Listicle link building: how SaaS products earn links from 'best X' posts (2026)

Listicle link building is the practice of getting your product added, with a link, to existing “best X”, “X alternatives”, roundup and comparison articles that your buyers already read. For most SaaS products it is worth the effort, because these links are editorial, the readers are actively comparing tools, and you earn the placement by being a good fit instead of paying for it.

This guide is the hub for everything we publish on the topic. It covers what counts as a listicle link, which posts are worth your time, how editors decide who makes the cut, a repeatable process, what it costs, and where the line sits with Google’s link rules. If you want the short, step-by-step version first, our guide to getting listed in ‘best X’ and alternatives articles is the checklist; this page explains the strategy behind it.

Key takeaways

• A listicle link is an editorial mention inside a ranked or grouped list of products, usually with a link to your site.
• The best targets are posts that already rank for searches your buyers make, that include competitors of yours, and that are maintained by a real person.
• Editors add products that help their readers. Give them pricing, a one-line differentiator, an honest comparison and a way to try it.
• Never pay for an untagged placement, offer a link swap, or make free access conditional on a link. Those are link spam under Google’s policies.
• Expect weeks to months, not days. The work compounds because lists get refreshed and other writers copy from page-one lists.

What is listicle link building?

Listicle link building is outreach aimed at one content type: articles that list and compare several products. You find posts where your product belongs, check that it really does, contact the person who maintains each post, and ask them to consider adding you. If they agree, you get a named mention and usually a link from a page your buyers already read.

A listicle is any article built around a list. In SaaS, the ones that matter for links fall into five shapes:

Each type has its own playbook. We cover finding every listicle in your niche and getting into alternatives articles in their own guides. For roundups and resource pages, the niche tool roundup and resource page email templates show the pitch structure.

Why do ‘best X’ posts matter so much for SaaS?

They sit at the point where a buyer turns a vague need into a shortlist. Someone searching “best help desk software for small teams” is not researching the concept of help desks; they are about to try two or three products. Being on the page means being on the shortlist, and the link is a side effect of that.

There are three separate payoffs, and it helps to keep them apart:

1. The link. An editorial link from a relevant page is the kind Google’s systems are built to reward. A page that ranks for your category is about as relevant as a link gets.
2. Referral traffic. People click from “best X” posts to try products. Unlike most backlinks, a listicle mention can send sign-ups on its own, even if it never moves a ranking.
3. Being named. Other writers build their lists by reading page one. So do people asking AI assistants for recommendations, which often answer by summarising pages like these. Being on the lists that rank makes you part of the category’s default answer. We cover the AI side in our AI search visibility hub.

How do listicles help SEO?

Listicles help your SEO in two ways. A link from a relevant list counts as a vote for your site in Google’s ranking systems, and a list that already ranks for your category puts your name in front of the people, and the writers, who shape what that category’s search results look like next year.

The second effect is easy to miss. When a writer at another blog drafts their own “best X” article, they research by reading the posts on page one. If you’re on three of those, you’re far more likely to be considered for the fourth without asking. That’s why a handful of well-placed inclusions can produce mentions you never pitched.

What’s the difference between listicle outreach and listicle link building?

They’re mostly used as synonyms. “Listicle outreach” usually describes the emailing part: contacting editors and asking to be added. “Listicle link building” is the wider strategy, including choosing which lists matter, qualifying posts, and monitoring the links once they’re live. Agencies selling paid placements also use “listicle outreach” for their service, so read the fine print when you see it on a pricing page.

Are listicle backlinks worth it compared with other links?

For most SaaS products, yes. A listicle link is relevant by definition, it is placed by an editor who chose to include you, and it can send buyers directly. The trade-off is that you can’t control the anchor text or position, and some lists are run by affiliate publishers who tag links as sponsored or nofollow.

Who publishes ‘best X’ lists, and does it change your pitch?

Yes, a lot. The same search returns pages written for very different reasons, and each kind of publisher says yes for a different reason. We looked at the results for three SaaS categories on 18 October 2026 and found the same five publisher types every time:

Two practical lessons come out of this:

• Independent and adjacent blogs are the core of the work. They have no commercial reason to keep you out, they update for their readers, and they reply to short, specific emails.
• Review marketplaces and affiliate publishers need a different route. Get listed and reviewed on the marketplace, or join the affiliate programme the publisher uses, rather than sending a pitch that asks for an editorial favour. If you pay, the link should be tagged sponsored (see the policy section below, and our guide to paid listicle spots and link insertions).

How do you find the listicles worth pitching?

Start from the searches your buyers make, not from a list of high-authority domains. The posts that rank for those searches are the ones that send buyers, and they are also the ones other writers copy from.

A workable starting set for most products:

• Your category, with and without a year: “best [category] software”, “best [category] tools 2026”.
• Your category for each audience you serve: “best [category] for freelancers”, “for agencies”, “for startups”.
• Alternatives to your three to five closest competitors: “[competitor] alternatives”, “alternatives to [competitor]”.
• Head-to-head searches that include those competitors: “[competitor A] vs [competitor B]”.

Search operators make this faster. Google documents quotes for exact phrases, site: and the minus sign for exclusions on its Refine Google searches help page, along with the newer before: and after: date filters. intitle: is undocumented on that page but still widely used. A query like intitle:"best" "invoicing software" -site:capterra.com -site:g2.com cuts out the marketplaces and leaves editorial lists.

Our free link prospecting search string builder writes the full set of queries for your category and competitors. The complete guide to finding listicles in your niche walks through the method, including how to record what you find. Another quick source: the posts already linking to your competitors, since any list that names them is a candidate for you.

How do you know if a post is worth pitching?

Score each post on four questions before you write a word. Skipping this step is the most common reason pitches go unanswered.

A post that ranks but fails the fit check is not a prospect. Editors remember the people who pitch them irrelevant products. Our guide on how to choose sites to pitch covers site vetting in more depth, including how to spot sites that mainly sell links.

How do editors decide which products make the list?

Editors add products that make their article more useful and keep it accurate. In practice that means the product clearly belongs in the category, serves the audience the post names, has a public price or free plan the editor can mention, and does something the existing entries don’t. Being well known helps, but a specific angle often beats fame on smaller lists.

Published methodologies make the priorities visible. Zapier says its best apps roundups involve “dozens of hours researching and testing apps” against category criteria. NerdWallet describes partner compensation as one of several factors in which products it highlights, separate from its editors’ ratings. Capterra says its top 10 combines verified user reviews, product research and more than 100 data points, with a minimum average rating to qualify. Each one tells you what evidence that editor will look for.

What this means for your pitch:

• Lead with the gap you fill. “None of the eight tools on your list has a free plan for teams over five people” is a reason to add you. “We’d love to be included” is not.
• Make the update cheap. Offer a two-sentence description in the post’s style, your current pricing, and a screenshot. The less work the change takes, the more likely it happens this week instead of at the next refresh.
• Offer a way to try it. A trial or test account helps the editor check your claims. Keep it unconditional; see the policy section below.

How does the listicle link building process work, step by step?

This is the full manual workflow. It works without any tools beyond a search engine, a spreadsheet and an email account, and it is the same sequence an outreach agent follows.

Ready-made starting points for step 5 are in our listicle inclusion email template and alternatives post template. Use them as a structure, not as copy to paste; editors see the same templates every week.

What does a good listicle pitch look like?

Short, specific and about the reader, not about you. Here is the shape, using a made-up product:

Subject: A free-plan option for your freelancer invoicing list

Hi Sam, I read your “Best invoicing tools for freelancers” post (updated in April). Every tool on it charges once you pass five clients. Ledgerly is free up to 20 clients and sends automatic late-payment reminders, which your intro says is the main thing freelancers want.

If it’s useful, here’s a two-line description in the style of your other entries, plus pricing and a screenshot. Happy to set up a test account too.

Alex

Notice what’s missing: no company history, no request for a “dofollow link”, no mention of domain authority, no offer of anything in return. Our free outreach email checker flags the most common problems before you send, and our annotated pitch examples show more before-and-after rewrites.

Is listicle link building allowed under Google’s rules?

Yes, when you ask on merit. Google’s spam policies define link spam as links created “primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings”. Asking an editor to consider your product, and letting them decide, is normal outreach. The problems start when something of value changes hands for the link.

The policy lists these as link spam, among others:

• “Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links”
• “Exchanging goods or services for links”
• “Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link”
• “Excessive link exchanges (‘Link to me and I’ll link to you’)”

Google also says buying and selling links “is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes”, and that it’s not a violation as long as those links are tagged with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Its page on qualifying outbound links explains the attributes: sponsored for paid placements, ugc for user-generated content, and nofollow when the others don’t apply.

What this means in practice:

There’s a second rulebook if a publisher discloses relationships. In the US, the FTC’s Endorsement Guides say a material connection, which can include “the provision of free or discounted products”, must be disclosed when readers wouldn’t expect it (16 CFR 255.5). That disclosure duty is another reason to keep free access as a testing courtesy and not as payment.

What does listicle link building cost?

The direct cost is mostly time. Doing it yourself, the slow parts are research and finding the right person, not writing. Once you know a post well, the pitch itself is the quick part; replies and follow-ups take the rest.

Our link building cost calculator compares the DIY hours against paid options for your own numbers. For market rates across every method, see what backlinks cost in 2026, and for what an agent costs, BacklinkGenie’s plans.

How long does it take, and what results should you expect?

Expect weeks to months. Some editors update a post the day you write; many batch changes into a periodic refresh, and some never reply. Plan on a few weeks from first pitch to a live link for editors who agree, and judge the work over two to three months of steady outreach, not a single batch. Once links land, monitor every listicle link you win: refreshed posts sometimes drop entries without telling anyone.

We don’t quote average reply or acceptance rates here, because we haven’t found a published dataset for listicle pitches specifically that we trust, and agency figures are self-reported. What reliably moves your results:

• Fit. The better the match between your product and the post, the higher the reply rate. This dwarfs copywriting.
• Recency. Posts updated in the last year are maintained by someone who still cares.
• Specificity. A pitch that names the section where you’d go gets read; a generic one doesn’t.
• Follow-through. Answering the editor’s questions the same day often decides whether the update happens now or never.

For what separates a link that helps rankings from one that doesn’t, see what makes a high-quality backlink.

What mistakes waste a good list?

1. Pitching every list in the category. If you’d be a stretch, skip it. Saying “we’re not a fit for this one” is a choice that protects your reputation with editors.
2. Asking for a “dofollow backlink”. Editors care about their readers. Ask to be considered for the list; the link follows.
3. Pitching competitors’ own listicles. A vendor that ranks itself first rarely adds a direct rival.
4. Sending from your main domain at volume. Cold outreach at any scale belongs on a separate, authenticated domain. Our outreach deliverability guide explains the setup.
5. Never checking the link. Lists are rewritten. A link you don’t check is a link you might already have lost.
6. Ignoring mentions you already have. Some lists name your product without linking it. Those are the easiest wins of all; our unlinked mention template covers the ask.

Doing this every week without losing a day to it

The process above is simple. Keeping it going every week is the hard part: re-running searches, spotting new posts, checking each one, finding a current editor, writing a fresh pitch for each, spacing sends so a mailbox stays healthy, and re-checking links that are already live.

That repetitive loop is what we built BacklinkGenie to run. It reads your site, runs buyer searches for “best X”, alternatives, comparison and roundup posts, drops forums, marketplaces and link sellers, finds and verifies the author or editor, and drafts one pitch per post. Pitches go from a separate domain with a Google Workspace mailbox we set up with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, ramping from 4 emails a day to a ceiling of 35 per mailbox. On Starter you approve every email; Growth and Agency can switch to autopilot. Won links are checked every week and you’re told if one disappears or turns nofollow. Plans start at $99 a month (Starter: 1 mailbox, up to 1,000 emails a month; Growth $249 with 3; Agency $499 with 8). Domain Rating values come from Ahrefs and are shown with that credit. The full walkthrough is on How it works.

It isn’t the right fit for everyone. If your category is so new that no lists exist yet, start with the broader methods in how to get backlinks. If you sell in a restricted niche such as gambling or adult content, we can’t take you on. And if you’d rather write every pitch yourself, the manual process above works; the SaaS link building page shows where the agent fits if you change your mind. We sell this product, so weigh our view accordingly.