This article has been written by Mike Khorev. Mike is an SEO consultant who helps SaaS, software, IT, technology, B2B, and startup companies generate more sales and grow revenue online. He offers expert advice on marketing your company the right way through performance-based SEO, inbound marketing, conversion rate optimization, search engine marketing, and many other online practices.

In simple words, link-building refers to the practice of acquiring backlinks from 3rd party sites to your own website. It’s done to improve your domain’s presence in SERPs.

A hyperlink (often called just a link) is a way in which users navigate between multiple pages while browsing on the internet. When search engines crawl a site, they also crawl the link between pages of your site as well as the links interlinking the entire site.

In this post, we look at the most effective link building techniques and how you can approach them.

Effective SaaS Link Building Strategies

Offer an Education Section

The Internet has turned everyone into a detailed researcher. People like to do a ton of research before finalizing any buying decision. That’s the reason it’s always good to supply them with additional information which helps them make an informed decision.

Here’s one example – A jewelry store can supply a small booklet or eBook which talks about different types of cuts or a beginner’s guide to picking the right kind of jewelry.

When you do that, other relevant sites in the industry would want to link to that educational guide/resource. In this way, you will naturally gain more inbound links.

Get Featured in Resource Section

Many sites maintain a ‘Resources’ section wherein they provide a list of trusted products and services.

For example, a gym is likely to list out fitness-related products such as an e-commerce store that sells weight-lifting gloves, or a massage therapist that can help with sore/tight muscles post-workout.

If you have great products or education guides, you can contact other sites from within the niche and get them to link to you. You can use tools like BuzzSumo and Clearscope for this purpose, or tools like ContactOut to find emails and phone numbers for professionals in your niche that can link to you.

To conduct research, just type in the industry keywords + terms like “Related Products” or “Resources”.

After you have found relevant websites, email them to list your product under the Resources section.

Offer Coupon Codes

You can use coupon codes during holidays like Christmas or Halloween. You can also send it as a token of appreciation during anniversaries or customer birthdays. Coupon codes can build customer loyalty and they work excellently.

Try out a bunch of coupon codes to see which ones work the best. You can work with affiliate websites by giving them landing pages and discount codes. Affiliates can then add UTM codes to get affiliate credit.

Give Away Free Products

Product giveaways are another way in which to get backlinks to your site. You can conduct contests on your site, social media, or through influencers.

But, remember to give away the kind of prizes that people want.

It’s better to work with an influencer. You can use BuzzSumo to find bloggers and influencers that are relevant to your industry. Work with them to conduct giveaways.

Stealing Competitor Backlinks

Basically, you replicate the backlinking strategy that your competitors are using. To start with, you find out who your competitors are. Next, you find out all the people who are linking to them.

You can find out how they are linking. Perhaps they’re gaining backlinks through guest posting,  forum posting, or through providing reviews/testimonials. They may also be responding to questions on Quora.

After finding the technique, you just have to replicate it.

If you’re not sure who your competitors are, use the Ahrefs tool and input relevant keywords. Now pick the URL for each competitor and put it into the ‘site explorer’ option. You should now have all the backlinks pointing to them.

See if you can notice any obvious way in which competitors got their backlinks. If not, just contact the sites and reach out to them.

Guest Posting

To gather a list of relevant bloggers, all you have to do is type in your industry keyword + ‘guest blogger’. Create a spreadsheet of all the relevant URLs you find. Then repeat this same process using a variation of keywords such as industry keyword +

  • Guest article
  • Guest post
  • Write for us
  • Submit article
  • Add content
  • Make a contribution
  • Etc.

To pick and choose the most promising sites, use metrics like content quality, domain authority, content placement, etc.

Contact each prospect and tell them what kind of content you can offer. Let them know how the content will benefit their website also. Agree to a schedule and decide on a rough outline, topic, number of do-follow links allowed, word count, etc.

Broken Link Building

Links can break for myriad reasons. The reason why broken link building is so effective is that it can damage the SEO health and user-experience of the websites. What’s more, site owners don’t get to know about broken links until they do an audit or someone brings it to their attention.

That’s why the chances of getting a reply are super high when you inform the site owners about a broken link. All you have to do is supply a fresh replacement link for the broken one.

Here’s how you can approach the broken link building strategy –

  • Find Target Websites

Rather than trying to contact big sites like Forbes or Huffington Post, it’s better to work with small bloggers/companies and communicate with the owner directly. Look for approachable and relevant sites within your niche.

  • Look for Broken Links

To check for broken links you can use a bunch of tools like Check My links and Ahrefs. These tools will scan the entire site for you within seconds.

  • Reach Out

Contact the site owner via emails letting them know about the broken links. Propose fresh content or an already published blog link as a replacement for the broken one. You can always save a few broken ones for future link-building efforts.

Bottom Line

Link building is one of the most time-consuming and challenging things to do when it comes to SEO. However, if done right, it can be highly rewarding with long-term benefits.