3 proven strategies to solve your startup’s link building dilemma

Look at any top-ranking popular SaaS startup in your niche; here’s what you’ll most likely find.

They’re powered by thousands of backlinks.

And guess what?

This has helped them dominate the SERPs for tons of keywords, and it seems almost impossible to outrank them.

What exactly is playing out here?

You see...

So, if website A links to website Z, it means that website A is telling Google that website Z should be trusted.

That “link” signals to Google that website Z is an authority in their niche (topic) and should be ranked higher (All things being equal).

Technically, the more quality and relevant links a website has, the higher the chances of ranking high on the search engine.

This poses a big challenge for Google and marketers (SEOs).

For Google…

The biggest challenge they had (and still have) is that many marketers wanted (and still want) to game the system.

The reason is simple…

If more links could help a website rank higher, why not find ways to acquire more of them?

That way, you can dominate the SERPs and outrank your competitors.

Due to this, marketers and SEOs devised lots of grey and blackhat ways to acquire more backlinks.

Some of these include:

• PBN links

• Wikipedia links

• Scholarship links

• Paid links

• Badges for links

• Blog commenting

• Forum links

• And many more.

Some of these shady link building tactics worked very well in the past, posing a big challenge for Google.

In the long run, they figured it out and released different algorithm updates, which made them ineffective.

For marketers and SEOs…

The biggest challenge they have right now is acquiring high-quality backlinks.

Here is why…

Most website owners now know how important backlinks are, so the demand for them is high.

Not only that…

Website owners are bombarded with outreach emails and messages on social media, which they now consider spam.

So, what can you still do today to acquire high-quality and relevant backlinks that’ll move the needle for your SaaS startup?

Let’s get to it…

1) Publish link-worthy content

This link building strategy is the most effective one I’ve found.

Yet, a lot of startups ignore it.

Do you know why?

Because it’s hard.

So, what exactly is 'link-worthy content? 

They’ll usually link to you without ever asking for it.

Below are some examples of link-worthy content: 

• Original research 

• Statistics page

• Infographics and custom illustrations

• Templates

• Calculators

• Free tools

Here are some examples:

An email marketing statistics page by Snov has acquired over 1,700 backlinks from more than 1,000 referring domains.

That’s not all…

This original research by Sparktoro and Datos has driven 613 backlinks from about 300 websites.

What does this show?

Publishing link-worthy content remains one of the best and most effective ways to acquire high-quality and relevant backlinks for your SaaS startup.

If you don’t have any link-worthy content on your website yet, start creating one immediately.

2) Leverage HARO (Now Connectively)

HARO is the acronym for Help a Reporter Out.

In case you don’t know, it’s a website that connects journalists with experts they can use as sources for their stories and articles.

Here is how the platform works…

Say a journalist wants to write an article about “latest trends in machine learning” that’ll be published on Forbes.

If they don’t have expertise in machine learning, they can go to HARO to find experts they can feature in their article.

All they need to do is post a request for a source on the platform with the specific question they want answered.

And “machine learning experts” reach out with their answers.

If the reporter or journalist eventually chooses a response, they’ll link back to you.

From my own experience and interactions with other content marketers, HARO is still one of the best ways to get backlinks from authority websites.

Aside from HARO, here are other websites you can use for this purpose:

• Qwoted

• Pitch Response

• Source Bottle

• Help a B2B Writer

3) Collaborate with other SaaS Startups

Collaborating with other SaaS websites in your niche is key to building high-quality backlinks.

Here is why…

The number of backlinks you can build for your business is limited, especially if you focus more on guest posting and outreach.

In most cases, you can only add about 1-2 backlinks to your own website from each guest post.

And one backlink from each outreach.

That is low compared to the time and effort it takes to write a high-quality guest post.

When you collaborate with other SaaS websites, they’ll link to your articles and resources from the guest posts they write.

Similarly, you’ll do so for them from your end too.

That way, you can get more value from each guest post or outreach.

Now, you may be wondering…

How can I find other SaaS websites to collaborate with for this purpose?

There are a lot of ways to do this, which include:

• Slack communities (Examples: Superpath, Top of the funnel, Online Geniuses)

• Facebook groups (Examples: SaaS Growth Hacks, B2B Bloggers Boost Group)

• Engaging with SaaS founders and marketers on LinkedIn and X.

On a final note…

If you’ve always struggled with link building, these strategies will help you land more backlinks than you’ve ever acquired before now.

Got any questions or concerns? Kindly let me know by replying to this email.

To your startup success,

Shehu AbdulGaniy 

Founder, Your Content Mart

P.S: Did you learn something new from this week’s email? Please invite your colleagues and friends to join through your referral link below. Counting on your support 🤝.