Last Updated on by Artem K.
My link building service specializes on efficient SaaS content marketing, SaaS link building, and SaaS SEO.
In today’s post I show what a typical SaaS link building campaign that we run for clients looks like.
In fact, this is the same style link building campaign that we used for the two clients in the past and it produced great results:
Before we get going, I also advise you to check out these mistakes SaaS brands commit while building links.
I also always advise SaaS brands to build content that naturally attracts links and disavow backlinks every so often.
1. Picking Highest Potential Target URLs
Picking the best URLs to target is important because, if we do it right, we’ll potentially be able to produce far quicker results and have a bigger impact.
To do that, we do the following:
- Ask our clients what pages they are looking to get ranked asap
- Check “Top Pages” report in Ahrefs that shows the pages that bring the most traffic AND…their respective page rankings
I always for on-page SEO using SurferSEO as well.
There is no way you can rank for some keywords (with ease) without properly optimizing for on-page SEO, search intent and making sure that internal linking is taken care of.
Even though we always to try to find quick gain opportunities, it’s not always possible for a number of reasons:
- Too low DR to begin with
- Too little content on a specific topic (it makes it harder to rank for individual keywords)
- No previous link building (i.e. Lank of link velocity)
One way or another, we always pursue long-term holistic approach meaning that we think about long-term perspective rather than quick gains.
See also – link building statistics for SaaS (emails, conversions etc)
2. Link Building Database
We manage our link building process in a database that we create for every single client.
It includes things like:
- Prospects we find for pitching
- Their personal data
- Backlink placement records etc
We also include the URL targets that we got from the first step.
See Also – Effective Email Outreach for SaaS
3. Finding Prospects for Pitching
I am not a fan of overcomplicating things so we only run two types of link building campaigns:
- Competitor-based, when we extract all the URLs that point to our clients’ competitors
- Google search-based, when we find related articles and pitch our target links to them
Both of these methods are extremely repetitive, monotonous and…need to be done.
The conversion rate for these fluctuates between 0.5% and 3% because…
We only search for higher authority backlinks that have a better chance of moving the needle.
Our quality guidelines and rigid and transparent:
- DR40-70+
- 1000+ Monthly Traffic
- Relevant Pages (that contain the keywords our customers are trying to rank for themselves)
Before we even start with prospecting, I go on to setup outreach domain and start the warm-up process.
4. Setting Up Outreach Domain
Sending emails at scale, even if they are great like ours, can still have a negative effect on our client’s domain reputation.
It can reduce email newsletter deliverability, which isn’t a good thing since a big part of selling you’d be doing for your SaaS is likely to go through that channel.
This is why we get a separate domain that’s very similar to what you already have.
We then redirect that domain to yours so when anyone checks the domain they get an email from, they are immediately sent to your primary SaaS domain.
In order to improve email deliverability I also set up things like DKIM, SPF and DMARC records.
After that’s done, it’s time to start email warm-up.
I’m not going to discuss this here because I covered it thoroughly before.
5. Writing Email Template + Follow-ups
To get links placed, you need to have a good offer that “sells” link placement to whoever we are pitching it to.
This is when I go all in and create killer templates we’d be using for outreach going forward.
I plug it into one of outreach tools we use for outreach link building and then…it’s time to start sending emails!
6. Sending…Velocity
We can’t start sending a lot of emails from the very start because it takes a while to improve our sending reputation.
It also takes a while to get the prospects replying because a lot of replies come as a result of follow-ups that are sent out 7 days into the campaign.
This is why placing the first batch of backlinks can take a little longer (roughly 6 weeks).
After the campaign is running well, we usually finish things off in 4 weeks or less.
7. Reporting
Our reports are not complicated and include the essential parts like:
- Source URL – the address where the link originates from
- Target URL – our client’s target URL
- Anchor text – the exact text that’s hyperlinked in the Source URL
- DR – the Source URL’s Domain Rating
- Traffic – the overall traffic of the domain where Source URL originates
- Date – the exact date when the link went live
The report is available to our clients 24/7 and is updated in real time.
See also – How to Recover SaaS SEO From Google Algorithm Update
Looking for Help With Link Building?
Link building is a continuous, monotonous process that…needs to be done.
If you need some help with link building, check out our link building case studies and contact me to schedule a call.
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn!