How to Get Backlinks for a New SaaS: First 50 in 60 Days

A boilerplate gets you from idea to deployed product in days. Auth works, Stripe works, the landing page looks sharp. Then you open Google Search Console a month later and see the same thing almost every first-time founder sees: a handful of impressions, zero clicks, and a domain that Google treats like it does not exist yet.

That is not a content problem or a code problem. It is an authority problem. A brand new domain has no backlinks, so Google has no reason to trust it, and no amount of on-page polish fixes that. This article explains how to get backlinks for a new SaaS from a standing start: the plan we recommend to founders in our catalog for earning the first 50 referring domains in roughly 60 days, using nothing but time and a bit of discipline.

How to get backlinks for a new SaaS: the short answer

Work through four link sources in order, each building on the last:

1. Startup directories (weeks 1 to 4): submit to curated launch platforms, comparison sites, and niche directories. Expect 20 to 40 referring domains.
2. A free tool (weeks 2 to 6): ship a small, ungated utility related to your product that people link to on their own.
3. Integration and partner pages (weeks 3 to 8): get listed in the app directories and showcases of every tool your product connects to or was built with.
4. Linkable content (week 4 onward): publish original data, honest comparisons, and templates that others need to cite.

Skip bulk link packages, private blog networks, and comment spam. They cost more in risk than they return.

Why the first 50 backlinks matter more than the next 500

Search engines use links as votes of confidence, but the effect is not linear. Going from zero to a few dozen relevant referring domains changes how quickly your pages get crawled, indexed, and tested in search results. Going from 500 to 550 barely moves anything.

The first wave of links does three jobs at once:

• Discovery: Googlebot finds and recrawls your pages faster when other sites point at them. New pages on a linkless domain can sit in "Discovered, currently not indexed" for weeks.
• Trust baseline: A domain with links from real, established sites stops looking like a throwaway project. That baseline is what lets your content compete at all.
• Referral traffic: The right early links send actual humans. A listing on a niche directory your buyers browse can outperform a page-one ranking you will not have for months.

There is also a fourth, newer job. AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity build their product recommendations from the same directories, comparison pages, and listings that earn you links. We covered that in detail in how to get your SaaS recommended by AI assistants, but the short version is that early listings now pay twice.

Step 1: Submit your startup to directories (weeks 1 to 4)

Directories are the fastest, most predictable source of early links, and they are where most founders either do too little or do it badly. The goal is not "submit to 1,000 sites." It is to get listed on the directories that have real audiences and real editorial standards, in a sensible order, with descriptions that actually convert browsers into visitors.

The best breakdown of how to do this that we have read is EffortlessBacklinks' guide on how to submit your startup to directories. It splits the work into tiers: the high-visibility launch platforms first (Product Hunt, BetaList, Crunchbase; see our ranking of Product Hunt alternatives for more), then the comparison-style directories like AlternativeTo and SourceForge within the first two weeks, then niche category directories. It also covers the parts founders usually skip, like leading with the problem you solve instead of a feature list, stating your stage honestly, and tracking every submission in a spreadsheet so you can update listings later.

A few things we would add from watching boilerplate-built products launch:

1. Write one master description, then adapt it. Keep a 50-word, 150-word, and 300-word version of your pitch in a doc. Most directories want one of those three lengths, and copy-pasting the same 300 words everywhere looks lazy to editors and reads as duplicate content.
2. Use real screenshots. Your boilerplate's default landing page hero is not a screenshot of your product. Show the dashboard, the core workflow, the result.
3. Prioritize category fit over domain authority. A listing on a small directory where your exact buyers compare tools beats a generic "startup list" with a high DR and no traffic. If you built a developer tool or a starter kit, that means catalogs like BoilerplateHub rather than random link farms.
4. Budget the time honestly. Doing 50+ quality submissions yourself is a real time commitment, roughly 10 to 20 hours spread over a month. If your hours are better spent shipping features or talking to users, paying for a done-for-you submission service is a perfectly rational trade, as long as the service submits to curated directories and not spam lists.

By the end of week four, a solid directory push typically lands you somewhere between 20 and 40 referring domains on its own.

Step 2: Ship a free tool that earns links on autopilot (weeks 2 to 6)

Directories give you a baseline. Free tools give you links that keep coming in without you asking. A small, genuinely useful utility related to your product (a calculator, a generator, a checker, a template) attracts links from blog posts, newsletters, Reddit threads, and resource pages for years.

This is the single highest-leverage SEO tactic for technical founders, because you already have the hard part: a production-ready codebase with auth, a database, and deployment sorted. Adding a public /tools/your-thing route on top of your boilerplate is often an afternoon of work. Our own SaaS pricing calculator started exactly that way. We wrote a full playbook on this in engineering as marketing: building free tools that rank, including how to pick a tool idea from your own keyword data.

The rules that matter most:

• Solve one narrow problem completely. "Stripe fee calculator for EU sellers" beats "all-in-one business toolkit."
• No signup wall. The moment you gate the result, nobody links to it.
• Make the output shareable. A URL that preserves the inputs, or a downloadable result, turns every user into a potential linker.

Step 3: Get listed on integration and partner pages (weeks 3 to 8)

If your product connects to anything, you have links waiting for you. Most platforms with an integration ecosystem (Zapier, Slack, Notion, Shopify, Webflow, and dozens of smaller ones) maintain public directories of apps that integrate with them. Getting listed usually means filling out a form and passing a short review.

Look at your own stack too. The boilerplate you started from, the auth provider, the email service, the hosting platform: many of these run showcase pages or "built with" galleries and actively want real products to feature. A short email with a screenshot and a one-line description is often all it takes.

If the boilerplate you used has a showcase or customer section, ask to be added. (Still choosing one? Browse SaaS boilerplates and check which makers feature their customers.) It is a relevant link from a site in your niche, and the maker benefits from social proof, so it is an easy yes.

Step 4: Publish linkable content (week 4 onward)

Content is the slowest of the four channels, but it compounds. The trick for a new domain is to write content that other people need to reference, not just content you hope ranks.

Formats that earn links even for unknown sites:

• Original data. Publish your own numbers: pricing research across your competitors, results from a survey of your users, benchmarks from your own infrastructure. Journalists and bloggers link to sources, and a small dataset you collected yourself is still a source.
• Honest comparisons. "X vs Y" pages where you are genuinely fair, including where competitors win, get cited in discussions. Pages that obviously favor yourself do not.
• Templates and checklists. A launch checklist, a pricing page template, an onboarding email sequence. Practical assets get bookmarked and linked from resource roundups.

Pair each piece with a short distribution push: share it where your audience hangs out, mention it in relevant community threads when it actually answers the question, and send it to the two or three newsletters in your niche. If you are planning the launch itself alongside this, our four-week launch sequence maps out how these pieces fit into a staged rollout, and the boring growth stack explains why directories and earned links keep compounding long after launch week.

Link building shortcuts to skip

Early link building attracts shortcuts, and most of them cost you more than they give.

• Bulk link packages. "500 backlinks for $49" means links from spam networks. At best they do nothing. At worst they earn you a manual action that takes months to recover from.
• Private blog networks. Google has gotten very good at spotting them, and the links disappear when the network gets deindexed.
• Comment and forum spam. Dropping your URL into unrelated threads gets you banned from communities you might actually want to be part of later.
• Link exchanges at scale. A one-off mention swap with a genuinely related product is fine. A "links" page with 80 reciprocal partners is not.

The test is simple: would this link exist if search engines did not? A directory listing your buyers browse, a tool people use, an integration page users rely on: yes. A paid link on an unrelated blog with no readers: no.

A realistic 60-day backlink timeline for a new domain

These ranges assume consistent effort and a product that is actually live and usable. Track everything in one spreadsheet: where you submitted, when, the status, and the listing URL. You will need it later when you change your pricing or tagline and want your listings to stay accurate.

Backlinks are one channel, not the whole plan. For how links fit alongside outreach, communities, and paid acquisition, see our channel-by-channel playbook for the first 100 customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many backlinks does a new SaaS need to rank?

There is no fixed number, since it depends on how competitive your keywords are. For long-tail keywords in a niche, 20 to 50 relevant referring domains is often enough to start ranking. For broad, competitive terms you will need far more, which is why new sites should target specific, lower-competition queries first.

How long does it take for backlinks to improve rankings?

Usually 4 to 12 weeks after Google crawls the linking page. Links from frequently crawled sites like major directories get picked up within days, while links on small blogs can take longer to be discovered. Expect to see indexing speed improve first, and ranking movement for long-tail keywords after that.

Are directory backlinks still worth it in 2026?

Yes, if you choose curated directories with real audiences and editorial review. They provide a trust baseline, referral traffic from people actively comparing tools, and they feed the data AI assistants use for recommendations. Low-quality directories that accept everything without review are not worth the time.

Should I build backlinks before or after launch?

Start the week you launch, once the product is live and usable. Directories and editors will reject or ignore half-built products, and links pointing at a "coming soon" page waste most of their value. A waitlist page can collect a few early links, but the main push should follow the public launch.

Do nofollow links help a new website?

They do not pass ranking signals directly the way do-follow links do, but they still send referral traffic, help Google discover your pages, and make your link profile look natural. A healthy profile for a new site contains both kinds.

Can I outsource directory submissions?

Yes. It is one of the most commonly outsourced early SEO tasks because it is time-consuming but straightforward. Choose a service that is transparent about which directories it submits to and avoids spam lists, and review a sample of the listings it produces.