How to Create Your SaaS SEO Strategy in 10 Actionable Steps

Are you a marketer in the SaaS industry? If so, you may be wondering how to effectively implement a SaaS SEO strategy that will drive traffic and generate valuable leads for your company. Well, let me tell you, SEO for SaaS is a whole different ball game compared to other industries. In order to be successful, you need to approach it with a unique mindset and set of tactics.

But don’t worry, I’m here to guide you through it. In this blog post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of SEO for SaaS and provide you with actionable steps to create a winning strategy. We’ll also take a look at the importance of SEO for SaaS, how it supports other marketing channels, and why it’s crucial to generate profitable traffic. Plus, we’ll showcase real-life examples of smaller SaaS companies that effectively used SEO to skyrocket their business. So sit tight and get ready to boost your SaaS company’s online visibility in no time!

How is SEO for SaaS different?

When it comes to SEO for SaaS (Software as a Service), marketers need to approach it differently compared to other industries. While the fundamental principles of SEO remain the same, there are certain aspects that make SEO for SaaS unique and require specific strategies for success.

One major difference is the target audience. SaaS products often cater to a niche market, with a specific set of users who are actively searching for solutions to their unique problems. As a result, keyword research becomes crucial in understanding the language and terminology used by this target audience. Marketers need to dig deeper and focus on long-tail keywords that reflect the specific pain points and challenges their audience faces. By optimizing content around these keywords, they can better attract and engage their target users. Another thing to consider is to create high-quality content that showcases your company as an authority, check out our post on EAT SEO for SaaS to learn more about how you can build topical authority for your market. If you are targeting larger clients, you should see our post on enterprise SaaS SEO to see how bigger companies approach SEO while building topical authority.

Another difference in SEO for SaaS lies in the buyer journey. Unlike other industries where the buyer journey may involve multiple touchpoints and stages, SaaS products often have a shorter and more direct path to conversion. Since SaaS products are typically sold online, marketers need to focus on optimizing their website and landing pages to provide a seamless user experience. This includes clear and concise messaging, easy navigation, and a well-designed conversion funnel. Additionally, since most SaaS products offer a free trial or demo, it is important to optimize these pages to drive conversions and encourage users to take the next step. On a side note: check out our guide on SaaS conversion rate optimization if you’re interested in learning more about this topic.

Lastly, SEO for SaaS requires a strong emphasis on content marketing. SaaS companies often rely on content to educate their audience, build brand awareness, and establish thought leadership. Marketers need to create high-quality content that addresses their target audience’s pain points and positions their SaaS product as the ultimate solution. This can include blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and video tutorials. By consistently producing valuable and relevant content, SaaS companies can not only attract organic traffic but also establish themselves as industry leaders.

Comparing SaaS SEO to 3 Different Industry Verticals

Contrast is a powerful tool that helps us understand the differences between things. When it comes to SEO, different industries require different strategies to rank well in search engine results. In this blog post section, we will explore how SEO is done differently in three different industries – e-commerce, healthcare, and travel – as compared to SaaS businesses.

In the e-commerce industry, where online shopping has become a norm, SEO plays a vital role in driving traffic and increasing sales. E-commerce websites need to optimize their product pages with detailed descriptions, high-quality images, and customer reviews to enhance their visibility in search engines. Additionally, they need to focus on improving website performance and user experience, as slow-loading pages and complicated navigation can lead to high bounce rates. According to an article by Moz, e-commerce websites also need to pay attention to technical SEO aspects such as canonical tags, site structure, and product schema markup to ensure their products are showcased effectively to search engines.

In the healthcare industry, SEO takes on a slightly different approach. Websites in this industry need to prioritize building trust and credibility with their audience. Health-related content needs to be authoritative, accurate, and backed by reputable sources. Achieving high rankings for medical information can be challenging due to the high level of competition and the need to adhere to medical guidelines. According to an article by Search Engine Journal, healthcare websites need to focus on creating content that addresses specific medical conditions, provides answers to common health questions, and offers valuable information that resonates with their target audience. Additionally, they need to optimize their website for local SEO by including location-specific keywords and ensuring their business information is accurate and consistent across online directories.

In the travel industry, where people search for destinations, accommodations, and activities, SEO plays a crucial role in attracting travelers to websites. Travel businesses need to focus on creating visually appealing and informative content that showcases destinations and provides useful travel tips. They need to optimize their website for mobile devices as travelers often search for information on the go. Furthermore, travel websites can benefit from incorporating user-generated content such as reviews and testimonials to build trust and encourage engagement. An article by HubSpot suggests that travel businesses should also leverage local SEO strategies by targeting specific regions and optimizing their website for location-based keywords.

When it comes to SaaS businesses, SEO strategies differ in some key ways. SaaS companies need to focus on positioning their product as a solution to specific pain points and optimizing their website to capture leads and convert them into customers. SEO efforts should revolve around targeting relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition to increase organic traffic. Additionally, SaaS websites need to invest in content marketing to educate their audience about their product and its benefits. According to an article by Neil Patel, SaaS businesses also need to prioritize on-page SEO elements such as meta tags, header tags, and keyword optimization to improve their website’s visibility.

Each industry has its nuances, and understanding these nuances is crucial for successful SEO implementation. SEO also differs by target customer type, check out our guides on B2B SaaS SEO, and B2C SaaS SEO to learn more about the nuances of doing SEO for the two types of target markets.

How important is SEO for SaaS companies?

One of the main reasons why SEO is vital for SaaS is that SaaS companies need to educate their target audience on their solution. This is different than other industry verticals where the solution set is already well-defined, and consumers or businesses know where to look when they want a solution.

On top of that, SEO helps you attract more visitors to your site, but it also helps you attract the right visitors – those who are actively searching for solutions like yours. By optimizing your website’s content, meta tags, and keywords, you can ensure that your SaaS solution will be visible to the people who need it the most. This targeted approach to SEO can significantly increase your chances of converting visitors into paying customers.

Moreover, SEO can greatly impact your SaaS business by building trust and credibility. When your website appears on the first page of search results, it signals to potential customers that your SaaS solution is reputable and trustworthy. People tend to trust search engines, so appearing high on the SERPs can lend credibility to your brand and increase the likelihood of conversions. Also, people may not trust your tech-savviness as a “software” company if you are not even able to rank in SERPs.

Now that we’ve established the value of SEO for SaaS, let’s dive into some real-life examples of SaaS companies that effectively used SEO to grow their business.

5 SaaS companies that Grew Quickly Using SEO

Let’s take a look at five Software as a Service (SaaS) companies that have effectively utilized SEO to grow their businesses. These examples will showcase how SEO efforts have specifically impacted their companies and contributed to their overall success.

1. Monday.com: Before Monday.com started investing in SEO, their search traffic was relatively low, with an average of 1,000 organic visitors per month. However, after implementing a strategic SEO campaign, their search traffic skyrocketed to over 100,000 organic visitors per month. This had a direct impact on their business, as they saw a significant increase in revenue and user acquisition.
2. Atlassian: Atlassian, known for their popular software products like Jira and Trello, had a decent amount of search traffic before they began their SEO efforts, averaging around 50,000 organic visitors per month. However, by implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy, their search traffic grew to over 500,000 organic visitors per month. This increase in search visibility had a direct positive impact on their business, leading to increased brand awareness and user engagement.
3. Canva: Before Canva started investing in SEO, their search traffic was relatively modest, with around 10,000 organic visitors per month. However, by implementing an SEO-focused content marketing strategy, their search traffic grew to over 1 million organic visitors per month. This massive increase in search visibility translated into a substantial boost in revenue and user growth for Canva.
4. Intercom: Intercom, a customer messaging platform, had a decent amount of search traffic before they began their SEO efforts, with around 30,000 organic visitors per month. However, by implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy, their search traffic grew to over 200,000 organic visitors per month. This increase in search visibility had a direct impact on their business, resulting in increased user sign-ups and revenue growth.
5. Zendesk: Before Zendesk started investing in SEO, their search traffic was relatively low, with an average of 5,000 organic visitors per month. However, after implementing a strategic SEO campaign, their search traffic grew to over 50,000 organic visitors per month. This increase in search visibility had a direct positive impact on their business, resulting in increased brand awareness and lead generation. Zendesk achieved this by conducting thorough keyword research, optimizing their website structure, and creating high-quality content that addressed their target audience’s pain points.

These examples demonstrate the significant impact that SEO can have on smaller SaaS companies. By utilizing effective SEO strategies, these companies were able to increase their brand visibility, attract targeted traffic, generate leads, and ultimately grow their businesses.

Now, let’s how SEO supports other marketing channels for a company.

How SEO Supports other Marketing Channels

In today’s digital landscape, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business. And when it comes to online visibility, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a vital role. But what many marketers fail to realize is that SEO efforts can significantly support and enhance other marketing channels as well. Let’s take a closer look at how SEO compliments efforts for search engine marketing, marketing automation, pay per click advertising, public relations, and outbound sales.

Starting with SEM, which includes activities such as paid search advertising and organic search optimization, SEO plays a pivotal role in driving traffic and increasing visibility. By optimizing the website’s content, structure, and technical aspects, SEO helps SEM efforts by ensuring that the website ranks higher in search engine results. This increased visibility helps capture the attention of potential customers at the top of the sales funnel

Moving on to marketing automation, SEO supports this channel by providing valuable data and insights. By tracking keywords, search volumes, and user behavior, SEO helps marketers identify customer preferences and tailor their automated marketing campaigns accordingly. This ensures that the right message is delivered to the right audience at the right time, improving lead generation and nurturing efforts at the middle of the sales funnel.

When it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, SEO complements this channel by optimizing landing pages and improving the quality score. By aligning the website’s content and keywords with the PPC ads, SEO enhances relevancy, resulting in higher click-through rates and better ad performance. Additionally, SEO helps lower the cost per click by improving the Quality Score, which is based on factors like ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected click-through rate. By working hand in hand with PPC advertising, SEO helps businesses maximize their return on investment and drive conversions at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Public relations efforts also benefit from SEO, especially in terms of online reputation management. By optimizing content and leveraging relevant keywords, SEO helps shape the narrative around a brand and ensures that positive PR stories rank high in search results. This boosts brand credibility and visibility, strengthening the impact of public relations efforts across the entire sales funnel.

Lastly, outbound sales can leverage the power of SEO to identify and engage with potential customers. By analyzing search patterns and keywords, SEO provides valuable insights into customer intent and behavior. This information can be used to optimize sales messaging and tailor outreach efforts, increasing the chances of success in prospecting and closing deals.

As we can see, SEO efforts can greatly support and enhance other marketing channels by increasing online visibility, driving qualified traffic, and improving conversions. But will SEO continue to get harder? We’ll discuss that next.

Will SEO Continue to Get Harder?

Is SEO getting harder? That’s the question many marketers are asking themselves as they try to navigate the ever-changing landscape of search engine optimization. And the answer, unfortunately, is yes. SEO is becoming increasingly difficult, and it’s only going to get harder in the years to come.

There are several reasons why SEO is becoming more challenging for marketers. One of the main factors is the sheer amount of competition in the digital space. According to a study by Internet Live Stats, there are over 1.9 billion websites on the internet as of January 2022. With so many websites vying for attention, it’s no wonder that ranking on the first page of search engine results is becoming more difficult.

Another reason why SEO is getting harder is the continuous updates and algorithm changes made by search engines like Google. These updates aim to provide users with the most relevant and high-quality search results, but they also mean that marketers need to constantly adapt their SEO strategies. For example, Google’s BERT update in 2019 introduced a new natural language processing algorithm that better understands user intent and context. This means that marketers need to focus more on creating high-quality, user-focused content rather than keyword stuffing.

Additionally, the rise of mobile usage has also made SEO more challenging. With the increasing number of people using mobile devices to search the internet, marketers need to ensure that their websites are mobile-friendly and optimized for mobile search. According to Statista, mobile devices accounted for 54.8% of global website traffic in the fourth quarter of 2020. This means that having a responsive website design and fast-loading pages is crucial for SEO success.

In conclusion, SEO is definitely getting harder for marketers. The saturation of the digital space, the continuous updates and algorithm changes by search engines, and the rise of mobile usage all contribute to the increasing difficulty of SEO. Marketers need to stay on top of these changes and adapt their strategies accordingly in order to maintain a competitive edge. But, the best time to start is now! The only thing is you will need to be consistent in your SEO efforts – inconsistency is one of the top SaaS SEO mistakes that most companies make. You can avoid inconsistency, and other SEO mistakes by using our 14-step expert level SaaS SEO checklist.

Now, let’s transition to discussing some low-hanging fruit that marketers can tackle in order to improve their SEO before diving into a more robust SEO strategy for their SaaS company.

5 Low-Hanging SEO Fruit to Tackle First

Before diving into creating a more robust SEO strategy, there are some low hanging fruit that you can tackle to give your website a quick boost in search rankings. These simple yet effective actions can lay a solid foundation for your future SEO efforts.

1. Optimize your meta tags: Meta tags are snippets of HTML code that provide search engines with information about your website. By optimizing your meta title and description tags, you can influence how your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). Craft compelling and keyword-rich meta tags that accurately describe your SaaS offering, enticing users to click through to your website. This small optimization can have a big impact on click-through rates and organic traffic.

2. Improve page load speed: A slow-loading website not only frustrates users but also negatively affects your search rankings. Google considers page load speed as one of the ranking factors. Conduct a website speed test using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify any performance bottlenecks and take necessary actions to optimize your website’s speed. Compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging browser caching are a few techniques that can significantly improve load times. Check out our guide on SaaS SEO tools to get a more in-depth coverage of the various SaaS SEO tools you can use.

3. Fix broken links and improve internal linking: Broken links not only lead to a poor user experience but also harm your SEO efforts. Regularly scan your website for broken links using tools like Screaming Frog. Once you identify broken links, fix them or redirect them to relevant pages. Additionally, focus on improving internal linking by strategically linking relevant pages within your website. This helps search engines understand the hierarchy and structure of your website, improves navigation, and boosts SEO.

4. Optimize your website for mobile: Mobile optimization is no longer optional in today’s digital landscape. With the majority of internet users accessing websites from mobile devices, Google now prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search results. Ensure your website is responsive and provides a seamless user experience across all devices. Test your website’s mobile-friendliness with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and make necessary improvements to enhance mobile user experience.

5. Leverage user-generated content: User-generated content (UGC) can be a powerful SEO tool for SaaS companies. Encourage your users to leave reviews, testimonials, and feedback on your website or third-party review platforms. Not only does UGC provide social proof to potential customers, but it also adds fresh and unique content to your website. Search engines love fresh content, and by actively promoting and incorporating UGC into your SEO strategy, you can improve your search rankings.

These five low hanging fruit can be tackled relatively quickly and provide immediate SEO improvements for your SaaS company. By optimizing your meta tags, improving page load speed, fixing broken links, optimizing for mobile, and leveraging user-generated content, you are setting the stage for a more comprehensive SEO strategy.

Now, let’s shift our focus to the essential steps that a marketer needs to consider when devising a SaaS SEO strategy in 2023. These ten actionable and easy-to-understand steps will help you take your SEO game to the next level, ensuring long-term success for your SaaS company.

10 Actionable Steps to Define a Robust SaaS SEO Strategy in 2023

Let’s dive in!

Step 1: Define your target audience and keywords
To kickstart your SaaS SEO strategy, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your target audience and the keywords they are using to search for your product or service. This information will serve as the foundation for all your SEO efforts.

Step 2: Conduct thorough keyword research
Once you have identified your target audience and keywords, it’s time to conduct in-depth keyword research. This step will help you uncover additional relevant keywords and their search volumes, which you can optimize your website and content for. Remember, a comprehensive keyword strategy is key to driving organic traffic.

Step 3: Optimize your website structure
Now that you have your keywords, it’s essential to optimize your website structure. Pay attention to your URL structure, meta tags, headers, and internal linking. By organizing your website in a logical manner, search engines can easily crawl and understand your content, leading to better rankings. Moreover, a well-structured website enhances the user experience.

Step 4: Create high-quality, unique content
Content is king, even in 2023! Creating high-quality, unique content that is valuable to your target audience is crucial for SEO success. Conduct thorough research on the topics your audience is interested in and ensure your content provides the best answer or solution. Remember to incorporate your target keywords naturally throughout your content.

Step 5: Optimize on-page elements
Once you have created valuable content, optimize your on-page elements. This includes optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and image alt tags with relevant keywords. By doing so, search engines can better understand the context and relevance of your content, leading to improved visibility.

Some companies even use a SaaS SEO agency, SaaS SEO copywriters, and SaaS SEO consultants so that they can implement on-page SEO best practices.

Step 6: Leverage off-page SEO tactics
Off-page SEO plays a significant role in boosting your website’s authority and credibility. Acquiring high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites is crucial. Additionally, engaging in social media marketing, influencer collaborations, and guest blogging can also help increase your website’s visibility and organic rankings. Check out our practical guide to SaaS link building to learn more about how to build backlinks to your website.

Step 7: Optimize your website for mobile
Mobile optimization has become increasingly important in recent years, and it’s not going anywhere in 2023. Ensure your website is responsive, loads quickly, and offers a seamless user experience across all devices. Mobile-friendly websites are not only favored by search engines but also provide a better user experience, which can lead to higher engagement and conversions.

Step 8: Monitor and analyze your website’s performance
Regularly monitoring and analyzing your website’s performance is vital to track the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Utilize analytics tools to measure keyword rankings, organic traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, and other relevant metrics. This data will provide valuable insights to optimize your SEO efforts further. Check out our guide on key SEO KPIs that you should use to gauge our performance.

Step 9: Keep up with algorithm updates
Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving. Staying up-to-date with the latest algorithm updates and SEO trends is crucial to maintain and improve your rankings. Continuously adapt your SEO strategy based on these updates to ensure your website remains optimized for search engines.

Step 10: Stay ahead of the competition
Finally, always keep an eye on your competitors. Analyze their SEO strategies, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and find opportunities to differentiate yourself. By staying ahead of the competition, you can continuously improve your SEO strategy and maintain a competitive edge.

Now, let’s move on to the next topic and explore the relative importance of on-page, off-page, technical SEO, and content strategy in creating an effective SEO strategy.

Which Area of SEO Should We Pay Attention To?

When it comes to creating an effective SEO strategy, it’s important to understand the relative importance of on-page, off-page, technical SEO, and content strategy. Each component plays a crucial role in boosting a website’s search engine rankings and attracting organic traffic.

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual web pages to improve their visibility in search engine results. This involves optimizing titles, headings, meta tags, and URLs, as well as incorporating relevant keywords throughout the content. On-page SEO helps search engines understand the content and relevance of a webpage, making it easier for them to rank it accurately. Check out our guide to on-page optimization for SaaS companies to learn more.

Off-page SEO, on the other hand, focuses on improving a website’s authority and reputation through external factors. This includes building high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites, engaging in guest blogging, social media promotion, and influencer outreach. Off-page SEO signals tell search engines that a website is trusted and respected by others, which can greatly improve its search rankings. Check out our complete guide to off-page SEO for SaaS companies to learn more

Technical SEO involves optimizing the technical aspects of a website to improve its crawlability, indexability, and overall performance. This includes ensuring a website is mobile-friendly, has fast loading times, uses proper URL structures, has a sitemap, and employs schema markup, among other technical optimizations. Technical SEO helps search engines understand and index a website more efficiently, resulting in better search rankings. Check out our guide to technical SEO for SaaS companies to learn more.

Lastly, content strategy is the foundation of any SEO strategy. It involves creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that resonates with the target audience. A good content strategy not only helps attract organic traffic but also encourages social sharing and link building. By consistently producing valuable content, a website can establish itself as a reliable source of information and expertise, boosting its search rankings. Check out our ultimate guide to SaaS keyword research to learn more.

To create an effective SEO strategy for a SaaS company, it is crucial to focus on all four components. Ignoring any one of them can lead to suboptimal results. For example, neglecting on-page SEO could result in search engines not understanding the relevance of a webpage, leading to lower rankings. Similarly, ignoring off-page SEO may result in a lack of backlinks and social signals, limiting a website’s authority and visibility.

Furthermore, a weak technical SEO foundation can hinder search engines from efficiently crawling and indexing a website, reducing its chances of being ranked highly. Lastly, without a well-executed content strategy, a SaaS company may struggle to attract and engage its target audience, resulting in lower organic traffic and missed opportunities for conversions.

In conclusion, a comprehensive SEO strategy that includes on-page, off-page, technical SEO, and content strategy is crucial for a SaaS company to drive profitable traffic. Neglecting any of these components can hinder a website’s search engine rankings, visibility, and ability to attract and engage potential customers.

Now, let’s dive deeper into the importance of creating an SEO strategy that will produce profitable traffic for a SaaS company and explore how unprofitable traffic can potentially hurt a company’s bottom line.

Why Your SEO Operation Needs to Be Profitable

When it comes to running a SaaS company, one of the key objectives is to generate profitable traffic. And the best way to achieve this is by creating a well-thought-out SEO strategy. Now, you might be thinking, “Why is an SEO strategy so important? Can’t I just rely on any kind of traffic?” Well, let me break it down for you.

First and foremost, by focusing on creating an SEO strategy, you are essentially optimizing your website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that when a potential customer is searching for a solution that your SaaS product offers, your website will be more likely to appear at the top of the search results. And we all know that the higher you rank, the more visibility and exposure you gain. This, in turn, can lead to increased organic traffic.

Now, you might be thinking, “Great, more traffic is always good, right?” Well, not quite. While it’s true that more traffic can potentially lead to more customers, it’s crucial to remember that not all traffic is created equal. In fact, unprofitable traffic can actually hurt your SaaS company in more ways than one.

Firstly, unprofitable traffic refers to visitors who are not genuinely interested in your product or service. They might have stumbled upon your website through unrelated search terms or misleading meta descriptions. As a result, these visitors are more likely to bounce off your site quickly without taking any valuable actions, such as signing up for a free trial or making a purchase. This not only wastes your efforts in attracting them but also negatively impacts your website’s bounce rate and conversion rate.

Secondly, unprofitable traffic can put a strain on your server resources and slow down your website’s performance. Imagine having an influx of visitors who have no intention of converting. This increase in traffic volume can lead to slower load times, frustrating user experiences, and ultimately, a negative impact on your website’s SEO.

Lastly, unprofitable traffic can hurt your SaaS company’s bottom line. Not only does it waste valuable resources, such as time and money spent on acquiring and retaining uninterested visitors, but it also reduces the chances of converting genuine prospects into paying customers. In the end, your revenue and growth potential suffer.

It’s clear that creating an SEO strategy that generates profitable traffic is crucial for the success of a SaaS company. Unprofitable traffic not only wastes valuable resources but also negatively impacts your website’s performance and bottom line. So, don’t underestimate the power of a well-executed SEO strategy – it could be the key to unlocking the growth and profitability your SaaS company deserves.

If you’re thinking of investing in SEO for your SaaS company, or increasing your SEO budget, check out our framework to guide SaaS SEO budget creation, and how you can create a profitable SEO operation for your company.

If you’re looking for an actionable, personalized guide on how to create your SaaS SEO strategy, feel free to request your action plan from our team! We help companies create profitable SEO operations that are designed to provide returns for years, if not decades!