Key Takeaways
This guide covers link building strategies for AI and SaaS sites: backlink value, sources, and acquisition channels. M The sections below compare options, use cases, and practical selection criteria. The sections below compare options, use cases, and practical selection criteria.
- Link building earns external sites linking to yours—a core off-page SEO practice that signals authority and relevance to search engines.
- Learn white-hat techniques: content-driven outreach, digital PR campaigns, broken link replacement, and strategic partnerships for sustainable long-term growth.
- Consider link quality metrics, outreach scalability, niche relevance, and whether to build links manually or through content-led strategies.
- Learn technical principles and workflows, then pair with content marketing and PR strategies for complete off-page SEO execution.
Use Cursor / OpenClaw to plan link building
npx skills add kostja94/marketing-skills --skill link-buildingIntroduction
Don't know what backlinks are? That's okay. Just know that Canva's link building strategy helped grow brand valuation to $6 billion, generate 20 million active users monthly, and win customers in 190 countries/regions, including 85% of all Fortune 500 brands. Still not convinced?!! Link building is an important component of external link strategies.
Backlinks help improve rankings, increase conversions, build brand authority, and improve overall domain authority. High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy, significantly boosting search rankings. Additionally, backlinks drive referral traffic directly to your site, exposing your brand to new audiences. Backlinks typically come from the following sources:
There were three reasons for writing this link building guide:
- On-Page SEO short-term goals are basically completed, and next week we'll start focusing on Off-page SEO KPIs. See the last section for details.
- I know many friends working on global AI/SaaS applications who are unfamiliar with SEO, let alone link building. Explaining each time is troublesome, so I decided to write a comprehensive guide.
- There's very little systematic link building content online. Learning while writing, practicing the Feynman learning method and Build In Public.
- Manual submission: Directory sites, business review software platforms, discount websites, etc.
- Paid purchase: All paid backlinks count, including other four types
- Natural links: Quality content can attract natural links and traffic, overlapping partially with on-site SEO. Specific content types are listed below. Also need to coordinate with internal link strategies to improve content discoverability
- Off-site internal links: Links in email signatures, social media, forum comments, belong to "external links" you can control yourself. These links are a type of outbound links
- Exchange: Free exchange backlinks, usually from competitors, same-industry websites, upstream/downstream industry websites, partner websites. All content in this knowledge base serves this purpose. Please jump directly to the last section.
Link Acquisition Channels
Previously posted a translation and supplement of Brian Dean's "Link Building Strategies" on Jike. Since it targets a broad range of independent sites and has a high reading threshold, it's not practical for teams wanting to make quick link building progress. Therefore, I've reorganized a link building guide specifically for AI/SaaS websites:
"Internal" External Links
External links that individuals can control and publish independently, similar to Parasite SEO. For example, Nova Scientia is my website.
Strategic Type: Low implementation difficulty, partially know-how and building link awareness
- Ask people you know for links
Many people now have their own websites or blogs: like Ruan Yifeng's blog, Guizang, a Jike friend. You can pay attention to these. Not limited to independent sites, social media works too. There are many Chinese developer influencers on Twitter, like Gefei, Xiaohu. Knowledge bases also work, like WaytoAGI
If you have valuable non-advertising content, submissions are welcome!
- Tell them which website or product the link will go to
Combined with point 1, including an introduction increases credibility. Recommend products friendly, don't immediately ask for a link to my product. Many people are happy to share valuable content.
- Ask users
If you have users who send positive feedback emails, ask them to share their product and service experiences. Even without many followers, you can get a backlink or even a blog post, and show a positive brand image (you can also request posting on G2 or similar review sites).
- Blogger reviews
Provide products to bloggers and ask them to review (more commonly used by e-commerce sites with physical products).
- Social media contact
Contact through social media to seek links, sometimes more effective than email.
- Create RSS
If you use a CMS like WordPress or Wix, RSS comes built-in. I don't understand code-based sites. Benefits: When websites crawl your content (even without permission), if there are internal links in the content, even if the crawled content doesn't link to the original post, it will crawl the internal links (like many directory site product links have ?ref=producthunt tag).
- Email signature
Put your website link in the email signature at the bottom left (if you send 100 emails daily, you'll get 50 more visits monthly).
- Profile links
As brand promotion becomes increasingly important, put your official website link in profiles on Reddit, Linktree, Instagram, YouTube official accounts.
- Multi-channel distribution
Don't limit promotion targets to sites searchable by Google. Social media like Twitter is also a great channel (though not indexed by Google), and may even start with more initial exposure than Google. More channels mean more exposure. Links and non-links each have pros and cons, and need to match specific channel characteristics. Will elaborate when I have time.
- Research competitors
Find their backlinks, very important. Will elaborate when I have time.
- Recover 404 pages (internal links)
If you have broken links, you can find and fix them in Semrush's Site Audit. Also need to check redirect chain issues to ensure links redirect properly.
Paid Type: Massive links can be achieved with full budget, but consider effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
- PR articles
Will be widely reposted, good for brand, exposure, and links, but poor conversion. Will write in detail in the PR section of Kostja's Growth Handbook.
- Help A Reporter Out (HARO)
Similar to above, but free. Can read Kostja's Growth Handbook.
- Provide contest prizes
Contest winners or creators will link to you, like Runway AI Film Festival 2024, Runway Studios Gen:48.
- Paid directory sites
Many AI directory sites now accept immediate listing upon payment. Can read the directory section of Kostja's Growth Handbook.
- Work with agencies
Also commonly called buying links. They have link resources in your industry, but keep your eyes open. How to buy will be detailed later.
- Hire industry veterans as advisors
Building relationships is hard. Inviting such people can save a lot of work (Haixin should have brought Morph Studio a lot of exposure and links, also like Kazik).
- Paid reviews
Pay for reviews, there's even a dedicated site PayperPost.com, but links need to be nofollow, otherwise Google will penalize.
Self-Submit or Publish Type: Submit to general and vertical channels, maintain a list for follow-up
- Blog directory sites
Like AllTop (I submitted Blogarama).
- Business directories
Like Crunchbase.
- Niche directory sites
Different from general directory sites like Best of the Web Directory, you can submit to AI directory sites, SaaS directory sites, or cross-border e-commerce directory sites.
- Discount sites or single articles
If you offer discounts or coupons, contact these content publishers and you'll get another backlink. Website building tools and domain selling sites particularly like offering discounts, like https://wpism.com/wordpress-com-coupon/. For Education, lifetime discounts, etc., see the Website Structure architecture section.
- Special offers
There are also special offers, usually supplementary parts outside official partnerships, like Scale AI's discount provided to McGill SCS. .edu domain suffixes are very high quality. - Q&A sites
Like Quora, Hacker News, Zhihu, Gutefrage.
- Forum posts
Like Reddit or other vertical industry forums.
- Niche communities
- Video content
Can submit to Vimeo, though also nofollow.
- Slide content
Can submit to Slideshare, though also nofollow.
- Web content
Can submit to CSS Galleries and Awards, like Awwwards (Dora once submitted, and was even nominated twice for awards). - Web themes
Can submit to WordPress.org theme directory.
- Scoop.it
Can increase traffic and build nofollow links. Scoop.it can curate websites you want to share content from, find heavily viewed Scoop.it pages and recommend your content to them.
- Product Hunt
See Website Structure to learn how to plan these pages in your website structure.
- G2
See Website Structure to learn how to plan these pages in your website structure.
- Guest posts
Very effective because content is controllable. A full article is more effective than a single backlink. Will write in detail when I have time.
Advanced Type: Long-term strategy, high difficulty, not recommended to start immediately
- Blog comments (their site)
Won't directly bring dofollow links, but can get bloggers to notice you, build relationships, and potentially get links in the future.
- Blog comments (your site)
People who comment on your blog are likely to link to you.
- Mention their website
If you have outbound links mentioning other websites, tell them, and you might get a backlink.
- Mention specific people
If they see you mentioned them, they might share and link to your content (more effective on social media, like @ElonMusk might retweet or comment).
- Brand mentioned
If brand terms are mentioned without links, you can email them requesting a link. Recommend using BuzzSumo to find these.
- Content errors
Traditional method: tell them about spelling and grammar errors in their content, then friendly ask if they can add a link to your website.
- Broken link replacement
Similar to above: 1. Find a page that might link to you; 2. Find broken links on that page; 3. Tell the site administrator and ask if they can replace with your website's link.
- Content plagiarism
If someone illegally crawls your website content, contact their site administrator and request a backlink. Crawling content without attribution is copyright infringement, so if they don't want DMCA complaints, they'll be willing to add a link or delete the crawled content. However, most crawler sites are low quality.
- Physical content
Business cards, brand stickers, these non-digital methods.
- Website acquisition
If there's an abandoned website highly relevant to your content, you can buy it and directly 301 redirect to your website.
- Page reconstruction
Find broken links, recreate the content that was on the broken link (can find old content on archive.org), then 1:1 replace the broken link.
- Transcribe content
Find bloggers who publish podcasts and videos on their blogs, professionally transcribe the content and send it to them. If they use the transcription, they'll link to you.
- Translate content
Most websites only offer single language. Google Translate has many shortcomings. If you translate content that can attract international audiences, you'll get a link in return.
- Wikipedia pages
Don't register as an editor with company email, otherwise you'll be considered spam and deleted within hours (Wikipedia links are too hard, not recommended to waste effort).
- Second-tier links
Similar to Picsart's Newsroom, a dedicated page for press releases about Picsart.
Natural Link Type: Create content that easily generates natural links and traffic
- Build blog pages
Link exchange email sent to me by Deepbrain
Link exchange email sent to me by FlexclipBlogs are the best content pages for link exchange. High-quality articles or specific landing pages can be used to attract natural links and traffic.
- List-type content
Although AIxploria is not as good as most directory sites like Toolify, Futurepedia, etc., this page ranks first in "ai tools list". Similar variants include "best … list", "complete…list", "…ranking", etc.
- Case studies
Amazon's GenAI Use Cases research.
- Tutorial-type
"how to", "guides and tutorials"
- Printable resources
PDF versions of content, like OpenArt's Prompt Guide (7.4K links from 551 domains).
- Icons and data tables
Like A16Z The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps, easily cited and embedded in their own content.
This image (18.3k links from 301 domains) - Product Comparisons
Standard content
- Industry glossaries
Many websites use this strategy, like Deepgram.
- Icon Sets
Icon sets, easily get links from design blogs.
- Controversial content
Easily sparks discussion, others will express opinions and link back to the original post.
- Free online tools
These pages are easily linked, like this https://web.okjike.com/repost/667a3f8e9e2e9fda02bf2bc4. Gefei is good at this part.
- SaaS tools
Some embedded SaaS tools like Canny, Zendesk, Astro, Notion that provide free services naturally get backlinks from customers. https://web.okjike.com/originalPost/667c5e71fdb1a3bd6434f3b0 These tool site homepages' footers will all have a link to pages using Notion services.
- Resource/link pages
Basically making an industry vertical content directory site within your site.
- Time-limited/seasonal content
Similar to trending topics, like Christmas, Valentine's Day holiday-themed content. Certain keyword search volumes will surge in a short time.
- Trend-jacking
Find new content and new words (make sure there's search volume), 100% will be linked.
- Other content types
Drawings and Illustrations / Infographics / Instructographics / Linkable Images / List of Stats / Quizzes and Tests / White Papers, etc. Will elaborate when I have time.
Other Types: Not yet categorized, will update gradually
- Brand partnership links
Speak provided Plugin services for OpenAI, here's a backlink https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-plugins/. Similar content leans toward customer success cases, partnerships come first, links come after.
- Podcast interviews
Saw on Jike that Hardcore Hacker offers this interview-link cooperation model.
- Newsletters
Can be on-site or off-site, important, will write a separate section.
- Reverse guest posts
Find influencers to write guest posts or interviews for you, can attract their audience in reverse.
- Exchange links with other bloggers
- Text interviews
Similar to podcasts, can add links.
- Badges
Add a link back to the reward page in the embed code, like Product Hunt.
- Course links
Help create/improve courses, or provide your website as a course resource.
- Promote evergreen content
Does the Team Need Someone Dedicated to Link Building?
The person responsible for specific backlink work in growth teams is the SEO Outreach Specialist. Of course, most of the time SEOers also take on this work, or it can be outsourced to agencies or through platforms like Fiverr.
SEO Outreach Specialist work can be summarized as:
- Build relationships with industry-related or potentially related websites to acquire high-quality backlinks
- Communicate with target websites, negotiate link placement and cooperation details
- Develop and execute SEO outreach strategies to improve website rankings and traffic
- Track and analyze link building campaign effectiveness to optimize strategies
- Ensure promotional content complies with SEO best practices and improves search engine friendliness
- Maintain good relationships with partners to ensure long-term cooperation
- Stay updated on latest SEO trends and algorithm updates to maintain strategy effectiveness
Canva's excellent link building growth results depend on their strong Outreach team. Over 75 Canva employees (part-time or full-time) have SEO in their titles or job descriptions (data from 4 years ago).
Now you know why they do link building so well.
Start Your Link Exchange Journey: First do it, then do it right, then do it better
Even though all methodologies are written above, you'll still encounter problems like the following during implementation:
- Should exchanged links be nofollow/sponsored/ugc or dofollow?
- Should anchor text be brand terms, functional terms, or focus keywords?
- What should be the composition ratio of backlinks for a normal website?
- How many internal/external links should an article ideally maintain?
- Their traffic and authority are lower than mine, why should I exchange?
- Competitors want to exchange links, should I?
- Can all pages be used for link exchange?
- Should blog articles be written as ideas come or planned with systematic architecture from the start?
- How to find sites that can publish guest posts?
- Are there good email templates for pitching?
- Which page should acquired links redirect to?
Will write gradually, make it a Q&A section.
As mentioned at the beginning, the main reason for writing this knowledge base: Starting next week, I'll shift focus to link building. But this growth content is not just about methods, more importantly it's about practice and channels. I've already established connections with a large number of Chinese Global AI/SaaS teams and individual developers, and quickly exchanged dozens of high-quality links. Also worked with many overseas link building agencies during 2 years of SEO work.
Currently have a list. If interested in free link exchange, welcome to add my WeChat zhangyujie94. Need to provide website, description, category, and contact email. Some friends have already successfully exchanged links.
After joining the list:
- Will be shared with other members. Interested parties can contact via email. For security, WeChat contacts won't be published (only I know).
- Will be shared with some overseas agencies I have stable cooperation with. If interested, they'll proactively contact your email. Please carefully review cooperation requests, can reject or ask them to change websites if inappropriate❗
This cooperation is a completely free project. If you need to purchase paid links later, I can also help find channels (directory sites or individual bloggers). Also welcome everyone to forward this knowledge base content to those who need it. Link building starts with the first exchange cooperation!
Links from unrelated websites don't pass authority. Google examines link context. Similarly, negative SEO doesn't work, buying low-relevance links doesn't work either (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-explains-why-negative-seo-is-ineffective/521430/).
Conclusion
Link building rewards assets people want to cite: research, tools, and primary data beat outreach templates sent into the void.
Prioritize relevance and editorial fit over raw volume—one strong mention in a trusted context often moves more than dozens of footers.