In this post we are going to talk about how to build links to your SaaS site and drive real traffic outcomes.
But first let’s talk about different benefits you get with Saas link building.
- You can increase trust
- You can increase authority in the eyes of search engines. You calculate it through ahrefs or moz but that are just pointers and we don’t know much about real weightage a site may have
- You can increase the organic traffic to your site- higher the number of mentions more the traffic to your site
- This leads to more sales and more leads either due to referral traffic spike or from indirect growth due to links
Topical Relevance
The link that you add to an article be it a niche edit or a guest post; it should be placed in a manner that someone would want to click on it.
If your SaaS is for time management and you gain a SaaS backlink from a health blog article or from a post talking about ecology the link isn’t really doing anything for you. The algorithms are designed to weed out and devalue links from irrelevant domains. The same ecology link to an environmental site may improve its rankings.
See, its all about context.
Domain Authority
The authority the DR rating, the more valuable the link
If you get a link from Hubspot that comes with dr of 92 this establishes more trust on your site.
Page Traffic
Even if the sites have great DA. most pages don’t get traffic. Its important to look at pages by their traffic and see if you can get links from pages that have on page traffic. The ideal links drive more traffic and this should be something that you must not overlook at all.
THe ideal links should drive more traffic for you
External/Internal Links
If the article has lots of outgoing links, then the link juice gets diluted as a result of that.
So whichever page you choose, choose one with limited set of outgoing links.
Anchor Text
The anchor text is clickable part of the paragraph where your link appears at.
Google helps you understand what other websites use to refer to you and what the content on the page is most likely to be.
For SaaS link building, the keywords can be saas links, or backlinks in general.
Common Mistakes in SaaS Link Building
Most backlinks will help you scale. BUt several others are designed to take down your traffic and rankings. Strategies used to help build them can also lead to your site getting penalized by search engines.
Here are common mistakes to avoid when building new links.
Black Hat Link Tactics
Black hat tactics are sure to ruin your site in the long run.
Google has a nose for questionable practices, tons of low quality links pointing to your site, general deceit in links and getting links from shady sites or participating in any link program.s
These practices can harm your domain and business.
Sending Traffic to the Home Page Only
Instead of making the homepage target of all link building send links to targeted landing pages and or other tools or landing pages.
Anchor Text Over-Optimization
Your anchor text should be relevant but don’t try to over-optimize it by adding multiple keywords or using repetitive phrases.
Authority Over Relevancy
Getting links from quality authority sites is good as long as the links themselves are relevant to your business. Getting links from ecommerce sites however authoritative they may be won’t help much in driving your own rankings up.
Low-Quality Content
Most businesses start guest posting to encourage links but with low quality AI built content getting posted, you’re not getting high quality links and that’s destroying your chances of getting better coverage.
Not Leveraging Internal Links
Internal links are a low-cost way of acquiring links. With internal links you can use any anchor to drive link juice around and internal linking structure also informs search engines about your page.
Taking care of these mistakes can help your link building strategy so it doesn’t get penalized by search engines.
Proven Effective Link Building Strategies for SaaS
Here are some proven SaaS seo link building strategies to test and see if they work for you.
1. Create Linkable Assets
Many saas businesses do not get links because their content isn’t great.
No one wants to send their audience to shallow content that nobody spent any time researching. That offers very little in terms of value.
THe key to winning links is to invest time and effort to create content that rings with people offering real insights that the audience can’t see elsewhere.
Pick a narrow niche and cover all possible angles. Trying to be broad topiced will spread these efforts thin. And if content isn’t good enough, getting links will be uphill.
Here are some content types that consistently earn organic backlinks:
- Statistics & Reports – People love binging on data. SO when you publish content covering unique marketing insights people will start referencing your content and start linking to you.
- For instance we could publish a SaaS stats article that can drive links and traffic for us.
- Guides – Long-form content gets 77.2% more backlinks than short articles. Go deep and make it the go-to resource on the topic.
- Glossary Pages – Define industry terms in one place. And when people find that page most sites start linking to that glossary as a point of reference
- Pillar & Cluster Content –This helps build authority in the niche and many sites use this to form an interconnected web of content.
- Expert Roundups – Industry pros get quoted all the time. Interview experts, compile their insights, and watch the backlinks roll in.
8. Product Embed
This isn’t really for everyone. Probably for SaaS tools that function as a tool on websites. Let’s say a chatbox SaaS or a forms app.
Sitegpt is a good example of a business that embeds itself on customer sites and that gives them natural sitewide links to its pages.
This is what it looks like:
With this strategy and enough users, the tool can generate thousands of links in no time.
These mentions aren’t annoying and serve as natural referrals for your business.
9. Shareable Links
If your tool helps people, do follow links are another great way to accrue links.
When users share their projects on the internet they can share profile links. Educate users about these links.
10. Give Testimonials
If you are a SaaS company its likely that you use different tools to make life easier. One tool for seo, another to manage time and projects, a CRM, cms systems etc.
This gives you plenty of opportunities to add testimonials as a powerful user of these different tools. This gives you links back to your brand.
YOu can also give reviews of services you’re using. Some testimonials are only unlinked brand mentions
11. Podcasting
POdcasts have been growing in popularity and there are two ways to make use of that trend.
Speak on somebody’s podcast and when they feature you you tget a link
- Feature someone on your podcast, and you earn a backlink when they share that on their website.
This is a good strategy. You don’t spend a lot of time creating new content. You just speak on a subject where you’re already an expert for half an hour.
You can also find a set of focused podcasts relevant to your brand.
12. Thought-leadership Content
Engaging content that forces people to challenge their assumptions appeals to your niche. Brands like Hubspot, Ahrefs and Zapier thrive on this content and they create data backed guides on popular topics or covering recent trends.
Thought leadership content also enhances credibility for your brand.
13. Journalist Outreach/Interviews
You can begin the narrative of outreaching to jhournalists to get links from authority sites. There are different platforms where journos and reporters hang out actively looking for comments by leaving queries. These replies are then quited by them in their next story.
Joirnmalists from media like Forbes, and BVusiness insider routitnely hang out here to get the idea of quotes and interviews they often do
Quotes for just a link are going to ghet rejected.
14. Product Reviews
Product reviews are a great link-building strategy that are ideally great for driving new links, mentions and revenue.
Get in touch with bloggers who are active in your niche and offer them your product. This should be turn for a few months of subscription of your tool for a review on their site.
There are also review aggregating sites like G2 where you can get reviews of your product posted. Since these sites get plenty of traffic on their own you can drive some sales with your product posted on G2, Capterra and platforms such as those.
This frees up your time and you get your product up on sites that sends you traffic and leads.
15. Integration Partners
New SaaS tools build in integrations with other tools. This enahcnaces their own limits and serves on unified platforms, saving time.
These partners can help youw in more links
16. Conferences
You can also be part of condernence sot discuss your tool and improve brand sawresness. Clearsncope participated in webinars and added 12000 new links to their band.
UYWhen you participate in these webinars, portray the different features relevant to the topic to increase awareness about what your product can do. Back this up with relevant case studies to build trust in your tool.
17. Run PR Campaigns
Pr campaigns drive awareness and get you links in the process. PR isn’t however limited to asking for mentions. Its about building lasting relatinshios with journlasts and online sites. If you cold pitch them you are most likely to be ignored
Invest time in building cnnections. SShare useful resources and when the time arrives you will feature your band.
Want to tip the scales in your favor? Follow these tips:
- Stay on top of industry news: With google alerts be notified of breaking stories
- Craft unique stories: Cover an angle that talks about what makes your business unique
- Back up your claims: Journalists don’t like weak stories. Use third party data to back up claims0
- Keep it simple, silly (KISS): Reporters are terrified of new pitches. Get stragihg to the opint
- Optimize your outreach: personalize your mails
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