Software as a Service (SaaS) is a fast-growing industry full of potential and innovation. However, many SaaS companies rely heavily on paid advertising for lead generation and customer acquisition, often missing out on the incredible power of organic traffic. This leads to higher customer acquisition costs and slows company growth.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to rank highly on search engine result pages. Investing in SEO can generate sustainable organic traffic, reduce acquisition costs, and attract high-quality buyers who are willing to book a demo.
In this article, we’ll cover five essential SaaS SEO techniques that will help you rank higher, get more organic visitors to your website, and get more conversions in 2024.
1. Conduct In-depth Keyword Research
In-depth keyword research helps you identify the specific terms potential customers use to find software solutions like yours. If you’re a SaaS company, your keyword research should be focused on your target users’ needs, especially long-tail keywords.
For example, if you offer time management software, your first instinct would be to target keywords like “time management software”. However, the websites that rank high for this keyword are well-established and high authority, so it would take forever to rise to the top in Google.
Instead, you should focus on more specific long-tail keywords. In this case:
- “Time management software for freelancers”
- “Affordable time management software for startups”
- “Time management app with project tracking”
- “Best time tracking tool for remote teams”
Because they are more particular and show that the searcher has a clearer notion of what they are looking for, long-tail keywords usually have higher buyer intent. Optimizing for keywords with less competition and more obvious user intent will help you rank higher and draw in leads that are looking for particular features or perks that complement your SaaS offering.
2. Maintain a high content velocity
To stay relevant in the SaaS industry, publishing one blog post per week is not enough. To stay ahead of your competitors, you need to increase your content velocity and publish as much high-quality content as possible.
Creating more relevant and useful content in your niche shows search engines that your site is a trusted source of information. This increases your topical authority and user trust, which is especially important for SEO for small businesses.
Increasing your content velocity also increases your chances of incorporating different keywords, increasing your chances of ranking high for more search terms.
To effectively increase your content velocity and stay competitive in the SaaS industry, you need to create different types of content that address different aspects of your audience’s needs and interests. This includes:
- Case studies
- How-to guides
- Industry news
- Video tutorials
- Customer success stories
- Expert interviews
- Product updates and announcements
3. Create Product-Focused SEO Pages
Product-focused SEO pages focus specifically on your product. This is highly effective at attracting leads who are likely to become customers.
The most common examples of product-focused SEO pages are:
- Comparison Page: Create a detailed comparison page, such as [Competitor’s Product] vs [Your Product], to highlight the unique features, benefits, and advantages of your product over your competitors.
- Competitor Comparison: Create a page that compares multiple competitors, such as [Competitor’s Product] vs [Competitor’s Product]. Competitor’s Products: This positions your brand as a knowledgeable authority in your field and helps potential customers understand what your industry has to offer.
- Best-of Lists: Create lists like “X Best [your niche] Tools for 2024” and include your product to establish it as a top option.
- Niche-Specific Landing Pages: Optimize your landing pages for specific keywords like: B. “Time Management Software for Freelancers”. These pages should contain a wealth of information about your product, including features, benefits, reviews, and calls to action.
4. Create high-quality backlinks
There are over 9,000 SaaS companies in the US with around 15 billion active users worldwide. The SaaS industry is more competitive than ever before and most companies are using SEO to attract more customers.
Creating high-quality backlinks to your product pages and blog posts is an SEO technique that can improve your search engine rankings and domain authority, giving you an edge over your competitors.
For example, you can create backlinks by:
- Guest posting on relevant industry blogs.
- Claiming unlinked brand mentions
- Create high-quality content such as infographics and whitepapers to earn backlinks.
- Collaborate with other companies and influencers to create mutually beneficial content with backlinks.
But if you want link building to work, you also need to pay attention to quality and relevance. The best approach is to get backlinks from established websites in your industry as they contribute more to your SEO results. Backlinks from reputable websites let Google know your content is trustworthy and authoritative.
If you’re a SaaS company, you want backlinks from tech blogs, industry publications, and authoritative websites in the software niche.
5. Create Strong Internal Links
Internal links are hyperlinks that point to other pages on your website. They help Google understand your site’s structure, page hierarchy, and the importance of specific content.
Strong internal links improve your website’s SEO by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages, resulting in better rankings.
Make sure you include as many relevant internal links as possible in every article you write. To find all related pages, go to Google and type: site:yourwebsite.com [related keyword].
The best SEO tip is to use descriptive anchor text to provide context to the content of the linked page. For example, if you are writing an article on “Time Management Software for Freelancers” and want to link to another article on the best tools for remote workers, you can use the anchor text “Best Time Tracking Tools for Remote Teams”.
Finally, to keep your SEO content fresh and relevant, you should regularly update older posts with new internal links.
Focusing on a good SEO strategy can help you reduce customer acquisition costs and increase organic traffic to your SaaS website.
The best approach is to:
- Conduct thorough keyword research.
- Maintain high content velocity.
- Create high-quality, product-centric SEO pages.
- Build high-quality backlinks.
- Develop strong internal links.
Try these techniques to improve your rankings, generate more leads, increase conversion rates, and achieve better SEO results this year.