How to Increase Domain Rating of a SaaS Website

To increase the Domain Rating of a SaaS website, earn links from many relevant, reputable sites, each linking to you from a different domain. Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs’ score for backlink profile strength. Google doesn’t use it as a ranking factor, so treat DR as a progress measure, not the goal.

Backlinks are the only input to DR, which is why SaaS marketers watch it as a rough read on link-building progress. But DR can rise while rankings stay flat, and rankings can improve while DR barely moves. This guide covers what DR measures, which tactics build a stronger backlink profile for SaaS, and how to judge whether your efforts are working.

What Is Domain Rating? Domain Rating is a third-party metric from Ahrefs that scores the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 0 to 100. Ahrefs’ documentation says the score considers how many unique domains link to you, how strong those domains are, and how many other sites each of them links to. The scale is logarithmic, so going from 70 to 71 is much harder than going from 20 to 21.

Three things follow from this:

• Referring domains matter more than raw link counts. Fifty links from one site count far less than one link from each of fifty different sites.
• Link quality matters. A link from a respected software publication carries more weight than a link from a site nobody visits.
• A link’s value is shared. A site that links to hundreds of other sites passes less value through each link than one that links to few.

A simple example: Imagine two project-management tools. Tool A has 400 backlinks, almost all from comment sections and low-quality directories on 30 domains. Tool B has 60 backlinks from 55 domains, including a productivity blog, a startup news site, and several business software publications. Tool B will likely score higher, and its profile is the healthier one.

DR scores also differ between tools because every provider crawls a different slice of the web and uses its own formula. Ahrefs has Domain Rating, Semrush has Authority Score, and Moz has Domain Authority. A site can score 38 in one and 45 in another. Compare scores within a single tool, never across tools.

Does Domain Rating Affect Google Rankings? No. Domain Rating is not a Google ranking factor. It is an external estimate made by a third party. Google has no access to Ahrefs’ number and has no reason to use it.

It helps to keep these terms apart:

• Domain Rating: a third-party score for backlink profile strength.
• Backlinks: links from other sites. Google has long used links as one signal for discovering and understanding pages.
• Website authority: a general idea of how trusted and well-regarded a site is. No single public number measures it.
• Google’s ranking systems: many automated systems that weigh relevance, content quality, page experience, and more for each query. Google documents its approach on Google Search Central, including its guidance on helpful, reliable, people-first content.
• Content relevance: whether a page actually answers what the searcher wants. Links can’t fix a page that misses search intent.

DR still has a practical use. It is a consistent benchmark for tracking your own backlink growth and for comparing your profile with competitors. Use it for that purpose and don’t treat it as a target.

How to Increase Domain Rating of a SaaS Website The methods below all aim at the same outcome: relevant sites choosing to reference you because you gave them a reason. None of them is a formula.

Create Link-Worthy SaaS Content Link-worthy content gives other writers something they can’t easily produce themselves. Writers link to a source when it saves them time, backs up a claim, or gives readers a useful tool.

SaaS formats that earn references:

• Original research, surveys, and data studies
• Software benchmarks, such as page-load times or uptime across tools in a category
• Case studies with real numbers
• Expert interviews and industry reports
• Free tools, calculators, and templates (a churn calculator or an onboarding checklist, for example)
• Detailed original comparisons

Original information attracts references because there’s nothing else to cite. A generic article that restates what a dozen other pages already say gives a writer no reason to choose your page. If a page could have been written without you doing any work, expect few links.

**Earn Backlinks From Relevant Websites

**Relevant backlinks come from sites your target customers actually read. Authoritative backlinks come from sites with strong reputations. The best links are both.

• Relevant: topically close to your product and audience.
• Authoritative: a well-established site with its own strong backlink profile.
• Random: unrelated to your topic. These add little.
• Low-quality: existing mostly to host links. These can be a liability.

A project-management SaaS should prioritize productivity blogs, project management publications, business software review sites, startup and technology media, and industry-specific sites in its target verticals, such as construction or agency operations. A single editorial link from a respected project management publication is worth more than dozens from unrelated hobby blogs.

Get Listed in Relevant SaaS and Software Directories Legitimate software directories help buyers find and compare tools, and some listings create relevant referral traffic and backlinks. WebSoftReview is one example of a software discovery and review platform where users research and compare products.

No listing guarantees a DR increase or a ranking change. A directory link is worth more when the directory has:

• A relevant audience of software buyers
• A real editorial purpose beyond selling links
• Actual website traffic
• Clear software categories
• Useful product information, such as features, pricing, and use cases
• A clean, non-spammy environment

Be selective. A few well-chosen SaaS directories with genuine audiences beat dozens of generic “submit your site” pages.

Build SaaS Comparison and Alternative Pages Comparison and alternative pages attract mentions and links when they help buyers decide, not when they promote you. Common formats include:

• Product A vs. Product B
• Best alternatives to Product A
• Alternatives for small businesses
• Free alternatives
• Industry-specific alternatives

Useful pages contain real testing, honest trade-offs, current pricing, screenshots, and clear criteria. A page that only swaps product names into a template is thin content. It won’t earn links and may not hold rankings. If a competitor is better for a certain user, say so. Candor builds the trust that makes other writers cite you.

Use Digital PR to Earn Mentions Digital PR for SaaS means giving journalists and editors something newsworthy, then letting the coverage come. Strong angles include:

• Survey results or original data
• Product usage trends from anonymized, aggregated data
• Industry reports
• Expert commentary on relevant news
• Founder insights on a timely topic

A pitch should answer one question: why would this publication’s readers care this week? Mass emails asking for “a backlink” get ignored. A short, specific pitch built around a finding does much better, especially when it comes from someone who has read the publication.

Create Data-Driven Content Original data earns links because publishers need statistics to cite, and they prefer a primary source. Ideas for SaaS:

• SaaS adoption statistics within a niche
• Software pricing research (how pricing models vary across a category)
• Customer behavior studies
• Software usage trends from your own aggregated data
• Benchmarks, such as average onboarding time by company size

To make data credible:

1. State the sample size and how you collected the data.
2. Describe the time period covered.
3. Name the limitations.
4. Cite every outside source.
5. Offer a clean chart or a downloadable dataset.

Never publish numbers you can’t back up. One discredited statistic can cost you more than a good study earns.

Reclaim Lost or Broken Backlinks Lost backlinks are links that once pointed to your site and no longer do. Broken backlinks point to URLs on your site that now return errors. They usually result from site migrations, changed URLs, deleted pages, or editors removing a link.

A practical recovery process:

1. In your backlink tool, filter for lost links and for backlinks pointing to 404 pages.
2. Prioritize by the relevance and strength of the linking site.
3. For broken targets, add a 301 redirect to the most relevant live page. Don’t redirect everything to the homepage.
4. For links that were removed, contact the publisher, check whether the removal was intentional, and offer a better resource if the old one is gone.

This is often the fastest return on effort, because the relationship already exists.

Turn Unlinked Brand Mentions Into Links

An unlinked mention is a page that names your company or product but doesn’t link to you. Find them with a brand-monitoring or content-search tool, plus a search for your brand name excluding your own domain.

Check that the mention is positive or neutral and that a link would help readers. Then send a short, friendly note: thank them, point to the exact page, and suggest the link as a convenience for readers. Don’t pressure anyone, and don’t send templated blasts. If they decline, move on.

Strengthen Internal Linking

Internal links do not increase Domain Rating, since DR counts only links from other domains. They still support SEO by helping crawlers find pages, clarifying topical relationships, guiding visitors, and passing internal authority toward important pages.

SaaS example: An invoicing tool publishes a linked study on late-payment trends. That page should link to the product’s invoice-reminder feature page and to a guide on cash flow for freelancers. The feature page should link back to the study. When the study earns backlinks, those internal links help carry its visibility to pages that matter commercially. Use descriptive anchor text and crawlable <a href> links, as Google’s link guidance recommends.

Improve Technical SEO

Technical SEO helps search engines access and understand your site, but fixing issues does not directly raise DR. It gives your content a fair chance to perform. Check:

• Crawlability and indexability (robots.txt, noindex tags)
• HTTPS
• Mobile usability
• Site speed and Core Web Vitals
• XML sitemap
• Canonical URLs
• Broken pages and redirect chains
• Duplicate content

Technical problems can waste the links you earn. A linked page that returns an error or sits in a redirect chain does little for you.

How Many Backlinks Does a SaaS Website Need to Increase DR? There is no universal number. The answer depends on:

• Quality and relevance: a few editorial links from respected, related sites can move DR more than hundreds of weak ones.
• Referring domains: unique domains matter more than total link counts.
• Authority of linking sites: links from stronger sites carry more weight.
• Competition and industry: a crowded category like CRM software demands more than a niche vertical tool.
• Your existing profile: a site at DR 10 moves faster than one at DR 60, because of the logarithmic scale.

A useful rule of thumb: 100 irrelevant backlinks from unrelated or low-quality sites may do less for you than 10 relevant editorial links. To set a realistic goal, check how many referring domains the top-ranking competitors for your target keywords have, then plan to close the gap over time.

How Long Does It Take to Increase Domain Rating? It depends, and no one can honestly guarantee a timeframe. Realistic progress takes months, and meaningful gains for a competitive SaaS often take longer. The main variables are:

• Your current domain strength
• The number and quality of referring domains you already have
• Content quality
• How fast you can earn new links
• Competition
• Website age and history
• Your industry

Third-party tools also update their data on their own schedules, so a link you earned this week may not appear in DR for a while. Judge progress over quarters, not days.

What Types of Backlinks Should SaaS Companies Avoid? Avoid any link meant to manipulate rankings instead of earn them. Google’s spam policies describe link spam, including buying or selling links that pass ranking signals and excessive link exchanges. Risky tactics include:

• Paid links intended to manipulate rankings
• Link schemes and private blog networks (PBNs)
• Spam directories
• Irrelevant guest posts written only for the link
• Automated backlink software
• Bulk backlink packages
• Comment spam
• Sites built primarily to sell links
• Excessive exact-match anchor text across many links

The downside is real: wasted money, links that carry no value, and possible action against your site. Real sponsorships and genuine advertising are fine when properly labeled. Google’s documentation covers how to qualify such links with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".

How to Measure Whether Your Link-Building Strategy Is Working Track several metrics together. DR alone can mislead.

• Referring domains: is the count of unique linking domains growing?
• Relevant referring domains: are new links coming from topically related sites?
• Backlink quality: are links editorial, from real pages with real readers?
• Organic traffic and keyword visibility: are more people finding you through search?
• Ranking improvements: do target pages rank higher?
• Referral traffic: do links send actual visitors?
• Conversions: do those visitors sign up or request demos?
• Brand mentions: is your name appearing more often?
• DR or similar metrics: use these as context.

A link that sends qualified referral traffic and demo requests is worth more than a higher DR with no business results.

How WebSoftReview Can Support SaaS Visibility WebSoftReview is a software and SaaS review and discovery platform where users can research, compare, and learn about software products. For software businesses, it is one place to build an online presence and help potential users find their products.

A listing is one part of a wider visibility effort. It does not guarantee backlinks, improve Google rankings, or raise your DR. Its value comes from putting accurate product information where software buyers are already looking. Treat it as one of several relevant directories alongside your content, PR, and outreach work.

Expert Tips 1. Chase relevant referring domains, not raw counts. Ten links from ten related sites beat a hundred from one. 2. Publish data others can cite. Even a small, well-documented survey of your customer base can become a reference point in your niche. 3. Build resources with a reason to be referenced. A pricing calculator or template gets cited because it saves readers work. 4. Promote your content. Great pages rarely earn links by sitting still. Send them to the writers who cover the topic. 5. Study competitor backlink gaps. Look at which pages earned links for competitors, then ask what you could add that they didn’t. 6. Match pitches to what each publication covers. Read recent articles before you write to an editor. 7. Measure organic performance beside DR. If traffic and conversions rise, the strategy works whatever the score says.

Frequently Asked Questions What is Domain Rating for a SaaS website? Domain Rating is an Ahrefs score from 0 to 100 that estimates the strength of a website’s backlink profile. For a SaaS site, it reflects how many unique domains link to you and how strong those domains are. It is a third-party metric, so use it for benchmarking rather than as a measure of search performance.

How can I increase the Domain Rating of my SaaS website? Earn links from relevant, reputable sites by publishing original research, free tools, and detailed comparisons, then promoting them to the right publishers. Add digital PR, reclaim lost links, and list the product in credible directories. Quality and relevance matter more than volume, and results build gradually over months.

Does Domain Rating affect Google rankings? No, Google doesn’t use Domain Rating as a ranking factor. DR is an Ahrefs metric calculated outside Google. Backlinks themselves can influence how Google understands and ranks pages, but relevance, content quality, and page experience matter too. A higher DR does not promise better rankings.

How many backlinks does a SaaS website need? There is no fixed number. It depends on your niche, your competitors, and the quality of the links. Compare the referring domains of sites ranking for your target keywords and aim to close that gap with relevant editorial links. A smaller number of strong, related links often does more than a large pile of weak ones.

How long does it take to increase Domain Rating? It varies, and no honest provider can promise a timeline. Progress depends on your starting strength, how fast you earn quality links, competition, and your industry. Most SaaS sites should plan in months, not weeks, and judge results over several quarters. Tools also refresh their data on different schedules.

Are backlinks from SaaS directories useful? They can be, if the directory is legitimate. Good directories serve real software buyers, have clear categories, and publish useful product details. They can send referral traffic and add relevant links. Spammy directories that accept anything offer little value and can look manipulative, so evaluate each one before submitting.

Are guest posts good for increasing Domain Rating? Guest posts help only when they’re genuinely valuable and published on relevant sites with real readers. Writing a useful article for a respected SaaS or industry publication can earn a strong link and exposure. Mass-produced guest posts placed only for backlinks fall under Google’s concerns about link schemes.

What makes a backlink valuable for a SaaS company? Value comes from relevance, editorial intent, and audience. A link is strong when a respected, topically related site placed it because the content is useful to readers, ideally within a page that gets real traffic. Links that bring qualified visitors and fit naturally into the surrounding text are worth the most.

Should SaaS companies buy backlinks? No, buying links to manipulate rankings goes against Google’s spam policies. It wastes budget and risks problems for your site. Legitimate advertising and sponsorships are different, provided they’re disclosed and marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Spend on content, research, and outreach that earns links instead.

How do I check the Domain Rating of my website? Use Ahrefs. Its Webmaster Tools offer a free version for sites you verify ownership of, and a free Website Authority Checker exists for quick lookups. Paid plans give deeper backlink data. Check the same site on the same tool over time so your comparisons stay consistent.

What is the difference between Domain Rating and Domain Authority? Domain Rating comes from Ahrefs, while Domain Authority comes from Moz. Both estimate backlink-based strength, but they use different data and formulas, so the numbers rarely match. Semrush uses a third version called Authority Score. Compare your site only against scores from the same tool, and remember that Google uses none of them.

Can internal links increase Domain Rating? No, DR counts only links from other domains, so internal links don’t change it. They still matter for SEO because they help search engines find pages and understand topic relationships, and they guide visitors. Use them to direct attention toward your most important pages, especially those that earn external links.

Can publishing more blog posts increase Domain Rating? Not on its own. Posts raise DR only when they earn links from other sites. Ten generic articles may attract none, while one original study could attract many. Focus on posts that offer data, tools, or insight others want to reference, and promote them to the people who would cite them.

How can a new SaaS website build backlinks? Start with credible basics: relevant software directories, your partners’ and integration partners’ sites, and founder interviews on niche podcasts. Then publish one original asset, like a small survey or free tool, and pitch it to relevant writers. A new site benefits most from a few targeted, high-relevance links rather than broad outreach.

What should I do if my SaaS website has a low Domain Rating? Don’t panic, and don’t rush into shortcuts. First check whether the number matches your goals: low DR is fine if traffic and conversions are healthy. If you do need stronger authority, audit your backlinks, create one strong linkable asset, and pursue relevant links steadily. Avoid paid or automated links.

Conclusion Start with one asset only your company can create, such as a dataset from your own users, a benchmark in your category, or a calculator your audience will use. Build it well, document how you made it, and take it directly to the writers who cover your market. Add a few relevant directory listings, recover the links you’ve lost, and track traffic and conversions beside DR. If that work is sound, DR will usually follow.