guide · from the launch plan
How to win SEO for a new SaaS, step by step
SaaS SEO is the work of making a software product the page Google shows when a buyer searches for the problem it solves. For a new site, that means passing the technical checks, getting indexed, building comparison and use-case pages first, briefing each post from the live results page, and earning the links its authority lacks.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed October 2026
How do you see what Google sees?
Two free consoles and one report. Without them every decision below is a guess.
1.1.1.5Connect Google Search Console
The only free source of truth for what you rank for and what Google refuses to index.
1.1.1.6Connect Bing Webmaster Tools
One console for the second-largest reach you have: Bing’s index also serves Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Copilot and most of Ecosia. It no longer feeds ChatGPT, which runs its own crawler — but it is the only console that reports your Copilot citations.
Done when: Open Bing Webmaster Tools and confirm the site is a verified property. The URL of the property page is the evidence.
4.1.5Attribute signups to the page that earned them, not just the channel
Sessions rank your posts one way and signups rank them another. Carry it through to activation and retention too — pieces that pull the wrong reader show up as churn months later, not as a bad traffic number.
2h
What does Google need before anything can rank?
A short technical baseline, done once. Past it, a deep audit can wait until the site is large.
1.3.1.1One H1 per page, sequential heading hierarchy
Clean hierarchy correlates with ~2.8× higher AI citation rates; 87% of cited pages use a single H1.
45m
1.3.1.2Generate sitemap.xml automatically
Hand-maintained sitemaps rot within a month. Generate it from your routes.
30m
1.3.1.3Allow crawling in robots.txt and name the sitemap
A staging Disallow shipped to production is the single most common launch-week disaster.
10m
1.3.1.4Add canonical tags to every page
You will syndicate to Medium and Dev.to in Phase 2. Canonicals are what stop that hurting.
30m
1.3.1.5Add OG and Twitter card images
Every share for the next two years renders through these. Make them readable at thumbnail size.
45m
1.3.1.6Pass Core Web Vitals on mobile
Test on a throttled 4G profile, not your laptop.
1.3.1.7Read your own page the way a crawler does
Fetch it with JavaScript disabled: one audited site was serving hundreds of Lorem Ipsum pages to crawlers while looking finished in a browser.
30m
1.3.1.8Confirm Google has indexed every page that takes money
Homepage, pricing, signup and your best feature page. A page Google has not indexed cannot rank and cannot appear in an AI Overview, and a nosnippet tag keeps it out of the AI answers even when it is indexed. Until these four pass, a deeper technical audit can wait.
Done when: Run URL inspection in Search Console on the homepage, pricing page, signup page and one feature page. For each, say whether it reads "URL is on Google" and whether the page carries a nosnippet or max-snippet:0 directive.
1.3.2.1Add Organization schema
Name, logo, URL, sameAs to every social profile. This is what entity resolution keys on.
30m
1.3.2.2Add SoftwareApplication or Product schema
Category, operating system, price. Review sites and AI answers both read it.
30m
1.3.2.3Add FAQPage schema to the homepage and pricing page
The highest-leverage schema for answer extraction, and you already wrote the FAQs.
30m
1.2.3.2Add an FAQ block with FAQPage schema
Kills the top objections and feeds answer extraction in AI search at the same time.
45m
How do you get every page indexed?
A page Google has not indexed cannot rank, so indexing is a number to watch, not a box to tick.
3.3.1Submit the sitemap to Google and Bing
Then check the coverage report for what was excluded and why.
Done when: Open Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and confirm the sitemap is submitted in each, then read the coverage report for what was excluded and why. The exclusions are the point — a green tick with 40 pages excluded is not done.
15m
3.3.2Set up IndexNow
Push new URLs on publish instead of waiting for a crawl. One ping reaches Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam and Yep — and, through Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Copilot.
Done when: Fetch the key file the site serves at its published path and confirm it matches the key the app submits with. Then show the submitter has actually run — a log line, or a recorded submission. A key file nobody pings is decoration.
45m
3.3.3Make every page reachable in three clicks
Orphan pages do not get crawled. Internal links are the cheapest ranking factor you control.
Done when: Walk internal links outward from the homepage and count how many indexable pages are reached within three hops. Every page in the sitemap must be among them. Report the number reached and the number of pages that were never reached — and retry a failed fetch before calling it unreachable, because a timeout looks exactly like an orphan.
2h
3.3.4Clear the crawl errors in Search Console
Especially “Discovered — currently not indexed”, which usually means thin or duplicate.
2h
3.3.5Give every page four links from the body of other pages
Nav and footer links sit on every page and separate nothing. Links written into the prose are the ones that carry — and vary the words you link on, because the same anchor repeated reads as a template. Read each anchor inside its own sentence: one that promises something the destination does not contain costs you the click and the reader.
Done when: Count, for each indexable page, how many DISTINCT other pages link to it from their body — strip nav, header and footer first, or every page scores the same and the number means nothing. Report how many pages fall below four. Re-run before believing it: a transient fetch failure reads exactly like a missing link.
2h
3.3.6Track indexed as a share of submitted, not as a count
A hundred indexed pages reads as progress until you notice you asked for five hundred. One audited site had roughly one sitemap URL in five indexed.
30m
3.3.7Claim the national consoles wherever a local engine competes with Google
Read your country split first, then claim only where buyers are: Yandex (Russia, Turkey, CIS), Naver and Daum (Korea), Seznam (Czechia), Cốc Cốc (Vietnam), and Baidu, then Sogou, 360 and Shenma (China, which also wants Chinese pages and an ICP-filed host). All free.
Done when: Quote the sessions by country from analytics, then for each of Russia, Turkey, Korea, Czechia, Vietnam and China either name the console the site is verified in or state that the country sends no sessions.
45m
Which pages should a new site build first?
The pages buyers search when they are already choosing: alternatives, comparisons, use cases.
3.1.1.1Write /alternatives/[competitor] for each of your top 4
One page per competitor, targeting “[competitor] alternative”. Nothing else ranks this cheaply.
Done when: Open each alternative page and confirm it names a real competitor, states what that competitor charges from the competitor's own pricing page, and says plainly when a reader should choose them. List the pages and the competitor each covers. A page that cannot honestly recommend the competitor to anyone is an ad, not a comparison.
12h
3.1.1.2Add an honest feature comparison table to each
Answer engines cross-reference competitor claims and de-rank pages that lie. Concede real losses.
Done when: Open each alternative page and count the rows of its comparison table, and how many of those rows the competitor wins. Report both numbers for every page. A table you win on every row is not a comparison, and an engine checking it against the competitor's own pages will treat it as one that lies. A table shipped as an image counts as zero rows: an engine cannot read it.
2h
3.1.1.3Add a “when to choose them over us” section
The single highest-trust block on the page, and it disqualifies bad-fit signups for free.
Done when: Quote the passage on one alternative page that tells a reader to choose the competitor, and name the other pages that carry one. It must name a situation in which the competitor is the better pick. General praise of the competitor does not count; neither does a concession buried in a table cell.
1h
3.1.1.4Add FAQ schema to every alternative page
These are the pages you most want quoted in an AI answer. Make them extractable.
Done when: Read the JSON-LD in the source of every alternative page and list each page whose markup holds an FAQPage with at least one Question that carries an answer. An FAQ visible on the page with no FAQPage in the markup does not count.
1h
3.1.1.5Write a “[you] vs [rival]” page for the two rivals buyers name most
A different query from “[rival] alternative”, typed later by a warmer buyer who has already shortlisted you both. One audited site had 73 alternatives pages and no head-to-heads, while comparison pages were its best template. Put the date beside every competitor price you quote; an undated price goes wrong within a year and reads as a lie.
Done when: List each “[product] vs [competitor]” page that is live, and for each say whether every competitor price on it carries the date it was checked. Pages with an undated competitor price do not count.
3h
3.1.1.6When a rival announces it is closing, publish the switch guide that week
Its users now have a deadline and must choose something, so searches for “[rival] alternative” spike and then stop once the doors close. Lead with how to export their data and what maps to what in your product, not with your pitch. It earns traffic only while the deadline is still ahead.
3h
3.1.2.1Ship 3–5 /for/[audience] or /use-cases/[job] pages
Same product, their words, their screenshot, their objection handled.
Done when: Open each audience or use-case page and list it with the audience it names, one phrase from its copy that matches how that audience describes the problem in public, the screenshot it shows, and the objection it answers. A page that swaps the audience name into otherwise identical copy is a template, not a page.
10h
3.1.3Write the best-of list for your own category
Include your competitors honestly. This ranks for category queries and becomes an AI citation source.
Done when: Open your best-of page and list every product it ranks, with its position and one weakness the page names for it. Then say where your own product sits and which published criterion puts it there. A list with you first and no weakness named for you is an ad, and engines read it as one.
3.1.4Ship one free tool or template gallery
Typeform’s template library drove 30k non-branded signups. It is also a permanent link magnet.
Done when: Open each free tool in a browser that is not signed in, change an input, and confirm it returns a result with no signup, no email gate and no account. List every tool URL that passes, with the result you got. A tool behind a form is a lead magnet, not a link magnet, and nobody links to a form.
How do you choose and brief each post?
Pick a pattern a new site can win, read the results page before writing, and add one thing the top three lack.
3.8.1Pick three topic clusters from real search demand
Volume you can plausibly rank for at DR 20 — long-tail, low-difficulty, high-intent. Phrase them the way competitor reviews and threads do; nobody has ever searched the words a marketer would pick.
2h
3.8.13Pick one keyword pattern a new site can win, and work it one row at a time
A pattern is one intent with one changing word: “[rival] alternative”, “[you] vs [rival]”, “[tool] for [audience]”. It turns topic-picking into taking the next row. Start with the least-contested pattern, and give every variant something only it can say, or it is a find-and-replace.
Done when: Name the pattern and list at least five variants, each with its monthly volume and where that number came from. For each variant, say whether any of the top ten Google results has the exact query in its title. A volume with no source does not count.
3.8.14Read the live results page before you brief each post
The top ten tell you the page type Google wants (a comparison, a list, a guide), what the first result also ranks for, and what all of them skip. Search your own site first: a second page on a query you already cover splits the clicks and both lose.
Done when: For the last three posts published, give the target query, the page type of the top three results, and the page type of your post. Then say whether any other page on your site targets the same query. A post whose type differs from all three results fails.
30mhow to do it
3.8.15Give every post one thing the top three results do not have
A screenshot only a user could take, a number from your own product, a test you ran. Google’s spam policies cover unoriginal content made at scale “no matter how it’s created”, and the page that rewords the top three is the one they describe.
Done when: Open your last five posts and name, for each, the one element none of the top three results for its query has: a screenshot, a figure from your own data, a test or a quote from a named person. A post with nothing to name fails.
30mhow to do it
3.8.2Publish ten posts against those clusters
Three or four per cluster beats ten scattered posts. Depth in one place is what ranks.
40h
3.8.4Publish one definitive how-to guide
The page you would send someone who knows nothing. Long, structured, genuinely complete.
12hhow to do it
3.8.5Publish a cost and pricing explainer for your category
“How much does X cost” is bottom-of-funnel traffic that competitors refuse to answer.
3.8.11Harvest People Also Ask under each cluster term for the spoke questions
Click every question open and Google spawns more: that is Google listing the sub-questions it wants answered. One question per page, answered in the first sentence.
45m
3.8.7Link every post to the page that takes money, from inside the prose
Not the nav, not a banner — a sentence in the body where the product is the answer to what the reader just learned. This is the difference between content that ranks and content that pays.
2h
3.8.8Put a real byline on every post, linked to one author page
Do it for the reader and the links, not for rankings — sites with real bylines earn roughly twice the referring domains and show no ranking lift once those links are accounted for.
Done when: Open three posts. For each, say whether the visible byline links to the same author page, whether the Article markup names that author as a Person with that page as its url, and whether the markup’s datePublished matches the date shown on the page. A mismatch on any of the three fails that post.
1h
How do you grow the queries Google already shows you for?
Search Console lists the queries you half-rank for. They are cheaper than any new keyword.
3.8.6.1Pull the query-to-page table for the last 90 days
Query, landing page, impressions, clicks, position. Three months so one freak day cannot set the agenda.
3.8.6.2List the queries whose landing page is about something else
Impressions against a page that only half answers the query. That mismatch is the whole signal.
30m
3.8.6.3Kill the gaps that would cannibalise a page you already have
Check volume and difficulty, read the live SERP for intent, and drop any query an existing page already answers. Splitting one intent across two pages ranks neither.
30m
3.8.6.4Publish one page per surviving query, then re-check its position
Exact query in the title, URL and opening answer. Log position and impressions before the next batch — this loop is only as good as its feedback.
3.8.6.5Push the queries sitting on page two before writing anything new
Position 11–20 with impressions is a page Google already half-trusts. Exact query in the title, H1 and first hundred words, then three internal links to it. An afternoon, and cheaper than any new page.
Done when: For each query you pushed, give its average position with Search Console filtered to that exact query AND that exact page, from before the change and from at least four weeks after. An average across all queries or all pages does not count: it mixes rankings that have nothing to do with each other.
2h
3.8.6.6Rewrite the titles that get seen and not clicked
High impressions and few clicks is a title problem, not a ranking problem. Promise what the query asked for in the title and description, then read the click-through rate again in a month.
1h
How do you get cited by AI search as well?
AI answers read the same index. Being fetchable and quotable is the part on top of ordinary SEO.
1.3.3.1Publish llms.txt
A plain-text map of what you are and which pages state it. Half an hour, then move on: Google says AI Overviews need no AI text file, so it is cheap insurance for the agents and tools that do ask for one, not a ranking lever.
30mhow to do it
1.3.3.2Put a plain “what this is” paragraph in the first 100 words
Extraction reads the top of the page. Poetry above the definition costs you the citation.
Done when: Read the first 100 words of the homepage body with no page around them, as an extractor would. Quote them. Do they name the product and say plainly what it is?
30mhow to do it
1.3.3.3Record your AI-citation baseline
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AIO “best [your category] tools”. Log the answer verbatim.
Done when: Ask two AI answer engines a question your category owns, and record whether the product was cited. The dated note of what they said is the evidence.
30m
1.3.3.4Confirm the AI search crawlers can actually fetch you, in the logs
Look for the crawlers that decide citations — OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Applebot — not GPTBot or ClaudeBot, which gather training data and say nothing about whether an answer can quote you. Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default now, so a site can be invisible without anyone choosing it.
Done when: Count the requests from OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in the server log that returned 2xx. All three must appear, fetching pages rather than only robots.txt. GPTBot and ClaudeBot do not count: they gather training data, not citations.
20m
1.3.3.5Check that Brave has your key pages, and ask it to re-fetch the missing ones
Brave’s index is what Claude’s web search reads. There is no console and no Brave user agent: it crawls only what your robots.txt lets Googlebot crawl. Its submit form re-fetches a page; it does not promise to index a site it has never seen.
Done when: Search site:yourdomain on search.brave.com and list which of the homepage, the pricing page and your three most important pages appear. For each one missing, give the date you submitted it for re-fetching.
1.3.3.6Serve a Markdown version of each content page to agents that ask for it
An agent that asks for Markdown gets the page without menus, scripts or popups, so it reads what you wrote rather than your layout. The same words as the HTML, never extra ones: a version only machines can see is cloaking.
Done when: Request three content pages with the header Accept: text/markdown. For each, give the Content-Type returned, the Vary header, and the canonical URL in its Link header, and say whether the headings match the HTML page. Anything other than text/markdown with Vary: Accept and a canonical pointing at the HTML page fails.
3.4.1Publish five pages answering real user questions
Pull the questions verbatim from your support inbox and Phase 1 interviews.
3.4.2Retrofit question-shaped headings on your top 10 pages
Headings that match how people ask are what extraction matches against.
Done when: Count the H2s on your highest-traffic pages and how many are shaped as a question a reader would actually type — ending in a question mark, or opening with what/why/how/when/which. Report both numbers. An extractor matches a question to a heading, so a page of noun phrases answers nothing it was not already ranking for.
3.4.3Publish a definition and stat block per core term
Self-contained, 40–60 words, one citable number. Written to be lifted whole.
Done when: Open a core term's page and read the block under the heading. It must answer 'what is X?' in 40-60 words as a passage that stands alone, and be followed immediately by one dated statistic with its source. Quote the block and count its words — a definition an engine cannot lift whole, or a number with no date and no source, does not count.
3.4.4Earn genuine mentions on Reddit and Hacker News
Both are indexed heavily by assistants. Genuine is doing the work; astroturf gets caught.
3.4.5Write the twenty prompts you will re-ask forever
Prompts are keywords. Six shapes carry the decision: category, use case, comparison, alternative, “is X actually any good”, and the one with the buyer’s constraints in it — must do this, must connect to that, under this price. The last is where a shortlist is actually cut.
Done when: List the prompts. Twenty or more, written as a buyer would type them, and recorded somewhere their wording will not drift — a prompt reworded between runs measures the rewording. The list must include queries you expect to LOSE, or the score can only ever go up.
1h
3.4.6Re-ask the whole portfolio monthly and score the answers
Three clean sessions per prompt, with the model version logged: one answer a month is variance, not movement. Then score position, recommendation, accuracy and the sources behind it.
Done when: Report how many of the twenty prompts named the product and how many CITED it with a link, across the engines, for this month's run. Named and cited are different numbers and both are needed — one is training data bleeding through, the other is the retrieval layer finding a page.
2h
3.4.7Read the prompts you lose as a to-do list
Whoever gets recommended instead has something you do not — a category page, a review count, a comparison, a thread. Name that asset, then go and build it. On a prompt with constraints in it, check the cheaper failure first: often the product qualifies and the fact that proves it is written down nowhere a model can reach.
45m
3.4.8Mine Bing’s grounding queries for the prompts you are already cited on
The AI Performance report counts your citations in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries, page by page, and lists the grounding queries — what the model actually searched when it used you. It is the only first-party record of an AI engine’s own queries; fold them into the portfolio.
Done when: List the grounding queries the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows for the last three months, each beside the page of yours it cited.
3.4.9Read which pages AI Overviews and AI Mode pull in, in Search Console
The generative AI report counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode by page, country and device — no clicks and no queries, so read it for which pages Google’s answers draw on, not for traffic. Low everywhere can mean the site is opted out: check that setting before blaming the content.
Done when: List the five pages with the most impressions in the Search Console generative AI performance report over the last three months, each with its impression count.
3.4.10Cite a source beside every claim, and quote a named person, on the pages you want quoted
In the Princeton GEO study, citing sources and adding quotations raised a page’s visibility in generative answers as much as adding statistics did. A link at the end of the page does not count: the source goes in the sentence that makes the claim.
Done when: Open your five most important pages. For each, count the factual claims, how many link their source in the same sentence or paragraph, and the quotes attributed to a named person. Report the three numbers per page.
3.10.1List every third-party page that keeps appearing
Run your ten highest-intent searches and ten prompts and write down what comes back: threads, listicles, review categories, videos. The repeats are the map.
2h
3.10.2Rank each source by how often it appears and how much it sways
A thread cited across nine of your queries beats a DR 80 mention nobody buying reads. Work only the handful scoring high on both.
45m
3.10.3Earn a place on the top five, one at a time
Find out who owns each one and how it earns before you spend the afternoon: many ranking listicles are affiliate properties, where the price is a commission and no pitch will move them.
8h
3.10.4Make every source describe you the same way
One category sentence, repeated by your site, your listings, your reviewers and your press. Consensus is what turns a claim into something a model will repeat.
Where do the links come from?
Original data, other people’s lists, directories, and the links you already earned but never collected.
3.8.3Publish one original-data study
“We analysed 10,000 X and found Y” becomes the citation everyone else has to use.
16hhow to do it
3.8.12Put the study’s raw data up as a dated file, with the headline numbers ready to quote
Writers link to a source they can check, and quote the line already written for them. On one audited site all five editorial links pointed at a single market report that offered both; nothing else on the site earned one.
Done when: Open the study page. Does it link a downloadable data file (CSV or similar) that states the date it was collected, AND show at least three headline figures written as sentences someone could quote?
1h
3.8.10Publish the “[niche] statistics” page writers have to cite
Fifty-plus figures, each traced to the body that produced it, dated and stated once, with ten quotable lines on top. Writers Google it the night before publishing; the link is the citation of the figure itself.
3.8.9Pitch the study while the number is still new
A statistic earns you referring domains, not positions — and only the ones you go and collect. Send the finding, not the product, to the people who already write about your category.
3.2.7.1Find 20 ranking listicles for your category
Search “best [category] tools 2026” and “best [competitor] alternative”. Note the author.
1h
3.2.7.2Pitch all 20 for inclusion
Short, specific, offer a free account for their readers, and make it trivial to say no.
2h
3.2.7.3Follow up once after five days
Once. A second follow-up costs you the relationship for a link you were not getting.
30m
3.2.8.1Find unlinked brand mentions
Search your brand name in quotes, minus your own domain. Log every mention without a link.
45m
3.2.8.2Email each one asking for the link
Thank them first, then ask. Conversion here is unusually high because they already like you.
1h
3.2.8.3Fix broken links pointing at you
Redirect each dead URL to the page that answers what the reader came for, or restore it. Sending them all to the homepage instead reads as a soft 404 and drops out of the index, which loses the equity you were rescuing.
45m
3.2.8.4Set a standing alert for new mentions
A Google Alert on the brand and your own name. The backlog is finite; what the plan earns later is not.
10m
3.2.12.1Pull the sites linking to two or more competitors and not to you
Link Intersect in Ahrefs, Backlink Gap in Semrush. Two competitors is the threshold that separates a habit from a coincidence.
45mcosts money
3.2.12.2Open each page and write down why the link is there
A tool, a study, a template, a quote — or an acquisition, a sponsorship or a friendship. Mark those last three as not winnable rather than pitching them; most of a competitor’s profile is not an opportunity.
2h
3.2.12.3Find the dead and outdated links on those same pages
A link that 404s, or still loads while describing a product that shut down. Name the exact line, offer the page that finishes the reader’s task, and do not call a resource obsolete just because its owner changed.
3.2.1.1Write a tagline under 10 words
Outcome first. Every form has this field and most have a hard character limit.
20m
3.2.1.2Write the 50-word short description
What it does and for whom, in the words a directory’s own search results show. Forms with a 60-character limit take the tagline instead.
20m
3.2.1.3Write the 250-word description, and vary its opening per form
One text, three ways in: lead with the outcome on one directory, with the alternative it replaces on the next, with the mechanism on the third. Never paste the same first sentence everywhere — duplicates get down-weighted.
1h
3.2.1.5Write the founder story in three sentences
Curated directories reject listings without one. Reused verbatim on launch day.
25m
3.2.1.6Set up the submission tracker
Directory, date, listing URL, status (live, submitted, skipped and why), dofollow verified. A marketinque project has it built in: the directory sprint on the plan page, checked nightly. You will be back here quarterly.
20m
3.2.2.1Submit to AlternativeTo
Nofollow, but it ranks for “[competitor] alternatives” and feeds AI answers heavily.
25mAlternativeToDR 79 · nofollowhow to do it
3.2.2.2Submit to SaaSHub
Dofollow, and ranks well for alternatives queries with genuinely high buying intent.
20mSaaSHubDR 77how to do it
3.2.2.3Create the G2 listingB2B
Listing only for now — it stays invisible until the review drive in 2.6.
40mG2DR 92how to do it
3.2.2.4Create the Capterra listingB2B
G2-owned since 2026. Same review mechanics, separate listing, separate review count.
40mCapterraDR 93how to do it
3.2.2.5Claim the GetApp listingB2B
Often auto-populates from Capterra. Claim it rather than creating a duplicate.
20mGetAppDR 78how to do it
3.2.2.6Claim Software AdviceB2B
Gartner property; syncs with Capterra in several categories.
20mSoftware AdviceDR 88how to do it
3.2.2.7Create the TrustRadius listingB2B
Lower volume than G2, higher review quality, and reviewers write real detail.
30mTrustRadiusDR 72how to do it
3.2.2.8Submit to SourceForge
Legacy, unglamorous, DR 92, and takes twenty minutes.
25mSourceForgeDR 92how to do it
3.2.2.9Submit the company profile to Slashdot
Same operator as SourceForge — do them back to back with the same copy.
20mSlashdotDR 88how to do it
3.2.2.10Submit to TheSaaSDirectory
DR 88, clean categorisation, fast approval.
15mTheSaaSDirectoryDR 88how to do it
3.2.2.11Submit to Tech.co
Directory plus media surface — occasionally turns into editorial coverage.
15mTech.coDR 80how to do it
3.2.2.12Add yourself to relevant Slant questions
A “what is the best…” platform. Answer the questions your buyers actually ask.
20mSlantDR 75how to do it
3.2.2.13Create the Indie Hackers product page
Doubles as the home for your build-in-public updates from Phase 3 onward.
25mIndie HackersDR 76how to do it
3.2.2.14Create the F6S profile
Used by accelerators; the profile outranks a lot of things for your brand name.
20mF6SDR 65how to do it
3.2.2.16Work the long tail: 20 more DR 40+ directories
Startup Stash, Crozdesk, SaaSWorthy, Startup Fame, Taalk, StartupBuffer, 10words, Launched.io and friends. One sitting.
3h
3.2.3.1Create the Crunchbase profile
Heavily weighted in AI training corpora and in “who is this company” lookups.
40mCrunchbaseDR 91 · nofollow
3.2.3.2Create the LinkedIn company page
Required before you can run any LinkedIn distribution in Phase 3.
40mLinkedIn PagesDR 99
3.2.3.3Create the Wikidata item
The structured spine most knowledge panels and assistants resolve entities against.
1hWikidataDR 92
3.2.4.1Set up the GitHub org profile and README
DR 98. Every software product should have this whether or not it is open source.
30mGitHubDR 98
3.2.4.2Publish one technical post on Dev.todev tool
Dofollow, and cross-post with a canonical URL back to your own blog.
2hDev.toDR 90how to do it
3.2.4.3Make your domain your Bluesky handle
One _atproto TXT record and the account becomes @yourdomain.com. Free verification, unlike every neighbour.
20mBluesky
3.2.4.4Claim the Substack publication
DR 93, and it becomes the newsletter home in Phase 3 if you want it to.
30mSubstackDR 93
3.2.4.6Claim the quick-win profiles in one sitting
Gravatar, About.me, Hashnode, Disqus, Scoop.it, Diigo, Pearltrees, Dun & Bradstreet.
2h
3.2.5.1Submit to There’s An AI For That
The largest AI directory, task-based search. $49 one-time review fee ($347 with the newsletter); the only free route is a monthly X thread that picks one tool.
40mfree routeTAAFTDR 76how to do it
3.2.5.2Submit to Futurepedia
The most expensive listing in the plan: $497 verified, with the $247 basic tier sold out. Its own page now claims 400k monthly professionals, not the 1M it used to.
30mcosts moneyFuturepediaDR 70how to do it
3.2.5.3Submit to Toolify.ai
$99, listed inside 48 hours, and it contractually promises at least six dofollow links. Public traffic trends make it competitive intel as well as a listing.
30mcosts moneyToolifyDR 71how to do it
3.2.5.4Submit to Future Tools
The one that is still free — a plain form, reviewed by hand. Do this before paying anyone. Small, but disproportionately influential in the AI-tool press cycle.
25mFuture ToolsDR 69how to do it
3.2.5.5Work the AI directory long tail
Acid Tools (free, dofollow), aitools.inc, AIStage, TopAI.tools, Supertools, AI Tools Guide, NewTools.site and the rest.
3h
3.2.6.1List on Glama and optimise for the security grade
Grades are public and comparative. An A is a differentiator; an F is worse than absent.
3.2.6.2Submit to the Linux Foundation MCP Registry
The canonical registry since the Dec 2025 donation; PulseMCP and Glama read it, so one publish seeds them. Not a PR: a server.json posted with mcp-publisher after proving the namespace (GitHub for io.github.*, a DNS or /.well-known key for your domain). Description ≤ 100 chars; each version publishes once.
3.2.6.3Publish on Smithery
Sign in, paste the server URL, skip session config unless the server needs a key; its inspector reads your tools and scores the listing. Description, homepage and repository lift the score. “Verified” wants a TXT record on the homepage host and a paid plan — optional.
3.2.6.4Submit to the agent directories
AI Agents List, APITracker, AI Agent Store, AgentHunter, AI Agents Directory.
2h
Yours to do, in your own accounts:
- AgentHunter — Sign in with Google (no password to create); the submit form follows. Fill it from the submission kit.
- AI Agent Store — Register or sign in with Google; the new-agent form opens after. Fill it from the submission kit.
- AI Agents Directory — Sign in to continue; the agent form follows. Pick the Marketing category.
- AI Agents List — Paid: a free eligibility check on your URL, then $29 or $49 once, refunded if not approved. Decide before starting.
- APITracker — No submission form: its team adds MCP servers. Use the Contact us link on this page to ask for yours, with the server URL.
3.2.6.5Submit your server to the Claude Connectors Directory and the ChatGPT plugin directory
Both list only remote servers over HTTPS, and both are reviewed. Claude’s needs OAuth 2.0 for any tool that acts on a user’s account, a title and a readOnlyHint or destructiveHint on every tool, a privacy policy and a test account for its reviewers. Fix those before applying, or the review is the first place you hear about them.
Done when: Give the public listing URL for the server in each directory. A submission still in review counts as not listed: say which one is pending and since when.
2hClaude Connectors Directory: developer portalhow to do it
Yours to do, in your own accounts:
- Claude Connectors Directory — Sign in on a paid Claude plan, choose Submit new → MCP connector, and give the server URL, docs and privacy policy URLs, an icon and a populated reviewer test account.
- ChatGPT plugin directory — Verify your OpenAI organisation as an individual or business, then on the Plugins page upload the plugin ZIP, connect the MCP server, pass the domain check and submit for review.
3.2.9.1Submit to NoCodeFinder
Open submissions, quick approval, and the audience is browsing to buy.
20mNoCodeFinderDR 45how to do it
3.2.9.2Submit to the No Code MBA tools directory
Categorised by project type, so pick the category a buyer would search.
20mNo Code MBADR 55how to do it
3.2.9.3Submit to NoCode.Tech
Long-running curated list; editorial standards are real, so write the entry properly.
20mNoCode.TechDR 35how to do it
3.2.9.4Work the no-code long tail
NoCodeList, NoCodeDevs, We Are No Code, NoCodeFounders, MakerPad. One sitting.
1h
3.2.10.1Submit your blog to Feedspot
Blog discovery plus RSS aggregation — a real referral source, not just a link.
20mFeedspotDR 80how to do it
3.2.10.2Submit your blog to Alltop
Long-established aggregator; one submission, permanent listing.
20mAlltopDR 73how to do it
3.2.10.3Distribute one free press release on a real milestone
PRLog, OpenPR, PR.com. Only for something genuinely newsworthy — launch, funding, a big number. Nobody reads these; the links are the point.
1h
3.2.10.4Stop at three release sites
Past a handful, low-quality distribution starts to look like a link scheme rather than a launch. Real PR is 4.4, pitched to humans.
5m
3.2.11.1Verify every live listing is dofollow
Inspect the link; absence of rel="nofollow" or rel="ugc" means it passes equity.
1h
3.2.11.2Log DR and referring domains weekly
A single number per week, and count recovered links apart from newly earned ones — repairing a redirect moves the same number as winning a link and means something completely different. If it stalls for a month, something flipped to nofollow.
10m
3.2.11.3Re-verify the whole tracker quarterly
Do not edit listings weekly. Do check them four times a year.
45m
3.2.13Answer the journalist requests in your field
The one route where the writer is already looking for you. Answer the question in the first sentence, from experience you can substantiate — no original data required, which is what makes it work at DR 20.
How do you scale it once it works?
More pages only after the first ones are indexed and earning, at a pace you can hold.
5.1.1Build the cluster map for 50 target keywords
Pillar plus spokes, mapped to funnel stage. This is the brief for everything you commission.
4hguide
5.1.2Count how much of your own market you appear for
The share of your mapped queries you appear on at all — fixed once and weighted by intent, because a coverage number moves as easily by redrawing the denominator as by doing the work. A direction of travel, never a score.
2h
5.1.3Audit the library by funnel stage before commissioning more
One audited library ran 2,200 awareness posts to 21 near the purchase. Publish nearest revenue first: comparisons, alternatives, categories, use cases.
1h
5.1.4Set and defend a publishing cadence
Two a week forever beats ten in January and nothing until June.
30m
5.1.5Contract a writer who knows the domain
Cheaper than your time and better than your seventh draft. Domain knowledge is non-negotiable.
10hcosts money
5.1.6Write the editorial brief template
Keyword, angle, outline, sources required, internal links, and what a rejection looks like.
2h
5.1.7Refresh the ten decaying posts each quarter
Updating a ranked page beats publishing a new one, almost every time. Save the live copy and its 90-day numbers, then read what outranks it and fix the gap — decay is usually the intent moving, not the writing ageing. Without the baseline a refresh can be neither reverted nor proved.
8h
5.1.8.1Pick ten high-intent queries off the cluster map
The same six shapes that work in text: best X, X for a use case, X vs Y, alternatives to X, how to reach an outcome, fix a problem. Broad category terms convert like entertainment.
1h
5.1.8.2Search each query on YouTube and read who already ranks
The live results tell you the intent and the real competition. Third-party difficulty scores for video are guesses.
5.1.8.3Write the title and mock the thumbnail BEFORE you record
Packaging decides whether the video is seen at all, so it is the thing to judge while it is still free to change. If the mock does not look clickable next to the current results, the video is not worth making.
45m
5.1.8.4Make each video answer a sub-problem your product solves
Teach the thing completely, product visible throughout, one CTA at the end. A great tutorial with a bolted-on plug converts nothing, and neither does a gated one.
30mhow to do it
5.1.8.5Judge each video per query, not on the channel average
Click-through and watch time are tracked per traffic source. A video can win on the query you targeted and lose on the channel dashboard.
30m
5.1.8.6Embed each video on its matching page, with the text under it
VideoObject markup on the page earns the video result; the transcript under the embed is what the page ranks for. Link the description back for the viewer, not for the link — YouTube’s are nofollow.
5.1.9Turn each guide into one visual card and post it to PinterestB2C
Pins are indexed and keep surfacing for months, so the asset compounds instead of scrolling away. Cheap to test: the guide already exists.
5.1.11Pull the keywords your top three competitors rank for and you do not
Keyword Gap in Semrush or Content Gap in Ahrefs, cut to where they sit in the top twenty and you are absent, difficulty under 40, a buying word in the query. Each survivor is a page to fix or a page to write — mark which, per row.
2hcosts money
5.1.12Re-check every competitor claim against their current pages, quarterly
Competitors ship; your comparison and alternative pages describe last year’s version. That is the page a buyer catches you on and an AI answer marks inaccurate. Their pricing and feature pages are the source — show the old line beside the new one.
2h
5.1.13Link each new post from the old ones, the week it ships
A page published today has nothing pointing at it. Search the back catalogue for the sentence that was already about this, and link from there — new pages cannot earn links from pages written before they existed unless someone goes back.
45m
5.2.1Pick the template with real search demand
Verify the pattern has volume before you build a generator for it. Most do not.
2h
5.2.2Generate /integrations/[partner] pageshas integrations
The Zapier playbook: programmatic integration pages drive ~15% of their organic traffic.
20hhow to do it
5.2.3Extend alternative pages to every competitor
You wrote four by hand in Phase 2. Now cover the long tail of the category.
20h
5.2.4Build the template or use-case gallery to 100+ entries
One indexable page each, with related entries at the bottom. That internal mesh is the engine.
40h
5.2.5Interlink the generated pages
Unlinked generated pages are orphans and never get crawled at this volume.
8h
5.2.6Add a thin-content quality gate
Noindex anything below the bar. Mass-publishing thin pages is how sites get demoted wholesale.
8h
5.2.7Hold the next batch until most of the last one is indexed
Google rejects scaled pages quietly. One audited directory reached 90,639 pages crawled but not indexed while its impressions fell from 4,107 a day to 48. Publish more only once about 85% of the sitemap is in the index.
Done when: From Search Console’s page indexing report and the sitemap, give indexed pages ÷ sitemap URLs. Does it reach 85% before the next generated batch ships?
30m
5.2.8Exempt every page that already earns clicks from the quality gate
A gate tuned on word counts noindexes winners too: one site’s two gates removed 258 pages that had been earning 28% of its clicks. Export the pages with clicks from Search Console first, and keep them indexed whatever the gate says.
30m
6.4.5.4Set hreflang and measure each locale on its own
Without it the versions compete with each other for one slot. An average across locales hides both the win and the failure.
2h
How do you own the category term?
One term buyers already search, the definitive page on it, and the original data others have to cite.
6.6.1Pick the term you intend to own
One term. Something buyers already search, not a phrase you invented in a workshop.
2h
6.6.2Publish the definitive resource on it
The page that makes every other page on the topic look thin.
40hhow to do it
6.6.3Publish the annual state-of-the-niche report
Recurring original data. It becomes the thing journalists and AI answers cite by default.
10 dayshow to do it
6.6.4Pitch press off the original data
Journalists want the number, not the product. Lead with the finding.
16hhow to do it
6.6.5Do twelve podcasts in a quarter
Batch the pitching. One recorded hour keeps returning traffic for years.
40hhow to do it
6.6.6Give one conference talk or workshop
A talk becomes a video, a post, a lead magnet and a permanent backlink.
40hhow to do it
How to do the hardest steps
The plays these steps point at, each with its steps, constraints and sources.
- Author the honest "best [category] tools" list yourself
- Build the tiny tool other sites embed
- Work one keyword pattern, one row at a time
- Brief every page from the live results page
- The definitive how-to guide for a task you solve
- The "how much does it cost" page competitors won’t write
- Give a query Google already ranks you for its own page
- Ship llms.txt: a crib sheet for AI crawlers
- Definition + statistic block engineered for AI citation
- Hand agents the Markdown, not the layout
- An FAQ page built from the questions buyers actually ask
- Retrofit your best pages into question-and-answer shape
- Write the canonical answer to the sub’s weekly question
- Build the page an answer engine can quote
- Say the same sentence everywhere a machine looks
- Brief an original data study from numbers only you have
- Publish the “[topic] statistics” page writers have to cite
- Pitch one original statistic to a journalist
- Replace the dead links on pages that already rank
- Claim your spot where switchers shop: AlternativeTo
- Listing on the niche directories your buyers browse
- Claim the review platforms and seed ten honest reviews
- Serialize the build log on Dev.to and Hashnode
- List where the AI-curious search: AI directories and registries
- Answer journalist source requests, 20 minutes a week
- Film the answer to one query people already search on YouTube
- One page per "[your product] + [tool]" integration
- Own the annual "State of [your niche]" report
- Pitch ten niche podcasts one specific story each
- Teach a workshop where attendees leave with the thing built
Go further
SaaS SEO questions
- How long does SEO take for a new SaaS?
- Expect months, not weeks. A new domain usually ranks on page five or worse at first, and climbs as pages get indexed and links arrive. Judge a page on its exact query weeks after a change, not days.
- What should a new SaaS site publish first?
- Pages for buyers who are already choosing: “[competitor] alternative”, “[you] vs [competitor]” and use-case pages. They rank more cheaply than broad topics, and the people who find them are close to buying.
- Does a small site need a full technical SEO audit?
- Rarely at the start. Most frameworks already handle the basics. What matters is whether Google can crawl, render and index the pages that make money. Check those, then spend the time on pages and links.
Other guides
Each one re-cuts the launch plan by topic. See all the guides.
Sources
- Google, Search Central: SEO documentation & quality guidelines
- Google, Spam policies for Google web search (link spam) (Google Search Central)
- Google, Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search (Google Search Central)
Compiled by The Marketinque Team to our editorial standards.