Types of Backlinks: A SaaS Buyer's Guide for 2026

If you are buying links for a SaaS product, the first thing to get straight is that not all backlinks are the same animal. Some pass real ranking power, some quietly waste your budget, and a few can actively hurt you. This guide walks through every major one of the types of backlinks a SaaS team will run into, explains what each is good for, and ends with a scoring grid so you can decide which to acquire (and which to buy) first.

I have placed and bought thousands of links over the years, so this is the practitioner's version, not the textbook one. By the end you will know the difference between an editorial link and a footer link, why a link's position on the page matters, and where a marketplace fits into the mix.

Key takeaways

• Editorial links (placed inside real content by a real editor) are the backbone of SaaS link building. Almost everything else is a supporting act.
• The most useful split is editorial vs non-editorial, then dofollow vs nofollow, then contextual vs sidebar/footer placement.
• Backlinko's analysis of 11.8 million search results found the number of unique referring domains was the single strongest correlation in the study, so variety of link types and sources matters more than raw volume.
• Buy the types that are reliable and slow to earn (guest posts, link insertions). Earn the types that depend on your assets and PR muscle (digital PR, brand mentions, resource pages).
• Use the grid at the bottom to rank each type on cost, scalability, link equity, and risk before you spend a dollar.

Editorial vs non-editorial links (start here)

The cleanest way to sort backlink types is by how the link got onto the page.

An editorial link is one a publisher or editor chose to include because the content genuinely warranted it. It sits inside the body of an article, surrounded by relevant text. Google's own link spam guidance treats links that are "freely placed" by the publisher very differently from links you created yourself purely to manipulate rankings. Editorial links are the gold standard because they look like genuine endorsements.

A non-editorial link is one you placed yourself or that exists by default: a forum signature, a blog comment, a directory submission, a footer credit on a free template. These are not worthless, but search engines discount most of them heavily, and a pile of them looks unnatural.

For SaaS, editorial wins almost every time. Your buyers are skeptical, your competitors are sophisticated, and your money pages need links that look like a real publication vouched for you. So when you evaluate any link type below, the first question is always: would an editor have placed this on purpose?

The full taxonomy of backlink types

Here are the kinds of backlinks worth knowing, roughly in order of how often a SaaS team uses them.

Guest posts

You write (or commission) an article for another site, and your link appears inside it. Done well, this is a clean editorial link on a relevant, trafficked site. Done lazily, it is a thin 600-word filler piece on a site that accepts anything for $80. The quality gap is enormous, which is why I treat guest posting as a craft. If you want the full picture on whether it still works and how to do it right, see our deep dive on guest posting for SaaS.

Link insertions (niche edits)

Instead of publishing new content, you add your link into an article that already exists and already ranks. These are faster and often cheaper than guest posts because there is no writing involved, and the host page may already have authority and traffic. The catch is that a good insertion has to feel natural, not bolted on. We cover the mechanics in niche edits and link insertions explained.

Digital PR links

You create something newsworthy (data, a survey, a strong opinion, a tool) and earn coverage from journalists and bloggers. These are the highest-trust links you can get because real publications link to you on their own. They are also the hardest to produce on demand. Digital PR for SaaS breaks down how to earn editorial links that actually last.

Directory and listing links

Think product directories, SaaS review sites, and industry association pages. Most pass little to no ranking equity, and many are nofollow. But the good ones (G2, Capterra, Product Hunt, niche directories your buyers actually browse) drive qualified traffic and signal that you are a real company. Treat them as a trust and discovery play, not a ranking play.

Resource page links

Some sites maintain curated lists of useful tools or reading on a topic. Getting added to a relevant one is a genuine editorial link, because a human decided your resource belongs there. The trick is finding pages that are actually maintained and pitching something worth listing.

Brand mention links

When a publication mentions your brand without linking, you can often ask them to turn that mention into a link. These are low-effort, low-risk, and look completely natural because the editorial decision to mention you was already made. They scale with how much buzz your brand generates.

Broken-link links

You find a dead link on a relevant page, then suggest your resource as the replacement. It is a polite, high-success outreach angle when your replacement genuinely fits. The volume is limited, so it is a tactic, not a strategy.

Partner and co-marketing links

Integration partners, customers, and co-marketing collaborators will often link to you from their site, case studies, or integration directories. For SaaS specifically, these are underused. They are relevant, durable, and free, and they tend to come from sites in your exact niche.

Dofollow vs nofollow (and sponsored and UGC)

Every link carries an attribute that tells search engines how to treat it. This is where a lot of buyers get confused, so let me keep it plain.

• Dofollow is the default. It passes ranking signals (link equity) to your page. This is what you want for links meant to move rankings.
• Nofollow tells Google not to pass full equity. Per Google Search Central's documentation on link attributes, nofollow is now treated as a hint rather than a strict directive, but you should still assume these pass little ranking value.
• Sponsored marks paid or affiliate links. Google introduced this in its 2019 update to link attributes so publishers can flag commercial relationships.
• UGC marks user-generated content like comments and forum posts.

The practical takeaway: for ranking purposes you mostly want dofollow editorial links. But a backlink profile made entirely of dofollow links looks engineered. Real sites earn a healthy mix, so a few nofollow and branded links keep things natural. The dofollow vs nofollow links question is less "which is better" and more "what does a believable profile look like." For SaaS, that means mostly dofollow editorial links with a natural scattering of everything else.

Contextual vs sidebar and footer placement

Two links can both be dofollow and live on the same high-authority site, yet pass wildly different value depending on where they sit.

A contextual link is inside the body content, surrounded by relevant words, in a spot where a reader might actually click it. These carry the most weight because the surrounding text gives Google context about what your page is about.

A sidebar or footer link appears on every page of a site in a template, usually as a credit or a sponsor logo. Site-wide footer links from one domain are a classic over-optimization signal, and they pass far less equity than their placement suggests. Google's John Mueller has repeatedly noted in Search Central guidance that links meant primarily to manipulate rankings, including templated site-wide ones, fall under link spam.

When you read a listing, always check placement. A contextual mention in a fresh, relevant article beats a footer credit on a "high DR" homepage almost every time. We dig into exactly what to look for in how to read a backlink listing before you buy.

Tier 1 vs tier 2 links, explained simply

You will hear vendors talk about "tiered" links. Here is the plain version.

• Tier 1 links point directly at your SaaS site. These are the ones that matter for your rankings, so they should be your highest-quality, safest links.
• Tier 2 links point at your tier 1 links (for example, links to the guest post that links to you). The idea is to strengthen the page that links to you so it passes more equity.

For most SaaS teams, tier 2 is a distraction and a minor risk. Spend your budget on excellent tier 1 links first. Tier 2 is something to consider only at scale, and even then carefully. If you are early-stage, focus everything on a handful of strong direct links rather than spinning up tiers.

The SaaS buyer's scoring grid

Here is the part you came for. I have scored each major backlink type on the four things a buyer actually cares about: cost (lower is cheaper), scalability (how easily you can get many), link equity (ranking power), and risk (chance it hurts you). Scores are 1 to 5, where 5 is best for you (so for cost, 5 means cheap; for risk, 5 means safe).

Backlink type	Cost	Scalability	Link equity	Risk (5 = safest)
Guest posts	2	4	4	4
Link insertions / niche edits	3	4	4	3
Digital PR	1	2	5	5
Resource pages	4	2	3	5
Brand mentions (reclaimed)	4	3	3	5
Broken-link building	4	2	3	5
Partner / co-marketing	5	2	4	5
Directories / listings	4	3	1	4

A few honest notes on reading this grid:

• Digital PR scores highest on equity and safety but lowest on cost and scalability, because earning press is expensive and unpredictable. It is the dream link, not the workhorse.
• Guest posts and insertions are the workhorses: solid equity, genuinely scalable, manageable risk if you vet sites properly.
• Directories are cheap and easy but pass almost no equity, so judge them on the traffic and trust they bring, not rankings.
• Risk goes up fast the moment you stop vetting. A guest post on a real-traffic site is a 4 on risk; the same tactic on a link farm is a 1. Read why organic traffic beats DR and DA when buying links before you judge any site by its metrics alone.

Which link types to buy vs earn (and where a marketplace fits)

Not every link type makes sense to pay for. Here is how I split them.

Earn these: digital PR, brand mentions, resource pages, partner links. They depend on your assets, your relationships, and your story, so paying a vendor to fake them rarely works and often looks unnatural. Build linkable assets and let these come to you.

Buy these: guest posts and link insertions. They are reliable, repeatable, and slow to earn organically, which is exactly the kind of work that benefits from a transactional process. The risk is buying from low-quality sources, not buying itself. Done on real-traffic sites with sane anchor text and pacing, paid editorial links are a normal part of a modern SaaS program. For the safety side of this, see is buying backlinks safe.

This is where a marketplace earns its keep. Instead of cold-emailing hundreds of sites, you browse vetted inventory, see traffic and topic data up front, place an order, and track it to indexed. You get the scalability of bought links without inheriting the junk. If you have never seen one work, browse the inventory on Saaslinks and you will get the idea quickly.

Bringing it together

The types of backlinks all sound different, but they sort into a simple hierarchy: editorial beats non-editorial, dofollow beats nofollow for ranking, and contextual beats footer placement. Once you see links through that lens, the buy-versus-earn decision gets easy, and the scoring grid tells you where to spend first.

Start with a handful of excellent guest posts and insertions on real-traffic sites, layer in earned PR and partner links as your brand grows, and keep the mix natural. When you are ready to acquire vetted editorial links without the cold-outreach grind, create a free Saaslinks account and see what quality inventory looks like.