Selling a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product subscription fees for ongoing access and updates? Think of popular services like Dropbox, Zoom, or Spotify – all prime examples of SaaS businesses.
In the competitive landscape, getting your SaaS company or product noticed can be tough. That’s where SaaS link building becomes your secret weapon, acting as digital recommendations from relevant websites.
Building relevant links from other websites with a high domain authority signals potential customers that your SaaS product is reliable and worth considering. It also helps boost your search rankings, organic traffic, and tool signup leads.
Think of link building as an investment in your SaaS business success. Keep reading to learn the most effective ways to build links for your SaaS company (with examples).
What is SaaS link building?
SaaS link building refers to acquiring high-quality backlinks to a website that offers software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. These backlinks act like digital recommendations from other websites, influencing search engine algorithms to rank your SaaS website higher in search engine results pages.
5 effective SaaS link building strategies for 2024
Here are some of the most effective link building strategies and examples to learn from. You can use these tactics to boost the ROI of your link building efforts.
1. Guest posting
Also known as guest blogging, guest posting is the practice of writing and publishing high-quality content on relevant sites — get your SaaS product or service mentioned in the article in return.
Guest posting helps you share insights with a new audience, and it’s a great way to increase referral traffic and generate leads. For instance, Buffer, a popular social media SaaS tool, attracted more than 100,000 customers through guest posting in less than a year.
Guest posts on authoritative websites offer social proof, helping your brand gain credibility and build a solid online presence. To succeed in guest posting, you have to balance value and promotion. You can subtly demonstrate the value of your software while offering value to the reader.
Here’s how you can leverage guest blogging for effective SaaS link building:
- Identify relevant authoritative websites that accept guest authors. You can use Google to find sites accepting articles on the topics you’d like to write about.
[main keyword] + “write for us”
[main keyword] + “guest article”
[main keyword] + “become a contributor”
2. Analyze the target websites to identify content gaps you can fill. You can do a site search to identify the content gaps. Type “site:[website URL]: [your topic]” on Google and hit “Enter.”
3. Craft a personalized pitch for your link building outreach and send it to the site owner. Briefly introduce yourself and your SaaS business, highlight your content expertise, and propose a few guest post ideas you’ve identified.
4. Once your guest post pitch is accepted, create a valuable resource to contribute to the site. Showcase your knowledge and expertise in a way that subtly integrates your SaaS solution.
5. After publishing your first guest post, nurture the relationship with the editor or website owner for future collaborations.
6. Promote your guest post on social media, email newsletters, and other channels to get more organic traffic, valuable backlinks, and social shares.
7. Finally, use analytics tools to track results from your guest posting efforts. Analyzing metrics like referring domains, domain rating, referral traffic, backlinks, and social shares helps you identify what’s working and which areas need improvement.
2. Adding SaaS tools in existing niche listicles ranking on search engines
The best SaaS companies or tools listicles for specific niches are popular because they are easy to read, informative, and shareable. Including your SaaS tool in a niche listicle increases the chances of it being discovered by potential users, bloggers, and industry influencers.
For example, if you’re promoting a CRM tool, you should get the link added to articles ranking on the keyword, “best CRM tools.” Ensure the article is well-written, includes real-life examples, and gets decent organic traffic.
Some top-ranking articles/pages may offer a sponsored feature of your CRM software in the list while others may agree to add it for free tool access or link exchanges. However, remember that excessive link exchange may harm your search engine rankings and domain rating. So, always build valuable backlinks.
There are two main ways you can use listicles to build links for SaaS businesses:
- Pitch to authors of existing listicles: Find relevant listicles using Google Search and pitch editors with a value proposition for adding your tool. You can offer a link exchange, free usage credits of your SaaS tool, free trials, or even invite them to your affiliate program.
- Create your own listicles: If you can’t find a relevant listicle that will include your tool, you can take matters into your own hands. For instance, you can create resource pages or listicles targeting the same user group but not necessarily competing and publish them on other websites.
Adding your SaaS tools to listicles helps you target users actively searching for buying options. These bottom-of-the-sales funnel users are likely to convert and get you real business, not just links, which makes it one of the top link building techniques for SaaS businesses.
Note: Focus on niche-specific listicles that cater to your and target audience. Additionally, ensure your website showcases your product’s features, benefits, and screenshots to increase the likelihood of your product being included in listicles and other industry publications.
3. Link insertions (niche edits)
Link insertions or niche edits involve getting a backlink to your website by placing your link within an existing article or web page on another website.
Acquiring links from well-performing articles is a successful link building strategy. It is better than publishing new posts. They can feed your website with more link juice due to a stronger link profile, boosting your search rankings quicker.
To find relevant sites for building links through niche edits, browse the web and search engines for relevant topics. Reach out to the site owner or editor and request them to add a few sentences with the link to the article. Ensure your link adds value to the page.
Here’s a link insertion email template for example:
Niche edits are a lot faster than guest posting for SaaS link building. That’s because you only need to write and add a blurb to an existing article in this case.
Here’s an example of a niche edit on a CRM-related article:
You can also find broken links on relevant websites with high domain authority. Suggest niche edits to help editors replace those broken links with your relevant, link-worthy content.
4. Product reviews and comparison guides
While industry giants like G2 and Capterra are well-known resources for SaaS reviews, you can build links from niche-specific directories and publications.
Simply search for “[your industry] + tools directory” on Google to get a list of directories and niche-focused review sites eager to showcase valuable SaaS solutions like yours. These targeted websites offer a fantastic opportunity to reach a highly-engaged audience actively seeking SaaS tools to make their life easier.
In addition to building links for SaaS companies, these review sites and directories can provide more exposure to your SaaS tool in front of your target audience.
You can also identify bloggers and reviewers with a loyal audience who write about similar products. Offer them complimentary access to your SaaS tool for a limited time in exchange for an honest review.
Some may request a small sponsored content fee based on their website’s domain authority, organic traffic, and niche relevance.
5. Unlinked brand mentions tracking
As your software tool solves problems for different people, people have likely already mentioned it in their articles and guides. However, many of these valuable mentions may not link to your website. These unbranded mentions are a low-effort and low-cost way to build quality backlinks.
Another benefit of unlinked brand mentions is that they’ll often be on websites or blogs relevant to your industry and niche. This makes them high-quality links for your search engine rankings.
To identify your unlinked brand mentions, use a tool like Google Alerts, Moz, or Ahrefs.
Prioritize high-authority sites mentioning your tool for a link to your SaaS website or product page. Remember to thank them for the mention.
Successful SaaS link building examples and case studies to learn from
Let’s look at two real-life examples of successful link building for SaaS companies.
Under these case studies, we have used our favorite link building tool, Ahrefs to break down the best parts. This will help you understand how these SaaS companies relied on the link building strategies we discussed above, from product reviews to guest posting.
1. ClickUp used link building to dominate SERPs for 900 BoFu keywords
ClickUp’s SaaS link building strategy helped them dominate SERPs for 900 BoFu (bottom-of-the-funnel) keywords.
Here’s what we can learn from ClickUp’s case study:
- Targeted backlinks: ClickUp focuses on building links from relevant sources, such as “best project management tool” listicles as part of their link building campaigns. These articles and websites target users already considering project management solutions (BoFu), making them high-value targets for ClickUp.
- Contextual anchor text: ClickUp prioritizes backlinks that use contextual anchor text, such as “using your time wisely.” This helps search engines understand the relevance of the ClickUp tool link in the article, improving their rankings for relevant keywords.
2. Asana’s link building campaign helped them gain monthly traffic worth $5 million
Asana has strategically leveraged link building and guest posts to increase organic traffic, domain rating, and revenue. The company optimized its blog for a global audience, outranking competitors like Trello and generating significant organic traffic through search engine optimization.
They regularly create top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content that attracts, educates, and helps build trust among potential users of the project management tool. This has resulted in more links and over 6.3 million organic monthly visits, worth $5 million.
Their website has backlinks from high-authority sites like The New York Times and HubSpot.
Asana referring domains – steady growth
Asana has also acquired backlinks from listicles on relevant keywords like “best project management tools” and even newer terms like “best AI productivity tools.” This narrow keyword research and targeting is the secret behind the success of their solid link building strategy.
And the best part? A majority of their SaaS links come from websites with 70+ domain authority.
Are you ready to improve your SaaS link building efforts?
High-quality backlinks are votes of confidence, credibility, and authority for your website. They boost your website’s online visibility on while helping you acquire targeted traffic.
Prioritize quality and relevance over quantity when it comes to link building for SaaS. Don’t miss nurturing the relationships you build with different website owners and editors for long-term link building and SEO efforts.
Are you unassertive about building links for SaaS companies? We are a link building agency that carries out the whole link building process for businesses, from identifying relevant opportunities, approaching the publishers, acquiring quality backlinks, and tracking your website’s traffic and rankings growth.
Hire our experts today for your SaaS link building campaign and get real results – targeted traffic and new tool signups. Read our client reviews and case studies before you begin.
