SEO For SaaS: Actionable Advice On B2B SaaS SEO Success!

Intro

Welcome to the definitive Guide on Actionable steps to take for a successful Saas SEO Strategy!

To Start with, let’s dive into…

What Is SaaS SEO?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a cloud computing model where software applications are hosted online and accessed over the internet using web browsers or mobile apps. In contrast to traditional client/server models, SaaS providers host their customers' data centers and provide access to those services via the Internet.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of influencing the visibility of websites or web pages in search engines.

Generally speaking, the earlier (or higher ranked on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

These same users may click back to the site each time they find something new they want to view.

Combined together, SaaS SEO is a specific kind of SEO that is used for SaaS products. These are products that are sold in the form of software and require a monthly subscription.

The main goal of SaaS SEO is to make sure that the product gets found on search engines. The way this is done is by making sure that it ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are many ways to do this, but one of the most basic level methods is through Content and Backlinks.

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SaaS SEO Checklist:

If we put it in a list, it would look like this;

• Keyword Research.
• Meta Tags.
• Content.
• Links.
• Saas Web Speed.
• Robots.txt.
• XML Sitemap.

SaaS Keyword Research

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find information online.

If you want your website to show up in search results, then you need to make sure that your site contains relevant keywords.

You should use different variations of keywords, including misspellings, plurals, and singulars.

Search for the problem you’re solving through your software and see where you find content opportunities and add keywords in your money pages and in your website content through your blog.

Meta Tags

Meta tags are HTML codes that provide additional information about your page. Search engines scan meta tags to determine what kind of content you have on your website.

Make sure that each page on your website includes Meta Tags. Implement the right tags to help Google bot easily navigate through your website.

Content Marketing for Saas

Content helps users to understand more about your product. Content is the information that users read on your website.

To optimize your website for search engines, you should focus on producing quality content that provides useful information to visitors via sharing how-to guides, software comparison guides, and more.

To get content ideas you can simply put your competitor in Ahref’s site explorer and head over to the Top Pages section to see what pages drive most of the traffic. And If you can create a better piece of content then you can definitely go for it!

You can also share new content on websites that talk about the same industry as yours. This will give an idea to Google that you’re relevant and an authority in the industry.

This brings authority links to your site which is addressed in the next step that how you can bring traffic and authority back to your site.

Gain Authority Backlinks

Links are pages on other websites that link back to yours. When someone clicks on these links, they go to the sites mentioned.

Search engines look at how many times other websites link to yours to determine how trustworthy you are.

To gather these you need to create linkable content known as (link bait) where you carry out studies, and stats by researching and then reach out to popular industry authors and journalists to help get your word out.

When it comes to creating manually, you can list down your product on popular product listing directories, review sites, and authority citations.

You can get an idea by putting your competitor in Ahref’s Site explorer and head over to “backlinks” and download a CSV sheet containing all the authority backlinks your competitor has gained links from.

And that will help ;)

How Important Is SEO In A SaaS Business?

SEO is the most important part of any b2b Saas business. It can be used to generate leads and increase conversion rates and overall revenue.

But then still if you’re wondering…

How To Create A SEO Strategy For A Saas Product?

SEO is a process that not only helps you rank higher in search engine results pages for relevant keywords. This way, you can get more traffic to your website and that will generate more leads and sales.

You need to find out what people are searching for on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines. Then you need to optimize your website so that it ranks higher in the SERPs for those keywords. You can use Rank Tracker to track your most important keywords on search.

What is one thing that must be done before creating a SaaS SEO strategy?

The first thing that needs to be done is to create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) that is an imaginary "Buyer Persona" created to filter and target down who is your perfect customer that will buy your premium packages, have long-term retention and be profitable.

Also, it’s best to create a SaaS SEO strategy, knowing crucial to understand the audience and their needs.

A SaaS SEO strategy should be created with the end user in mind. The company should know who they are targeting and what they want before making any decisions on how to market its product.

This will help them create a more effective saas marketing plan that will result in better search rankings and increased revenue.

How to Improve SEO for SaaS Companies?

SEO is one of the most important aspects of a SaaS company. It is not just about ranking on Google. SEO is also about getting more qualified leads, which means that you need to rank on Google and other search engines, get more authority in social media, and make sure that your website has the right content.

To improve SEO for a SaaS company, you should start with keyword research as I mentioned above to find out what your customers are looking for and then use that information to create content.

You should also make sure that your website has a clear navigation system so people can find what they are looking for easily.

Create User/Customer Persona To Target:

Users That Are Looking For Your Software/Tool. (Why You Need This, Awareness Content)

Users who are looking for services similar to what you offer. (Share Comparisons, Tell Why You Are Better, etc.)

Users looking for plans/pricing for your Software. (Tell How You Offer Better as a whole)

Users that want to educate themselves in your domain. (How it helps, Benefits, User Guides, etc.)

Address Customer’s Pain Points:

In order to increase customer retention rates, it is important to address their pain points. This can be done by understanding the customer's needs and developing solutions for them.

It is crucial that, as a SaaS company, you understand how your customers use your product. This will give you an idea of what they want and what they need in order to be able to achieve their goals.

When it comes to customer retention, it is important that you take care of the customers who are already using your product and make sure that they are satisfied with it.

Fundamental Steps to Rank Better On Big Search Engines Like Google:

• Technical Optimization.
• Content.
• Backlinks.

Technical SEO On SaaS Website:

Firstly, Go for Smooth Site Navigation, Optimize your site's Sales Funnel, and create a site with superb UI/UX Preference.

SaaS Website Speed

Site speed refers to how fast your website loads. Users expect websites to load quickly, especially mobile users who may not have access to a high-speed internet connection.

A slow loading time means that your website loses traffic and potential customers.

You can use Page Speed Insights and Pingdom to help you share valuable data regarding your slow speed, whether it’s your server end is slow or either you need to compress js or CSS files.

You can get brief about your slow speed from these 2 amazing tools which then you can share with your developers.

Robots.txt File

A robots.txt file tells search engine spiders whether or not they can crawl certain parts of your website. This lets them know if you don't want them to index specific pages or directories.

You can check your robots file by going to

www.mywebsite.com/robots.txt

If you want more brief about how to optimize your robots.txt file then you can read this article…

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap helps search engine spiders navigate your website easier. An XML sitemap lists out all of the pages on your website using web addresses instead of URLs. If you’re using a WordPress site, your sitemap would probably open through

https://mywebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml

Or if your developers built a custom site then it will probably open like

https://mywebsite.com/sitemap.xml

And you can check and see if everything is as you wanted! Ream more details on XML sitemaps.

Improve Your Site’s Mobile Friendliness

Google now prioritizes mobile friendliness over desktop friendliness. If your website isn’t responsive, users may find it difficult to navigate. Make sure you test your site on different devices to make sure everything looks good and works well across platforms.

Schema Markup

Schema markup helps search engines understand the structure of your data. Using schema markup makes it easier for search engines to read and index your content. To create a schema for your site, you can create one from Schema Markup Generator from technical SEO and validate it through Google Schema Testing Tool to check if it will work or not.

Now we talked about optimization that we can do on our behalf, but how to carry out activities outside of our website premises?

And that is….

Improving Customer’s Journey:

To see how your site visitors behave and navigate through your website, you can see that from Behavioral Report in Google Analytics.

If you have only set up GA4 for your site, you can navigate to the funnel exploration report and see a comparative overview of your site visitors.

Let’s understand some basic terminologies…

User Experience Optimization (UXO)

User experience optimization (UXO) is a term coined by Google’s Matt Cutts in 2014 to describe the process of making a website easier to use. This can be achieved by running UX or usability testing, measuring usability metrics and gathering feedback using usability testing software. UXO is a subset of conversion rate optimization (CRO)

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a method of optimizing website content and design to increase conversion rates. CRO is a subset of user experience optimization (UXO).

Content Marketing for SaaS

Content marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on developing and distributing content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined audience — often referred to as the customer or prospect. To create amazing content, you need to create a fine strategy with strong KPIs to start optimizing for each term you want your software to come first at it. To start with, let’s learn...

What Is TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU Content Funnel and How To Create One?

Tofu: Top of the Funnel.

Mofu: Middle of the Funnel.

Bofu: Bottom of the Funnel.

This will help you improve your customer’s journey more often. Get more in-depth insights here.

How to Acquire Backlinks for SaaS Startups?

Top Notch Content + Outreach.

• Guest Posting.
• Media Publications.
• HARO.

Writing Guest Posts

To skyrocket your guest post outreach, you can use Ahref’s content explorer, put your seed keyword in the search, filter to “one domain only” and DR filter <30 and download a CSV file containing all the sites that you want to pitch. Then create a customized pitch for each and start outreaching!

Acquiring Media Publications through Media Outreach:

The most common platform where you’ll find the majority of the outreach specialists is subscribing to HARO Emails. HARO is a platform where it connects journalists with experts to create a relationship that is a win-win for both parties. To learn how to utilize this platform you can watch this…

But what if you fail there?

Suggested Tool If You Are Failing On HARO!

For people who find it difficult to get featured using HARO, you can then move to Qwoted. Using Qwoted, the media may connect with renowned experts and PR specialists. It will help you find ideas, experts, speakers, and guests instantly, all in one place.

To get started, see how to use qwoted.

One Last Bonus Tip for you…

Important Social Signals through Social Media:

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media marketing (also known as social PR, or social advertising) is a form of marketing and advertising that involves exploiting social networking platforms to spread a message about a brand, product, or service.

Through these channels, companies can connect with their target audiences in order to promote sales, recruit new customers, retain current clients, and develop goodwill among their community of loyal consumers.

Social networks exist primarily on the Internet, though some are solely dedicated to mobile phones. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are examples of popular social media platforms.

Summary

By utilizing each and every platform with the smart strategy you can carry out your successful Saas case study and build a strong brand out of it.

If you have any questions regarding any step I shared you can comment down or email us for better communication...