What should a new SaaS do first for backlinks?
Start with the links you can earn without paying, in this order: listings on curated directories and marketplaces, unlinked mentions of your brand, the "best tools" list posts your competitors already appear in, and one data-backed page worth citing. The order runs from fastest to slowest.
First, check whether you need backlinks yet. Ahrefs' study of about 14 billion pages, published 1 December 2023 by Chief Marketing Officer Tim Soulo, found about 20 million pages in its index with no referring domains. Only 2,997 of them got more than 1,000 search visits a month, which Ahrefs puts at roughly 1 in every 6,671. The study's conclusion is that you have two options: target uncompetitive topics you can rank for with few or no backlinks, or target competitive topics and build backlinks. A new site can do the first from day one, while the links come in.
| Tactic | Cost | Time to first link | Typical link | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directories and marketplaces | Free | Days | Mostly nofollow or ugc (see the next section) | Discovery, referral visits, being listed where buyers compare tools |
| Unlinked brand mentions | Free | Days, once mentions exist | Editorial, if the writer agrees | Turning existing goodwill into links |
| Competitor list posts | Free, unless the site asks for money | Weeks | Editorial, or paid and labelled | Links from pages that already rank for your category |
| A data-backed page | Your time | Weeks to months | Editorial citations | Citations from writers who need a source |
Do directory and profile links count?
Every one we checked was nofollow or ugc. Ahrefs says nofollow-only links don't lift Domain Rating, and Google treats both as hints it may or may not use. A May 2026 r/SaaS post claimed a new domain went from DR 0 to DR 45 in 30 days thanks to three links: a Shopify App Store listing, a GitHub repository's website field and a Stripe Climate page. Commenters in that thread checked. Several reported that the GitHub link carries nofollow, and one who signed up for Stripe Climate reported its link as ugc nofollow.
We checked one listing on each of six popular sites on 24 October 2026, reading the rel attribute on the link to the product's own website:
| Site | Listing we checked | rel on the link to the product site |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub repository website field | react/react | noopener noreferrer nofollow |
| Product Hunt | Notion | noreferrer noopener ugc |
| BetaList | Rewind | noopener nofollow, through a BetaList /visit link |
| AlternativeTo | Notion | nofollow noopener |
| SaaSHub | Notion | nofollow |
| Zapier app directory | Notion | nofollow noopener noreferrer |
Two rules explain why this matters. Tim Soulo's guide to Domain Rating (4 May 2022) says a site that links to you only with nofollow links won't increase your DR, and only the first link from a domain counts. By that rule, if those commenters are right, two of the three links in the r/SaaS post would not have moved DR (our inference). Google is less strict. Its September 2019 announcement says nofollow, sponsored and ugc are all treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search.
List your product anyway, for the people browsing those sites for tools. Our post on why SEO traffic can grow without signups includes a founder whose first card signups came from BetaList and similar sites, not from search. Just don't count them as link building.
How do you turn unlinked mentions into links?
Find pages that already name you and ask the writer to add a link. Google's search help documents the operators you need: quotes for an exact phrase, site: for one site, and a minus sign to leave something out. Search for "YourBrand" -site:yourbrand.com, then repeat with your founder's name and your product's distinctive feature names. Set up a Google Alert for the same phrases so new mentions arrive by email.
Then open Search Console's Links report. It shows your top linking sites and top linked pages, so you can see which mentions already link. Google says it shows a sample rather than every link, tables stop at 1,000 rows, and the report doesn't say whether a link is nofollow.
A short email that gets to the point:
Offer a fact the writer can use. Google's spam policies (last updated 28 August 2026) list exchanging goods or services for links as link spam, so don't offer anything in return for the link.
How do you get onto competitors' "best tools" lists?
Search for the posts that rank for your category, list who they include, and pitch the authors where you are missing. Search "best [category] tools", "[competitor] alternatives" and "[category] for [industry]", and open the first 20 results. Note each post's date, the tools it lists, and whether it has an update note or a contact form.
| What you find | What to do |
|---|---|
| Post updated this year, lists two or more of your competitors | Pitch now with one line on what you do differently |
| Post two or more years old | Pitch as an update, with a fact that is out of date in it |
| Written by a vendor who competes with you | Skip it |
| Asks for a fee or "sponsored placement" | Decide if the traffic is worth paying for; the link should then be labelled |
That last row is where advice varies. A February 2024 Indie Hackers post on first SaaS backlinks recommends competitor list posts and suggests paying the editorial fee if a site asks, as long as the site appears legitimate. Google's spam policy lists exchanging money for links as link spam, then says paid links are not a violation when they are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Its guide to qualifying outbound links says sponsored is the preferred value for paid links. So a paid listing can still be worth buying for readers. It just shouldn't be the link you count on for rankings.
Siela's Competitor Watch sends a briefing every Monday morning that also checks competitors' backlinks and who ranks for their terms, which is a quick way to spot new list posts they appear in. If those pages are "alternatives" posts, our guide to writing fair comparison and alternatives pages covers writing your own.
What data can a small SaaS publish that earns links?
Numbers that nobody else has, presented so a writer can quote one line and link to you. Ahrefs' own traffic study is an example: the article's data panel, drawn from Ahrefs' index, showed 4.0K linking websites when we checked on 24 October 2026. Ahrefs is a big brand, so a small team won't match that. The lesson we take from it: give writers a number they can only get from you.
Data a small SaaS team usually already has, or can collect in a week:
| Data source | Example page | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Public pages you compile | Pricing of 30 tools in your category, checked on one date | 2 days |
| A short customer survey | "How [role]s handle [task]": 10 questions, results with sample size stated | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Aggregated, anonymised product data | Median time to [outcome] across accounts, with how it was measured | 1 week, if your terms allow it |
| A free calculator or template | A cost or time calculator for the job your product does | 2 to 5 days |
| Integration guides | A setup guide for each tool you connect with, offered to that tool's docs or community pages | 1 day each |
The last row comes from a commenter in the r/SaaS thread, who suggested building a useful setup page for each integration and pitching the partner's docs or community resources. Whatever you publish, state the date, the sample and the method in the first screen, so a writer can cite it with confidence. Keep it genuinely useful: Google's spam policy lists creating low-value content mainly to manipulate linking and ranking signals as link spam. When you write the page, Siela's SEO Blog Writer can draft it: it checks search volume, cost per click and the top 10 Google results, then writes an outline you approve before it drafts each section in your brand voice.
What should you avoid, and how many links is normal?
Avoid anything on the link spam list in Google's spam policies: buying or selling links for ranking, exchanging goods or services for links, excessive link exchanges, automated link programs, low-quality directory or bookmark site links, and forum comments with optimised links in the post or signature. The policy describes how links are obtained. It doesn't set a daily count.
That answers a question that came up in a September 2026 r/SEO thread from a beginner asking how many backlinks a day is a safe start. The replies in that one thread mostly rejected a daily target. One commenter who said they clean up sites for an agency wrote: "If the links are bought, the safe number is zero." The same commenter called two or three links a month a good month for a local business. That is one person's experience, not a benchmark.
Keep links in proportion, too. Google's SEO starter guide says that while PageRank uses links and is one of the fundamental algorithms at Google, there is much more to Search than links. A 30-day plan for a team of one to three:
Week 1: list and verify
Submit to five directories where your buyers browse. Fill in every GitHub repository's website field. Record each link's rel value in a sheet.
Week 2: mentions
Run the brand searches, set the alerts and send the template to every unlinked mention.
Week 3: list posts
Build the 20-post sheet and send five pitches, each with one fact the post is missing.
Week 4: one data page
Publish the pricing comparison or survey, then email it to the writers you pitched in week 3.
While links come in, aim for topics a new domain can win. Our guide to how long a new domain takes to rank covers which keywords to start with.
Frequently asked questions
Is the GitHub website field a dofollow backlink?
No, not on the repository we checked. On 24 October 2026 the website link in the About section of the react/react repository carried rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow", and several commenters in a May 2026 r/SaaS thread reported the same. Fill the field in anyway, because people who find your repository can click through, but don't count it as a ranking link.
Do nofollow links help a new site rank?
Possibly, but you can't plan around it. Google said in September 2019 that nofollow, sponsored and ugc are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude, so Google may or may not use them. Ahrefs says links that are only nofollow do not raise Domain Rating. Treat nofollow listings as a source of visitors and discovery, not as authority.
Is it OK to pay to be listed in a "best tools" post?
Paying for the listing is allowed if the link is labelled. Google's spam policies list exchanging money for links as link spam, but say paid links are fine when qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and Google prefers sponsored for paid links. Pay only if the post sends buyers on its own, and don't expect the link to help rankings.
How do I see who links to my new site for free?
Use the Links report in Google Search Console. It lists your top linking sites, top linked pages and top linking text. Google says it shows a sample rather than every link, its tables are limited to 1,000 rows, and it doesn't say whether a link is nofollow, so check the rel value on any link that matters by viewing the linking page's source.
Can a new site rank with no backlinks?
Yes, for low-competition topics. Ahrefs' 2023 study found about 20 million pages in its index with no referring domains, and 2,997 of them got more than 1,000 search visits a month, roughly 1 in 6,671. Its advice is to target uncompetitive topics you can rank for with few links, or build links for competitive ones.
Sources
- r/SaaS: DR 0 to DR 45 in 30 days (one founder's post; about 32 comments when checked 24 Oct 2026) (14 May 2026)
- r/SEO: How many backlinks per day is a safe start? (about 20 comments when checked 24 Oct 2026) (21 Sep 2026)
- Indie Hackers: How to Get Your First Backlinks for Your B2B SaaS Startup, John Marquez (1 Feb 2024)
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search (last updated 28 Aug 2026)
- Google Search Central: Qualify your outbound links to Google (last updated 10 Dec 2025)
- Google Search Central Blog: Evolving nofollow, new ways to identify the nature of links (10 Sep 2019)
- Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide (last updated 10 Dec 2025)
- Ahrefs: Domain Rating: What It Is and What It's Good For, Tim Soulo (4 May 2022)
- Ahrefs: 96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic From Google, Tim Soulo (1 Dec 2023)
- Search Console Help: Links report (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Help: Refine Google searches (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Help: Create an alert (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- GitHub: react/react repository (website field) (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Product Hunt: Notion product page (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- BetaList: Rewind startup page (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- AlternativeTo: Notion (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- SaaSHub: Notion (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Zapier app directory: Notion integrations (checked 24 Oct 2026)