Link Building For SaaS: The Full Guide

What Is Link Building For SaaS?

Link building for SaaS involves acquiring backlinks that link to SaaS websites from other, preferably reputable sites. It can include strategies like: 

• Creating valuable, link-worthy content
• Guest blogging
• Engaging in PR
• Building relationships with industry influencers. 

What Benefits Can You Expect From SaaS Link Building?

In general, link building can result in many different benefits, from those tightly related to SEO to those that contribute to business growth.

Let’s briefly unpack them.

1. SEO Benefits of SaaS Link Building

Backlinks are proven to be one of the most important ranking factors.

Because of this, link building can help SaaS websites:

• rank higher in search engines,
• get more organic and referral traffic,
• increase their domain and page authority, and
• start ranking faster after they publish new content. 

2. Business Growth Benefits

Link building can also help your SaaS business in more tangible ways. 

For example, more website traffic usually means more sales—because the larger your pool of potential customers, the more sales you can actually make. 

Besides potentially increasing conversions, high-quality backlinks can also increase your conversion rates by getting quality traffic to your site; traffic that matches your target demographic and is interested in your industry or offerings. 

Other business growth benefits include expanding your market reach, getting more business opportunities, and improving customer loyalty.

3. Brand Visibility & Credibility Benefits

Getting mentioned on other websites—especially high-authority websites, like Forbes or Harvard Magazine—is bound to help you increase brand awareness and credibility.  

You can even position your brand (either company or personal brand) as a thought leader in your industry. 

4. Other Benefits of SaaS Link Building

Other benefits of SaaS link building include:

• Constant promotion — If you work with trustworthy link building partners, your links never go down (unlike ads). You can build them today, and receive traffic from them for months or even years to come. 
• Quality leads — If you focus on building high-quality backlinks, you are likely to receive more quality leads from them.
• More links and traffic — The more backlinks lead to your site, the higher your site ranks. And the higher it ranks, the more websites will likely link to it in the future. So, backlinks typically result in more (free) backlinks.

Link Building for SaaS: Prep

So, how do you actually start building links to your SaaS website? 

Start by defining the three most important things: 

• What links you want,
• Where you want them,
• Where they should point to.

1. Define What Links You Want

First, think about what type of links you want to build. That way, you'll know exactly what to ask for when contacting other websites or working with link building partners.

Dofollow vs. Nofollow

✅ Dofollow links pass SEO value to your site. They have a bigger impact on your search engine rankings and other SEO metrics. 

❌ Nofollow links do not pass SEO value but can still drive traffic and signal to search engines that your content is valuable.

While it’s generally better to get dofollow than nofollow links, most sites nowadays are only willing to include nofollow links to other websites.

Image vs. Text Links

✅ Text links, especially with relevant anchor text, generally provide more SEO value as they give context to search engines. 

❌ Image links can be effective as well, but generally carry less SEO weight. However, an optimized image alt text can help.

We suggest focusing 80%-90% of your SaaS link building efforts on text links.

Paid vs. Natural Backlinks

Natural backlinks are earned naturally, i.e., through high-quality content and organic outreach. 

Paid backlinks, as the name suggests, involve financial transactions; they're the backlinks you pay for instead of earning them organically.

You should prioritize earning natural backlinks, but this method offers way less control:

• There’s no real way of knowing what content will and won’t attract backlinks.
• It can also take years before someone actually discovers and links to your content (if it even ever happens).
• Another thing to consider is that your SaaS competitors are probably already buying links. By not doing the same, you risk getting left behind. 

⚖️ To sum up: in an ideal world, you would earn all your backlinks. In reality, however, you need to invest money in link building to get tangible results.

2. Define Where You Want To Build Links

For your link building efforts to pay off, you need to make sure you actually target the right websites. Let’s start with a few general guidelines: 

• Stay away from PBNs or gray/blackhat SEO “hacks.”

Avoid sites that are part of any private network of websites that link out to one another in order to increase their rankings (aka link farms). This strategy tends to be spammy as most links and anchor texts are not placed naturally.

• Check for penalties and blacklisting.

It’s pointless to get a backlink from sites that Google keeps on its blacklist. You may get the backlink, but it won’t impact your ranking, DA, or anything as far as Google is concerned.

• Only target companies with quality content.

Disqualify any site that doesn’t indicate quality content. Sites filled with spun or low-quality content will not help you rank. Ideally, you should look for sites that have a strong content reputation in the niche. For example, if you’re in the email marketing market, MailChimp can be a good choice.

With this in mind, let’s now get into the nitty-gritty.

High vs. Low Domain Authority Websites

High domain authority (DA) websites provide bigger SEO benefits due to their credibility and trust with search engines. Think sites like Entrepreneur, Inc., and Forbes.

Backlinks from low DA sites offer less SEO value but can still be beneficial if they are highly relevant and of good quality. Think smaller industry blogs and news publications. 

Each option has its pros and cons: 

• Getting backlinks from high DA sites is extremely difficult. Getting backlinks from low DA sites is easier. 
• High DA sites charge more for backlinks; low DA sites charge less. 

If you want to build links on highly authoritative websites, you’ll probably need to partner with a link building agency.

Our network of sites includes publications like Forbes, CryptoGazette, Yahoo Finance, and other high DA sites that are extremely difficult to build links on.

Blogs vs. News Websites

Blogs offer opportunities for contextual backlinks through guest posts and collaborations. They can typically help you connect with smaller, but highly targeted audiences. 

News websites usually have higher authority and a broader readership. Their backlinks tend to have a higher SEO impact and can do more for your credibility and visibility. However, they may also expose you to audiences that are not the best match for your products and services.

Getting featured on blogs is also typically much easier and more cost-effective.

Niche-Specific vs. General Websites

Niche-specific websites offer highly relevant backlinks that attract targeted traffic and improve SEO for specific keywords. 

General websites, while less targeted, can provide broad exposure and valuable backlinks if they are authoritative.

Which type of website you’ll choose to build links on depends mainly on your goals: 

• Building links on niche-specific websites is a better option if you want faster conversions and more loyal customers.
• Building links on general websites is a better choice if your main goal is to increase brand awareness and reach new audiences.

Other Potential Candidates

Other places to build your backlinks on include forums, social media platforms, wikis, and directories.

• Forums allow for backlinks within relevant discussions, provided they are natural and non-spammy. Link building on Reddit, Quora, Stack Exchange, and similar forums can be great for SaaS websites.
• Social media platforms drive traffic and brand awareness, though links are typically nofollow. Either way, having a social media presence is a must for SaaS businesses, so why not leverage your accounts for some lightweight link building while you’re at it?
• Wikis offer valuable backlinks from community-edited, authoritative content, though often nofollow.
• Directories can be useful if they are reputable and relevant. Capterra, G2, and GetApp are just some popular SaaS-related directories/review sites.

3. Define Where The Links Should Point To

This typically comes down to whether to link to your BoFu, MoFu, or ToFu content:

• BoFu (Bottom-of-the-Funnel) content targets users who are ready to buy. Examples: product pages, pricing pages, customer testimonials, and case studies.
• MoFu (Middle-of-the-Funnel) content engages leads who are evaluating their options. Examples: comparison guides, detailed case studies, product demos, and webinars.
• ToFu (Top-of-the-Funnel) content aims to attract a wide audience and raise awareness. Examples: blog posts, infographics, how-to guides, and introductory eBooks.

So, how do you decide which type of content you should link to? 

Well, first, you should build links to all these content types. However, you should prioritize some and deprioritize others on a case-by-case basis.

This quick guide can help guide your decisions:

• ✅ Link to BoFu pages when you expect referral traffic to be searching for specific products/services or be ready to make a purchase decision.
• ✅ Link to MoFu content when you expect referral traffic to be researching and comparing options.
• ✅ Link to ToFu content when you believe they’re at the beginning of their buyer journey, seeking educational content and solutions to their problems. 

The Most Obvious Choice: Your Home Page

Most SaaS websites want to build links to their home page. That’s a great start, but your home page shouldn’t be the only page you build backlinks to. 

Take, for example, Hunter.io. Their website has about 700k backlinks. Yet, only 4k of those links point to the home page.

Other backlinks are directed to other URLs, like blog posts and product pages.

From our experience, it makes the most sense to build backlinks to product and content pages. Here’s why:  

• Product page: This is the page featuring your tool—it’s not necessarily your homepage. This page has commercial value. It is where visitors can see what your product actually does and why it is the ideal solution to their problem. By linking back to this page, you’re not only raising awareness of your product, but you’re also increasing your conversion potential.
• Blog posts are content you create to meet your prospects where they are in the buyer’s journey. For example, if you have a link building tool, you can:
  ‍
  • Create an article titled “What is a backlink and why you need it?” to educate prospects who are in the discovery stage. (ToFu)
  • Create a blog post titled “How to get backlinks to you site” to introduce your tool to your prospect. (MoFu)
  • Create a blog post titled “The 5 Best Link Building Software for SaaS Brands” to persuade the prospect to buy your tool. (BoFu)

Linking back to blog posts helps you raise awareness about your product but also push your articles on SERP so they can bring in tons of leads.  

However, if you are in a niche industry and think that the two types of pages listed above don’t qualify for backlinks, don’t worry. Here are a few things you can do to identify those pages:

• What blog content can be a relevant reference on the target website?
• Identify what product and content will bring the most value to the target website’s audience.
• Figure out what product tier brings the most revenue to your business and how it will fit into helping the target audience.

Once you have a clear idea of pages you want to direct backlinks to, you can now move on to finding target SaaS websites that’d be open to giving you a backlink.

Link Building For SaaS: Outreach & Link Acquistion

Now that you’ve done your prep, it’s time to actually start acquiring links. There are two main ways to handle this:

• Reach out to your prospect sites directly, OR
• Work with link building agencies or contractors who can act as your middleman. 

If you’re interested in option #2, we have a great guide on outsourcing your link building efforts.

Here, we’ll focus more on walking you through the process so that you can either apply it yourself or know how to monitor your link builder’s efforts.

1. Prospecting: Finding Websites to Target

If you’ve followed our “prep steps,” you already have several criteria for choosing the websites to target. But how do you actually find them?  Here are some effective methods:

• Keyword Research: Use relevant keywords related to your industry or niche to identify websites that rank well in search engines. Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner can help pinpoint potential link sources. (Or you can just Google it!)
• Competitor Analysis: Analyze where your competitors are getting their backlinks from. Tools such as Ahrefs' Site Explorer or SEMrush's Backlink Analytics can reveal their link profile and help you discover opportunities.
• Industry Directories and Lists: Look for industry-specific directories, lists, or roundups that curate top websites. These often highlight authoritative sources within your sector.
• Social Media and Forums: Relevant posts and comments on social media platforms and forums can help you discover websites in your niche that other people recommend.

Alternatively, you can use blogger outreach or specialized link building tools to speed up discovery.

Make sure to validate your prospects by cross-referencing them with your list of criteria. For example: 

• If you’ve decided to only target high-authority websites, check their domain authority with tools like Moz or Semrush.
• If you’ve decided to target only niche-specific websites, analyze their content and check what topics they typically cover.

2. Prospecting: Finding Contact Information

After you have a good list of prospect websites, it’s time to find a way to reach out to relevant parties you can send your pitch to. 

You can find the contact information by: 

• Using specialized blogger outreach tools, like BuzzStream
• Using email finders, like Hunter.io
• Looking up author names on social media 
• Finding domain ownership details via WHOIS lookup tools

Of course, most websites will have a public contact form you can use as well:

They may also have their social media accounts linked—usually in the footer:

Finally, they may also have relevant information listed on their About page:

While these contact options are surely much easier to find, they’re less likely to lead to positive outcomes.

It’s always better to have one-on-one conversations with specific people vs. sending a general inquiry via a public contact form. 

Ideally, you’d contact someone from the website’s marketing or content staff (like editors) or the CEOs/owners directly. 

3. Decide On a Link Building Strategy

Admittedly, you can also do this in the prep stage. We, however, prefer to decide on a link building strategy after we know what website we’re pitching to.

Approaching it in the opposite way, i.e., deciding on a link building strategy first, will limit your pool of potential target websites.

Here are some popular link building strategies:

• Guest posting is the best approach for early-stage SaaS start-ups and companies that are still yet to find their product-market fit (PMF). Since they lack the brand awareness and authority to facilitate content and product promotion, guest posting offers them the best way to organically grow their backlink profile and drive traffic to their websites.

Adam Enfroy used this strategy to grow his affiliate business. His blog adamenfroy.com was created in 2019. In just two years, he grew the blog to over 500,000 monthly visitors and generated over $800,000 in 2020 alone.

• Content promotion consists of using content or linkable assets on your website and reaching out to websites that could be interested in linking to them in their published posts. 

Examples of linkable assets include:

• Trends and statistics
• Case studies
• Lead magnets
• Opinion posts
• Original research
• Long-form articles
• Infographics

This tactic only works if you have quality content and create content assets that genuinely stand out. Content promotion supposes that the content/page must be good enough to perform on its own. So, the key to success is to make sure that the content pages are rich in quality and that people will be happy to link to them.

• Product promotion. People are constantly looking for the best software deals in the SaaS business. So they always search for comparisons guides, lists posts, lists of industry “Best Of”, so your job is to get you featured in those posts.

This is a great tactic to get links to feature pages, demo pages, and all sorts of commercial value pages which couldn’t otherwise be linked to. This can help you get backlinks that fuel user signups and pipelines.

The best way to leverage this strategy is to find websites that already have relevant roundup posts, comparison guides, and similar posts. 

4. Craft Your Pitch

First, take the time to research each of your prospects and craft super-personalized emails. The goal is to build credibility and show that you can bring value to the table.

• Personalize your outreach emails so prospects know you didn’t just target them out of the blue.
• Choose target pages that have a clear value in the eyes of the prospect and their target audience.
• Being honest and transparent about the intention behind the outreach.
• Keep your emails short, build relationships later.
• Prepare friendly follow-ups emails and remain professional even if you get a negative answer.

5. Publication & Analysis

At this point, you’ve sent an email outreach to different companies and have a clear idea of what the outcomes are. Some people agreed and others declined your offer.

For those who accepted, make sure that the links are live and that they check your other boxes. For example, you may want to double-check if:

• The anchor text reflects what both parties have agreed to
• You’ve got a dofollow or a nofollow backlink
• The link points to the right page on your website

You should also re-visit your backlink from time to time to ensure it doesn’t get taken down or edited over time.

Tools like Ahrefs, Linkody, or Semrush can give you insights into the most important link metrics at a glance and even notify you whenever you gain new or lose existing backlinks.

(And trustworthy link building agencies like ours can also guarantee that your links never get taken down.)

Think SaaS Link Building Is Too Complex? Let Us Help You

Link building for SaaS is simple, but it’s not easy. It takes time, money, and know-how. 

If you’d rather outsource your efforts, we just might be the perfect fit. We offer full, end-to-end link building service. We handle both content creation and outreach for you—plus, we don’t require payment unless we get the link placements you want!

We also have extensive experience in the SaaS industry. Some of our past and current clients include Vidyard, Airwallex, FatJoe, and Binance. Contact us to discuss how we can help.