12 SaaS Link-Building Strategies To Increase Traffic

Why Is Link Building Important For SEO?

It’s no secret that links are one of the top factors Google considers to rank websites. That’s why many SaaS businesses turn to SaaS link-building strategies in an effort to gain high-quality backlinks to reputable websites. Backlinks improve search engine rankings by providing “juice” that helps you surpass your competitors. “Juice” can be retrieved in two ways: by either directing your website link’s existing traffic to another page you want to rank for or by generating brand-new SaaS backlinks. This way, you send a clear signal to Google that your domain is trustworthy. However, getting new, high-quality backlinks is no easy feat. Purchasing bundles of backlinks from online providers can backfire if these links are outdated, empty, or of bad quality. That’s why it’s worth hiring an online SEO company to check your backlink profile.

Remember that SaaS companies may need custom link building, depending on how niche your industry is. So, instead of focusing on quantity, it’s best to acquire fewer but highly credible links.

In This Guide, You Will Find…

The Benefits Of SaaS Link-Building Strategies For Your Company

An effective SEO backlink strategy increases your credibility. The more credible websites link back to your articles and main domain, the more people perceive you as a trustworthy figure they can do business with. When Google sees that you have more quality backlinks than your competitors, it is more likely to give you a more favorable ranking. That’s why you need a Search Engine Optimization specialist to advise you on how many links you need based on your profile. As a result, you increase your traffic, and new leads get to know you and your services. Your conversion rates improve as targeted audiences browse through your website. That’s why you can’t trust irrelevant websites promising you cheap backlinks and need industry-specific websites to feature your links.

Another core benefit of link-building strategies in SEO is higher organic traffic, meaning less money spent on ads. Now, we don’t mean that you should stop paid promotions. What we mean is that you can tone down your expenses there since you’ll be getting more organic visitors. Therefore, you showcase thought leadership to even more people and convince them to purchase your solution. Slowly, you build a solid brand image based on respect, loyalty, and credibility.

Things To Avoid While Building Links

1. Link Exchanges

This is one of the tactics you should avoid adding to your SaaS link-building strategies. Why, though? Why is it bad to exchange links? While it could be okay to do so in certain circumstances, it’s quite risky. For starters, you don’t know whether your collaborator’s website drives the audience you need. Even if you get more clicks, the bounce rate will probably be high. What’s the point in getting traffic from people who want nothing to do with you? SEO strategies should be more specific. Additionally, excessive link exchanges raise red flags for Google, and you might end up with a hefty penalty. Even if you don’t do this practice often, your partner may be guilty of it, and your SEO will take a serious hit.

Lastly, do you know the credibility of your link-building partner? Imagine they are scammers who appear fully legitimate. Mentioning them on your page sends traffic to their website. Without knowing, you might drive people to get scammed. And even if they are not scammers, their content quality might be low-quality. This is not a tactic you want to include in your link building for SaaS, expecting it won’t have any negative consequences.

2. Buying Links

There are so many risks associated with buying backlinks that we don’t think it’s worth the hassle. For starters, if you want to purchase links on authoritative websites, you will have to fork out a lot of money. That’s why many SaaS companies fall into the trap of buying large bundles of links from websites like Fiverr. Other providers may prove to be link farms involved in black hat tactics. Some of these tactics are exchanging services for links and buying posts that contain URLs. What’s even worse with link farms is that they circulate your links very quickly, boosting your traffic extremely fast. This sudden increase makes Google suspicious, especially when the sources are very low quality.

It’s obvious that a solid link-building plan for SaaS can’t contain this practice. If Google decides that your backlink-building strategy is illegitimate, the penalties will harm you severely. The algorithm will probably bury your website, and organic traffic will see a devastating drop. In the worst-case scenario, a tremendously battered backlink profile might end up in your complete removal from search engines.

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12 SaaS Link-Building Strategies That Work

1. Guest Blogging

Becoming a guest author for other credible websites is always an effective link-building tactic for SaaS companies to maximize visibility and boost their ranking. For starters, writing on other blogs allows you to showcase your expertise and expand your reach to an entirely new audience that is relevant to your niche. Additionally, you include at least one dofollow backlink, boosting your domain authority. eLearning Industry welcomes professionals in the eLearning and HR industries to submit their articles and increase their reach. Of course, don’t take it for granted that websites will accept your articles if they are low-quality. So, ensure you stand out and offer unique insights.

Also, did you know that you can scale your backlinks with syndicated content? Contrary to guest posts, syndicated articles have already been published on your domain. Content syndication isn’t considered duplicate content, and Google won’t punish you. However, you must ensure that you collaborate with companies that are actual syndication platforms.

2. Linkable Content

The backbone of all SaaS link-building strategies is creating content that others will link to without you even asking for it. How do you even do that? First, do your research to identify ideas and topics that your audience likes and wants to educate itself on. Then, run a few related keywords to check their traffic and intent. You may realize that some key keyphrases are very hard to rank for. In these cases, it’s best to focus on high-intent keywords that may get less traffic, but people are more prepared to purchase a solution. Usually, the articles that manage to get thousands of dofollow backlinks are over 2000 words and, in some cases, over 4000 words. That is because, depending on the topic, Google prefers longer reads as they add extra value to readers’ lives.

3. Resource Pages

You don’t necessarily need to write super long articles to rank highly and generate natural backlinks. Resource pages, like glossaries, statistics, roundups, guides, reports, and case studies, help link building and SEO tremendously. For example, Backlinko does a wonderful job of gathering various data and informing people on a certain subject. Instead of researching every piece of data separately, the website groups all the important ones on one page. That’s why it gets so many natural backlinks. You don’t have to follow the same SaaS link-building strategy. Depending on your niche, you can create comprehensive guides and case studies. They are both very sought after by new leads looking to buy a solution.

Also, you may create trend reports your industry is thirsty to read. For example, if you are marketing your employee onboarding software, you may create a report regarding all recent data about engagement, retention, and turnover. This way, people searching for this sort of data will find everything they’re looking for on your page and won’t visit a different one.

4. Freebies

Have you thought of the possibility of influencer marketing? Now, wait; we can explain. There is a way for SaaS companies to leverage the power of influential figures and expand their reach. Simply identify a few key figures in your field that audiences trust and respect. You may ask them to place one of your links on their website in exchange for a freebie. For example, let’s say you approach a business owner who is also a thought leader with a massive following. If you have an employee engagement software you want to promote, you can offer them a free 30-day trial or a freemium. Therefore, not only do you receive high-quality backlinks, but you also generate new customers if your product is satisfactory.

5. Reporter Communications

We have already mentioned various ways to build links, and the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) strategy was once a staple in online PR and backlink building. However, the popular website has now shut down, giving space to the equivalent of Source of Sources, created by the same visionary. Link-building backlinks on this platform is no easy feat, though. Here’s how it works. If you pitch a news piece written by AI to a reporter once, you are booted off the platform forever. The same thing can happen if you waste reporters’ time without offering them anything useful. Therefore, the platform prioritizes high-quality content and pitches while minimizing spam. The reporters on the platform are from large publications, including the Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Post, NPR, etc. So, giving your best elevator pitch examples can land you on one of these publications’ pages.

6. PR Campaigns

Promotional campaigns can’t be missed from your SaaS link-building strategies. Do you have an upcoming webinar you need to gather signups for? A PR campaign can drive excitement and boost registrations while generating interest from news sites wishing to publish your event. There are two ways you can do this. One, you may start building relationships with journalists you meet during physical events or engage with online. So, when you want to promote something, you can contact them and ask to publish it on their website. Alternatively, you can send press releases to various news publications and wish a few of them will pick it up and repost it. eLearning Industry offers you the opportunity to shine through our targeted press releases. Do you want to celebrate a recent eLearning Top List Award or announce that your company was voted employer of the year? Why not create a PR campaign?

7. Broken Links

Every website potentially has quite a few broken links leading to 404 pages. Link-building services can help you find these links on relevant web pages that target the same audience as you. Basically, you scour articles to find links that don’t work. If you have written content about the same topics, you can contact the website administrators. First, tell them that they have a broken link and then suggest that they include your link instead. This is a bright example of link-building that not everyone is talking about. If your content is valuable, other websites will gladly agree to give you a backlink, showing gratitude for your broken link discovery. The best part is that this process of discovering broken links doesn’t have to happen manually. Rather, you can use tools like Broken Link Checker to easily locate broken links on websites of your choice.

8. Product Embeds

While this SaaS link-building strategy may not be doable for all companies, when applicable, it can be a treasure basket of high-quality backlinks. Basically, you allow other websites to integrate certain parts or features of your solutions into their websites and, of course, include a link. So, let’s say you have created time-tracking software. It’s obvious that for someone to use the full-fledged tool, they have to purchase it. What if you allowed everyone to embed a scheduling calendar in a way to promote your full-scale software? But beware: even if you have the best product on the market, don’t expect that backlinks will magically appear. You have to keep applying content marketing ideas to get your product and your expertise in front of your audience and gain their trust. Once that happens, you can start worrying about natural link building.

9. CEO Interviews

To execute a link-building strategy, you should always test new ideas and creative solutions. CEO interviews are a wonderful option for SaaS startups wishing to get a slice of their industry pie. This is also a good content idea for already established businesses wishing to engage with other industry leaders and exchange viewpoints. But let’s not forget about our topic: backlinks. When you interview another leader, you add a link leading to their website as a “thank you” for taking the time to answer. Similarly, the other side can take your interview and include your link to their article. How do you get to that point where people come to you and request interviews? Well, instead of waiting for some magic event, you can contact relevant businesses, create partnerships, and exchange interviews and links.

10. Podcasting

It sounds peculiar that we’re mentioning podcasts in a link-building discussion, but they are very similar to CEO interviews. For starters, a podcast creates brand awareness, engages your audience, builds loyalty, and helps with SaaS lead generation. What do they have to do with backlinks, though? Instead of publishing your podcasts only on streaming platforms like Spotify and iTunes, add them on a landing page on your website. You may also add a little text explaining each episode. With the right SEO optimization, this page can rank. No, it doesn’t have the same power as an article or long guide, but it can create natural links if the content is truly valuable.

Talking about SEO, it would be wise to incorporate your podcast links inside your articles, too, to increase retention. Imagine if someone who clicks to read your content also starts listening to your podcast. They will probably stay on the page for a lot longer.

11. Infographics

So far, we know that infographics are great for SEO purposes when you add them to your articles because they increase engagement and retention. They can also be beneficial to your SaaS link-building strategies. However, building an aesthetically unique and informative infographic isn’t that easy, as so many SaaS companies are enforcing them. When you have created a satisfactory result, it’s time to begin the outreach process. Use Ahrefs or similar platforms to add successful infographic URLs. You want to save both the referring domain URL and the referring page URL and add them to your outreach list. Then, it’s time to send personalized emails to each recipient and provide your infographic for free in exchange for a backlink. In your email, it’s best to provide them with a preview of the infographic to pique people’s interest.

12. Unlinked Brand Mentions

Has anyone mentioned your brand on their website without adding a link to yours? A tip on how to rank higher on Google is to set Google News alerts so you know when your brand is mentioned online. For example, someone might have mentioned your Learning Management System (LMS) as one of the best in the industry without linking to it. You can contact them and ask them nicely to add the link. Most businesses will gladly satisfy your request as they are already familiar with your brand and have a positive perception. However, in the case you get a negative response, you can suggest something else in return. Maybe a free infographic would be incentive enough for them to do you this favor.

How Can You Measure SaaS Link-Building Strategies?

1. Domain Rating

Every website gets a score between 1 and 100. So, the higher you receive, the better for your domain authority. Tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and Small SEO Tools can give you a quick measurement of your domain. But how quickly does a domain’s rating increase? It depends on your link-building methods and how many backlinks you receive. For example, it’s preferable to receive one link from ten different high-quality websites rather than ten links from one website.

2. Website Traffic

Who doesn’t use Google Analytics in our day and age? It’s the best tool to measure your traffic and bounce rate. Things that affect both metrics are the anchor text, the content, the quality of traffic, and the freshness of the source page. So, the anchor text your collaborators use to link back to your article should be intriguing and accurate, while the content itself must be engaging. We already mentioned the type of quality you need for your website. We haven’t talked about freshness, though: make sure to get backlinks on pages that are not older than six months.

3. Backlinks

Relevant backlinks from trustworthy sources don’t create themselves. You can use the tools we mentioned a bit earlier to measure the number you have. Then, focus your SaaS link-building strategies on outreach campaigns to gain credible links. Additionally, you should ensure your content is impeccable not only to decrease bounce rates but also to generate backlinks without even trying. Like you’re linking to outbound sources to validate your information, other websites could do the same with your page links.

4. Page Relevance

SaaS link building depends on creating industry relevance. You need to do keyword research and create content using high-traffic and high-intent keywords. Creating similar articles to your competitors shows Google that you are relevant to the industry you’re targeting. To ensure your page relevance is high, ask your link-building experts to analyze the keywords used in similar websites. Read their content, identify the keywords they use, and decide on the length of each article.

5. Link Position

SaaS backlinks placed in the header, footer, or sidebar aren’t deemed as important as those located in the main text. That’s because contextual links should blend seamlessly with the meaning of your articles and be combined with the right anchor text. Also, they should provide extra value to readers. You shouldn’t just add links that have no contextual meaning. So, when you collaborate with a trustworthy site, ask them to place your backlink as high on the page as possible to capture more clicks.

Examples Of Successful Link-Building Strategies

1. Backlinko

Backlinko is a master on how to get backlinks for your website, and we can all learn a thing or two from their link-building strategy. The website is known for implementing a lot of statistics into its content. It basically compiles various stats from around the web, making it easy for people to find them all in one place. That’s why they are a magnet for natural backlinks. In 2024, they had gathered a total of 1300 backlinks. Additionally, its SEO linking strategy includes a clear outline at the beginning of every article. This way, people know exactly what to expect and can directly read a section they like the most.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot is known in the SaaS world for its comprehensive guides on various topics. Their articles don’t only scratch the surface but provide all-round information on a subject. That’s why some of these articles gather thousands of backlinks without even doing outreach. Like Bakclinko, HubSpot also includes outlines at the beginning of every article so readers can easily locate the information they’re searching for. Their content is generally so valuable that people share it with their peers on LinkedIn, driving even more traffic to the website.

3. Salesforce

There are many link-building strategies you can implement depending on your needs. Salesforce has struck gold with its online glossary. It includes a large number of terms found in the customer relationship management (CRM) industry. Thus, many companies link to these terms whenever they want to explain them to their audience. This tactic has created an outstanding 252,000 backlink profile for Salesforce.

Key Takeaway

Have you now understood how to approach link building for a SaaS B2B brand? One of the most crucial on-page SEO factors is internal and external links, including backlinks. Since we know that Google values backlinks a lot, you can’t avoid them in your effort to improve your SEO and get a higher ranking. This way, more people find your website, browse your domain, and purchase your solution. Additionally, they may even decide to buy something from you after locating your product on another trustworthy brand’s website. So, which SaaS link-building strategies are the best for you? Guest blogging, content syndication, linkable content, and resource pages generate natural links without necessarily too much work. Also, freebies, reporter connections, and PR campaigns get your product out there and create long-lasting and loyal relationships.

Other SEO link-building strategies include fixing broken links, creating product embeds, podcasting, and infographics. Some of them are lead-generation techniques, too, meaning they add value to your audience’s lives and attract them to your website. Unfortunately, building high-quality backlinks is not the easiest or quickest thing to achieve. You may take a look at Backlinko, HubSpot, and Salesforce as bright examples that mastered one of the strategies we mentioned to build powerful backlink profiles. It may seem unbelievable now, but with hard work and determination, you can do it too.