While working on a competitive SaaS SEO campaign, I discovered something that changed how I think about homepage SEO.
We were targeting a commercial keyword (let’s say: “workflow automation platform”). A competitor — let’s call them “FlowPro” — was ranking in the top two positions for most variations of this keyword, pulling in 14,000+ monthly organic visitors.
What Caught My Eye
More than 85% of their traffic landed directly on their homepage, not on blog posts or product subpages.
This was unusual — because most other top-ranking SaaS competitors had their traffic spread across blogs, resource hubs, or solution pages.
That led me to ask:
“Why is FlowPro’s homepage doing all the heavy lifting?”
What I Analyzed
I reviewed their:
- On-page structure (H1s, NLP coverage, CTAs)
- Internal linking strategy
- Schema markup
- Topical authority across subfolders
- Organic trends before and after Google updates
Everything looked clean — but not revolutionary.
Then I looked at their backlink profile.
The Backlink Clue
Here’s what I found:
- 263 referring domains
- 140+ in-content backlinks
- 95+ dofollow
- Most links used branded anchor text like “FlowPro”
But what really stood out?
Almost every branded mention was surrounded by highly relevant contextual text.
Examples:
- Left context: “Companies looking to streamline operations often turn to platforms like FlowPro for end-to-end workflow automation.”
- Right context: “FlowPro offers a powerful solution for teams needing scalable automation software.”
That “left + right” context was everywhere.
Why This Works
This aligns with Google’s guidance:
“We look at the context around a link, not just the anchor text.”
The surrounding text helped Google understand what FlowPro is, without needing keyword-stuffed anchors.
Combined with a strong domain and great UX, this likely contributed to their homepage outranking competitors’ dedicated landing pages.
My Hypothesis
Building branded, contextual backlinks — with clear semantic cues in surrounding copy — can help SaaS homepages rank for competitive commercial terms.
But let’s be clear:
Correlation ≠ causation.
Their rankings were probably influenced by:
- Domain authority
- Click-through rates
- User behavior
- Brand recognition
- Content freshness
Takeaways for SaaS Link Builders
- Don’t obsess over exact-match anchor text.
- Focus on branded mentions embedded in relevant content.
- Craft left and right context to help Google “understand” your brand.
- Think beyond blog links — make your homepage a content-worthy target.
SEO isn’t about tricking algorithms. It’s about helping them clearly map meaning to your brand.
Have you noticed similar patterns? I’d love to hear about them.