Honest question: we blog weekly, 0 technical errors, follow every SEO checklist still stuck at DA 12. What are we missing?
Hey IH,
I've been working on my SaaS (a Next.js boilerplate) for a few months now, and SEO has been the main growth channel we're betting on.
Here's what we've done so far:
Published 20+ technical blog posts with proper keyword research and internal linking.
Resolved all Lighthouse issues (zero remaining) and have no indexing errors in Google Search Console.
Implemented OG images, structured data, a sitemap, and all the essential technical SEO requirements.
Followed AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) guidelines.
Despite this, we're still barely moving the needle on Domain Authority (DA). It feels like we're doing the homework but not getting the grade, lol.
What I actually want to know:
For those of you who went from DA 10–15 to 30+, what was the turning point?
Is it purely a backlinks game at this point?
Are there any specific strategies that worked for you that aren't just "write great content"? (Because we're already doing that!)
Also, a quick tip/offer: One thing we started doing that might help others here too is setting up a showcase page. We feature other people's projects with a permanent do-follow backlink. In return, you just add a small badge on your site linking back to us. We designed 4 different styles so it doesn't look ugly.
We already have a few projects up there. If anyone wants to exchange backlinks this way, I'm totally down, just DM me or check it out here:
https://www.omnikit.dev/showcase
But mainly, I'm here to learn. What worked for you?
Reading this entire thread feels like a masterclass in tactical distraction.
Half the room is chasing an arbitrary vanity metric (DA).
The other half is worried AI will replace their blog posts.
And a few are trading backlinks like it’s 2010.
But the real issue is structural.
If your entire acquisition depends on an algorithm you don’t control, you don’t have a growth strategy — you have a dependency.
DA doesn’t pay server bills.
And AI doesn’t kill systems that actually convert.
The real question isn’t “how do we raise DA?”
It’s: what system turns traffic into revenue once it arrives?
Interesting perspective. For SEO at DA 12, the issue is often link velocity and anchor text diversity rather than content quality. Have you analyzed your backlink profile's anchor text distribution? Exact match anchors above 20% can trigger algorithmic penalties that content quality alone won't fix. Also curious - are you targeting featured snippets? They can drive traffic even at low DA.
I think Google's new LLM system with taking information and directly providing it in google search, ruined this kinda marketing channel.
it hurts seeing it stuck at a single digit forever lol.
tbh im kinda worried that google's new llm system just completely ruined this channel anyway. if the ai just gives the user the answer right in search, why would anyone even click our blogs?
I feel your pain, I've been stuck at 8 DA for few months too now, quite intrested if any have suggestion for this post.
Single digit DA is rough man😭
One angle that's often missed: your content's structure matters as much as its technical SEO. Google's ranking systems now strongly favor content that's clearly organized with semantic clarity — defined audience, explicit objective, layered context.
I ran into this building flompt, a visual prompt builder. The same principle that makes AI give better answers (structured blocks vs. prose blobs) applies to how crawlers read content. Worth auditing whether your posts have a clear hierarchy beyond headings alone.
A ⭐ on github.com/Nyrok/flompt would mean a lot if the tool's useful — solo open-source founder here 🙏
Backlinks, PR Releases, Traffic
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Hi Raman,
Thanks for sharing this. I'm also an indie developer working on my own project, so I found your post very relatable.
From what I've seen, when everything on the technical SEO side is already optimized (like Lighthouse, indexing, structured data, etc.), the main factor that moves DA tends to be authority signals from outside your site.
A few strategies I've seen work well for SaaS projects:
• Getting listed on directories (Product Hunt, BetaList, AI tool directories, etc.)
• Building in public and sharing progress on communities like Indie Hackers or X
• Creating small free tools or utilities that people naturally link to
• Writing comparison or resource posts that other developers reference
Your showcase idea is actually interesting too. If more projects join, it could work like a small directory and generate natural backlinks over time.
I'm still learning SEO myself, but I really enjoyed reading your breakdown and the transparency about what you've tried so far.
Great idea! What's your main acquisition channel?