well as on social media.
• Directories and trade bodies. Norwegian business listings and association member pages that confirm who you are.

Every Norwegian placement from our writers and outlets passes one test: no spam sites, and no site that has nothing to do with your product or service. We work through Norwegian press contacts, niche bloggers, influencers and sites whose visitors are real. See how this works across every market on our backlink building services page.

We begin with an audit: who ranks for your Norwegian searches, which Norwegian sites link to them, and what your own pages already have. From there we agree topics with you, pair each with an outlet whose readers will care, and brief a writer. Working directly with Get Found, whose main service is link building, gives you a Norwegian profile that can come through Google's updates and a rival's interference intact.

If you sell across Scandinavia, our Swedish link building page, backlinks for Danish-language sites and the Finnish backlinks page cover the neighbouring markets. The company page on planning links around your budget and our language and niche link service explain the rest. When you are ready, get in touch with your site and the Norwegian searches you want to win.