SEO for SaaS: an effective method to promote your product

What is SaaS SEO?

1 What is SaaS SEO?
2 Why does a SaaS product need an SEO strategy?
3 Proven Search Engine Optimization Scheme for SaaS Companies
4 Deadlines for SaaS SEO Implementation

Suppose SaaS is a business model associated with providing services through online subscription. In that case, SEO is a tool to improve the position of a SaaS product in search engines. Search engine optimization for SaaS aims to ensure that the site being promoted rises as high as possible in the results, according to search queries. That is, there is a kind of ranking of resources and competition for the user’s attention. At the same time, such main features of SaaS as dynamism, project development, and the complexity of its forecasting predetermine the specifics of the entire SEO SaaS. Therefore, it is important to predict what your SaaS will be like in a year, five, or ten years and to make it visible at the TOP of the search through promotion. Thus, this tool provides the customer with organic traffic from search engines, and a competent SaaS SEO strategy allows you to:

get relevant, targeted traffic at the initial stages of forming a sales funnel;
increase conversion through an increase in the number of transactions and sales, thanks to a convenient website;
earn customer loyalty and motivate them to make repeat sales based on a properly built communication system, CRM marketing, and personalized content.

Plus, with SEO for SaaS, you don’t have to pay for organic clicks, and you can get search leads for free. The criterion of payment applies in this case only to payment for the services of a specialist or agency. SEO SaaS not only optimizes the site (it improves its technical condition and usability and raises positions in the search engine) but also generally increases the efficiency of the SaaS project itself with the help of optimal algorithms.

Why does a SaaS product need an SEO strategy?

The increasing prevalence of the SaaS model and the growth of services in this segment put forward more and more new requirements for SaaS companies. Navigating the external Internet environment and responding to the challenges of competitors is the main strategic setting for SEO SaaS. You can implement it with the help of a properly designed and implemented SaaS SEO strategy.

The promotion methods in an SEO strategy for SaaS are not fundamentally different from other services. However, the dynamism of the SaaS product itself makes adjustments to the strategy. Strategic flexibility and adaptability, accelerated timelines, and an effective algorithm makes SaaS marketing and online promotion a powerful business tool.

Unfortunately, there is no single rule on how to create an SEO strategy for a SaaS product, just as there are no two identical SaaS products. Each of them is unique in its own way; therefore, the approach to developing strategic alternatives for SaaS is also unique. Ideas for forming a strategy vector can be generated independently, or you can use existing technology and content SEO recommendations.

So for example, some digital agencies offer the following preparatory steps in the implementation of content SEO for SaaS companies:

Build a needs map for your target audience. Then, try to recreate the value chain for the consumer within which the SaaS product will be located. The intermediate links of such a chain will be an additional source of ideas for promoting and optimizing the site.
Create pages in optimal time, and equip them with unique content. This will allow you to attract additional traffic, form a resource for SEO improvements and internal linking, and provide customers with the opportunity to share information among themselves.
Use different ways to post content on different channels. The work of creating unique and high-quality content for SaaS promotion is resource-intensive in itself. Feel free to create variations on its theme – other forms, types, and ways of presentation.
Set up web analytics. This will help you start selecting pages for their potential profitability as early as possible.

As for technical SEO, here we are talking about the site’s technical configuration for search engine algorithms, i.e., Google and other search engines need to understand, read and analyze your web to promote it efficiently and effectively. Factors such as site crawling, page indexing in a search engine, availability of a mobile version of the resource and its user-friendliness, page loading speed, and so on are important.

Now that we have figured out the specifics of SEO strategy for SaaS companies, we can move on to developing a more detailed SEO SaaS guide.

Proven Search Engine Optimization Scheme for SaaS Companies

At its core, the SaaS SEO strategy is a process of strategic planning to reach the top of the search results, which is influenced by many third-party factors. Next, let’s look at how to improve SEO for SaaS companies based on applying a reliable search engine optimization scheme for SaaS companies.

Keywords

The first step in SEO SaaS is keyword research and building a semantic core. It’s no secret that forming the same search queries can produce different results. According to some requests, the site is at the TOP, so the right path has been chosen to promote the SaaS product. According to others, the search engine does not see it at all. In conclusion, the main topics were chosen incorrectly, or their keywords were formed incorrectly.

Site audit

Above, we already mentioned technical SEO when building a SaaS SEO strategy. Site audit also refers to this block and contains a set of promotional activities based on implementing a whole range of works.

Such an audit can be carried out both on an enlarged basis and contain a general check of the site and based on an in-depth analysis of its pages. In addition, some agencies offer express audits for individual elements of the work.

In the first case, the site is checked for technical errors in SEO SaaS, which is the reason for the slow promotion pace. In this case, errors can be identified by three priority levels – high, medium, and low. The optimization level depends on the selected set of evaluation criteria and related metrics. An in-depth audit includes details in the following areas: detection of errors such as “404 not found”, “500 internal server error”, “503 service unavailable” and the like; checking images on the site; checking metadata and tags; analysis of microdata on pages, etc.

In addition to a technical audit of the site structure, a security audit, domain audit, checking the speed of its loading, content analysis, and interaction of the site with search engines will be important.

SEO agencies offer their online services for auditing and website promotion in one click on a high-speed principle – in a few minutes, you will be provided with a report that can be sorted and exported. Some of them keep the history of audits, which also helps in web promotion, thanks to the ability to compare the results of multiple results checks. Also, the report may contain recommendations for optimization and promotion, both for smartphones and computers. So we are talking about SEO as a kind of SaaS product. And this is another clear example of how SaaS can help SEO, and not just vice versa.

Content Marketing for SaaS

Content marketing for SaaS in the context of SEO is a long-term concept, the goal of which is to create a variety of content to drive traffic from search engines. In other words, these are text materials placed on your pages that meet the requirements of search engines and help bring the site to the TOP of query results.

The structure of SEO content directly affects the promotion of SaaS and is broken down into the following elements according to a well-established hierarchy:

H1 heading – is the unique and only title of the article on the page, containing the main key of search engine optimization. H1 works by obeying the rules of the semantic core for key phrases.
Title meta-tag – is a mandatory alternative title of the article material displayed in the browser tab, caught by search engines by kernel keys. The meta tag title and H1 should not be duplicated or identical; their semantic load is important. Otherwise, the search algorithm will consider them as a dishonest resource.
Description meta-tag – a description of a web page that directly affects the indexing and ranking of the site. The meta tag description and H1 should never match; otherwise, the search algorithm will ignore you.
Lists – are bulleted or numbered content elements whose purpose is to structure the text. In addition, search engines prefer them in their work—preference when designing lists should be given to Html tags.
Subheadings H2 and H3 – are subheadings of the text that improve the readability of the text and are a kind of magnet for attracting the user’s attention from simply viewing to reading the material. H2 and H3 tell the search engine that you are a trustworthy site for honest SaaS promotion. The logical structuring of text with keys in the middle of subheadings helps to keep the client by pointing him to the problem that needs to be solved. A three-level partition (H1, H2, and H3) is enough for optimal promotion of your site.

For content marketing for SaaS SEO strategies to work correctly, one should also not forget about the uniqueness, thematic content, and literacy. Only sites with 100% author’s unique content that match the topic of the key get into the TOP of the search results.

Link building

Another important stage of promotion and search engine optimization for SaaS is link building, especially if you are a fairly young brand or a company operating in highly competitive SaaS niches or wanting to increase awareness and increase traffic.

Sometimes experts talk about building a separate link-building strategy based on complex link profile analytics. Such a strategy will depend on the SaaS industry, the company’s available resources and web SaaS, its goals, and other factors.

Ling building for SaaS SEO is extremely important since the volume of search traffic directly depends on the number of links to software as service pages. The link building algorithm for link building includes several main steps:

Stage #1. A full range of thematic content is being developed for placement on the donor site.
Stage #2. A link-building strategy is being formed.
Stage #3. A contacts database is being developed to offer a potentially attractive SaaS business.
Stage #4. Detailed work begins on link building across various SaaS marketing channels.

The last stage has a purely applied aspect since it involves using link-building tactics such as buying links (not the best option !!!), adding manually, requesting links to be added, earning (without asking), or saving existing ones.

According to SaaS SEO criteria, good links are links from an authoritative resource, links on relevant platforms, author links, an anchor link with the optimal number of keys, and links from various donors. And remember, links don’t last! Therefore, it is important to monitor your link profile to avoid losing what has already been gained.

Efficiency mark

SaaS key performance indicators (KPIs), which are the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of its optimization and promotion, can be selected at the discretion of a specialist. We offer the following checklist of such characteristics:

the volume of targeted traffic;
number of leads from SEO;
site conversion rate;
the cost of the attracted user;
conversion cost;
return on investment in SEO (ROI);
site position in the TOP search results, etc.

The effectiveness of an SEO strategy for SaaS companies can also be determined by qualitative indicators of the ratio of branded and non-branded traffic, the age of the project, goals achieved, etc.

For all its benefits, SEO for SaaS companies is not a panacea for losing market position. There are precedents when the such promotion will be ineffective. For example, if your SaaS product is unique, and most customers are not yet aware of it, the topic contains a small number of requests in the browser. Or the TOP for the main queries in the issue includes aggregator sites. In this case, it is advisable to use other sources of SaaS promotion.

Deadlines for SaaS SEO Implementation

As a rule, when you contact professional agencies, you will see offers on their pages with the wording “promotion as soon as possible”. However, having familiarized yourself with the whole variety of proposals, you can conclude that no one can guarantee you specific deadlines for achieving results since the timing of the promotion of SaaS products depends on their specific nature and a number of objective and subjective factors (external and internal origin).

On average, promoting SaaS effectively with SEO’s help takes 3 to 6 months. But don’t expect too fast results! We should not forget that the SaaS product feature is its dynamism and the speed of temporary changes. Therefore, the best SEO strategy for SaaS is one that is carried out continuously over time with timely and necessary adjustments. Build your strategy confidently and consistently.

And finally, if you still have doubts about the advisability of using SEO to promote SaaS and invest in this type of activity, here are a few additional arguments in its favor.

This promotion can be shareware if you carry it out on your own. In this case, only the costs of your time and effort will be present. Or order paid SEO from a digital agency if you want to dive into the topic. Professionals will do it for you.

Secondly, SEO gives a long-term result in the form of traffic and leads, even if you have abandoned the services of specialists because search robots are sharpened for clear algorithms.

Thirdly, SaaS SEO is not only about product promotion but also generally optimizes and improves the performance of your resource according to system requirements, which positively affects your business’s quality.

And finally, a good SaaS site is not just a whim but the key to the success of a digital product!

Checked by marketer Victoria Fedchenko