u/Ibrahim-08

One thing I’ve noticed with SaaS SEO lately:

Many companies are still building backlinks as if it were 2019.

Huge focus on DR, homepage links, and publishing endless top-of-funnel blogs - but very little attention on whether those links are actually influencing buying decisions.

Meanwhile, some smaller SaaS brands with fewer backlinks are quietly growing because they’re getting mentioned in the right places:

comparison posts, niche communities, product roundups, Reddit threads, newsletters, etc.

Feels like visibility across trusted sources matters more now than just raw link numbers.

Especially with AI search and answer engines pulling information from multiple platforms instead of only traditional rankings.

Curious if others here are seeing the same shift or if backlinks are still working the old way for you.

I’ve been seeing mixed opinions lately — some say backlinks are still the #1 ranking factor, while others claim content + user signals matter more now.

From my experience, content definitely plays a big role, but pages with strong backlinks still seem to dominate competitive keywords.

What’s your take in 2026?
Are you focusing more on building links, or just improving content quality and on-page SEO?