The Complete Guide to SaaS SEO in 2024

• January 20, 2024

Reading Time: 8 minutes

You have a perfect tool to sell. You know there are people who certainly need it. How can you ensure they find your product? How do you attract the relevant audience and outperform competitors with similar offers who have already established their robust online presence? B2B SaaS SEO (search engine optimization) is the key to this puzzle.

With competition intensifying and the cost of customer acquisition rising, you need reliable strategies to weather any storms and economic downturns. SEO is all about that. It helps you rank better, that is, to be among the first companies for a specific search request. However, selling software requires a slightly different approach to SEO for B2B SaaS companies than for any other type of business.

You don’t have as many products as an online store. Instead, you have one or several solutions and services that appeal to a specific audience—professionals seeking tools to streamline their business processes.

That’s why we’ve created this SaaS SEO guide to make this process manageable and efficient. We’ll go over various aspects of SaaS SEO, from technical SEO to keyword research. Let’s refine your approach, no matter if you only start your SaaS company or already have one.

Laying the Groundwork for SaaS SEO Success

Let’s start by tackling a crucial question: How does SaaS SEO differ from traditional SEO? As mentioned above, it has its peculiarities. First and foremost, traditional SEO is like casting a wide net. There, you aim to attract a broad audience and appeal to their needs. With SEO for SaaS, especially B2B SaaS SEO, precision is paramount.

You shouldn’t attract as many people as possible. You need to zero in on the right ones—sales and marketing specialists who are in need of what you have to offer. That’s where you take into account their needs and preferences. For example, Salespanel is software for capturing and nurturing leads. So, the focus of our marketing approach is on marketers looking for these solutions.

Of course, the main goal of SEO, be it retail, SaaS, or financial services, is to take the best positions in search results. And that’s what happens when you optimize the website SEO-wise. But at the same time, you not only climb the search engine ranks but get closer to the audience who will benefit most from your software.

SEO’s Role in SaaS: From User Acquisition to Domain Authority

There are many reasons for choosing search engine optimization. In short, it’s the key pillar. It’s essential for sustainable growth. As you improve the website to meet ranking criteria, including efforts to increase website speed, make the site mobile friendly, or streamline navigation, you also enhance the user experience. It, in turn, elevates behavior metrics, customer satisfaction, sales, and, ultimately, revenue. Here are some B2B SaaS SEO benefits:

• Skyrocketing user growth: It makes it easier for potential customers to spot your brand when searching for the needed solutions.
  
• Reducing cost per acquisition (CPA): Organic clicks cost nothing, unlike pay-per-click advertising. It lowers the cost of acquiring new clients as you pay only for SEO, getting in front of the right eye for less money.
  
• Increasing domain authority: It’s akin to building your online reputation. It’s crucial. A higher domain authority signals your industry credibility and correlates with higher positions on the search engine result page (SERP).

How to Set SaaS SEO Goals and KPIs

Where do you start your SaaS SEO strategy? The first step is to establish clear, measurable goals and KPIs. You should do it before implementing any other tips mentioned below. Why? Because without concrete goals, you’ll shoot arrows in the dark. As such, determine what you consider to be a success:

• increased traffic;
• higher rankings;
• more leads;
• better backlink quality.

Suppose you want to work on technical SEO for SaaS. Your goals may be reducing page load times and improving user experience, which are critical for retaining prospective users.

When doing SEO, you may focus on attracting visitors. Yet, it’s wise to keep conversions in mind, too. Having a decent number of visitors, coupled with their high purchase intent, ensures business prosperity. Include conversion goals in your SaaS SEO checklist.

1. Master Keywords to Meet the Search Intent

Users have a certain goal when googling. To serve your SaaS product properly, you need to understand this goal. There are four main types of search intent: navigational, informational, investigational, and transactional. Let’s break them down:

• Navigational: That’s when a person wants to be directed to a particular address. For example, when typing “Salespanel login”, they want a concrete page. These searches are relevant only when you’re the website users want to get, rather than information about it.
  
• Informational: These intents illustrate the desire to learn more. These are searches like “best practices in lead tracking” or “how to qualify sales leads.” You can use them for your SaaS blog and knowledge base.
  
• Investigational: They show a person’s desire to purchase something and consider various options. These are comparison requests, such as “Salespanel vs. Competitor.” This is your opportunity to showcase your SaaS product’s unique selling features.
  
• Transactional: It’s the indicator of the readiness to buy. Here, users may employ keywords like “buy Salespanel subscription” or similar. Your task is to design converting landing pages using these keywords to direct traffic to your website.

To find the top keywords, you need to research them. Define your goals, know your target audience, and choose suitable SaaS SEO tools to uncover valuable phrases. These can be  Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, or Google Keyword Planner. They show keyword difficulty, search volume, trends, variations, and more. Plus, you can analyze competitors to see what they rank for. Maybe you can do it better and spot a niche they’ve overlooked.

Put the keywords to work in blog posts, landing pages, FAQs, and meta descriptions/titles. Here is how to strategically integrate them:

• blog posts and articles: informational and investigational keywords;
• landing pages: transactional keywords;
• FAQs and knowledge bases: informational keywords.

2. Craft a Winning SaaS SEO Content Strategy

SaaS content marketing puts a lot of emphasis not only on commercial content but on educational materials as well. It means you need to strike a balance between sales pitches and informational guides. Keep the language natural and persuasive and position your brand as a thought leader. 

To produce content without any interruptions, build a calendar. Let’s assume your target audience is sales and marketing professionals. They may be interested in industry insights, trends, and efficiency tools. Plan posts covering these topics with clear goals in mind, for example: 

• to get traffic;
• to boost engagement, to name a few.

Maybe there are some industry events that may influence your content calendar. Have you launched a product? Or are there some seasonal trends? Elaborate on this.

You may have heard about the 80/20 rule. It applies to content types as well. Post 80% educational and 20% commercial content. And remember to update the existing pages. Google likes it, promoting your website in search, while users may find your content applicable again.

3. Technical SEO for SaaS Platforms

Next, look at your website from a technical perspective. Are there any issues affecting its rankings? This process is known as a site audit, which is crucial for any SEO for SaaS strategy. Here’s how to go about it:

• Crawl your website using SaaS SEO tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush. You may find SEO issues like broken links and missing meta tags.
  
• Check whether search engines can index your website by configuring a robots.txt file.
  
• According to statistics, poor load times increase the bounce rate by 32%. Analyze your site speed.  It’s critical for B2B SaaS SEO, where every lead counts. You can do this on Google PageSpeed Insights.

Screenshot taken on the official Google PageSpeed Insights website

• Review on-page SEO elements, including title tags, meta descriptions, and headers, that is, their length, whether they encourage users to click, and whether they contain relevant keywords.
  
• Assess user experience with tools like Hotjar with its heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and other features. They help you understand how users interact with your site and where they face issues.

After conducting the audit, tackle the identified SaaS technical SEO problems. From simplifying the website structure to implementing SSL, these tactics can boost your website rankings and make it more findable for users.

Use Google Analytics and Search Console to keep tabs on site performance. Integrate keywords, enhance loading speed, and implement Schema markup to get rich snippets. Return to technical SEO for SaaS to keep the content fresh, site performance top-notch, and the business compliant with the best practices and latest SEO standards.

4. Link-Building Strategies for SaaS

Backlinks are another critical ranking factor. Without them, it’s hard to get to the desired positions in search results as Google perceives them as votes of confidence from one site to another. However, you need to gain quality backlinks rather than hunting for any link you can obtain.

Backlinks contribute to higher domain authority. The better it is, the more chances you have to rank well on search engine results pages. They drive referral traffic to your site, boosting brand visibility on third parties. So, they give you an opportunity to expose your SaaS product to a broader audience, which is essential in the B2B SaaS SEO landscape.

How can you earn backlinks? In the SaaS domain, you may consider guest blogging, partnering with complementary SaaS providers, and leveraging user reviews. For instance, you can share your expertise in guest articles, webinars, or whitepapers, asking other business owners to link to you.

Another link-building strategy revolves around analyzing and searching for broken links on websites. If you’ve spotted the one you could replace with your content, reach out to the website admin and suggest your link as a replacement. Google doesn’t like dead-ends. So, you help the website owner avoid possible SEO implications. Ahrefs may come in handy for conducting these audits.

Images, infographics, and other graphics can also be a great way to increase visibility. Others may want to share them, so make sure they provide proper attribution.

While backlinks are important, don’t forget about internal linking in your SEO SaaS. Internal links direct users to other pages, inviting them to continue their purchase journey. Internal links distribute ‘link juice’, passing value from better-performing to worse-performing pages. Search engine spiders also use them to explore your website. At the end of the day, that’s how prospective clients may learn about you more, increasing page views and engagement.

5. Measuring and Optimizing SaaS SEO Performance

Now that the SEO process is in full swing, you need to track the results of the implemented strategies. That’s where you can use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs, or Moz.

Keep in mind that Universal Analytics is about to sunset and be replaced with Google Analytics 4. Given the legal challenges with Google Analytics in several EU countries and the shift to GA4, you may want to consider other options like Salespanel. It’s GDPR-compliant, doesn’t use third-party cookies, and lets you connect with buyers with personalized offers.

Screenshot taken on the official Salespanel website

SaaS SEO tools provide insights into backlinks, keyword rankings, and competitor analysis. They’re a goldmine for refining your SaaS marketing SEO strategy. Here are other metrics to track:

• organic traffic;
• conversion rates;
• bounce rate;
• time on page.

With regular audits, learning, and optimizing, you can be sure that your SEO strategy for SaaS is always in tip-top shape. If you lack the information from the software, ask users directly what they think.

Sometimes, such feedback from people can show how you can improve your site’s performance and user experience based on real needs. After all, it’s people who will use your website, not robots, isn’t it? Experiment, employ A/B testing, and involve your team actively in SEO performance discussions.

Final Thoughts

As we wrap up this comprehensive SaaS SEO guide, we’d like to mention the main takeaways:

• define your goals and target audience;
• pick pertinent keywords;
• produce sublime content;
• mind the technical aspects of SEO for SaaS;
• win backlinks and interlink the website content to create a cohesive user experience;
• monitor metrics and KPIs, collect feedback, and improve.

To succeed in the ever-evolving SaaS SEO domain, you need to stay flexible. SEO will reshape and adjust to Google updates, with new trends, requirements like GDPR rules, and technologies like artificial intelligence emerging. Leverage trustworthy tools, and may your website dominate in search results. We at Salespanel will be glad to assist you in this endeavor.