How Ahrefs’ Best Bootstrapped Backlink Builders Got Their Links [Analysis]

Last week, Ryan Law of Ahrefs published the Best Booststrapped Backlink Builders in 2024. It’s a fantastic analysis of the sites on a “bootstrap” budget that built the most referring domains in the past year.

But questions came up as I started looking at the list.

How did the sites get their links?

Was it different in each industry?

Did the links move the traffic?

I started digging and couldn’t stop. So, below are the fruits of my research: the SaaS link-building strategies these websites used to gain their links in the past year.

The post is divided into two parts. First, there are the overall strategies. Then, in the second half, I’ve provided a brief analysis of each site.

Ultimately, links on their own aren’t an indicator of success.

This list became a vehicle for my analysis of link quality, links’ ability to impact rankings, and how Google’s June Spam Update has impacted websites.

Quick notes on methodology:

• The initial study didn’t consider nofollow links or the quality of the links themselves, so the totals that landed them on this list are skewed.

• I also set myself a time limit for each of these sites. Since this could easily be a few weeks’ worth of analysis work, I tried to focus on the most prominent strategies.

• To analyze these, I used Ahrefs exclusively. I primarily used their Site Explorer, focused on Anchors, Best by Links, and Referring Domains reports set to the past year.

• Lastly, of course, I needed to infer a lot of this. There may be other underlying factors at work here that I’m unaware of or just plain missed! If anyone associated with these sites wants to contact me to clarify, I’m happy to update the analysis.

Main Takeaways

I took away a million things from this study, but I tried to condense down what is essentially the TL:DR.

Here goes:

• Promotion (this includes link exchange, purchased links, and organic mentions.) was the most common way sites gained links over the past year.
• Promotion also stands out as the most penalized strategy, with 12 sites.
• 28 sites appeared to get hit by the Link Spam Update.
• 13 sites were hit by Helpful Content Updates.
• Just 8 sites avoided both Helpful Content and Link Spam penalties in the last year.
• Data, Stats & Reports, and Informational Content were the most successful strategies for gaining links while avoiding penalties.
• Marketing/SEO was the most common industry (14 sites).
• Marketing/SEO sites were also impacted the most by the Link Spam penalty (10 sites).

With these in mind, here’s what you should know.

► Jump to the data

Brand Mentions Are a Double-Edged Sword

In general, most sites on this list seem to engage in some kind of link exchange or link buying, which, realistically, is why the Link Spam Update hit them.

The easiest way I can typically tell is by looking at the anchor text and rank of the keyword.

For instance, if a site isn’t ranking anywhere near page one for the term email marketing software but suddenly appears on many posts with that exact match keyword. It’s a signal of manipulation (aka buying or link exchange).

However, many tools I saw with many brand mentions acquired seemingly naturally also saw Link Spam Update hits. Google first rolled out the Link Spam Update in 2022, then again in June 2024.

Google may have devalued listicle/roundup posts because they are so rife with link exchanges and buying.

Take this example of a pitch I received:

So, even sites that do not participate in these link buying or excessive exchanges may be hurt by Link Spam because they are naturally featured in many articles.

Data and Informational Content is the Way

Data, Stats & Reports proved consistently effective for sites in generating authoritative content and acquiring high-quality backlinks, helping avoid penalties and increasing traffic growth. Sites like SpyCloud, BambooHR, and Ahrefs stand out in the list.

Similarly, Clearscope, Shiftbase, Semaphore, and Creately all had quality informational content that ranked well for keywords and brought in links and traffic over time..

There are a few reasons why I think this works.

Data-driven content (primarily proprietary data) provides “information gain.” This is new information that no one — especially not AI — has right now.

I believe Google wants this from sites, and a few studies have supported this.

Siege Media has conducted studies on its own site, adding unique, fresh data to its posts, and has seen incredible gains—as explained in this post.

Another reason is that proprietary data is inherently pitchable. According to the Cision State of Media Report, original research reports are the second most popular kind of content that journalists want.

Therefore, there is much more opportunity to get top-tier links that can move the needle for your traffic.

The last reason is that if you can tie proprietary data to keywords with high link intent, you increase the gains and create a flywheel.

This is most commonly seen in statistics posts, but it can also be seen in trends and other keywords that journalists and researchers may search for when writing an article.

Think Content First, Then Links

Overall, we saw 14 sites hurt by Helpful Content Updates. Some more than others.

And unfortunately, no amount of links can break you out of a penalty.

Most saw dips in March and then again in August:

Some are more drastic than others:

As you can see, the links are going up, but the traffic is tanking.

So, the thinking should always be to prioritize the on page experience for your users.

You Need a Healthy Mix

The other thing that this analysis drove home for me was that there typically is no silver bullet.

Again, I look at Ahrefs because its site features a diverse mix of data studies and informational content. It also has a newsletter and a podcast.

Glassnode was another one. It has a data-rich platform and promotes key data insights in newsletters, blog posts, and major trends reports.

This kind of marketing mix can safeguard you from future penalties and attract diverse, naturally grown links, which is what Google wants.

Next, let’s take a look at a breakdown of the strategies that everyone is using.

Breakdown of Strategies That Drove Traffic

I’ve broken down how the sites primarily gained links in this section.

Note: Click on any site to jump to its analysis. Click on the strategy link to return to this page.

1. Informational Content

Software Using it Effectively: Clearscope, Shiftbase, Slickplan

Most sites on this list have some informational blog content that generates links for them. However, some are more inclined to this approach than others.

Let’s take a look at a few examples. Shiftbase is an HR tool. In the US, they created a glossary section that ranks a lot of key terms relevant to HR:

You can see that these pages are the same ones generating referring domains:

Then, judging by the traffic and content trajectory, this approach seems to be working.

Another example of a solid informational content link building strategy is Clearscope. Much of their search-driven content is bringing in quality links.

Again, you can see that the content bringing in links is typically the content ranking.

The result is a solid uptick in links and organic traffic:

AI Overviews are taking a lot of SERP traffic these days, so this approach alone may not last for many brands.

The easily-answered questions are the ones that AI Overviews seem to take. So, brands are getting around this by using fresh data in their content.

Let’s look at those next.

2. Data, Stats & Reports

Software Using it Effectively: SpyCloud, BambooHR, Ahrefs

In this analysis, I group data studies with statistics posts (even if the statistics aren’t proprietary data.)

One site doing this really well is the reason I wrote this post: Ahrefs.

For example, they’ve generated over 1,777 referring domains to their SEO Statistics post. The post also ranks for “SEO statistics,” bringing in 1.1K monthly traffic.

By tying this to a high link intent keyword, they’ve established a flywheel where they can get links to the post, which helps it rank higher, which will bring more links…and so on.

Many of the statistics on their page are from their studies, but not all of them. This kind of hybrid post is very effective at generating links and traffic.

Another kind of data study seen on this list is the index. These don’t have to be tied to search volume but can still generate links through outreach.

For example, Surfshark created a “Digital Quality of Life Index” in 2023 that generated over 175 LRD.

However, my favorite approach to data studies comes from Glassnode.

Their entire software is a data platform, so users can access and manipulate their data.

Therefore, many links come from users citing and screenshotting data insights from Glassnode.

Glassnode also publishes its weekly newsletter, “The Week Onchain,” highlighting insights.

And since the crypto community is so active, this information is distributed very quickly and provides them with links.

This two-pronged approach keeps the links coming in. The blog area has over 1.2K referring domains.

All of this combined has led to solid organic growth and link growth.

3. Templates

Software Using it Effectively: Stripo

The strategy consists of identifying a template keyword and building a great database of templates (and giving them away for free.)

Stripo is an excellent example of this. They prominently feature templates linked right from their homepage.

The page ranks #2 for “email template,” bringing them an estimated 26k monthly traffic.

They may have had to jumpstart this page with some outreach or paid links, but once it ranks, it’s been accruing links naturally.

Their template page now has over 600 LRD.

The important part is that while some are paid templates, most are “free,” allowing them to attract many links naturally.

Thus, their free HTML email templates have gained 712 LRD.

This has been one of their primary ways of getting backlinks and has helped their overall traffic gains in a big way:

Next, let’s look at the primary way users get links: promotion.

4. Promotion

Software Using it Effectively: Surfer, Wisepops, Clockify

I’m using “promotion” as a catch-all for organic brand mentions, blogger outreach, link insertions, link exchanging, paid and unpaid guest posting, sponsored posts, affiliate partnerships, and straight buying links.

As I mentioned with Link Spam, you might not even engage in active promotion but fall backward into a spam update if you get mentioned frequently on the wrong sites.

So, the sites that are doing this well are the ones that avoid these tell-tale signs of link manipulation:

• An anchor link with exact match keywords
• Links that feel shoe-horned into the copy
• Two links to a domain in succession
• Multiple posts written about similar topics on separate sites published around the same time
• The post topic is irrelevant to the software
• Site with high DR but low traffic

And then, there are the roundup/listicle-type posts. We saw that Google may have it out for those kinds of posts because they are easily spammed.

Next, let’s look at widgets.

5. Widget

Software Using it Effectively: Elfsight

Elfsight is the only brand using this strategy, and they have scaled it to the max.

The strategy is that they offer a free widget, and when used on a page, it links back to Elfsight.

Since these links are positioned on a page (not tucked into a footer like some other links you’ll see on this list), this tactic appears to be helping Elfsight.

You can see a solid rising organic traffic and links:

However, I think there is a potential limit to the gains from links like these. Plus, leaning too heavily into a certain kind of link acquisition can lead to problems if Google decides to pull the rug out from under you.

The next tactic is similar but less potent for gaining impactful links.

6. Powered By

Software Using it Effectively: Helpjuice

The service shows a link on the page when it is “powered by” the target software.

For example, when a site like TCL uses Helpjuice to create its Knowledge base, you’ll see a “Powered by Helpjuice,”

Another example of this is when websites use the analytics platform Plausible to gather data. In those cases you see them link to Plausible’s data policy on their privacy policy pages.

From a marketing perspective, these are undoubtedly great ways to get your brand out. Virtually every customer becomes an ad for you.

Helpjuice seems to be the only one really leveraging this to drive traffic effectively, but they also couple this strategy with informational content.

For the links placed on the page, I doubt they have much value, much like a link from a sponsorship logo or reviews badge.

So, I wouldn’t bank on this strategy long term on its own.

7. Custom URL

Software Using it Effectively: SavvyCal

I see two types of custom URL links used and it seems to determine the impact of the links’ value.

One kind of URL is on the main domain like Savvycal: https://savvycal.com/commitswimming/demo

In this, you can see link gains along with traffic gains:

The other is a subdomain, like what Canny.io or Homerun uses:

https://heightcomparison.canny.io/feature-requests

https://friendlycaptcha.homerun.co/integrations-engineer

In these cases, the links don’t seem to provide as much value. For example, here’s what Homerun’s overall traffic vs link acquisition looks like. You can see that it’s fairly flat:

Canny also looks a bit flat:

As you will see later, however, these platforms still do have viable backlink acquisition strategies. For instance, Canny seems to drive most of its quality links through promotion.

but the ways they generate most of their links (which landed them on Ahrefs’ list) don’t seem to help them rank.

In the next example, we’ll look at a few sites that acquire domains, which generated links.

8. Domain Purchase

Effective Software: Short.io, DeviceAtlas

A few sites on the list seem to be getting most of their links through domain purchases.

For example, roughly one-third of DeviceAtlas’s referring domains come from links to:

• Ready.mobi
• Mobithinking.com
• Mowser.com
• DeviceAssure.com

This seems to work for DeviceAtlas (although they do have some other posts gaining backlinks.)

Another site, Short.io, uses domain purchasing. Short.io seems to sit on shortened domains, and whenever a user comes across one, the user can purchase it.

Ahrefs shows they have over 13,000 of these in the past year.

Looking at the traffic, they have steadily gained organic traffic since March 2024 with very little other activity.

So, even though these are all nofollow links with a very low average DR, this approach has over 19k backlinks.

Perhaps the scale itself is what is helping.

Unfortunately, no other sites on this list are doing what Short.io is doing – so it’s hard to get a sense of how generalizable this strategy is.

9. Tools

Software Using it Effectively: SmallPDF

Offering free tools seems to be a great way to generate backlinks. Many sites on our list utilize this in some way, especially the SEO tools.

Let’s look at SmallPDF and Pentest Tools.

SmallPDF has a wide variety of tools:

In these cases, the tools need to be tied to search volume to work.

As you can see, SmallPDF ranks for many of these high-volume keywords.

For example, “pdf to word” brings in an estimated 4.5M traffic to the site, generating over 1.3K referring domains.

This approach is especially effective when the tools are translated or available into different languages.

On its own, this tactic generated links, but after a while, it may start to wane:

For instance, Pentest Tools has a similar approach and is also slowing traffic growth after a steep growth in 2023.

Another example is MXToolBox, whose content is solely made up of tools. Looking at the traffic lately, although the links are rising, the traffic isn’t.

This approach’s impact seems to have a plateauing point.

So, I would use this as a supportive tactic rather than the entire organic and backlink strategy.

📈 Full Data Analysis

Here is a breakdown of the data considering the strategies, industries, and potential penalties I saw.

(Remember, these penalties are inferences based on directional traffic data.)

👉 Click on any of the sites in the list to jump down to their site analysis.

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50 Bootstrapped Sites’ Link Acquisition Methods and Analysis

Congrats if you’ve made it this far. Next is the analysis for all of the sites on the list.

1. Elfsight

URL: https://elfsight.com/
Industry: Visual
Referring Domain Growth: 25,953
Main Link Acquisition Method: Widget

As Ryan pointed out in his post, the primary way Elfsight has gotten links is with their widgets.

Anytime someone uses their Instagram feed widget, it embeds a link back to Elfsight.

From a traffic perspective, they have crushed it in traffic in the past year or so since the March Helpful Content Update with some great content for Instagram users, like their post on removing shadowbans.

But, so far, the blog hasn’t gotten them many links.

Verdict: Getting links from widgets feels like a pre-Penguin strategy that I would be worried wouldn’t hold up. But, it seems to be propping up their ability to rank for the widgets.

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2. Short.io

URL: https://short.io/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 12,864
Main Link Acquisition Method: Domain purchase

The most obvious way Short.io has acquired so many links is by sitting on custom domains. So, anyone who wants to use them must get them from Short.io.

This approach accounts for 14k links. And although they are all nofollow links, they seem to be moving the needle for them.

They don’t have a blog or any other content on the site. They get links to their homepage, but in the past year or so, they have only had a handful of quality links pointing to the homepage.

How else could they have gone from 3k organic traffic to 18k since the March Update?

Verdict: This one is a bit confusing, but it looks like it’s working. Maybe that whole “we use nofollow as a suggestion” is legit.

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3. Gymdesk

URL: https://gymdesk.com/
Industry: Health and Fitness
Referring Domain Growth: 1,727
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered by

Gymdesk was an obvious link strategy, though again, it feels like something out of the olden days of SEO.

Their software powers gym owner’s websites.

Each website has the “powered by Gymdesk” stamp at the bottom which links back to Gymdesk’s homepage.

If I remember correctly, this is how Hotmail got its start. From a marketing perspective, this is great.

You can also see that Gyms use a subdomain to host files, login flows, and shops:

https://thespotperth.gymdesk.com/shop

So, what seems to be hurting them?

In June 2024, Google released a Spam update that focused on links.

The link graph shows the traffic middling out after the June update. It’s possible Google doesn’t like some of the links Gymdesk has acquired.

I see multiple exact-match keyword anchors from some of the backlinks, which can be a negative signal.

Verdict: These Powered By links may hurt, but it’s tough to tell with the algorithm hit.

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4. Helpjuice

URL: https://helpjuice.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 4,657
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered By

Helpjuice acquires links similar to Gymdesk. At the bottom of any site using their software’s Knowledge Base page is a link that says “Knowledge Base Software powered by Helpjuice.”

Again, this tactic seems like it won’t really drive much value. These are “follow” links, but their value is likely lower than other quality placements.

Digging into their content, you can see a handful of their blog pages getting links. Their standard operating procedure post is ranking #1 and has acquired 170 LRD.

However, the traffic does even out after the June Spam update—even as the links go up. So there may be some signals that Google doesn’t like from the links they are getting.

Verdict: Given the spam update, it’s unclear if this approach helps. But I don’t think these kinds of links will hold up if they aren’t already devalued.

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5. Also Asked

URL: https://alsoasked.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,741
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

My take on AlsoAsked is that they are leaning on their brand strength for links (and ranking). They have very few pages, and most traffic is to the home page.

The primary way they seem to get links is through mentions on listicles like the one below from Backlinko:

They are also positioned as an alternative to another highly mentioned tool called Answer the Public, which gets them links on posts like Exploding Topics:

It does help that they are a free tool, as I’ve found that getting included on many more listicle-type posts helps.

Overall, I’m calling this approach “promotion” because it is unclear exactly how they are getting featured on these lists.

They might pitch for inclusion with a more product-led PR approach, telling sites about their product and offering to let them try it out.

However, the traffic somewhat evens again around June’s Link Spam Update.

So, there’s a chance that, like in Helpjuice, appearing on too many of these listicles could show some evidence of excessive link exchanges.

Verdict: Once you appear on a few listicles, chances are you’ll appear on a lot more. But, there’s a downside if those sites are in link exchange networks. Links from these kinds of sites may just not be as valuable anymore.

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6. Stripo

URL: https://stripo.email/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 2,116
Main Link Acquisition Method: Templates

Stripo’s primary way of building links is to their templates page.

It not only ranks for “email template” which has over 120K searches per month, but has gained over 700 referring domains them links over time.

This is backed up by a solid blog content strategy targeting informational terms like survey invitation emails post that has acquired almost 100 LRD in the past year.

Overall, this approach has been shown to help build traffic and links.

Verdict: If you can give away free templates, there are links to be gained.

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7. Clearscope

URL: https://www.clearscope.io/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,697
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

Clearscope saw a large organic traffic boost from the August 2024 Helpful Content Update, which is the tail end of Ahref’s window for their study.

Bernard Huang and the team write a lot of great search-driven content, driving lots of organic traffic:

They also write a lot of great thought leadership content, which has built them a lot of links over the past year as well:

As a fun side note about Clearscope, out of the 3k links they’ve built in the past year, over 300 are from publishers and writers accidentally linking to their Clearscope report.

Verdict: Create Helpful content and you will be rewarded in both traffic and links.

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8. Surfer

URL: https://surferseo.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 5,084
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

The vast majority of Surfer’s links go to its homepage. A few tools and blog posts gain some links, but the homepage gets the most overall.

Looking at the traffic and links to their homepage, this approach is generating solid traffic growth.

Most of the links they’ve gotten to their homepage are from reviews and listicle-type posts like this:

Ahrefs shows 6,212 referring domains to the homepage. When I use the Best Links feature to reduce this to “quality” links, it’s down to 176.

Again, it’s unclear how these get placements on these listicle articles, but Surfer does have a higher brand search at 29K globally, so they may be well-known enough to appear naturally.

Since I still see gains in organic production after the June update, it seems like these quality placements are helping them.

Verdict: Quality links move the needle, however you can get them.

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9. Wordtune

URL: https://www.wordtune.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 2,470
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion
Wordtune seems to have taken a hit during September 2023’s Helpful Content Update, but it has surged back up since August 2024.

All the while, the links are trending up.

Overall, in the past year, the homepage is getting the most links. Again it’s unclear how, but in their case, they are an AI in the SEO space, which is about as trending as you can get these days.

So, they are getting featured on a lot of listicles about AI tools.

And Scaler:

So, unlike the previous few sites we looked at, their appearance on these lists seem to be helping traffic. Perhaps it is because AI is such a trending topic right now.

Another thing that could be helping boost their organic traffic separate from links is their blog. It’s generating about 35k monthly traffic, though it doesn’t generate very many links at all.

Verdict: Positioning your product alongside a trending topic can generate many links.

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10. Crowdin

URL: https://crowdin.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 4,101
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered by

Crowdin’s links in the past year are all to their profile and project pages, which amounts to more than 7,000 referring domains.

So, I’m grouping this in the “Powered by” category.

They link to pages like the one below, where users can host their information about translating their projects:

Unfortunately, all of the links are of low quality or are spam.

Realistically, the number of quality links is about 78 links. These are typically linked on help pages:

Or forums and code repositories for sharing files.

So, are these links helping them generate traffic? According to the graph, they generate an average of about 35K in organic traffic.

(If you’re curious about that bump around May, after some digging, this coincides with a user project starting that day crowdin.com/project/andy43. The links are all spam.)

After looking into it some more, the projects and profiles do rank for some keywords internationally, so the traffic they generate isn’t qualified in any way and is most likely not of any value to them.

So, all of the traffic and links may be a bit misleading.

Verdict: Since most of the links are from pages that Google would ignore, and the keywords they mainly rank for aren’t realistically driving traffic, the metrics on this site may be a bit skewed. However, we don’t know the inner workings of Crowdin and their audience may really interact with these kinds of projects and profiles.

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11. Socialinsider

URL: https://www.socialinsider.io/
Industry: Analytics
Referring Domain Growth: 2,743
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

Socialinsider has great examples of data posts building links. When you look at the Best by Linked in Ahrefs for the past year, all you see are data pieces gathering high quality backlinks:

These pieces are mainly comprised of proprietary data gathered by Socialinsider and presented in a compelling manner:

Because these posts are also tied to search volume, they bring in links over time without needing outreach.

This approach works, but something may be working against them here.

The traffic is trending up somewhat but not at a rate that is as quick as other sites taking this approach.

Since they have a few social media-related statistics posts, these links might come from repeat domains, making them less valuable.

Verdict: Statistics posts like what Socialinsider creates can help generate links but can start to have lower returns — especially in crowded industries.

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12. SpyFu

URL: https://www.spyfu.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 6,720
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

According to Ahrefs, SpyFu’s top-linked pages are query pages:

So, that’s where the 6k+ are showing up. It’s not a strategy or viable option, so let’s ignore those for now because they are all links that Google probably ignores.

Realistically, their links go to their homepage.

Most of these come through promotion or brand recognition. For example, Shopify mentions them in a post about competitive analysis.

Mailchimp mentions them in a post about digital marketing tools:

It is not clear whether these are paid placements, partnerships, exchanges, or natural pickups.

They have a high search volume for their brand, suggesting that these are natural pickups.

Again, there is a lull in traffic growth around June 2024, so appearing on list-type articles might not be as valuable.

They saw a nice boost in traffic after August’s 2024 Helpful Content update so maybe whatever was hurting is reversed.

Verdict: Overall, SpyFu has a good tool and is a well-known brand, which is enough to generate links.

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13. Pentest Tools

URL: https://pentest-tools.com/
Industry: Cybersecurity
Referring Domain Growth: 1,236
Main Link Acquisition Method: Tools

As the name implies, Pentest Tools has a lot of tools on its website.

This looks to be how they acquired their links, especially in the past year.

These tools also rank for high-volume keywords:

Overall, that’s the main growth tactic that seems to be moving the needle.

Verdict: Tools are a tried-and-true tactic for building links. Given their authority in the space, they most likely don’t need to do any outreach or promotion with these tools.

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14. Canny

URL: https://canny.io/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 3,264
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Canny gets most of its links from customers using their custom URLs like this URL from blockscout:

However, these links are to subdomains, so the link profile vs the traffic looks a little outsized.

The story changes a bit when we look at just the Canny.io domain.

We still see a good chunk of their backlinks from the “Powered by Canny” approach. In the past year, 275 of the roughly 1750 referring domains are from those links.

The blog itself isn’t driving much traffic or links.

So, which pages are getting the links?

It appears that most are going to the homepage. When I dig into it, it looks like a lot of mentions on listicles and review posts like this:

Again, in this case, it’s unclear if they are natural pickups or product promotion.

Like SpyFu, they have fairly good brand recognition for an SEO tool. The term “canny” has 14K searches per month. They also rank #1 for “customer feedback platform,” which can again get them mentioned in those listicle-type articles.

That might not be enough to power their traffic, though their organic growth has definitely slowed after June’s Spam update despite a big jump in backlinks.

Again, this might point to too many mentions on lower-quality list posts, or those kinds of mentions just aren’t as valuable in Google’s eyes anymore.

Verdict: The mentions in listicles may not help Canny as much as they used to.

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15. Surfshark

URL: https://surfshark.com/
Industry: Cybersecurity
Referring Domain Growth: 10,158
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

The pages that have gotten the most links for Surfshark in the past year are a mix of content pages and deals pages.

The resulting links seem to be mostly spam that aren’t driving value. For instance, here’s a snapshot of the 769 links for the “Best VPN for Warzone: how to get easier lobbies”, which is a landing page for their VPN.

These nonsense links are essentially inflating the total number of unique links acquired.

Unfortunately, Google won’t value them, and Surfshark can do nothing about them.

Outside of this, they have some compelling data studies like their Report on Government Requests for User Data, which generated 130 LRD, or their data breach statistics which gathered 91 LRD.

Up until August 2024, this content seemed to be doing well for them. Then, they were struck in August’s Helpful Content update. So, the links are going up, but the traffic is going down.

This is typically a signal that Google doesn’t think the content is Helpful enough. It looks like Russia is the main country they lost traffic in.

So, the Russia-focused content may be what is causing the penalty. Either that or this is potentially a fluke pulling all the traffic down.

Verdict: Even with your content producing links for you, it’s not enough to outweigh the algorithm updates—especially if Google doesn’t think your content is “Helpful.”

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16. Sitebulb

URL: https://sitebulb.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 861
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Sitebulb has built most of its links to its homepage through listicles and mentions.

The term “sitebulb” only has about 1K search traffic each month, making it seem like there may be more promoted placements than organic mentions, but Sitebulb has been around for a long time in the SEO space.

Many links are from other SEO tools, such as Serps, Stat, and Hunter.

They have a blog, but it isn’t driving much traffic or links. So, these brand mentions are enough to drive traffic.

Verdict: You can drive traffic if the homepage links are relevant enough.

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17. Seobility

URL: https://www.seobility.net/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 2,404
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Overall, Seobility been mainly building links to their homepage, which would this should be in the promotion/brand awareness bucket.

I was considering calling this “informational content” as their primary link method, because they’ve also built many links to their Wiki section—over 2,000 in the past year.

However, that section of the blog has been pulling in way less traffic since the March 2023 Core Update:

Even though it pulls in links, Google doesn’t seem to like the content in their /wiki/ section.

So, that could be adding to the stagnation in organic growth.

However, in a macro sense, as we’ve seen before, traffic is dipping, and growth is less, coinciding with the June Spam Update.

So again, those brand mentions to the homepage in listicles could not be pulling their weight anymore.

It is unsurprising to look at the types of sites that put out these listicles. Sites with high DR but very low traffic, like this DR 64 with 0 search traffic:

Again, there’s a good chance Seobility got added to this list organically and is still getting penalized for it. This is just the state of the industry now.

Verdict: In general, their links to the homepage and wiki seemed to be working until June.

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18. SpyCloud

URL: https://spycloud.com/
Industry: Cybersecurity
Referring Domain Growth: 795
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

SpyCloud has recently generated a lot of links to data studies and reports.

This includes really impressive interactive content like their Annual Identity Exposure Report:

And their Malware and Ransomware Defense Report.

There are no surprises here.

These reports and many older ones seem to make up the primary link acquisition strategy, driving the organic growth you see below.

This is the data-driven digital PR approach at work.

Traffic quickly decreases around the June Spam Update, but it jumps back up, so it might be a fluke.

Verdict: Statistics and data studies are fundamental to link building strategies for most SaaS brands. It’s interesting to see that not a lot of brands are doing it on this list.

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19. MxToolbox

URL: https://mxtoolbox.com/
Industry: Analytics
Referring Domain Growth: 7,018
Main Link Acquisition Method: Tools

MxToolbox, like its name suggests, is full of tools. These tools are the main way MxToolbox gets links back to the site.

Most, if not all, of the tools have some search volume— some very significant, like “DNS lookup,” which gets 33K searches per month.

The site ranks #1 for this tool, which you can see below:

However, tool content is all that makes up their site. And when you look at the traffic, although the links are rising, organic traffic is plateauing.

And since the blog isn’t driving any links, the links from the tools may not be enough to move the needle.

Looking at the almost 7K referring domains in the past year, the number of quality links is only about 200.

Verdict: Although MxToolbox’s tools provide a lot of value to users, it isn’t attracting enough high-quality backlinks.

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20. Shiftbase

URL: https://www.shiftbase.com/
Industry: HR
Referring Domain Growth: 703
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

Shiftbase’s most significant growth area is its glossary.

You can see that they rank for many relevant informational keywords.

What’s even more eye-opening is when you look at their top pages internationally, you will see that they have translated virtually all of their content, which gives them a lot of visibility.

This allows them to gain links and citations from blogs in many different languages.

So, although their blog content doesn’t rank as well in the US, it is definitely making a big difference internationally.

Based on their overview, there is an evident upward momentum with both traffic and links. There was a brief lull in growth after the June Spam Update but traffic seems to be fine.

Verdict: Scaling to an international audience can bring in a lot more traffic.

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21. Signaturely

URL: https://signaturely.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 726
Main Link Acquisition Method: Template

Signaturely has gotten most of its recent links through its blog content. Their largest link acquisition magnet besides their homepage is their free contract template hub.

This has gained over 250 LRD over time.

So why the stagnant growth?

They appear to get hit with a Helpful Content Update in September 2023.

Verdict: They seem to have a mixed bag of strategies, like the templates, quote pitching, and promotion, but overall, nothing can combat the Helpful Content Update.

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22. Lemlist

URL: https://www.lemlist.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,041
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

The majority of Lemlist’s links are to the homepage. This again either signals strong brand affinity or link exchanges, or both. Lemlist does have a strong global brand presence, with a search volume of 45K per month.

Either way, you can see them potentially getting hit for June’s Link Spam update since the traffic jumps down in July (updates usually roll out over a month or so).

I dug into it a bit and can see some spammy signals from some of the links.

Otherwise, I see a lot of mentions on best lists. These placements might be out of Lemlist’s control. But regardless they aren’t bringing any value.

Verdict: Since Google is cracking down on spammy links, you may have links that hurt you from sites you didn’t even want.

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23. Sitechecker

URL: https://sitechecker.pro/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 3,794
Main Link Acquisition Method: Tools

Overall, like most SEO tools, they get a lot of links to their homepage, either through promotion or exchange.

And again, you can see that traffic growth plateaus after June 2024.

Before this, Sitechecker has been building steady traffic and links from their free tools. These tools rank well for terms like traffic checker, SEO checker, and hosting checker.

As you can see by their Top Pages, this is where most of the traffic comes from:

However, digging into the kinds of links they generate, iI see that there may be some that Google doesn’t like.

Whether purposeful or not, this is the kind of thing that Google is coming down on.

Verdict: The links previously driving rapid organic growth may not be as helpful after June.

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24. SavvyCal

URL: https://savvycal.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 798
Main Link Acquisition Method: Custom URL

SavvyCal lets users use their app to create calendars where others can book time. (It’s similar to Calendly.)

So, whenever someone wants to book a demo, they are using a link back to their site:

In these cases, Savvycal gets backlinks when users post them to their site.

You can see this in the anchors with words like Book Now, or Book a Call:

Usually, I think that these kinds of links aren’t valuable.

The only other real link driver is the homepage. However, of the 700+ referring domains built to the homepage, only 62 are quality.

Since the blog doesn’t drive any links, these 62 drive the organic growth we see (close to 50k organic per month).

It seems to be working!

Verdict: These calendar links may be quality to Google. However, it feels like the kind of thing a site could easily exploit and I would be wary of this lasting as a viable link acquisition method.

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25. Statusbrew

URL: https://statusbrew.com/
Industry: Analytics
Referring Domain Growth: 798
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

Statusbrew has primarily built links to its homepage, but the blog generates just about the same, if not more, links combined.

When you dig into it, the blog ranks for many keywords, driving an estimated 141K monthly organic traffic.

These are very robust posts with lots of high-quality information.

However, there is a big issue. The links are going up, but the organic traffic has been dropping in each subsequent Helpful Content Update.

Since it is Helpful Content, I assume this is a content issue, not a link issue.

According to Ahrefs, about 60% of their blog content isn’t generating any traffic. So, that’s a lot of content that could potentially be missing key quality signals.

Statusbrew is trying to rectify this by overhauling its most significant posts.

Hopefully, things will turn around soon.

Verdict: Unfortunately, no amount of good links seems to help sites get out of an algorithm penalty.

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26. WisePops

URL: https://wisepops.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 795
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

WisePops has a strong blog content strategy. They have a lot of content ranking well, accounting for roughly 41K traffic monthly.

This blog content has generated about a third of the links.

Otherwise, they get their links to the homepage, so they may be doing some sort of promotion.

Unfortunately, I see the same plateauing of growth occurring in the June Spam update. However, there was a boost in traffic after it, so hopefully, Google has rectified it, and those links weren’t a big deal.

Verdict: Google is devaluing the power of backlinks if it thinks they are being manipulated.

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27. Glassnode

URL: https://glassnode.com/
Industry: Analytics
Referring Domain Growth: 3,082
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

Glassnode has built most of its links to its homepage and studio homepage.

But how they have done it is brilliant.

First, their tool is inherently linkable because it provides analytics that bloggers and content creators in the blockchain/crypto space can cite in their posts.

Here’s a screenshot of the tool below:

When I look through the links they’ve gotten, I see these types of graphs showing up on external content like Bitcoin Magazine:

They also publish a lot of content to get these graphs, trends, and analyses in front of those bloggers.

For instance, they have a weekly newsletter, active blog, and quarterly research reports:

It’s unclear whether or not they actively pitch these directly, but I assume they rely on their newsletter.

Either way, these insights and data bits get massive pickups. Here they are in TheStreet, Nasdaq, Axios, and many more:

Overall, these seem to be helping, but there may be some links that, again, Google doesn’t like because we see a steep drop off after the June Spam update.

They are featured on a lot of those listicle posts:

And the crypto space is inherently spammy.

Hopefully, it’s nothing lasting because they seemed to have recovered to almost the same amount of traffic after the Aug 2024 core update.

Verdict: A data platform that shares stories with its customers is a win-win.

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28. DeviceAtlas

URL: https://deviceatlas.com/
Industry: Cybersecurity
Referring Domain Growth: 1,677
Main Link Acquisition Method: Domain purchase

This one is interesting because most of the anchors I see on the report from the past year are from MobiReady.

I’m not sure of the history here, but August’s Helpful Content Algorithm could have hit MobiReady, and they just rolled the traffic over to DeviceAtlas in hopes of salvaging.

It looks to have made a small positive impact on the organic traffic and links for DeviceAtlas.

The switch looks to have been made here:

It seems to have netted them a gain of over 1k referring domains.

However, this comes with some risks. For instance, if MobiReady has low-quality links, that could impact the link value passed on.

You also see a dip in traffic initially. This might take some more time to play out.

Another surprising detail is that DeviceAtlas still gets links from statistics posts posted over 6 years ago.

Some are from years ago but are still being cited in recent articles. For instance, this piece below was written on Sep. 19, 2024, but it cites a statistics post from DeviceAtlas published in 2018!

It just goes to show you that statistics pieces have a long shelf life.

Verdict: Domain purchasing can work, but in this case, it doesn’t seem to be making a huge impact.

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29. Float

URL: https://www.float.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 617
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Float does have a lot of blog posts ranking well and generating links.

They also have thought leadership getting links. Then I realized it was getting links because it was included in job postings.

Here’s a snippet from a job posting board:

This is a cool idea and a way to show prospective employees more about your company culture; however, there’s a chance it might hurt more than help.

When we look at the traffic, there is a steady dip starting after the June Spam Update.

Another thing I noticed is that they still have a lot of high-quality backlinks from when Float.com was owned by Scribd (which has nothing to do with the current site). Scribd was a reading platform.

Lastly, they have over 300 links from “best” posts in the past year:

Again, these may be promoted placements or natural ones. However, Google may not value these links anymore.

These issues may be hurting them even though their blog generates organic links.

Verdict: Generating organic links through search-driven content is great, but Float may need to outpace their other links to make an impact on organic.

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30. RTINGS.com

URL: https://www.rtings.com/
Industry: Technology
Referring Domain Growth: 5,178
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

I’m not sure how RTings got on this list of SaaS companies. But, we’ll review it anyway.

RTINGS has thrived in the review space for a long time. With over 3M monthly visits, they have many top-ranking “best” review-type posts that generate most of their backlinks.

Interestingly, you can see that a lot of their content is marked as overhauled by Ahrefs.

I haven’t been following very closely, but you can see a big dip in their traffic around the time of one of Google’s Reviews updates.

Then, they’ve had a somewhat steady decline over time. This may have triggered the team to overhaul existing content to beat some of the decline.

Aside from their “best” pieces, they have some informational content they call “tools, ” which accounts for about 7% of their new backlinks.

This isn’t earth-shattering, but it amounts to 400+ unique backlinks. This is an excellent example of repurposing what they already have written (a Sony X90K review and a Hisense U8 review) and creating some supportive content to pick up extra traffic from search.

Verdict: Product review sites have suffered a major setback. RTings is really trying to improve its site with some rewrites. We’ll see how it plays out.

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31. SmallPDF

URL: https://smallpdf.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 8,311
Main Link Acquisition Method: Tool

SmallPDF has more than an estimated 58 million organic views per month coming from their tools pages like their PDF compression tool you see below:

It not only ranks for all of them but brings in a big amount of links.

Aside from their homepage, you can see how they’ve brought in thousands of unique referring domains.

The other way they’ve driven links is that users who want to share files do so through the Smallpdf URL.

As you can see, this setup has over 5.5K referring domains. And while a lot are spam or UGC links appearing on forums, you can see some real links like this one from a travel insurance site:

This links to the SmallPDF platform:

Although things seem somewhat stagnant, these two link acquisition methods appear to bring in significant quality links and traffic over time.

Verdict: If you can create a good tool tied to search volume, it can bring in significant, quality links.

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32. Clockify

URL: https://clockify.me/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 3,624
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Most of Clockify’s links are to the homepage, but the rest are spread across its search- and data-driven content.

For example, Average Working Hours has 127 LRD.

Tipped Wages by State has 83 LRD within the last year.

These posts bring in quality links.

Now, let’s look at the homepage links.

Like most SaaS products on this list, they are featured in many listicle posts. Almost a quarter of their placements are in “Best” posts.

Clockify has over 272K global search volume, so these are most likely naturally acquired.

However, the fact that traffic growth is slower despite the link gains makes me feel like these homepage listicle links may not be all that valuable regardless of how they are built.

Verdict: The links from their data-driven blog content seem more valuable than the homepage links, but they have many more links that are potentially holding them back from more organic growth.

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33. Mailtrap

URL: https://mailtrap.io/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,829
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Mailtrap seems to be growing traffic through their blog. Some of the posts are ranking well enough to get backlinks naturally, though it seems that some are coming through promotion techniques.

However, the graphic shows the tell-tale sign of plateauing organic traffic growth after the June Spam Update, even though the links continue to rise.

These placements are most likely hurting their link organic growth despite the links.

Verdict: Some brands try to boost posts by acquiring links, but if the placements aren’t natural or high-quality, they could harm the site.

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34. BambooHR

URL: https://www.bamboohr.com/
Industry: HR
Referring Domain Growth: 4,899
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

BambooHR has built links in the past year in two ways: data studies and domain purchasing.

Let’s start with the domain purchasing because I think it has some repercussions on the link growth.

Technically these are acquisitions of companies, not someone purchasing a domain for its backlinks.

According to Ahrefs, 347 referring domains came from Honey.is, an employee intranet bought by BambooHR, and 112 came from another HR software platform called Welcome.

The previous links were then redirected over to BambooHR’s Employee Community page and homepage.

The second main way they’ve acquired links is through data studies.

Unfortunately, when we look at the traffic, it seems fairly stagnant despite this great link growth.

If any old redirected backlinks aren’t quality or relevant in Google’s eyes, they may be weighing down the link profile, despite all of these new links that BambooHR is generating with their data studies.

Verdict: Redirecting old content can cause problems if you’re not careful. This may be hurting the organic growth of BambooHR.

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35. Setapp

URL: https://setapp.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 7,518
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

Setapp has many links to its homepage, but when you look closer, how-to content has gained the most links over the past year.

These are all high-ranking posts accounting for approx 447K traffic:

However, it unfortunately looks like the Helpful Content algorithm update hit them in August 2023.

So, even though they are getting a lot of links, Google seems to think there is a quality issue with the site’s content.

Again, I go right to Ahrefs’s page breakdown and see that their site has over 1,500 pages with no traffic.

I did see a big section of the pages with zero traffic were these app pages and specifically the customer review pages that Google may view as thin content:

Verdict: From what we’ve seen, getting hit by a Helpful Content Update outweighs or nullifies the impact of links—even quality ones—on traffic.

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36. WebCEO

URL: https://www.webceo.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,396
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

WebCEO gets its most links to its homepage. However, they also have a suite of “free” tools on their website, which helps bring in links (and I’m assuming leads).

For example, here’s their Keyword Research tool:

Judging by the links they get, they seem to be promoting their content.

They also seem to have benefited from Helpful Content Updates, as you can see organic traffic spikes in September 2023, March 2024, and August 2024.

Although some of the referring domains and mentions of their tools and sites on posts seem like ones that Google doesn’t like, they seem to be doing just fine.

Verdict: You can grow through content promotion if you focus on quality sites, which WebCEO seems to be doing.

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37. Visme

URL: https://www.visme.co/
Industry: Visual
Referring Domain Growth: 5,781
Main Link Acquisition Method: Templates

Visme was hit by an algorithm update in August 2024 and potentially the Spam update in June, which would have been at the tail end of this analysis from Ahrefs. I’ll explain what this means in a minute.

Visme has a vast library of templates and content to which they have built many links.

For instance, here’s a link from Zendesk talking about customer journey maps that mentions a customer journey map template from Visme:

These free templates are a gold mine in links, especially when you can get them ranking like Visme has.

They also have many links to posts about their actual tools. Some are natural, and some are not, so I think they got hit in June’s Spam update. As you can see, the traffic growth stagnated starting then.

Then, the August Helpful Content Update hit.

This is more content-related, so there’s something that Google doesn’t think is helpful in their ranking content.

Though it looks like the content has been overhauled in the past year:

This is either the cause of the drop or potentially them trying to fix it.

Hopefully, they can bounce back.

Verdict: Growing links with templates can work, especially if they are free. But, as we’ve seen, when an algorithm update hits you, links can’t save you.

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38. Uplead

URL: https://www.uplead.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,010
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion
A majority of Uplead’s links in the past year are to the homepage in the form of “alternatives” and listicle type posts like these:

This points to promotion of some sort. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen on this list, this isn’t always a good thing.

Traffic started to drop around the March Helpful Content update and has remained stagnant since the June Spam update.

They do have a lot of content on their blog, some ranking well. But if they were hit with the Helpful Content Update and the Link Spam update, they have a hole to dig out of.

Some content has undergone significant changes in the past year, so perhaps they are working to rectify this.

Hopefully, it works.

Verdict: When links are rising rapidly, and traffic is stagnant or dipping, there is a problem. In this case, the content quality or the links themselves could be the problem.

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39. Slickplan

URL: https://slickplan.com/
Industry: Visual
Referring Domain Growth: 741
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

Slickplan has a very slick website design. That’s the thing that stands out to me.

And I think that this is getting links.

Most of their top-ranking informational content is also what is getting the links.

For instance, I see “types of web architecture” ranking well for them.

Aside from the homepage, the content also brings in a lot of links:

Some of these pages are also designed to be hybrid informational/lead gen pages, proving that with great design, you can still generate links.

Google may think that this link growth may be artificial because you see the traffic suddenly dip after the June Spam update.

It’s tough to tell because the traffic spikes back up in August’s Helpful Content update.

Hopefully, it was a fluke, and they will continue to grow.

Verdict: Despite the algorithm updates, great design can win you links and extra coverage.

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40. Jotform

URL: https://www.jotform.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 24,068
Main Link Acquisition Method: Templates

Jotform gets its links in two significant ways: forms live on the Jotform platform and informational content. So, if a form is shared frequently, it links back to Jotform.

So, we’ll categorize this as mainly using the “templates” link acquisition method.

For instance, this form for the McDowell County Stranded Citizens and Missing Person’s Form:

…gets mentioned in the news:

The second way they get links is with their content.

They have templates and generators in all different languages ranking for high-volume keywords and getting links for them.

Their templates account for a quarter of their traffic.

However, it does look like an algorithm update hit them in October 2023 because I see a steep decline. They stayed there throughout the year until raging back in August 2024—much like we just saw with Slickplan.

You can see again that their templates were overhauled, potentially to come back from the update.

As a side note, Jotform has also done a great job of marketing its growth as a company like this story from B2B SaaS blog Latka:

Or this one in Fortune:

This is real PR, getting them real, quality links.

Hey, they even called them “bootstrappers!”

Verdict: Jotform has a diverse set of link acquisition methods. It looks like they were hit with an algorithm update but endured and came back in August.

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41. Wiza

URL: https://wiza.co/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 1,057
Main Link Acquisition Method: Promotion

Wiza’s traffic is a rollercoaster, but it reminds me of WebCEO, which has big fluctuations around Helpful Content Updates.

The link building that landed them on this list took off in early July 2024.

However, the traffic and links aren’t moving in sync because many of their links are from spammers.

To be clear, this isn’t because of anything they are doing but because their site has a directory of people’s information, and it’s rife with spammy backlinks.

For example, look at the newest links in the past year:

For some reason, the directory page for the area manager of Loan Depot is listed in 528 referring domains.

And when you dig into it, it’s all comment spam links:

But that still counts for the overall total.

From what I know, Wiza builds their links through outreach. They reached out to me on BuzzStream.

Mike, their VP, sent a solid email and by giving me access to the tool, convinced me that it was worthy of inclusion in a post because of how easily I could find users’ emails on LinkedIn.

And when you look at their best links, these are the placements they have gotten from what I’m assuming is this kind of outreach.

This is what’s really moving the needle for them.

Verdict: Launching a directory like Wiza’s contact directory comes with many challenges, mainly spammy links.

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42. Ahrefs

URL: https://ahrefs.com/
Industry: Marketing/SEO
Referring Domain Growth: 27,500
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

Ahrefs has search-driven content, data-driven content, and free tools.

When you look at the new links from the past year, you see more of a mix of search-driven content and data studies. Even thought leadership content gets a lot of links.

Zoom out to overall, and it’s still pretty much the same mix of content:

Let’s focus on the data studies.

For instance, their study about traffic clicks from Google has over 3,500 referring domains.

Given that they compete with the other top two tools in the space, SEMRush and Moz (based on their competitor graph), they get mentioned naturally.

However, as we’ve seen, this may not be a good thing. Ahrefs traffic dipped around the June Spam update, so many of those “best” posts may not have helped traffic growth.

However, they jumped back up after the Helpful Content update in August. I saw this with many sites that were caught in the crossfire of the March update for one reason or another.

Verdict: Since their brand is so well known, Ahrefs will naturally get links. The blog content and data studies may seem like the icing on the cake, but they’re actually helping them diversify and strengthen their link portfolio.

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43. Plausible Analytics

URL: https://plausible.io/
Industry: Analytics
Referring Domain Growth: 3,167
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered by

Plausible looks to generate links by appearing on privacy policy pages of the websites that use the platform.

I call this the “powered by” acquisition method.

Therefore, their homepage, data policy, and privacy explanation pages get a lot of links.

For example, here’s a link to the data policy on ThemeZee’s Privacy Policy page.

PageFlow also links out to another data-related page.

They have a steady climb in traffic from these kinds of links, so it seems to be working for them.

They don’t have links coming from any other source (like their blog), which concerns me a bit.

Verdict: These links seem to be helping though it’s not something I would build an entire strategy on.

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44. Creately

URL: https://creately.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 4,028
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

The biggest driver of Creately’s link growth seems to be their informational content.

This accounts for almost 67K monthly searches and nearly 1,500 referring domains over the past year.

However, organic traffic has steadily declined since the earliest Helpful Content Updates.

Digging into this, my only thought could be that they allow guest writers.

This is typically where sites can run into trouble if they don’t focus on the quality of content.

Almost half of their blog content doesn’t get any organic views. If that content is not doing much for you, it may be worth a closer look at the quality.

For example, I see several posts with no external links, which isn’t an excellent signal for Google or a good experience for the user.

Verdict: Creately’s greatest link-building strength is its informational content, but it may also be one of its biggest weaknesses because Google doesn’t consider it Helpful content.

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45. Homerun

URL: https://homerun.co/
Industry: HR
Referring Domain Growth: 1,028
Main Link Acquisition Method: Custom URL

Homerun seems to acquire links mainly through users using their platform’s form creator or job postings.

So I’m putting this into the “custom domain” link acquisition method.

For example, here’s a job posting for an integration engineer.

Since these links are going to subdomains, they most likely aren’t providing much value.

We can see a big boost in August’s Helpful Content update and a dip down.

The links that do seem to make an impact are the ones that mention Homerun’s great design.

As you can see, these are high-quality links giving excellent brand exposure.

They aren’t super relevant, but homepage links seem to provide the boost necessary to help them rank for some relevant keywords.

The blog posts themselves don’t acquire many links.

Verdict: Like Slickplan, Homerun gets extra links because it has a really well-designed site.

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46. Yardi

URL: https://www.yardi.com/
Industry: Real Estate
Referring Domain Growth: 952
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered by

Yardi is a massive company with many domains, which gives it a wide web from which to acquire backlinks.

Their platform is also used by many different businesses, allowing them to partner and obtain links that way.

Their most popular is probably their property management software. So, looking at their backlinks, you see that is the strongest example of the links they receive.

For instance, this background check service partners with Yardi.

You can see Yardi listed right at the top of the list of partners:

Or this utility company that lists Yardi as a software provider:

Also, when a company is as large as Yardi, you can sponsor events to get your name out there and in turn, bring back relevant links:

Despite their growing links, Their organic growth seems to peter out after the June Spam Update.

So, these kinds of links may not be as quality as they once were.

With a company this size, you also get press links. For instance, here’s top-tier news coverage of Yardi’s acquisition of WeWork:

These are the kinds of links that can really move the needle.

Verdict: Yardi’s expansive network seems to be getting them a lot of links. However, after the June update, the value of these links may be waning in Google’s eyes.

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47. Infinite Campus

URL: https://www.infinitecampus.com/
Industry: Educational & Learning Management
Referring Domain Growth: 505
Main Link Acquisition Method: Powered by

Infinite Campus mainly gets its links through schools and academic institutions using their platform and linking to them on the school homepage.

Like Yardi, this is the “powered by” acquisition method.

This takes users to the login portal on the Infinite Campus domain.

Their brand is so well known that they receive many branded searches, with over 300K searches per month for “infinite campus.”

You can see the organic traffic spike before the school year, in what I can only imagine is when schools are setting up their new portals with Infinite Campus:

So, with links coming from their customers, I’m not sure if that is helping them rank for anything outside of their brand name, which I guess is all they need.

Verdict: The traffic comes from the strength of the brand, and the links come from school usage. So, the more schools use the platform, the more links they’ll get. However, it’s unclear if these links will have much longevity.

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48. Filemail

URL: https://www.filemail.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 1,865
Main Link Acquisition Method: Custom URL

Sitewide, Filemail gets links whenever users create a new filemail.com link whenever they send a file.

For instance, this link from Stop Abuse Together links to their digital toolkit, which is a filemail link.

However, I dug a bit deeper because the traffic isn’t growing despite the links moving up.

If you look at their traffic graph, you can see that there was an initial Link Spam Update in December 2022, and their traffic hasn’t grown since.

Looking into it a bit, you can see negative signals from some of the links they’ve received.

Verdict: It’s not that these kinds of links are hurting; it’s just that they aren’t really doing anything for them.

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49. Liveagent

URL: https://www.liveagent.com/
Industry: Communication & Messaging
Referring Domain Growth: 2,294
Main Link Acquisition Method: Data, Stats & Reports

One of the main ways that Liveagent has been gaining links is to their statistics posts and detailed guides.

These are posts like their Live Chat Statistics post, which has 102 referring domains.

The other main way they build links is to their help desk software page in the form of widget placement on sites using their platform.

So, why is traffic going down?

They seem to have gotten hit by a Helpful Content Update in March 2023.

As we’ve seen, no number of links can save them. The content most likely needs to change.

One section of content that stood out to me is their Help Desk Contacts pages.

Some of them don’t provide value to the user because the page itself lacks real contact information.

Google wants sites to stop creating this content because it misleads users. It’s made to rank for a keyword but doesn’t really answer the question.

These pages also attract many spammy links, adding to the upward link trajectory you see.

Hopefully some changes can help them get out of this downward spiral.

Verdict: Liveagent has some great statistics content that is getting lost in the shuffle because their traffic is tanking due to the Helpful Content update.

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50. Semaphore

URL: https://semaphoreci.com/
Industry: Productivity
Referring Domain Growth: 1,298
Main Link Acquisition Method: Informational Content

In the past year, a lot of Semaphore’s blog content started to bring in links.

Semaphore has also tanked in traffic since the March Helpful Content update, while links are still increasing.

Then we see the same middling traffic around the June Spam Update and another big dip in August’s final Helpful Content Update.

So, let’s check out why.

Aside from their homepage, their blog and community sections bring in the most links and traffic.

You can see that below:

These coincide with some of the top ranking posts in their blog.

The content seems “helpful”. It’s well-written, with lots of imagery.

I think I may have found the culprit for their Helpful Content Update drop:

Semaphore pays writers to place content on their site.

The articles appear to be well-written and reviewed by their experts in house, so I’m not sure why they are getting pinged.

I don’t see any of the tell-tale signs of link insertion or exchange.

Perhaps some are a little too far off from Semaphore’s main focus:

But overall, over half of their articles on the blog aren’t getting any traffic or backlinks.

These articles may be a source of direct traffic or community building, but the algorithm update could very well be the reason they were affected.

Verdict: Like Creately, a lack of a heavy focus on quality content from guest writers can hurt your site.

Closing Out

If there’s one thing to take away from all of this, it’s that there is never just one thing that moves the needle.

The most successful sites have a mix of traffic sources and different ways of gaining backlinks.

Diversity is one of the best ways to safeguard against Link Spam or Helpful Content Updates. The other is to avoid cutting corners.

For instance, we can’t rely on AI to scale our content and expect it to rank. Users want actual content written by real people.

The sites that are winning are focused on quality over quantity.

Lastly, again if there’s something I missed here or you explore these sites’ strategies even further and find something interesting, don’t hesitate to contact me!