Does Topical Authority beat backlinks for early stage SaaS and Startups?
May 13, 2025
Does Topical Authority beat backlinks for early stage SaaS? I think so, and I'll tell you why and how to build it.
Introduction to Topical Authority in SaaS SEO
Before we dive too deep in to this article, we should talk about what Topical Authority is:
Topical authority is the process of building up a set of posts and resources so in depth and vast around one topic, that it would be hard for Google to argue that you are knowledgeable about that subject.
Rather than publishing one single article, called "How to rebuild a Ford Mustang 302ci V8", if you were to add additional posts on:
- The evolution of the Ford Mustang
- How the Ford Falcon paved the way for the Ford Mustang
- Ford vs Chevy: The 283ci Small Block Chevy vs the 302ci Ford V8
- Common issues with the 302 V8
- Best headers for the Ford 302 V8
- Single Barrel vs Double Barrel Carburetors on the For 302
You see my point. If Google sees that you've published all of these articles, and you've interlinked them well, it's hard to argue that you know what you are talking about (assuming each of the posts is well written and factual).
Why Topical Authority is crucial for SaaS / Startups
At the beginning of your SaaS or Startup, you will have bought your domain. This is a new, fresh and clean domain. Google has never heard of it and has no idea who you are or what you do.
Your domain name might be: "JohnsFordEngines.com" and you may think that this is enough for Google to figure out what you are about and what traffic they should send your way. There's a problem with this:
You may be the most knowledgeable person in the world for the Ford 302, but Google don't know that. Also, from your domain name, they could assume that you are a tractor expert in Fordson Engines (tractors). They may think that you are dealer, not a mechanic. They may think that you sell Ford Engines, rather than repair them. The list goes on.
You need to tell Google who you are, what you specialise in and what traffic they should send you. You need content.
Effectiveness: Topical Authority vs Backlinks
Well this is hard to tell. I would guess that even the brightest minds at Google don't know exactly how to explain which of these should come first.
Backlinks are strong, there is no denying that.
Impact of Topical Authority on early-sage SaaS Companies
At the beginning, you have nothing. No content, no backlinks, no trust.
Without trust from Google, you will get no traffic.
Without traffic from Google you'll struggle to get people to see your content.
Without people seeing your content, you will struggle to get backlinks.
See the problem here? It's a loop.
It really can be a struggle for early stage founders with untrusted domains to get backlinks. Most people will need to use companies to help them get backlinks, go heavy on Social Media, or wait for natural traffic.
Let's assume you don't have a huge marketing budget (early stage SaaS / Startups generally don't), so you want to start getting that organic traffic. The best way to do that in my experience is to start putting out enough good quality and focused content to basically yell at Google - "I'm an authority on this subject". You can also couple this with a tactical playbook on creating blogs that create a human connection and trust for ultimate effectiveness..
Personal Case Study: Software Engineering Blog
I've had it personally work for sites that I've created. My background is as a Software Engineer. I've been doing that for over 20 years. I write a blog about Software Engineering and various related topics.
When I started this, I had no backlnks. I had no authority. I had no trust.
I continued to publish high quality (if I do say so myself!) content, and I gradually grew. Google started to notice that traffic that it sent my way generally stuck around and read a lot of my content, and they started to trust me. This cycle continued and now I get a good stream of traffic every month of people reading my ramblings on various Software Engineering topics.
The Evolution of SEO: From Backlinks to Topical Authority
Backlinks in SEO are an old concept and an important one.
Backlinks are the only real way that Google can understand if they can trust you or not. If you have 10 links from 10 very well respected and known websites (think BBC, Government Websites, Bing, Google Documentation etc. etc.), Google can take a pretty good guess that your website and business are valid and worth sending traffic to.
If your site has no backlinks, how will they know that they can trust to send people your way? To extend that, if you are getting backlinks from very low quality and low traffic websites, then that also doesn't mean they can trust you.
People can however, still game this system. You can use services that can get you links from these sites for a cost (where there is a system in place, there will be a system to break the system). This means that you can't entirely rely on Backlinks for trust levels. You have to have a combination of trust via backlinks and trust via posting your topical authority.
Google's algorithm changes regularly to try and constantly send the best traffic to the best sites. Over time the algorithm changes the weight it gives to Backlinks, Topical Authority, On Page, Off Page, Technical SEO etc.
From what I've seen, we are now in a place where for early stage sites, Topical Authority at the start matters more than just backlinks.
How to Build Topical Authority for Your SaaS
Building Topical Authority generally starts with a seed keyword. If you're doing it right, you'll have done your keyword research and found a low difficulty keyword to write about and build out a plan of 5 to 10 posts that you can write about and around this particular topic.
Let's take our Ford 302 Engine example from above, and look at a different way to build topical authority for it.
Main search term: How to rebuild a Ford 302
Surrounding pages to create to generate topical authority:
- How to rebuild a Small Block Chevy 283
- How to rebuild a Big Block Chevy 350
- How to bore out a Ford 302 Block
- How to create a Chevy 350 Stroker Engine
- How to find the most high performance heads for your Ford 302
- How to fit an Edlebrock 4 barrel carb to your Ford 302
You see the idea here.
You may have wanted to rank for "How to rebuild a Ford 302", but in order to do so, you need to show Google that you are an authority on Engines, and preferably an authority on classic American V8 Engines (the more specific the knowledge you can create topical authority on, the better).
Tools and Resources for Building Topical Authority
It all starts with a topical authority strategy which in turn starts with a keyword strategy.
If your on a budget, you can get ChatGPT or another AI to help.
Use this prompt to generate a list of related pages that you can create around your seed keyword:
You are an SEO expert who understands topical authority, semantic keywords, content strategies and silos. I want you to give me 5 post titles that I can create that would show my topical authority for the seed keyword {ENTER KEYWORD HERE}. The more more specific the pages are, the better. i.e. I building topical authority in "Classic American V8 Engines from the 1960s" is much better than building topical authority for "Engines". I want to be seen as an in depth and specific expert in the areas directly surrounding my seed keyword. Give the me the title of 5 pages I could write.
If you want to go a step up from here, you can use tools like SEMRush and AHRefs that both have Content Strategy tools that can create you "Pillar" and "Sub Page" plans i.e. you main keyword and then the surrounding keywords for which you can write.
Content Creation Tips for SaaS and Startup Founders
- Focus in and go deep: You will not be an authority on a board topic. Forbes has that covered. You need to find you niche and find the pages that you can target to be an expert in that no one else is doing well. Keyword research is key here.
- Use your own voice: No one else can be you. When you are choosing the topics to write about, make sure you are passionate about them and convey that passion in writing.
- Use your expertise: It's in the name - "authority". You need to have expertise on the subject on which you are writing. Without this, you will not convince Google or your potential leads to believe you.
- Case Studies: Choose topics that you can write case studies for. Use data you have from your SaaS / Startup and time in your industry to create studies that no one else can or has created. In an age where information is free and easy to attain, unique data and case studies are the differentiator
- Have a plan: Come up with your content creation plan first. Pick the 5 to 10 posts you are going to write about that will give you your topical authority and plan when to write and publish them. Start with 1 a week if that suits, then stick to that schedule.
Analyzing the Impact of Topical Authority on SEO Rankings
What can be measured, can be manged.
Without closely tracking your progress, you will never know what to do more of and what to do less of.
I would recommend getting yourself set up in Google Analytics and Google Search Console (both free) and closely monitoring both your position in the search rankings and how many people are sticking around on your site.
In Google Search Console you can view the search terms that you rank for and what position they are ranking in. Looking at these search terms is a great indicator of what Google thinks your site is about and what you are an expert in. If you are looking through GSC and wondering why you are ranking for a particular term that is completely off topic, but not ranking for a term that you feel you should be, you need to change strategy.
Export your GSC position data once a week and track it over time. Are you raising through the rankings for the terms that you feel you should be, or are you stagnating?
Comprehensive Strategies to Combine Topical Authority with Backlinks
I don't want to suggest that SaaS / Startup founders don't do the other standard SEO building plans. That would be ridiculous. SEO is a wide set of tasks and procedures that work best when you tackle them all.
So whilst I believe that you should be starting your journey by building topical authority, you certainly should try to pair that with link building.
In those first few weeks, you need to identify relevant sites that you could reach out to to gain a few backlinks. You may get a backlink by having a piece of content so good that the other site owner just wants to link to it, you may offer a guest post, heck, you may even just buy a link on their site. Aim for 5 to 10 links per month to start with. Pair this with your Topical Authority approach and you'll start to see you rankings rise.
Conclusion - Does Topical Authority beat Backlinks for early-stage founders
From the data I've seen, yes it does.
There is a limit to what link building can get you in those early months. Until Google has really figured out what you as a site are about, the authority and trust that links get you don't really mean much.
If you build topical authority whilst building some backlinks, you are telling the world what you are all about. Where you knowledge lies, what Google can send your way.
As always, I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions or queries or even if there's something you think we may be able to help you with.
--Ben