SaaS Link Building Foundations (Topical Pillar Hub)
Foundational Backlinks: 100 Sites Every SaaS Company Should Be Listed On
On this page
Foundational backlinks are the profiles, registry entries, and directory listings that every legitimate company is expected to have: your Crunchbase page, your G2 listing, your LinkedIn company profile, your Google Business Profile. Individually none of them will move a ranking. Together they do something more basic: they make your company legible - to Google, to buyers doing due diligence, and increasingly to AI assistants that lean on exactly these registries when deciding whether your brand is real.
This is our working list of 100 of them, curated for SaaS companies, with a one-line description of each and live metrics for every row we could measure: Ahrefs DR, Moz DA, Moz spam score, and monthly organic traffic, extracted July 11, 2026. Median DR across the measured rows is 90 - these are, by design, some of the most established domains on the web.
Key takeaways
- Foundational links are about entity trust, not rankings: consistent name, URL, and description across the registries Google and LLMs actually consult.
- 100 sites, every measurable row with fresh DR / DA / spam / traffic data from Ahrefs, Moz, and Semrush (extracted July 11, 2026).
- Do the first fifteen (Must-have company profiles) in week one of any new SaaS. The rest are a slow-burn afternoon per month, not a sprint.
- Every profile should use the same company name, domain, logo, and boilerplate paragraph. Inconsistency is the most common self-inflicted wound we see in startup link audits.
- These are almost all nofollow or low-equity links. That is fine. Their job is being the floor, not the lever.
What foundational backlinks actually do
Three real functions, none of which is "pass PageRank":
Entity verification. Google's systems cross-reference your name, address, site, and socials across registries to decide you are a real organization. AI answer engines do the same thing more crudely: Crunchbase, LinkedIn, G2, and Wikipedia-grade sources dominate what LLMs cite when asked about a company.
Brand SERP control. When a prospect searches your brand name, page one should be properties you control: your site, LinkedIn, G2, Crunchbase, a review profile. Every claimed profile is one less slot for a competitor comparison page or a random forum thread.
Referral drip. A few of these (G2, Capterra, AlternativeTo, Product Hunt, SourceForge) send genuinely qualified traffic. Not much, but it compounds, and review-site presence feeds the comparison queries your buyers actually search.
Where the data comes from
Every metric in the tables below comes from the industry-standard tools: Ahrefs (Domain Rating, organic traffic), Moz (Domain Authority, spam score), and Semrush (authority and traffic cross-check), all extracted on July 11, 2026. Sites were only included if they are live and somewhere a real buyer, journalist, or crawler might actually encounter your company - dead platforms, spam-heavy directories, and consumer sites where a company profile makes no sense did not make the cut. A dash means the site sits outside a tool's public dataset (Google properties, for instance, do not need our vouching).
The list: 100 foundational sites with live metrics
Metrics: Ahrefs DR · Moz DA · Moz spam score · monthly organic traffic. Source: Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush - extracted July 11, 2026.
Must-have company profiles (15)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| linkedin.com | Company page plus founder profiles; the single most-checked B2B identity signal. | 99 | 99 | 1% | 180.3M |
| github.com | Org profile with pinned repos; table stakes for any dev-facing product. | 97 | 97 | 1% | 49.0M |
| trustpilot.com | General review platform; its stars follow your brand SERP around. | 94 | 93 | 6% | 60.6M |
| crunchbase.com | The canonical startup registry: funding, team, and news; heavily cited by AI answers. | 91 | 91 | 1% | 1.6M |
| g2.com | The biggest SaaS review platform; buyers and LLMs both quote its category grids. | 91 | 76 | 1% | 780K |
| capterra.com | Gartner-owned software directory; strong commercial-intent traffic. | 91 | 80 | 1% | 455K |
| producthunt.com | Launch platform; the profile persists as a high-authority product page. | 91 | 90 | 4% | 367K |
| clutch.co | The B2B services registry; essential if you sell services alongside software. | 91 | 72 | 1% | 740K |
| wellfound.com | Formerly AngelList; startup profile, jobs, and investor visibility. (Listed as angel.co in metrics.) | 87 | 86 | 5% | 3K |
| softwareadvice.com | Gartner's advisor-led directory; captures high-intent comparison shoppers. | 87 | 64 | 7% | 242K |
| goodfirms.co | B2B services and software directory with verified reviews. | 86 | 56 | 2% | 125K |
| getapp.com | Gartner's SMB-focused software directory; same review pool as Capterra. | 85 | 60 | — | 253K |
| trustradius.com | Enterprise-leaning review site with long, detailed reviews. | 84 | 67 | 1% | 56K |
| f6s.com | Founder network and startup profile registry with program deadlines. | 83 | 73 | 1% | 383K |
| gust.com | Investor-facing company profile used by angel groups and accelerators. | 75 | 76 | 4% | 25K |
Startup & product directories (8)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sourceforge.net | Software directory with reviews; still enormous organic reach for B2B tools. | 92 | 93 | 3% | 2.6M |
| kickstarter.com | Crowdfunding profile; permanent high-authority project pages. | 92 | 93 | 9% | 1.2M |
| indiegogo.com | Crowdfunding profile; relevant if you ever ran a campaign. | 90 | 92 | 2% | 199K |
| devpost.com | Hackathon platform; product and team profiles for dev tools. | 88 | 84 | 3% | 164K |
| alternativeto.net | Crowdsourced 'alternatives to X' listings; ranks for thousands of comparison queries. | 79 | 87 | 1% | 262K |
| betalist.com | Pre-launch and early-stage startup showcase; genuine discovery traffic. | 75 | 59 | 8% | 19K |
| startupranking.com | Global startup index with an SR score and country rankings. | 62 | 74 | — | 23K |
| launchingnext.com | Startup showcase that accepts free submissions. | 52 | 39 | 2% | 4K |
Developer & design communities (9)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| behance.net | Adobe's portfolio network; company pages for design-adjacent products. | 94 | 93 | 1% | 3.9M |
| dribbble.com | Design portfolio community; team pages with strong profile authority. | 93 | 92 | 3% | 2.6M |
| stackoverflow.com | Company/team presence plus tag engagement for developer products. | 92 | 92 | 2% | 8.2M |
| gitlab.com | Secondary code-hosting profile; mirrors count as presence for dev tools. | 92 | 92 | 2% | 1.4M |
| credly.com | Digital credential platform; issuer pages for products with certifications. | 91 | 71 | 3% | 230K |
| dev.to | Developer blogging community; org accounts get a branded page. | 90 | 85 | 1% | 1.4M |
| sketchfab.com | 3D content community; niche but high-authority profile pages. | 90 | 90 | 5% | 3.2M |
| instructables.com | Maker community; profile pages for hardware-adjacent brands. | 88 | 93 | 5% | 4.6M |
| arduino.cc | Project hub profile; relevant for IoT and hardware SaaS. | 88 | 85 | 8% | 1.0M |
Content & media profiles (34)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vimeo.com | Ad-free video profile; embeds carry your brand cleanly. | 96 | 95 | 3% | 3.0M |
| wordpress.com | Hosted blog subdomain; claim the brand even if you never post. | 95 | 94 | 1% | 21.8M |
| medium.com | Publication or company account; syndicate posts with canonical tags. | 94 | 95 | 1% | 30.1M |
| substack.com | Newsletter profile; a real audience channel that also builds brand queries. | 94 | 92 | 7% | 10.2M |
| tumblr.com | Automattic-owned blog profile; easy claim, keeps the name yours. | 94 | 77 | 1% | 6.5M |
| soundcloud.com | Audio profile; claim it if you run a podcast. | 94 | 93 | 9% | 15.3M |
| flickr.com | Photo profile; product shots and event photos with real EXIF. | 94 | 92 | 17% | 3.6M |
| issuu.com | Document and magazine publishing profile. | 93 | 94 | 2% | 589K |
| slideshare.net | Scribd-owned deck hosting; decks rank for years. | 92 | 95 | 16% | 21.0M |
| goodreads.com | Author profile; for founders who have published. | 92 | 93 | 5% | 15.4M |
| podbean.com | Podcast host profile with its own directory listing. | 91 | 91 | 5% | 284K |
| mixcloud.com | Long-form audio profile; DJ-mix roots, works for shows. | 91 | 92 | 10% | 695K |
| scribd.com | Document platform; company docs and whitepapers. | 91 | 94 | 3% | 132.0M |
| imgur.com | Image community account; useful for product visuals. | 91 | 92 | 11% | 777K |
| fliphtml5.com | Flipbook publishing profile for PDFs and brochures. | 91 | 82 | 11% | 2.2M |
| calameo.com | Document publishing profile; French platform, solid authority. | 91 | 93 | 4% | 936K |
| evernote.com | Public notebooks; shareable resource pages. | 90 | 92 | 3% | 2.0M |
| yumpu.com | PDF magazine publishing; German platform with global reach. | 90 | 91 | 3% | 1.2M |
| spreaker.com | Podcast hosting and distribution profile. | 89 | 89 | 3% | 302K |
| speakerdeck.com | Cleaner deck hosting; profile page for conference talks. | 88 | 84 | 1% | 26K |
| flipboard.com | Curated magazine profile; light but real referral traffic. | 87 | 91 | 8% | 73K |
| wakelet.com | Modern curation boards; education-heavy audience. | 85 | 74 | 1% | 38K |
| wattpad.com | Serial publishing profile; niche, claim-only. | 85 | 92 | 3% | 20.9M |
| audioboom.com | Podcast platform profile; smaller but clean. | 82 | 86 | 4% | 37K |
| scoop.it | Content curation hub page around your topic. | 82 | 92 | 5% | 74K |
| diigo.com | Social bookmarking with annotated links; oldest still-alive quality bookmarker. | 82 | 91 | 2% | 21K |
| slides.com | HTML presentation profile; developer-friendly decks. | 82 | 82 | 1% | 366K |
| visual.ly | Infographic portfolio; legacy but authoritative. | 82 | 87 | 4% | 0 |
| mindmeister.com | Public mind maps; embeddable and indexable. | 81 | 81 | 5% | 574K |
| 4shared.com | File sharing profile; use only for genuinely public files. | 81 | 94 | 6% | 413K |
| docdroid.net | Simple PDF hosting; clean links to hosted documents. | 81 | 83 | 1% | 48K |
| pearltrees.com | Visual curation boards; clean profile with outbound links. | 78 | 86 | 33% | 207K |
| youtube.com | Channel page; the second-largest search engine wants your demo videos. | — | — | — | — |
| giphy.com | Brand channel for GIFs; shows up inside every messenger. (Not in metrics run.) | — | — | — | — |
Social & community presence (24)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x.com | Company account; claim the handle even if you rarely post. | — | — | — | — |
| facebook.com | Business page; still the identity anchor for review and ads systems. | — | — | — | — |
| instagram.com | Business profile; visual brand claim plus link-in-bio. | — | — | — | — |
| tiktok.com | Business account; discovery channel for PLG products with visual demos. | — | — | — | — |
| threads.net | Meta's text network; cheap claim while handles are available. | — | — | — | — |
| bsky.app | Bluesky handle; set your domain as your username for built-in verification. | — | — | — | — |
| pinterest.com | Business account; visual products get real discovery here. | 97 | 94 | 7% | 571.1M |
| gravatar.com | The avatar identity behind every WordPress comment; claim the org email. | 97 | 96 | 5% | 1.1M |
| reddit.com | Brand account plus niche subreddit participation; the most-cited domain in AI answers. | 95 | 92 | 3% | 1200.0M |
| quora.com | Company page and founder answers; still ranks for question queries. | 92 | 93 | 10% | 101.3M |
| disqus.com | Commenting identity across thousands of blogs. | 92 | 93 | 21% | 61K |
| deviantart.com | Art community; brand-claim only unless you are a creative tool. | 91 | 75 | 6% | 6.4M |
| about.me | One-page personal/founder profile with verified links. | 90 | 92 | 10% | 786K |
| hubpages.com | Article community; author profile for occasional long-form. | 87 | 92 | 1% | 521K |
| smashwords.com | Ebook publishing profile; for founders with books. | 86 | 88 | 2% | 35K |
| yourstory.com | Indian startup media; company and founder profiles. | 85 | 85 | 1% | 158K |
| dzone.com | Developer article community; contributor profile for engineering content. | 84 | 84 | 5% | 25K |
| kiva.org | Lender profile; a values signal, links to your team page. | 83 | 84 | 5% | 28K |
| minds.com | Alt social network; low effort to claim, real profile page. | 78 | 84 | 3% | 4K |
| intensedebate.com | Legacy commenting profile; claim and forget. | 78 | 86 | 4% | 1K |
| ello.co | Creator network profile; quiet but alive and indexable. | 77 | 85 | 45% | 9 |
| folkd.com | Social bookmarking survivor; profile with links. | 74 | 80 | 1% | 1K |
| apsense.com | Business social network; profile plus company page. | 73 | 75 | 7% | 32K |
| triberr.com | Blogger amplification network profile. | 72 | 70 | 1% | 10K |
Local & general business listings (10)
| Site | What it is | DR | DA | Spam | Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| openstreetmap.org | The open map database; your office pin propagates to every OSM consumer. | 94 | 90 | 1% | 262K |
| foursquare.com | Location data provider; its Places API feeds hundreds of apps. | 91 | 92 | 1% | 160K |
| manta.com | US small-business directory; old but maintained. | 86 | 81 | 11% | 52K |
| brownbook.net | Global business directory; free claimable listing. | 79 | 66 | 13% | 6K |
| storeboard.com | Business directory with profile pages; low traffic, claim-only. | 77 | 71 | 3% | 2K |
| zumvu.com | Business promotion platform with profile pages. | 72 | 56 | 1% | 344K |
| trepup.com | Business network with company storefront pages. | 72 | 57 | 2% | 4K |
| business.google.com | Google Business Profile; non-negotiable even for online-only companies. (Not in metrics run - it is Google.) | — | — | — | — |
| bingplaces.com | Bing Places; feeds Bing, Copilot, and DuckDuckGo local results. (Not in metrics run.) | — | — | — | — |
| yelp.com | Business listing with reviews; still feeds Apple Maps. (Not in metrics run.) | — | — | — | — |
The right order to work through these
- Week one: the fifteen must-haves. LinkedIn, Crunchbase, G2, Capterra (and the Gartner siblings), Trustpilot, GitHub if you ship code, Google Business Profile, Product Hunt (even pre-launch), F6S, Clutch if you sell services. Same logo, same one-liner, same URL everywhere.
- Month one: your category's directories. Dev tool? Stack Overflow presence, GitLab mirror, dev.to org. Design tool? Behance, Dribbble. Then the startup directories - BetaList and friends - while you still qualify as new.
- Ongoing: media profiles as you produce assets. Podcast → Podbean/Spreaker. Conference deck → SlideShare/Speaker Deck. Demo video → YouTube/Vimeo. The profile exists so each asset compounds under a consistent identity.
- Never: paying anyone to "blast" these. Foundational profiles built by a $20 gig come with wrong NAP data, spun descriptions, and login credentials you will never see again - we cleaned up exactly this mess for our own domain, and wrote up the lesson in our guide to buying links safely.
What we deliberately left off
Junk directories with DR in the 40s and spam scores in the 20s+, "instant approval" article farms, and the mass profile-creation sites that vendor packages love. High DR was not enough to make this list; a site had to be somewhere a real buyer, journalist, or crawler might actually encounter your company. If a list you are comparing against has 500 entries, that is not thoroughness - that is padding. See our web 2.0 sites list for the data on what those extra 400 rows usually look like.
Frequently asked questions
How many foundational backlinks does a new SaaS need?
The fifteen must-haves cover the trust signal almost entirely. Past roughly fifty relevant profiles you are deep into diminishing returns; past a hundred you are procrastinating on real link building.
Are foundational backlinks dofollow?
Mostly no, and it does not matter. Their value is entity confirmation and brand-SERP control, not equity. The dofollow obsession is for editorial links, where placement and context do move rankings.
How fast do foundational links work?
The profiles index within days. The effect is a floor, not a spike: cleaner brand SERP, faster entity recognition, and eligibility for the review-site comparison pages that take months to earn placement on.
Should I use the same description everywhere?
Yes - one canonical boilerplate paragraph, one elevator one-liner, identical name and URL. Consistency is the whole point: registries that agree with each other are what makes the entity graph trust you.
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