Software as a service, or SaaS, is a business model that delivers applications over the internet, allowing customers to pay for software that’s hosted remotely instead of installing and maintaining it themselves.
Because SaaS is a convenient and practical model, the market is more saturated than ever before. For these B2B SaaS companies – especially new ones – attracting, nurturing, and converting leads can be difficult.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to improve traffic and leads by improving your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs). There’s a lot to manage on your own but working with an expert SaaS SEO agency can help.
SEO is a set of optimization tactics that can help your site rank higher in the organic search results. By improving your ranking, you gain more visibility in the search results and increase traffic from your relevant audience to improve your conversion rate.
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With a crowded market, it’s not enough to have high-performing products and services. If your customers don’t know who you are or what you have to offer, they’re not going to buy your SaaS products or services.
SEO has become an essential tool in digital marketing for any business, but that’s especially true of service-based businesses like SaaS. With SEO, you can get high-quality leads, improve your brand’s visibility, and increase traffic and sales.
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SaaS SEO digital marketing agencies leverage their understanding of SaaS businesses and software companies to help you rank higher in the SERPs and achieve your business goals. Rather than doing it on your own through trial and error, you can rely on experts with tried-and-true methods to maximize your SEO efforts for SaaS brands.
As an extension of your marketing team, you’ll have a group of SEO experts who are just as committed to your business goals. An SEO agency can cover all your bases, from SEO strategy to technical SEO to on-page and off-page SEO, so you can see results faster.
There are many benefits to using a SaaS SEO agency over doing it yourself, including:
Even if you have an exceptional product or service, if no one knows it exists, you won’t be able to attract them and get the sale. SEO puts you in front of your target audience using specific strategies for your industries, so your brand can be top-of-mind.
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One of the most scalable aspects of SaaS growth is SEO. Many of your prospects are going to use Google or another search engine like Bing or Yahoo! to search for information about products or services, including business owners. If your competitors are showing up at the top of the search results, they’re getting all that business.
Conversely, if you appear in the first few results with relevant, valuable content, you’re going to capture the attention of more customers searching for your services.
SEO is not only an excellent tactic to drive traffic and awareness, it’s one of the most cost-effective. It only takes time if you do it yourself, unlike paid ads that can blow through your marketing budget quickly. Even if you hire a SaaS SEO agency, the return on investment is much higher than other marketing tactics.
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Many businesses recognize the importance of SEO, so if you’re not doing it, you could fall behind the competition. It’s likely that your competitors are using SEO to increase their market share, so you need to be, too.
Better yet, if your competitors aren’t yet using SEO, you have an opportunity to capture the leads they may have gotten otherwise. You’ll be working toward the top of the searches, so even if they get on board with SEO later, they have a long way to go to catch up.
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SEO boosts traffic, but that won’t help if they end up on a page with poor aesthetics and functionality. Search engines like Google are focused on providing the best results to the searcher to ensure a positive experience, so if your website doesn’t deliver, it could hurt your rankings.
Fortunately, a lot of the same tactics used to improve SEO also benefit user experience. Making your site functional and mobile friendly with intuitive navigation makes customers more likely to browse and find the information they’re looking for. They’re more likely to return in the future, and you’ve shown Google that you’re offering users what they want.
A website that performs well in the SERPs is considered reliable and credible by search engines, which raises the credibility overall. Most search users know that Google prioritizes the most relevant and authoritative results, so your site is viewed as more credible by simply earning a high ranking.
Learning SEO can be challenging if it’s all new. With an SEO team, you get the guidance of industry experts with years of experience and a proven performance record. Each in-house member of the team handles part of the process with tailored SEO services, providing reliable, repeatable results based on industry best practices.
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SEO has a lot of components that work together to improve your ranking, all of which can be done with the help of an SaaS SEO agency.
Keyword research is the foundation of your SEO tactics. The process starts by looking up informational keywords and search terms that apply to your industry. If you have productivity software, they may be:
Notice that these keywords don’t mention software or your SaaS company. These are keywords that prospects may search for to solve a pain point, which is the first step toward them eventually searching for your product and looking to buy.
Why not include search terms for your product or service? People don’t typically search for the exact product or service they need. They recognize a problem and look for solutions by typing in terms related to it, usually phrased as a question. These terms are also typically less competitive than direct searches for products or services.
There are three ways that an SaaS SEO agency may find these keywords:
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Now that you have keywords, you can put them to good use with an SEO content strategy that’s optimized around them.
Type your keywords into Google as a search query. The results will show you what people searching for the keyword are looking for – search intent. For example, typing in “productivity tips” brings up listicles, so you know that you should also offer a listicle-style post.
Then, create content that provides the information searchers are looking for. Comprehensive content performed better, so try to cover all the information the users could need.
You should also add your target keyword to:
The last part of SEO is building backlinks to your SaaS company website. Link building is a process of building links that point back to your content from authoritative websites. In doing so, these authoritative websites pass some of their authority onto your site.
There are several ways to do this, but one of the most important is creating content that other sites want to link to. Case studies, original research, and comprehensive content (ultimate guides) are likely to earn backlinks from desirable sources.
You could also submit guest posts to industry publications and blogs to build more external links and generate more awareness in the process.
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SEO for SaaS companies and startups is a must to stay ahead of the competition. Done properly, you can generate more traffic, earn more leads, and spread the word about your business without expensive PPC ads, which is why it’s best to enlist the help of an expert SaaS SEO experts that can deliver results and improve bottom line performance.
SEO is a significant source of attracting traffic for B2B SaaS clients. In fact, it drives up to 68% of organic traffic, yet only about 11% of SaaS companies invest in content marketing. That leaves a lot of opportunity for your SaaS business to rank at the top of the search results.
SEO is one of the most important aspects of acquiring customers and should be part of your strategic approach to your website, whether it’s a redesign or building a website from the ground up. It’s not something that you can complete and forget, however – it’s an ongoing process that builds a foundation for long-term growth.
Keyword research is the basis of any SEO campaign and SaaS SEO strategy, but it’s about much more than that. All of the core components of SEO work together to improve your ranking, including on-page optimization with quality content.
The three main components of SEO are technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. Technical SEO refers to the technical aspects of your website to provide a good experience for visitors. On-page SEO is primarily content, while off-page SEO is link building.
