building is a powerful tool for B2B SaaS companies to improve their rankings.
B2B Content Marketing has a significant impact on the future of link building.
You can find a list of potential domains by using the right Google search terms.
SaaS Companies are able to target these prospects through a variety of content formats. This provides an opportunity for finding link prospects in a range of niche topics.
This list provides a method to identify links based on the types of content that are typical for SaaS brand.
Linking opportunities for SaaS Brands
The following tools for link building will help you to reduce the time it takes to reach out to each prospect.
- BuzzStream : List building and outreach CRM at low cost. This is an easy way to start.
- Pitchbox : List-building and campaign management. This tool is great for prospecting, outreach and reporting. The default campaigns will reduce the time it takes for new link builders build a list, and begin outreach.
The type of content you create on the site of the tool or Google will determine whether your link building campaign is successful.
Some pages have more links than other pages. You will focus on links that are high authority and links to blogs, informational articles and other pages.
1. Statistical roundup links for unique research
An article called a “statistical roundup”, which collects and presents statistics from different sources that are relevant to a certain topic or field.
These articles offer an insightful, informative and possibly compelling overview of a subject from a data-centric point of view.
Statistics roundup articles can be used in many fields, including sports, business, economics, health, medicine, education, and science.
They present data visually, using charts, graphs and tables that improve reader comprehension.
This article on the Top 50 Cybersecurity Statistics could be used to link to unique cybersecurity research conducted by your company.
You can find these links by searching Google for “keyword stats” or using a more specific search operator.
- intitle:”statistics” intext:keyword
You can narrow down the list to include only company blogs by:
- inurl:blog intitle:”statistics” intext:keyword
2. Blogger outreach for hybrid commercial and informational pages
Bloggers and publishers are likely to link to content which clarifies or enhances concepts that they write about.
These pages are optimized for conversion of traffic into leads or demo requests, with informative content that can be used as a link-building tool.
This is a very common technique in cyber security. NordVPN has a fantastic example of a hybrid web page.
You can use these pages to find blogs that have written on the subject and ask them to link to your hybrid page.
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Search Google for bloggers to identify them.
- inurl:blog intitle: keyword
- Copy the top 100 URLs to Ahrefs for batch analysis.
- Export List
- Filter by metrics.
- Repeat the process for each keyword.
3. Alternatives to the homepage or product pages
Blog articles listing alternatives to a rival are easy to find. These articles list the direct competitors and processes that can produce the same results.
- Intitle:competitor name alternatives -your company name
This method may not be scalable but it can produce high-quality links that drive traffic.
This example, from AuthorityHacker, shows a list Ahrefs alternative products that could be used as a target audience for a new SEO SaaS.
The founders of AuthorityHacker are known for producing actionable, relevant content about affiliate marketing and SEO. They may add your website to their list if you have an extremely useful tool.
4. Requests for integration of links to pages
Articles about integration partners can be found on the pages of integration. You can write articles that discuss features, tips on how to use them or even negative reviews.
For this Zapier example, it might be a good idea to target articles on Google Drive or Slack.
Use the search engine to find links for your integration page.
- Intitle:keyword -your domain -integration partner domain
Example: intitle:automate slack -zapier.com -slack.com
5. Links to comparison product content are mentioned by competitors
A blog post or website that compares the features of your software with those of a direct or an indirect competitor.
Monday.com is a project-management software that has a comparison page. Users can choose from a list of direct competitors.
It is common to create a page for every competitor.
There is a lot of useful content produced in the project management niche. Bloggers are writing about everything from how to optimize time management, to agile methodologies.
Create a list of outreach topics using these article subjects. Create a variant of the search operator shown below that could be used on a project management site.
- intext:asana intitle:project management -Monday.com -asana.com
6. Blog articles on case studies with social ads
Case studies are highly sought after because they often contain actionable learnings from real-world experiences.
SaaS providers can access unique data and case study using their software. These assets are unique and can be used to create social ads that will attract readers.
This Ahrefs Case Study analyzes Linktree’s traffic drop by using several Ahrefs reports, including Top Pages and Average. Reports on organic traffic. The screenshot below illustrates the rapid increase in traffic and its subsequent decline.
This type of trendline encourages an SEO expert to dig deeper.
The case study was used to create ads for Facebook and possibly other platforms.
When I plug the URL of the case study into Ahrefs Site Explorer (a free tool), I see that 65 different domains have linked to the article.
It will improve the topical relevance of your site for SEO, even if it does not appear to generate much organic visitors. Other optimized pages will then rank easier.
7. Product and Homepages Listicles for outreach
It is becoming increasingly popular to list companies or experts in certain niche markets.
Listicles have become a very popular content type because they are easy to read and digest. Content marketing and journalism use them to present information in an organized and concise manner.
A digital marketer in cybersecurity can create a campaign that finds listicles based on general or specific article searches.
Create a list with the “intitle” search operator. The fewer articles you will find, the more specific the keyword or niche that was used. Repeat the article search using all relevant keywords.
- “Security of supply chain” in title: top
- intitle:”cybersecurity” intitle:top
Replace “top” by “best”, “tools” and other descriptive terms that describe your niche to expand the opportunities.
8. Guest posting byline of the executive and team for high authority sites
A guest post in a high-authority publication can result in a valuable byline and a link back to your website.
It’s important to remember that securing a place on these platforms with high traffic requires real expertise, and a considerable amount of time to create quality content.
These links are important for SEO but their primary objective is much more than that. These articles are primarily used as a tool to enhance brand visibility and establish thought leadership.
As you can see, at the bottom of the article, my byline on Search Engine Land contains a link to my homepage.
9. Request for passive PR to homepage links
A “passive journalist” PR request is a public relations term that describes a situation in which a journalist requests information, quotes or a story, typically via social media.
The requests are passive because the journalist does not reach out to specific people or companies to pitch or ask a question, but instead posts a general request that anyone can respond to.
The benefit of this approach is that it allows journalists to reach out to a greater variety of sources, and to find more stories.
These requests are a great opportunity for PR professionals to help their clients and organizations gain more exposure.
The passive PR strategy isn’t limited to SaaS. By creating content on a variety of topics, you can increase the number of placements.
You can find them by using Help a Report Out on Twitter (HARO), or by searching for the hashtag #journorequest.
10. Interlinking to commercial pages, non-competing informational links
This method involves building links to content that is informative, and then placing internal hyperlinks to the ranking pages.
This method increases the number of links in less time by assuming that publishers and bloggers are more likely than commercial sites to link to articles, which is why they will link to them. This method uses internal links to transfer PageRank and topical relevance to the commercial pages.
The outreach will be focused on articles that are related, but not competitive. A content article that does not compete for the same keyword is more likely than one that does to link back to the original content.
If you write an article on “Top 10 HR Management Software”, it’s unlikely that the article will link to another article listing HR management software. But, if you write an article describing its features, then this article might be a good place to link.
Use this template to search for these articles using your own keywords.
Inurl:blog intitle HR software – top
B2B SaaS: Content-first linking building
SaaS sites have the ability to target many topics and contents, which aligns well with the latest wave of content-first linking building.
Buzzstream, Pitchbox and Respona are tools that can help streamline your prospecting and outreach. But having the right content will increase the response rate.
Search engines can be used to find opportunities. Test multiple queries to find as many sites as possible to pitch.
Link building is crucial for B2B SaaS traffic, and companies who get it right can drive real growth.
The article 10 ways SaaS B2B companies can improve their rankings by using link building first appeared on Search Engine land.