How SaaS Companies can get Backlinks
Software as a Service, abbreviated as Saas, is a market that has been growing steadily over the last decade and has hit highs of 157 billion in 2020. Also known as service in the cloud, SaaS, in the simplest terms, is the connection and subscription to IT services that are built on a shared infrastructure, hosted and shared on the cloud.
Such services are thus deployed over the internet rather than the traditional approach where applications are purchased, downloaded, and stored locally. The applications are managed and delivered remotely, and you can easily access them through your web browser, either on your personal computer or mobile phone.
Software as a Service covers a wide range of companies such as those in sales CRM, marketing automation, document signing, and SEO tools. Most of these companies charge a recurring fee, which can be monthly or annually. However, there are thousands of such companies and products which make the market quite competitive.
Link building has proven to be one of the most effective approaches to ensure that SaaS companies attract organic traffic. It is this organic traffic that will eventually convert into paying customers. How can SaaS companies get those crucial links? We explain this below.
Develop valuable content
What value will people gain when they interact with your content? This is the first question to ask yourself before you hit the post button. For instance, if you are a marketing automation company, you can share insights on marketing and educate your followers.
Keyword research is the first step towards creating killer content. You want to ensure that people are actually searching for the keywords you want to create content around. Using a tool such as Ahref can give you the exact keywords that are in demand. Look for the trending topics as people are likely to link to you when you are up-to-date and resourceful.
Guest posting
A guest post simply refers to publishing content on another person’s platform. For instance, if you sell SEO tools, then you can create and publish an article on a marketing blog. Such platforms allow you to link back to your site naturally. It is a win-win situation for both your site and the target site. The rank of your site gets a boost and more exposure while the target sites get free content.
Prospecting is the first step in the guest posting journey. You need to find sites that not only relevant but also accept contributors. You can reverse-engineer the links from your competitors to find sites that are likely to accept guest posts. Once you have created a list of prospects, then you can select the ones that are most suitable and then contact the target sites.
Answer questions on forums
SaaS companies provide solutions to problems that face humanity. If you deal with marketing automation, then you can get a question such as “How will blockchain change marketing?” on a platform such as Quora. Take your time to answer that question if you are knowledgeable and then link back to your site. You can also join your industry forums and be a contributor on various topics. Some of these platforms allow you to create a profile that highlights what your company does.
Join roundups
The successful brands you see out there are not mean with information. They know how to network with other brands and penetrate new markets. You can spare perhaps one hour a month to join other experts in your field and share your knowledge. Don’t shy away from participating in roundups organised by small companies as it is one of the best approaches to create a name out there.
Keep in mind that SaaS companies are different from other business models, such as e-commerce shops. The latter applies a self-service model, which also affects how you can collect links. SaaS sites, in contrast, have fewer product pages, which means that the links will focus on the specific products and not the entire site.