As a SaaS company, you know that organic traffic is important for sustainable growth. One of the most effective ways to boost your search engine rankings and drive targeted traffic is through strategic link building.
At VH-info, we specialize in helping SaaS brands like yours build high-quality backlinks that make a real impact on your online visibility and bottom line.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive deep into the world of link building for SaaS companies. We’ll cover why it’s important, the step-by-step process, common mistakes to avoid, and proven strategies to implement.
By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap for creating a successful SaaS link building campaign that drives results.
What is Link Building For SaaS?
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites back to your own. For SaaS companies, this means building links to your website, blog posts, case studies, and other valuable content assets or web pages. The goal is to improve your site’s authority, relevance, and search engine rankings for target keywords related to your SaaS product or service.
Why is Link Building Important for SaaS Companies?
Backlinks are one of the top-ranking factors used by Google and other search engines. They act as “votes of confidence” from other websites, signaling that your content is valuable and trustworthy. The more high-quality links pointing to your SaaS website, the higher you’ll rank in search results for relevant queries.
But link building isn’t just about SEO. It also helps drive referral traffic, build brand awareness, and establish your SaaS company as a thought leader in your industry. By creating high quality and linkable assets and building relationships with other websites in your niche, you can tap into new audiences and generate more qualified leads for your business.
SAAS Link Building Process: Step-by-Step
At VH-info, we follow a proven, step-by-step process for building high-quality links for our SaaS clients. Here’s a look at our approach:
1. Identify Client Ideal Customer Profile
The first step is to gain a deep understanding of your target audience. Who are your ideal customers? What are their pain points, goals, and online behaviors? This insight will inform the types of content and websites we target for link building.
2. Analyze Competitor Links
Next, we conduct a thorough analysis of your competitors’ backlink profiles. We use tools like Ahrefs to identify the websites linking to them, the types of content earning links, and any gaps or opportunities for your SaaS brand.
3. Develop Linkworthy Assets
Based on our research, we develop a content strategy focused on creating linkable assets. This could include in-depth blog posts, industry reports, free tools, or other valuable resources that other websites will want to link to.
4. Identify Revenue Driving Sites
We then identify the websites and pages that are most likely to drive revenue for your SaaS business. These are typically sites that rank for bottom-of-funnel keywords and have a high Domain Authority.
5. Create Personalized Pitches
For each target site, we craft a personalized pitch highlighting the value of your content and why it would be a great fit for their audience. We focus on building genuine relationships rather than using generic, spammy outreach tactics.
6. Prioritize Highest Potential Sites
We prioritize outreach to the sites with the highest potential to drive traffic and conversions for your SaaS product. This ensures we’re making the most impact with our link building efforts.
7. Promote New Links
Once we’ve secured a new link, we amplify its impact by promoting it on social media and other channels. This drives more referral traffic and helps the link “stick” over time.
8. Track Conversions
Using Google Analytics and other tools, we track the conversions and revenue generated from each new link. This allows us to continually optimize our strategy and focus on the tactics driving the best ROI.
9. Refine and Expand Outreach
Finally, we use our learnings to refine and expand our outreach efforts over time. As we build momentum and establish your SaaS brand as a valuable resource, it becomes easier to secure even more high-quality links.
Impact Of Link Building On SaaS Companies
When done right, link building can have a massive impact on your SaaS company’s growth.
Here are just a few of the benefits our clients have seen:
- Higher search engine rankings for target keywords
- Increased organic traffic to key product and landing pages
- More referral traffic from relevant, high-authority websites
- Improved brand awareness and thought leadership in their industry
- Higher conversion rates and revenue from organic search
- A more diverse and resilient backlink profile
In short, link building is one of the most effective ways to fuel sustainable growth for your SaaS business. By investing in a strategic, white hat approach, you can build an enduring competitive advantage and drive long-term success.
When is Link Building Not a Good Idea for SaaS Businesses?
While link building is a powerful strategy for most SaaS companies, there are some situations where it may not be the best fit.
For example:
- If your product is still in beta or not yet fully developed, it may be premature to invest heavily in link building. Focus first on creating a great user experience and ironing out any kinks.
- If you’re in a very niche or emerging market, there may not be many relevant websites to target for link building. In this case, you may need to focus more on creating your own thought leadership content and building links organically over time.
- If you’ve recently been hit with a manual penalty from Google for spammy link building tactics, you’ll need to prioritize link cleanup before investing in new link acquisition.
That said, for the vast majority of established SaaS companies, link building should be a core part of your marketing strategy. The key is to approach it with a long-term, quality-over-quantity mindset and to continually measure and optimize your efforts.
Common Mistakes in SaaS Link Building
To get the most out of your link building efforts, it’s important to avoid these common mistakes:
Black Hat Link Tactics
Avoid using spammy, black hat tactics like link farms, private blog networks (PBNs), or buying links. These may give you a short-term boost but will ultimately hurt your search rankings and reputation.
Sending Traffic to the Home Page Only
Don’t just focus on building links to your home page. Create content assets around specific topics and build links to those pages to drive more targeted traffic and conversions.
Anchor Text Over-Optimization
Using the same exact match anchor text in every link is a red flag for Google. Mix up your anchor text with natural variations and branded phrases to avoid over-optimization.
Authority Over Relevancy
Don’t just chase links from high Domain Authority sites. Relevance is just as important, so focus on building links from websites and pages that are closely related to your SaaS product or industry.
Low-Quality Content
Thin, low-quality content won’t earn you links or engage your target audience. Invest in creating truly valuable, in-depth resources that other sites will want to link to and share.
Not Leveraging Internal Links
Don’t neglect the power of internal linking. Use strategic internal links to distribute link equity throughout your site and guide visitors to your most important pages.
Proven Effective Link Building Strategies for SaaS
At VH-info, we’ve tested and refined a wide range of link building strategies for our SaaS clients. Here are some of the most effective tactics we recommend:
1. Guest Posting
Contribute high-quality guest posts to relevant blogs and publications in your industry. This is a great way to build relationships, reach new audiences, and earn contextual links back to your site.
2. Industry Benchmark Data & Trends
Publish original research, surveys, or industry benchmark reports. Data-driven content is highly linkable and can help establish your SaaS brand as a thought leader.
3. Unlinked Brand Mentions
Use tools like Ahrefs Content Explorer to find unlinked mentions of your brand name across the web. Reach out and ask for a link to be added where relevant.
4. Broken Links
Identify broken links on relevant websites and offer your own content as a replacement. This is a win-win strategy that provides value to the site owner while earning you a high-quality link.
5. Press Releases
Distribute newsworthy press releases about product launches, funding rounds, or other company milestones. This can earn you links from high-authority news sites and industry publications.
6. Free Tools
Create free tools, calculators, or templates related to your SaaS product. These are highly linkable assets that can drive targeted referral traffic and conversions.
7. Product Embed
Offer an embeddable version of your SaaS product or widget that other sites can use in their content. This can earn you links and exposure from a wide range of relevant websites.
8. Shareable Links
Create shareable content assets like infographics, videos, or interactive quizzes. These are more likely to be linked to and shared on social media, expanding your reach and link potential.
9. Give Testimonials
Offer to provide testimonials or case studies for the tools and services you use as a SaaS company. Many sites will link back to your website in exchange for your feedback.
10. Podcasting
Launch a podcast related to your SaaS industry or be a guest on other relevant podcasts. This can earn you links from the podcast website and show notes.
11. Thought-Leadership Content
Publish in-depth, thought-provoking content on your blog and promote it to influencers and journalists in your space. This can lead to earned media coverage and high-quality links.
12. Journalist Outreach/Interviews
Build relationships with journalists and offer your expertise as a source for their stories. This can result in mentions and links from top-tier publications.
13. Product Reviews
Reach out to bloggers and influencers in your niche and offer them a free trial of your SaaS product in exchange for an honest review. This can earn you links and social proof.
14. Integration Partners
Partner with other SaaS tools that integrate with your product and cross-promote each other’s content. This can lead to valuable co-marketing opportunities and links.
15. Conferences
Attend or speak at industry conferences and events. This can help you build relationships with other thought leaders and earn links from the event website or press coverage.
The key is to focus on tactics that align with your unique SaaS brand and audience. By consistently executing on a diverse mix of these strategies, you can build a strong and sustainable link profile over time.
Great Examples of SaaS Link Building
To help illustrate these strategies in action, here are a few examples of successful SaaS link building campaigns:
- HubSpot’s State of Inbound report is a great example of data-driven content that earns links from a wide range of industry publications and blogs.
- Moz’s Domain Authority metric is often cited and linked to in articles about SEO and link building, establishing Moz as a thought leader in the space.
- Ahrefs’ free backlink checker tool has earned them links from thousands of websites in the marketing and SEO niche.
- Intercom’s blog is a masterclass in thought-leadership content, with in-depth posts that are frequently linked to and shared by other SaaS companies and influencers.
FAQ’s:
What is a SaaS Link Building Agency?
A SaaS link building agency is a company that specializes in helping software-as-a-service businesses acquire high-quality backlinks to improve their search engine rankings and drive organic traffic.
How is SaaS Link Building Different than Other Industries?
SaaS link building often focuses more on creating linkable assets around product features, use cases, and customer success stories. The goal is to drive bottom-of-funnel traffic and conversions, not just top-of-funnel awareness.
What Kind of Results Can I Expect From a Top SaaS Link Building Agency?
A top SaaS link building agency can help you significantly improve your search engine rankings, organic traffic, and lead generation over time. However, it’s important to have realistic expectations and understand that link building is a long-term strategy.
How Long Does it Take to See Results From a Link Building Service?
The timeline for seeing results from link building can vary depending on factors like the competitiveness of your industry and the current state of your backlink profile. In general, it can take several months to start seeing significant improvements in your search rankings and organic traffic.
How Can I Track The ROI Of My Link-Building Efforts?
Use tools like Google Analytics to track the referral traffic and conversions generated from each new link. You can also monitor improvements in your search rankings and organic traffic over time to measure the overall impact of your link building efforts.
How Often Should I Be Building Links For a SaaS Business?
Link building should be an ongoing process for SaaS businesses. Aim to consistently acquire new, high-quality links each month to maintain and improve your search engine rankings over time.
Conclusion
Link building is a critical component of any successful SaaS marketing strategy. By focusing on creating valuable content, building relationships with other websites, and leveraging white hat tactics, you can significantly improve your search engine rankings, organic traffic, and lead generation over time.
At VH-info, we specialize in helping SaaS companies like yours achieve sustainable growth through strategic link building. Our proven process and expertise have delivered measurable results for countless SaaS brands across a wide range of industries.
If you’re ready to take your SaaS link building to the next level, we’d love to chat. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your growth goals and dominate your market.