How to Get Your First Backlinks for a New SaaS (Without Buying Links)

What a Good First Link Looks Like

A backlink is a link from someone else's site to yours. For a new SaaS, links do two jobs. They help Google find your pages: its own explanation of how Search works says pages are discovered when Google extracts a link from a page it already knows. And the right ones send people who might sign up.

A good first link comes from a real page that real people read, about something related to what you do. A handful of those does more for a new domain than hundreds of links from pages nobody visits.

Not every link counts the same way. A plain link is one Google can follow. Google says links marked nofollow, ugc or sponsored will generally not be followed. Our guide to dofollow vs nofollow backlinks explains the attributes in more detail. The short version: a nofollow link can still bring visitors, but don't count it as a search signal.

To see what you've earned, open the Links report in Google Search Console. It shows your top linking sites and the pages they link to, but Google says it shows a sample rather than every link, so a link you know about may not be listed. Check it monthly, not daily. Earning links is slow work, measured in months.

Launch Boards and Directories, Checked

Launch boards and directories are usually the first links a new product gets, because you can submit today. They're also where founders most often get the link type wrong. Many big platforms mark outbound links nofollow or ugc, some tie a followed link to a paid plan or a vote count, and some change their markup over time. Here is what our checked platform reviews found:

Each review shows the date we checked it, and platforms do change. Before you count a link, check it yourself: open your live listing, right-click the link to your site, choose Inspect, and look for a rel attribute on the <a> tag.

Two rules for directories. First, prefer ones that review submissions by hand and that people actually browse. Google's spam policies list low-quality directory or bookmark site links as link spam, so skip services that blast your URL to hundreds of directories at once. Second, judge each one by the visitors it sends as well as the link. Our launch directory tracker keeps both in one place, and our list of places to launch your startup has more options.

A note on Hauntboard, since you're reading this on it. Every launch gets a dofollow link once it's live, but on the free tier that link is a trade, not a gift: it stays dofollow while the Hauntboard badge is on your site, and turns nofollow if the badge comes down. Launch Now ($19) gets a dofollow link with no badge. TinyLaunch runs a similar badge trade. Our check only looks for a link to hauntboard.com, not for a followed one, so you can add rel="nofollow" to the badge if you'd rather not pass credit back. That choice matters: Google's spam policies flag required links when the site owner isn't allowed to qualify them.

Integrations, Showcases and Open Source

Some of the most relevant links you can get come from the tools you already build on or connect to. Their directories are about your exact category, people browse them looking for something to add, and a listing tends to stay up as long as the integration works.

• Integration directories: if your product connects to a bigger platform, publish the integration where its users look. Zapier, for example, says a published integration is added to its app directory after review, with a Beta tag at first, and that publishing is free. Slack's Marketplace team reviews each app against its guidelines before it can be listed.
• Partner and customer pages: if you pay for an API, a payments provider or a hosting platform, look for a customer stories page or a partner program. Expect a form and a wait, not a guarantee.
• "Built with" showcases: many frameworks, UI kits, no-code builders and hosting platforms keep a gallery of things made with them. Submitting usually takes minutes; read each one's rules first.
• Open source: a useful library, CLI or example project can earn links from the people who use it. The repo page itself is unlikely to pass ranking credit: on two GitHub repository pages we checked on 12 Nov 2026, the website link and the links in the README were marked nofollow. The value comes from developers who find the repo and then link to it, or to you, from their own sites.

Whatever you list, keep the description accurate and point the link at the page that matches it, such as your integration's docs rather than your homepage. A visitor who lands on the right page is more likely to stay, and to link to it later.

Free Tools and Resources People Cite

People link to things that save them work. A free tool, template or honest data post on your own site gives other writers a reason to link to you that has nothing to do with asking.

What tends to get cited:

• Small, single-purpose tools: a calculator, generator or checker for one step of your customer's job, with no signup. Our own MRR calculator and launch checklist are examples of the format.
• Templates and checklists: something a reader can copy and use today.
• Original numbers: your real launch results, a pricing experiment or a small survey of your users, with the method explained. A page with first-hand data is easy for a writer to cite.
• Clear explainers: a page that answers one narrow question in your field better than anything else you can find.

Make it useful on its own. A tool that exists only to collect emails rarely gets shared. Then tell the people who'd care: reply to threads where someone asks for exactly that, mention it in communities where it's on topic, and email the two or three people who keep lists of tools in your niche. Expect this to pay off over months, not days.

Communities, Guest Posts, Podcasts and Press

These links come from people, so they take more effort. They also tend to come with visitors.

Answering in communities

Forums, subreddits and Q&A sites often mark links in posts as ugc or nofollow, which is what Google recommends for comments and forum posts. So answer for the reader, not the link. Give a complete answer, mention your product only where it really helps, and say that you built it. The link itself may pass nothing; the people who click it may write about you later. Our Reddit guide covers self-promotion rules. Skip keyword links in your signature: Google's spam policies name forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature as link spam.

Guest writing

Write for blogs and publications your customers read, about something you know first-hand. Link to yourself in your author bio, or in the article where a link genuinely helps the reader. Don't stuff keyword-rich anchor text into the piece: Google's policies list links with optimized anchor text in guest posts as link spam, and editors notice it too.

Podcasts and interviews

Niche podcasts, newsletters and maker blogs that interview founders usually link to the guest's product in the show notes or the write-up. Pitch shows that already talk to people like you, and make it easy to say yes:

Journalist requests

Reporters often look for expert sources in public. HARO sends free daily media queries, and some reporters post requests on social media. Answer only where you have real experience, reply quickly, keep it short, and don't expect every answer to be used.

What to Avoid

Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings, and say sites that violate the policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all. Its examples include:

• Buying or selling links for ranking purposes: paying money for links, exchanging goods or services for them, or sending someone a product in exchange for writing about it with a link.
• Excessive link exchanges: "link to me and I'll link to you", or partner pages that exist only to cross-link.
• Automated link building: programs or services that create links to your site.
• Required links: demanding a link in terms of service or a contract without letting the site owner qualify it.
• Low-quality directories and sitewide links: bookmark sites, and links spread across the footers or templates of many sites.

Private blog networks (PBNs), groups of sites run to link to each other or to paying clients, aren't named on that page, but they exist to manipulate rankings, which is the definition above. The same goes for backlink packages sold by "authority" score: if a link that passes credit is for sale, it's a bought link, whatever the seller calls it.

Paid placements themselves aren't banned. Google says buying and selling links for advertising and sponsorship is a normal part of the web, as long as the links are qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Sponsoring a newsletter in your niche is fine. Paying for a link that passes ranking credit isn't.

A First-Month Plan

You don't need to do all of this at once. A month of steady work looks like this:

1. Week 1: verify your site in Search Console and note what the Links report shows. Submit to two or three reviewed launch boards, and check each live link's rel attribute.
2. Week 2: list every tool you integrate with or build on, and find its directory, marketplace or showcase. Submit to the ones that fit.
3. Week 3: ship one small free tool or resource on your own site, and share it where someone has asked for that exact thing.
4. Week 4: pitch three podcasts or blogs, answer a few journalist requests, and keep answering questions in one or two communities.

Keep a simple sheet: where you submitted, the date, whether the live link is followed, and how many visitors it sent. After a month you'll know which sources are worth repeating and which only gave you a line in a spreadsheet.

Then keep going at a pace you can hold. Links add up slowly, and the ones from real readers keep sending visitors long after the month is over. When you're ready, launch on Hauntboard and check the link on your live page yourself.