How to get backlinks for a SaaS company

Start with the pages that need links

Most guides on how to get backlinks start with tactics. For a SaaS company the better first question is which pages actually need them. Links pointed at the homepage feel good in a report, but rankings are won page by page, and the pages that drive pipeline usually have the fewest links.

The pages worth building links to, in rough order of commercial value:

• Category and product pages that target the term buyers use for what you sell.
• Comparison and alternatives pages, where buyers are already shortlisting.
• Integration pages, which rank for "your product plus their tool" searches with clear buying intent.
• Docs and reference pages that rank for technical queries your users search before they adopt a product.
• Pillar guides that pass authority to product pages through internal links.

For each target page, check whether links are the real gap. Take the keyword, look at the pages ranking above you, and compare their referring domains with yours in Ahrefs or a similar tool. As a hypothetical illustration: if the top results each have links from several dozen relevant domains and your page has a handful, links are the constraint. If your page already matches them and still ranks lower, the issue is more likely content, intent, or technical health, and backlinks will not fix it.

We explained why links still carry that much weight in competitive SaaS categories in why backlinks still matter for SaaS SEO. This guide is the practical follow up: how to actually earn them.

Build link-worthy assets before you pitch anyone

Outreach is far easier when you have something worth linking to. Editors and writers link to pages that help their readers, and a SaaS company is unusually well placed to create those pages because it has product knowledge, product data, and engineers who understand the problem deeply.

Free tools and calculators

A small, genuinely useful tool related to your product earns links for years. Think of a pricing calculator, a validator, a converter, or a generator that solves one narrow task well. Writers link to tools because a tool is easier to recommend than an article. Keep it free, fast, and usable without a sign up, or most sites will not link to it.

Data from your own product

Aggregated, anonymized data from your product is something no competitor can copy. A quarterly benchmark, a trends report, or a breakdown of how a feature is used across your customer base gives journalists and bloggers a fresh fact to cite. Check your privacy terms first, aggregate heavily, and publish the method next to the findings so other sites can trust and quote it.

Templates, checklists, and reference pages

A clear checklist, a downloadable template, or a glossary entry that explains a technical concept better than anything else on page one gets cited as a reference. These pages work best when they answer one narrow question completely, not when they try to cover a whole topic.

Integration and documentation pages

Partners link to integration pages, and developers link to good docs. Make sure each integration has its own indexable page with a clear explanation of what it does, and that your docs are crawlable and well structured. They are often the most linked pages a technical SaaS company owns.

You do not need all four. One strong asset for each audience you sell to is enough to make every later tactic in this guide work better.

How to get backlinks: the tactics that work for SaaS

No single tactic is enough on its own, and a profile built from one method is the easiest kind for search engines to discount. These are the tactics that consistently work for SaaS sites, with what each one is best for.

Guest posts on publications your buyers read

Write an original article for a publication in your space, with a link to a relevant page on your site inside the content or the author bio. The publication's editor decides whether it runs, which is what makes it an editorial link. Pick publications by audience overlap first and authority second. A post on a mid sized blog your buyers actually read can bring both a link and sign ups, while a post on a generic site with no audience brings neither.

Niche edits on pages that already rank

A niche edit adds your link to an existing article that is already indexed and relevant. Nothing new is written, so it is faster and cheaper than a guest post. The best niche edits improve the article, for example by linking a mention of a tool category to your product page, or by replacing an outdated resource with your current one. If the link only makes sense to you, the editor will rightly refuse it.

Integration, partner, and marketplace links

Every product you integrate with is a link opportunity: partner directories, app marketplaces, joint case pages, and co-written guides. Many SaaS companies have integrations live for years without ever asking the partner to list them. For API and developer tool companies this category is much larger, and we break down every source type in best backlink sources for API companies.

Inclusion in "best tools" and comparison articles

Search your category term with words like best, top, alternatives, and tools. The articles that rank are where buyers shortlist products, and they are also where AI answer engines look when someone asks for a recommendation. Contact the authors of the ones that leave you out with a short, factual pitch: what your product does, who it is for, and what makes it different from the tools already listed. Offer a demo account or screenshots. Many authors update these lists regularly and welcome accurate information.

Expert commentary for journalists and publications

Journalists and bloggers constantly look for expert quotes. Journalist request services, and the editors of trade publications in your niche, are a steady source of links for founders and engineers who can answer quickly and specifically. The winning quote is short, concrete, and says something a generic answer would not. Answer only where you have real expertise, and answer fast, since most requests close within a day or two.

Podcasts, webinars, and conference talks

Industry podcasts publish show notes with guest links, webinar partners list co-hosts, and conferences link to speaker profiles. These links come with an audience attached. Founders who speak well about a specific problem are often the fastest route to links on sites that are hard to reach through cold outreach.

Unlinked brand mentions

Set up alerts for your brand and product names, then check new mentions for a missing link. A site that already wrote about you is the easiest outreach target there is. A polite note that thanks them and asks for a link to the relevant page converts well, because you are asking for a small edit, not a favor.

Broken links and resource pages

Find resource pages and guides in your niche that link to pages which no longer exist, and offer your page as the replacement. This works best when you have a genuinely close match, such as a deprecated tool you can replace with your own free tool. It is slower than other tactics and needs a good asset behind it, but the links it earns are on pages built to recommend resources.

Here is how the tactics compare in practice:

How to get high quality backlinks, not just more of them

A high quality backlink is one that would make sense even if search engines did not exist. A reader on that page would plausibly click it, and the site would plausibly link to you without being asked. Before spending time on any prospect, check:

• Relevance: does the site cover topics your buyers care about, and does the specific page relate to the page you want linked?
• Real audience: does the site get organic traffic for real keywords, or does it only have a high authority score?
• Editorial standard: does someone review what gets published, or will the site publish anything for a fee?
• Outbound link restraint: does the site link out sparingly, or does every post carry a long list of commercial links?
• Placement: will the link sit inside the body of a relevant article, not in a footer, sidebar, or a page built only to host links?

Authority scores like DR are a useful first filter but a poor final one. We explain the difference between the common scores, and what to track alongside them, in Domain Rating vs. Domain Authority.

Outreach that gets replies

• Write to a named person, not a generic inbox, and reference something specific they published.
• Lead with what their readers get: the article idea, the corrected fact, the better resource. Your link is the side effect.
• Keep the first email short enough to read on a phone. One clear ask, no attachments.
• Follow up once, a week later, then move on. Repeated nudges burn the relationship and your domain's email reputation.
• Send from a real person at your company, with a real signature. Editors are far more likely to respond to a founder or engineer than to an anonymous outreach address.

A step-by-step plan for your first 90 days

Link building rewards consistency over bursts. This plan assumes a small team doing it in house, alongside other work.

1. Week one: list three to five target pages and record their current referring domains and rankings, so you have a baseline.
2. Week one: run a referring domain gap check against the sites ranking for each target keyword, and note which domains link to several competitors but not to you.
3. Week two: claim the easy wins. Ask every integration partner for a listing, fix unlinked brand mentions, and redirect any of your old URLs that have backlinks but now return a 404.
4. Weeks two to four: build or improve one linkable asset tied to your most important target page, such as a tool, a data page, or a definitive reference guide.
5. Weeks three to six: pitch the authors of "best tools" and alternatives articles in your category that leave you out.
6. Weeks four to twelve: pitch a small number of guest posts each month to publications your buyers read, using the asset as supporting material.
7. Ongoing: answer relevant journalist requests a few times a week, with founders or engineers supplying the substance.
8. Ongoing: look for niche edit opportunities on relevant articles that already rank and mention your category without linking to a good resource.
9. Every month: log each new link with its date, URL, anchor, target page, and attribute, and review lost links.
10. Day 90: compare referring domains, rankings on target pages, and referral sign ups against the baseline. Keep the tactics that produced relevant links and drop the ones that did not.

Do not expect rankings to move inside the first month. Search engines need time to discover and weigh new links, and the effect builds as the program compounds. If you want to watch a third party authority score while you wait, our guide on how to increase domain rating explains what moves it and what does not.

Anchor text and target URLs

Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Google's link spam policies specifically name large scale guest posting campaigns with keyword rich anchor text, so a profile where most links say the same commercial phrase is a pattern to avoid. A natural profile mixes several types.

Spread new links across your target pages rather than piling them on one URL, and let the content of the linking article decide the anchor. If an anchor would look odd to the publication's readers, it is the wrong anchor.

What to avoid when building links

Google's spam policies name the practices that get links ignored or sites penalized. The ones SaaS companies run into most often:

• Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit. If money changed hands for a link, it should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
• Excessive link exchanges, where sites agree to link to each other mainly to trade ranking credit.
• Large scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns built around keyword rich anchors.
• Automated programs or services that create links to your site.
• Private blog networks and link farms: sites that exist to sell links and have no real readers. Cheap bulk packages sold purely by authority score are the usual way these appear.

The common thread is intent. A link that exists because it helps a reader is fine. A link that exists only to manipulate rankings is a liability, even if it moves an authority score for a while.

When to bring in a SaaS link building agency

Many SaaS teams can run the easy wins above in house: partner links, unlinked mentions, and a few founder led guest posts. The point where outside help makes sense is usually when consistency breaks down. Outreach needs someone sending, following up, writing, and vetting every week, and that work tends to stall the moment a launch or a hiring push takes priority.

Signs it is time to hand it off:

• Link building happens in bursts around campaigns, then stops for months.
• Nobody on the team owns publisher relationships or has time to vet sites properly.
• Your target pages are falling behind competitors whose referring domains keep growing.
• You are being pitched cheap link packages and cannot easily tell which are safe.

That is the work our SaaS link building agency runs every month. Each tier combines manual outreach and vetting with content written for you: Starter ($649/mo) is 2 to 3 guest post placements a month on relevant DR30+ sites. Growth ($1,499/mo) moves to 4 to 5 guest posts plus 1 niche edit a month, with an anchor text and target URL strategy. Authority ($2,999/mo) runs 8 to 10 guest posts and 2 niche edits a month, with priority access to SaaS and tech relevant publishers and a quarterly link strategy review. You get a monthly report with each live URL, anchor, and date. Plans are month to month.

What we don't offer is a guaranteed ranking or traffic figure. Nobody controls Google's results, and any vendor who promises a position is promising something they cannot deliver. What a steady program can do is grow the number of relevant sites vouching for your product, month after month, on pages you approved.