Link building for SaaS: what worked in three campaigns

Link building for SaaS works best when each link points to a page that sells, such as a product, feature or industry page. Across three of our campaigns, that approach coincided with traffic growth of 2.9x and 4.4x for two companies and clear authority gains for the third.

This article sets out what we did for each company, what changed, and what did not. Each client is described by its market, not its name. All figures are from Ahrefs for the dates shown.

Why link building for SaaS is different

Software as a service (SaaS) companies sell many products, features and use cases from one website. Each of those pages competes for its own set of searches. A strong homepage does not automatically lift them all.

Buyers also search in very specific ways. A hospital, a shop and an office all look for the same software using different words. Each group needs a page that matches its search, with links of its own.

Finally, authority in software markets is high. Ahrefs’ benchmark of 600 SaaS companies found a median domain rating (DR) of 62. Domain rating is Ahrefs’ 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site’s backlink profile.

Source: Ahrefs, What is a good domain rating?, June 2026.

Ahrefs also says a good score is whatever beats the companies you actually compete with. So the starting question is not “how many links“, but “which pages need authority to beat which competitors”.

Three campaigns at a glance

The table compares the three campaigns. One of them saw organic traffic fall during its window, so for that one we report authority measures only.

Source: Ahrefs, for each campaign’s dates. “Not claimed” means organic traffic fell in that window. Link counts are the links we placed, not all links each site gained.

The three companies started at very different levels of authority. That shaped what each campaign could achieve and how we measured it.

Campaign 1: a search engine optimisation software company

This company sells search engine optimisation software used by more than a million people. It started with a domain rating of 82 and a well-known brand. Its traffic, though, had levelled off.

To win more customers, it needed to rank for searches about specific product features. Those are the searches that bring in paying customers, not just readers.

What we did

We split the links between product pages that bring in revenue and popular guides that bring in readers.

• Product pages. Links from a cloud software website to the white label page, and from a training website to the reporting tools page. The anchor text was “SEO reporting tool”.
• AI topics. A link from a software development company’s website to the guide on AI in search engine optimisation, a fast-growing topic.
• Technical guides. Links from development and marketing websites to guides on pagination and harmful backlinks.

What changed

Organic traffic rose from 366,707 to 1,061,224 visits a month (2.9x) between October 2024 and September 2025. It passed 1 million visits a month in May 2025 and again in September 2025.

Referring domains rose from 10,717 to 15,217, and domain rating moved from 82 to 83. We placed 12 links, so most of the new referring domains came from other sources. We do not claim them as ours.

Campaign 2: an AI writing and detection software company

This company makes one of the best-known tools for detecting AI-written text. It also offers newer writing tools, such as a paraphraser, a summariser and a plagiarism checker.

It wanted those newer tools to rank, so visitors would stay for more than one task. That meant sending authority to the product pages, not the homepage.

What we did

We pointed links at the newer product pages rather than the homepage.

• Paraphrasing tool. Links from well-visited marketing websites, with the anchor text “paraphrasing tool”.
• Summariser. Links from software and digital agency websites, with plain anchor text such as “summarize”.
• Content creation. Links from a design agency and marketing software websites that presented it as a content creation tool.
• New technologies. Links from technology blogs to an article on new technologies.

What changed

Organic traffic rose from 2,205,297 to 9,673,513 visits a month (4.4x) between May 2024 and February 2025. In January 2025 it was 5,642,222, so the result depends on the month chosen.

Referring domains rose from 2,321 to 4,420 (+90%), and domain rating moved from 69 to 74. We placed 14 links, so most of the new referring domains came from other sources. We do not claim them as ours.

Campaign 3: a digital signage software company

This company sells digital signage software in a crowded market. Its challenge was not just ranking for “digital signage”. It needed to rank for the specific uses that bring in business customers.

What we did

We matched the source of each link to the industry page it pointed to.

• Workplace communication. Links from human resources and recruitment websites, with the anchor text “workplace communication”.
• Retail. A link from an online store software website, with the anchor text “intuitive signage in a store”.
• Smaller industries. A link from a software testing website to the gym page, and from a survey software website to the hospitality page.

What changed

Domain rating rose from 49 to 55 between 1 December 2024 and 1 April 2025. Referring domains rose 22%, from 784 to 957. Organic traffic fell slightly in the same four months, so we make no traffic claim.

Its gym, retail, workplace and hospitality pages now have links of their own. Passing a domain rating of 50 also moved the site closer to the SaaS median of 62.

What the second campaign shows about product pages

The second campaign is the clearest example of linking to product pages. The company already had a strong homepage and a well-known detection tool. The aim was to give its newer tools the same chance to rank.

Each newer tool competes in its own set of searches. Someone looking for a paraphrasing tool will not search for an AI detector. So each tool page needed links that matched its own searches.

We chose the linking websites to suit each page. Marketing websites suited the paraphrasing tool, because their readers write a lot of content. Software and digital agency websites suited the summariser for similar reasons.

Anchor text followed the same logic. The paraphrasing tool page received the anchor text “paraphrasing tool”, which matches what people search for. The summariser page received plain anchors such as “summarize”, which read naturally in context.

The design agency and marketing software websites added a different angle. They presented the company as a content creation tool, not only a detector. That supports the company’s aim of keeping visitors for more than one task.

The traffic figures need care. Traffic rose 4.4x between the start and end dates, but the January 2025 figure was much lower. Choosing a different end month would give a smaller multiple.

We also placed only 14 links, while referring domains grew by about 2,100. Most of that growth came from other sources, so we do not claim it. What the campaign does show is a pattern other SaaS companies can follow.

If your company has one well-known product and several newer ones, do not send every link to the homepage. Give each newer product page links from relevant websites, with anchor text that describes it. Then track each page separately, so you can see which pages respond.

What worked across all three

Three practices were common to every campaign. They form the core of our approach to link building for SaaS.

Source: our campaign plans.

Google’s own guidance supports the third point. Google says anchor text tells people and Google something about the page being linked to. It also says Google uses links as a signal when working out the relevancy of pages.

Common mistakes we see

We often see the same three problems when we review SaaS link building plans.

• Every link goes to the homepage. The homepage gains authority, but the product and feature pages that buyers search for stay where they were.
• Links come from unrelated websites. A link from a travel blog to a payroll product tells search engines very little about the product.
• Volume over fit. A large batch of weak links in one month can look unnatural and adds little authority.

Each of these is easy to avoid with a page-by-page plan, agreed before outreach starts.

Why we do not always claim traffic gains

One of these three campaigns saw organic traffic fall while authority rose. We report that openly, because traffic depends on more than links.

Seasonal demand, changes to Google’s results pages and AI answers can all reduce clicks. A site can also lose old rankings while newer pages are still climbing. For a SaaS board, authority, rankings for target pages and qualified sign-ups are better early measures than traffic alone.

Ahrefs’ study of about 14 billion pages found a clear link between the number of websites linking to a page and its traffic. Ahrefs also notes that this does not prove cause. We track each target page separately for that reason.

How to plan link building for your SaaS company

Use these steps to build a plan your board can follow.

1. List your revenue pages. Product, feature, integration, industry and comparison pages.
2. Benchmark your authority. Compare your domain rating with your three closest competitors and the SaaS median of 62.
3. Check page-level gaps. For each target search, compare your page’s referring domains with the pages that rank.
4. Match sources to pages. Find relevant websites for each page, such as human resources sites for a workplace product.
5. Set a steady pace. In these campaigns, we placed between 12 and 16 links over four to eleven months.
6. Agree how you will measure. Fix the dates, the data source and the measures before the first link goes live.

You can see more of our results on our case studies page. Our SEO service covers link building alongside technical and content work for software companies.

If you lead marketing at a SaaS company and want links that support your revenue pages, get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

What is link building for SaaS?

It is the work of earning links from relevant websites to a software company’s pages. The best results come from linking to product, feature and industry pages.

How many links does a SaaS company need?

It depends on your starting authority and your competitors. In these campaigns, we placed between 12 and 16 links over four to eleven months.

What is a good domain rating for a SaaS company?

Ahrefs’ benchmark of 600 SaaS companies found a median of 62 and a top quartile of 77. The real target is to beat your closest competitors.

Should SaaS links point to the homepage?

Rarely. In our campaigns, links went to product, service and industry pages, because those are the pages buyers search for.

Does link building always increase SaaS traffic?

No. In one of these three campaigns, traffic fell while authority rose. Traffic depends on many factors beyond links.

How long does SaaS link building take to show results?

Authority moved within four months in the digital signage campaign. Traffic growth built over eight to nine months for the other two companies.

Sources

• Ahrefs, What is a good domain rating? (with real data), Ryan Law, 2 June 2026.
• Google Search Central, Link best practices for Google.
• Ahrefs, 96.55% of content gets no traffic from Google, 1 December 2023.
• Campaign figures: Ahrefs, for each campaign’s dates as shown.