SaaS link building
Earned links for B2B SaaS and fintech — from reference assets people cite, expert commentary journalists quote, and data nobody else has published. No link packages, no guest-post networks, no private blog networks, and nothing you would have to explain to an investor, an acquirer or your own compliance team.
Start the Acquisition Audit — $2,500 See pricing
Fixed fee · two weeks · credited in full to your first month
Who this is for
Most SaaS link building services sell a number: so many links a month at so much domain authority each. That number is easy to hit and easy to buy. For a company selling into banks, lenders, insurers or anyone else with a procurement process, the profile behind it is also a liability that sits in public, in every backlink tool, for as long as the domain exists.
In the US and the UK we work with companies between $1M and $20M ARR. In Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana the range is $150K–$5M, and the entry point is the Acquisition Audit, sold standalone. Prices are published.
What actually goes wrong
A “DR 50+ guest post” package is almost always a paid placement on a site that sells to anyone. Google names that pattern as link spam, and every backlink tool your prospect, your investor or a competitor’s analyst uses lists the sites in plain view.
Deleting the vendor does not delete the links. They stay in the profile for years.
Outreach is easiest for glossary posts and listicles, so that is where the links land. The category, comparison and pricing pages that would turn authority into pipeline get none, and the ones that do rank bring readers who will never buy.
Links should be planned from the commercial page backwards, not from whatever was easiest to place.
Journalists, analysts and other writers link to things they need: a number they can quote, a table they can cite, a person who knows the answer. A site with none of those is left with the one kind of link that has to be paid for.
The fix is not more outreach. It is having something to say that someone else wants to use.
What we actually do
Every link route we use gives the linking site a reason to link that has nothing to do with us paying them. That is the whole test. Anything that fails it is out, however good the metrics look.
Every referring domain read and classified: earned, neutral, or spam. Toxic patterns identified, anchor text checked against Google’s link-spam examples, and a decision on whether anything needs removing or disavowing. Most sites need very little of this; some need a lot. We will tell you which, with the list.
A maintained policy table, a benchmark from data you hold, a checklist a regulated buyer can actually use. Built to be the page another writer links when they need a source, and kept current, because a stale reference stops earning links the month it goes out of date.
Reporters and editors publish requests for expert sources every day. We watch the relevant ones, and when your founder or head of product can genuinely answer, we draft a response in their voice for them to approve. Nothing is sent without sign-off, and nothing is answered that you are not qualified to answer.
Something you know that nobody else has published — approval rates, pricing movements, a policy change you saw land first — packaged as a story and pitched to the handful of writers who cover it. Slow, lumpy, and worth more than a quarter of guest posts when it lands.
Review platforms, integration marketplaces, partner directories and the listicles that already cover your category. Most of these links are nofollow and are counted as citations, not ranking links. They are still worth having: they are where buyers and the writers of comparison articles go looking.
Links earned by a reference asset do little until internal links pass that authority to the commercial pages. We map every earned link to the page it should help, and rebuild the internal linking so it does.
The rules we work to
Every link route above is chosen against Google’s own published definition, not against what vendors say is safe this year.
Google defines link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes — exchanging money, goods or services for links, or sending someone a product in exchange for a post with a link — excessive link exchanges, links created by automated programs, and advertorials or guest posts carrying links that pass ranking credit. Paid and sponsored links are allowed only when they are marked with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored", which is exactly what stops them helping rankings.
Google’s guidance is that most sites never need the disavow tool, because it can usually work out which links to trust on its own. It says to disavow only when a site has a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links and they have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action — and it warns that using the tool incorrectly can harm a site’s performance.
Disavowing does not make the links disappear. It tells Google to ignore them. Every third-party backlink tool still lists them, and so does anyone who looks. That is the reason to avoid building a bad profile in the first place, rather than planning to clean it up later.
| Route | Our position | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Paid guest posts and link packages | Never | Named in Google’s link-spam examples, and visible to anyone who checks |
| Private blog networks | Never | Built to manipulate rankings; one exposed network takes every client with it |
| Link exchanges and “partner” pages | Never at scale | Excessive exchanges are named; a genuine integration partner linking once is fine |
| Expert commentary, reference assets, digital PR | Always | The linking site gets something it needs; nobody is paid for the link |
| Sponsorships and paid listings | When marked | Worth it for the audience, and correctly sponsored or nofollow, so not counted as link building |
The first 90 days
Links compound slowly and unevenly. The first quarter is about building the things that earn them, and proving the routes work, before anyone judges the count.
Backlink review, a disavow decision if one is needed, competitor gap analysis showing who links to the sites that outrank you and why. The commercial pages that most need authority are named, and the first reference asset is chosen.
The reference asset is built with every figure sourced and dated. Expert sourcing starts on a daily routine, with drafts in your founder’s voice for approval. Missing citations and listings are filed.
The asset is pitched to the writers who cover it. Earned links are mapped to the pages they should help, and internal links are rebuilt to pass the authority on. We report on the day-90 indicators agreed in month one.
If your site has nothing worth linking to yet, the 90-day plan will say so, and the first quarter goes on building it. We will not sell outreach for pages that cannot hold a link.
How it is measured
| When | What should be true | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Day 30 | Backlink review complete, any disavow decision made and filed, the first asset specified | Whether the existing profile is a risk, and what the plan is built on |
| Day 90 | First asset live; expert sourcing running daily; first earned mentions logged | Whether the routes produce anything at all in your category |
| Day 180 | New referring domains from sites your buyers read; commercial pages moving on the terms they target | Whether the authority is reaching the pages that sell |
| Month 9–12 | Organic-sourced pipeline on the pages the links were built for | Whether the links paid for themselves |
Proof
When we started rebuilding momentumadworks.net in August 2026, its backlink profile was entirely spam — hundreds of referring domains nobody had asked for. Each one was reviewed, and on 17 September 2026 a disavow file covering 526 domains went to Google. On that date the site had a Domain Rating of 0 and no legitimate referring domains at all.
Everything we earn from here is built the way this page describes, and logged where you can check it on our results page, including the months where nothing moves. An agency selling link building should be willing to show its own profile.
Pricing
We do not sell links by the unit, because pricing per link is what makes buying them tempting. Link acquisition is part of a retainer, alongside the pages it is meant to help.
One channel, run properly: technical SEO, four content pieces a month, compliance review on everything. No ongoing link acquisition. $1M–$3M ARR.
SEO and paid as one motion, with digital PR and link acquisition: reference assets, daily expert sourcing and pitching. $3M–$10M ARR.
Everything in Compound at depth, across multiple markets and products, with the compliance workflow built into your review process. $10M–$20M ARR.
Every engagement starts with the Acquisition Audit — $2,500, two weeks, credited to your first month. Full detail and the exclusions are on the pricing page.
Questions
Getting other websites to link to yours, so search engines treat your pages as more authoritative. For a SaaS company the point is narrower than it sounds: authority has to reach the commercial pages — category, comparison, integration and pricing — or it does not turn into pipeline.
We do not promise a number, because the only way to guarantee a number is to pay for placements. Expect the first earned referring domains in the second or third month, and a steadier rate once a reference asset and daily expert sourcing are running. Every one is named in the report.
No. Google lists buying links for ranking purposes, and guest posts carrying links that pass ranking credit, as link spam. Sponsorships and paid listings can be worth doing for the audience, and we mark them sponsored or nofollow so they are not counted as link building.
Usually not. Google says most sites never need the disavow tool. It is for a considerable number of spammy or artificial links that have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action. The backlink review tells you which case you are in, with the list.
Months, not weeks, and it is uneven. A link has to be found and counted, and the page it helps has to be good enough to hold the position. Links pointed at weak pages are wasted, which is why the pages come first.
Link acquisition is part of our Compound ($6,500/month) and Scale ($12,000/month) retainers, after a $2,500 Acquisition Audit that is credited to the first month. We do not sell links on their own or by the unit.
A little. Expert commentary only works if the person quoted knows the subject. We find the requests and draft the answers; they spend a few minutes a week approving, correcting or declining.
Next
Two weeks, $2,500, credited against your first month if you continue. You get a technical and content SEO audit, a paid-account and compliance-risk review, a keyword and demand map showing who owns the demand in your category, a tracking gap analysis, and a prioritised 90-day plan — yours to execute with us or without us.
Start the Acquisition Audit Tell us about your link profile
We reply within one working day. Related: SaaS SEO agency · fintech SEO agency.