What a SaaS Buyer Should Watch for in Link Building Services

Good link building services can show you exactly how they earn links, let you approve each placement, and report on relevance and results. Poor ones sell a price list of sites, guarantee a quantity of links per month and talk mostly about domain scores. Since Google's spam policies treat paid links that pass ranking credit as a violation, what you're really buying matters for more than your budget.

A SaaS company has a particular reason to be careful. Your buyers read your category's publications, so a bad placement can be seen by the people you're trying to win. It's also tricky to undo, as these links are out in the world and may be hard to get removed.

What you might actually be buying

"Link building" covers very different services, and the sales page may not make it clear which one you're getting.

Model	What happens	Main risk	When it fits
Link marketplaces	You choose sites from a list, and pay per placement	Likely a paid link violation, often on low-quality sites	Rarely a good choice
Guest post packages	The vendor places articles on sites it works with	Can match the spam policy, and sites may be made for this	Rarely, and only with full review
Digital PR	Pitching stories and data to journalists	Variable results, higher cost	You have a real story or data
Outreach as a service	The vendor pitches your assets to relevant sites	Quality depends on the operator	You have assets worth citing
Full SEO partner	Links are part of a plan alongside content	Can hide weak link work inside a retainer	You want one team accountable

Note that the model doesn't guarantee quality. You'll find careful outreach firms and sloppy digital PR teams. But knowing the model helps you ask the right questions.

What Google's policies say

Google's spam policies name several things that are directly relevant to what's sold in this market:

• Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, including exchanging goods or services for them
• Guest posts and advertorials with links that pass credit, particularly with keyword-rich anchors
• Excessive link exchanges and partner pages made only for cross-linking
• Automated link creation and low-quality directories

Paid placements themselves aren't banned. They're fine if marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", and buying an ad or sponsorship for its audience is a perfectly normal thing to do. The problem is paying for a link intended to pass ranking credit, without disclosing it.

If a vendor says "our links are safe because they're on real sites", that doesn't address the question. Ask how the site owner benefits from publishing the link. If money changes hands, you need to know that.

Questions to ask before you sign

Say you run a 30-person SaaS selling procurement software, and you've got three proposals. Ask each of them these questions, and watch how they respond as much as what they say.

1. "Exactly how do you get these links?" You want a real description of the process, including what's pitched and why a publisher would agree. "Our proprietary network" is a reason to leave.
2. "Can I see ten recent placements for B2B software companies?" Visit them. Would you want your name there? Are they in a publication with real readers? Do many articles on the site carry links to unrelated businesses?
3. "Do you pay publishers, directly or indirectly?" A vague answer is an answer.
4. "Will I approve each site and article before it goes live?" The answer should be yes. You're the one who'll have to live with it.
5. "Who writes the content, and who reads it?" Your brand's name is on it. Thin AI-written articles on low-quality blogs can harm how buyers see you.
6. "Which of my pages will you build links to, and why?" A good answer involves your commercial pages and your actual gaps. A vendor who hasn't looked at your site is selling a commodity.
7. "What if a link is removed?" There should be a replacement policy, and you should have a list to check against.
8. "What do you do if I get a manual action?" It tests how seriously they take the risk.

Warning signs in a pitch

Some claims should end the conversation.

• Guaranteed numbers: "15 links per month at DR 50+" means they have inventory to sell. Editorial links can't be promised in those terms.
• Guaranteed rankings: Nobody controls Google's results, and Google warns about this kind of promise in its own guidance on hiring an SEO.
• Prices per link by domain score: It's a rate card for a marketplace.
• Anchor text you choose in advance: It's the pattern the spam policy describes.
• Sites that publish on anything: One blog covering crypto, gardening and B2B software exists to sell links.
• A hidden list of placements: "We can't reveal our sources" means you can't assess the risk you're carrying.
• Reports full of scores and no business outcomes: See our post on link building metrics.

Testimonials and case studies deserve some checking too. Ask which site it was, what period it covered and what else was happening. A claim of huge traffic growth means little without that context. A serious vendor will welcome the question.

What a fair engagement looks like

A sensible setup for the procurement SaaS starts with an audit of its current links, its competitors' links and the pages that need help most, followed by an agreed list of assets worth pitching, including any it still needs to create. The company keeps approval rights over every site and article, and a shared sheet lists each pitch, placement, URL, attribute and date.

Keep the first term short. Three months is enough to tell you about the process and the quality, though probably not the final effect on rankings. Reports should cover target page performance compared with pages not worked on, plus referral conversions.

Check who'd actually do the work too. Some agencies resell a freelancer or another agency. That's not automatically bad, but you should know whether the person you spoke to has anything to do with the outcome.

When not to buy this at all

Sometimes the honest conclusion is that links aren't your problem. If your commercial pages don't exist, are poorly written or don't match intent, links won't rescue them. See whether backlinks still matter to check before spending.

You might also have easy options you haven't tried: integration marketplaces and partner listings, unlinked mentions you could convert for free, podcast appearances for your founder, and customers who'd happily mention you. Do those first. They cost little, and any later vendor will start from a stronger position. They'll also give you a sense of what good looks like. To do more on your own, read link building outreach for SaaS.

If you've already bought some questionable links, don't panic. Our guide to toxic links and disavow explains when to act and when to leave them alone.

For a partner who treats links as one part of a joined-up plan and shows you all of the work, see what SEO Growth includes.