SaaS SEO: Growth-Focused Strategies for SaaS Companies

In today’s digital world, SEO is no longer a luxury but a necessity for SaaS (Software as a Service) companies. In this increasingly competitive industry, visibility in search engines is crucial to attracting potential customers and directing them to your product. So, how can SaaS companies stand out in this digital visibility battle? This is where SaaS-focused SEO strategies come into play, changing the game.

Growing a SaaS business with SEO on search engines like Google requires a high-paced and demanding work cycle. You’ve probably heard the phrase “SEO takes time,” but for a SaaS company (as we know very well as an agency), there is no time to waste.

The software service model is rapidly expanding, and now is a great time to grow your SaaS brand (especially with the rise of AI). However, outpacing your competitors in organic search and quickly growing as a successful SaaS brand in your niche can be more challenging than ever.

At every stage of growth, SaaS businesses need to achieve rapid expansion through research, prioritization, production, structuring, and large-scale content promotion. As an agency, we consistently use many strategies to help accomplish this.

One of the most common challenges we hear from SaaS businesses is not knowing where to start, how to take the first steps before getting into action, and what to focus on to create the greatest impact in the shortest time.

Before working with a holistic service agency like ours or expanding your internal team, we will adopt the 80/20 principle—focusing on the 20% of actions that will generate 80% of your results—so that you can confidently get started.

What is SaaS SEO?

SaaS SEO is a form of search engine optimization that helps software service brands rank higher on Google. The main SEO strategies that SaaS-focused businesses must use to reach users and surpass competitors in search engines include:

• Comprehensive keyword research
• Content marketing
• On-page SEO
• Link building (backlinks)

…and many more. SEO for SaaS businesses isn’t simple; it’s about how you approach it.

While Google’s ranking factors remain constant, you must consider the unique opportunities and challenges of the SaaS sector.

SaaS SEO brings a range of common SEO challenges, including:

• Intense competition on listing sites (such as G2, Capterra)
• Limited search volumes
• Misconfigured keyword usage
• Strong competition in search engines beyond just listing sites

How Does SaaS SEO Work?

At its core, SaaS SEO involves understanding search engine algorithms and implementing effective strategies to improve a company’s website visibility, increase organic traffic, and ideally convert that traffic into paying customers.

This section provides an overview of how Google Search works, how search engines determine which pages to rank, and how SEO addresses these ranking factors to enhance your website’s visibility.

How Does Google Search Work?

Let’s examine this in the context of Google Search’s three critical stages. Google lists a web page in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) through the steps of crawling, indexing, and serving search results.

Crawling

This is the discovery phase where Google explores the internet. It uses automated programs called crawlers (or bots) to browse the web, visit pages, and download their content, including text, images, and videos. These quality-control bots scan web pages, ensuring they can be accessed and navigated.

At this stage, your SaaS SEO efforts should first focus on making it easy for these crawlers to access and navigate all important pages of your website. You can do this by creating and submitting a sitemap to Google, maintaining a useful robots.txt file to guide crawlers, ensuring a mobile-friendly design (as Google follows a mobile-first indexing strategy), and optimizing your crawl budget.

Indexing

After analyzing the content, the next phase is indexing. Here, Google examines text, images, and videos, understands their purpose, and stores this information in a vast database called the Google Index.
For SaaS SEO, you must ensure your pages contain high-quality, unique content with relevant keywords for your target audience. Proper structuring with correct HTML tags (title tags, meta tags, etc.) helps Google understand what your web page is about.

Serving Search Results

This is where the magic happens. When a user enters a query (keyword) into Google, it retrieves relevant information from its index and presents it as search results. At this stage, your SaaS SEO efforts should focus on understanding user intent—what your target customers are likely searching for.

Why Should SaaS Companies Invest in SEO?

SEO eliminates much of the hard work in the sales cycle.

According to HubSpot, the average sales cycle for a SaaS product is 84.3 days—much longer than the impulsive purchases that define consumer-focused industries. Users need multiple touchpoints with a brand or product before making a real decision, and this is where SEO comes into play.

However, many software companies make the mistake of targeting the most competitive keywords related to their product. For example, they try to rank for popular organic search terms like “email marketing software” by stuffing product pages with target keywords, alt text, and keyword-focused meta descriptions.

If someone searches for “email marketing software”, they are likely looking for a list of email marketing software options. So, why wouldn’t they want to see a product page that matches the search term exactly?

As you can see, the top result isn’t a product page or landing page, but a list of top services, reviews, and comparisons. Trying to compete on this keyword with a product page (no matter how polished it is) won’t work because the user intent behind the search is to find and compare options.

SaaS companies need a more comprehensive on-page SEO strategy than many other industries.

Stuffing product pages with keywords and hoping for the best isn’t the right approach. Instead, marketers must guide potential users through the buyer’s journey, providing them with information, comparisons, and social proof.

SEO Scales User Growth

Would you subscribe to a tool that ranks at the top of search results for relevant keywords, or one with little online presence? Unless it comes from a trusted personal recommendation, most of us would choose the first option.

Buyers are becoming increasingly cautious about what they purchase. They now prefer learning about companies through blogs rather than ads.

To understand this better, let’s consider an example.

A buyer is looking for a tool to design a website. They go to Google, search for website design tools, and find your brand’s articles among the top-ranking results.

Users trust Google, and appearing at the top of search results builds credibility—directly influencing purchasing decisions.

With the right SEO efforts, you can build trust and reputation for your brand, which helps potential customers choose you more quickly.

SEO Reduces Your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) measures the total cost of acquiring a paying customer.

When using paid channels like PPC, you pay every time a user clicks on your ad. The more clicks you get, the more money you spend. These costs can be extremely high for competitive keywords. Not to mention, the moment you stop paying, you stop seeing results.

With SEO, you don’t have to deal with these expenses. Instead, you work to rank organically on the top page. Unlike paid ads, this lowers your CPA, and you continue to get results even after you stop investing in SEO.

SEO Builds Domain Authority (DR).

Domain authority is a score that indicates the likelihood of a website ranking in search engine results. Generally, websites with a large number of high-quality and relevant backlinks (links from other websites to yours) have high domain authority.

The Four Pillars of an Effective SaaS SEO Strategy

After understanding how Google Search works and the key ranking factors in SEO, it’s crucial to recognize the actual strategies that help a SaaS business leverage these insights.

A successful SaaS SEO strategy is built on four core pillars: Keyword Research, Technical SEO, Content Strategy, and Backlink Strategy (i.e., link building).

If you think of Google’s search algorithms as the rules of the game, these four strategies serve as your winning game plan.

1. SaaS-Focused Keyword Research

Keyword research for SaaS involves identifying the specific search terms or phrases your target audience uses when looking for software services like yours. This process is essential because it forms the foundation of your SaaS SEO strategy. By understanding the terms your potential customers use, you can tailor your website content to match search queries, increasing your visibility on SERPs.

For SaaS websites, keyword research typically includes queries related to the product or service name, as well as the specific problems the software solves or its unique features. You can use various SEO tools to identify high-volume, low-competition keywords that are most likely to attract qualified traffic to your website. Additionally, considering search intent is crucial—understanding what users are searching for and why helps refine your strategy.

Competitor keyword research is just as important. This process, known as “Keyword GAP” analysis, involves identifying the keywords your competitors rank for and developing a strategy to compete for the same terms. By analyzing these gaps, you can enhance your content with high-quality, keyword-optimized material to fill those missing opportunities.

📘 Related Content: 5 Steps to Effective Keyword Research

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

Keyword research is vital for any SEO campaign because keywords form the foundation of market research, providing direction for your strategy. Moreover, keyword research is the first step in many essential SEO tasks, such as:

• Creating targeted content marketing strategies
• Identifying link-building opportunities
• Improving on-page SEO for better rankings

For SaaS companies, the most critical aspect is ensuring that your service remains the primary focus.

Prioritizing the Right Keywords

Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to kickstart your keyword research. You can use it to compare search volumes and identify the most valuable keywords to target.

• Pay close attention to the keywords used by your top competitors. Popular keywords with excessive competition may not be worth your time.
• Track your current rankings for different important keywords. Prioritizing keywords where you rank on the second page or just below the top results can be a strategic move, as improving your ranking in these cases can significantly increase traffic.

2. Technical SEO for SaaS Websites

In-depth keyword research forms the foundation of your SEO strategy, but technical SEO provides the necessary framework and solid ground for sustainable success. This aspect is critical for SaaS websites, as it paves the way for higher visibility and better rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).

To understand its importance, you need to grasp the concept of crawlability—which refers to how effectively search engine bots can access and navigate your website.

SEO technical strategies facilitate these bots’ effective access to your website, crawling and indexing your site, thereby increasing its visibility to potential customers. Key components to focus on include site structure, loading speed, mobile optimization, and XML sitemaps. A consistent site structure and comprehensive XML sitemaps make it easier for bots to understand your site, while fast loading times and mobile optimization provide a positive user experience.

Additionally, since SaaS products often involve complex topics, structured data can be very important for your technical SEO strategy. Structured data or schema markup provides search engines with more information about your site and its content, making it easier for them to understand what your page is about. This can result in more detailed search listings, potentially increasing your click-through rate and driving more traffic to your site.

Structured data or schema markup provides search engines with more information about your site and its content, making it easier for them to understand what your page is about. This can lead to more detailed search listings, potentially increasing your click-through rate and driving more traffic to your site.

3. SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

Moving away from the technical aspects of SEO, let’s explore another crucial component of your SaaS SEO strategy—content marketing strategy. Your content strategy brings together all the pages on your website to tell a consistent story about your product. The success of your content strategy largely depends on clearly understanding your target audience’s needs, search behaviors, and a well-researched set of keywords.

Commercial (Sales) Pages

Commercial pages, such as features, solutions, integrations, industries, and product pages, provide vital information about your services. By aligning the content on these pages with your keyword research strategy and the intent of your target audience, you will enhance your site’s relevance for both search engines and users.

This may involve optimizing existing pages with targeted keywords or identifying new keyword opportunities that require creating new pages. All of this contributes to a solid SEO strategy tailored to the specific needs of a SaaS business.

Training (Information) Pages

Training pages such as blog posts, guides, and case studies showcase your expertise and help you dive deeper into topics relevant to your audience, enabling you to find answers to their questions and provide solutions. These pages come into play when discussing expanding your visibility and authority in the SaaS industry.

How to Write Informative Blog Posts for SaaS Websites

Again, keyword research plays a central role. It helps shape your content calendar, allows you to prioritize and create content targeting the most effective keywords first.

By consistently producing high-quality, targeted blog content, you’re serving your audience and sending positive signals to search engines about your website’s relevance and authority. This continuous flow of fresh, keyword-targeted content significantly improves your SaaS SEO campaigns, driving organic traffic and building a strong online presence in the SaaS environment.

Why Content Marketing for SaaS Companies is Different?

Content marketing for SaaS businesses is unique and differs from other businesses.

SaaS consumers always want to build long-term relationships with a SaaS provider. This means that when deciding to work with a SaaS company, they not only measure your SaaS product but also consider the type of support you offer with the product.

If your SaaS product is good but the customer support you provide does not meet expectations, good luck with customer acquisition! The same applies in reverse. Therefore, as a SaaS business, your content strategy should include marketing both your products and services.

The unique feature of SaaS companies is that, due to the significant value that search engine dominance adds to your SaaS brand, you should rely on SEO for your inbound marketing needs.

What Does an Effective SaaS Content Marketing Strategy Include?

The secret to an effective SaaS marketing strategy is to start with comprehensive market research to deeply understand what your target audience is searching for. This is followed by creating high-quality content and promoting it intensively.

Simply put, the components of an effective SaaS content marketing strategy are:

• A deep understanding of your target audience, providing them with exactly the content they are looking for.
• Analysis of keywords related to the pain points of the target audience.
• Developing content ideas and formats for customers at different stages of the customer journey (top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel).
• Creating high-quality content based on topic ideas.
• Promoting content on various platforms, such as emails, social media, press releases, etc., to ensure the content receives maximum attention.
• Tracking content marketing campaign results and making consistent improvements based on these analyses.

Create Your Content Production Strategy and Plan

Many SaaS businesses fall into the trap of creating content without a clear goal or a pre-defined strategy. This content creation process is like shooting aimless arrows into the air. The content is unlikely to hit the target and will not serve the intended purpose.

Therefore, before starting content production, it is essential to proceed with a specific content strategy. This can be as simple as creating a publishing calendar listing all the content pieces you will produce each month.

For each content piece you plan to produce, you can plan and add details such as the content topic, content format, target keywords, target audience persona, call-to-action, etc.

4. Build a SaaS-Focused Backlink Network

Link building strategy is a critical component of SEO, especially for SaaS companies competing in a global and highly digital marketplace. Simply put, a backlink is a link from one website to another. When a reputable website links to your content, it acts as a vote of confidence in the credibility and relevance of your site.

Search engines like Google view these backlinks as endorsements of your content quality, which leads to better rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). A backlink is a link from one website to another. When a reputable website links to your content, it serves as a vote of confidence in your site’s reliability and relevance.

The function of the link building (or link network creation) strategy is to acquire these valuable backlinks from other websites. You can achieve this by creating high-quality, shareable content that others will want to link to, writing guest posts on reputable websites, or building relationships with influencers and industry leaders who may share your content.

Each link coming to your website increases your domain authority (DR) and signals to search engines that your site is a reliable and informative resource.

PR (Public Relations) Tactics

You can also apply specific PR links to generate backlinks for your business. Here are some useful tips for this:

• Participate in industry-related interviews and podcasts.
• Publish research, studies, industry reports, technical papers, e-books, etc., that will attract the attention of publishers and journalists.
• Participate in and host webinars.
• Consistently create thought leadership content on social media platforms.
• Offer expert advice on niche social media groups.
• Start your own podcast or video interview series.
• Regularly send press releases.

Create Content That Can Be Referenced

Creating links to your product and landing pages may not be as easy as it sounds. Even after applying the link-building techniques mentioned above, you may not generate enough backlinks to your SaaS product pages.

Therefore, a great tip here is to try building links to your blog and content pieces instead. Blogs are much more informative and less promotional than product pages. Therefore, most websites will be willing to link to your blog.

You can strategically add links to your SaaS products from blog posts. In this way, your link-building efforts will ultimately help your SaaS website rank higher in search engines.

Do You Need SaaS SEO?

SaaS SEO is achievable, provided you dedicate plenty of time to learning and applying it. Another point to note is that SEO is more of an experimental process since there are no guaranteed and quick rules to get guaranteed results.

Therefore, if you want to save time and leave the SEO efforts for your SaaS business to experienced SEO professionals, consider hiring a reputable SEO expert. You can trust us as an SEO agency.

Our expert team at Digipeak will handle all your needs with years of industry experience. SaaS marketing needs may include strategy, creation, promotion, SEO, social media, and PR. Contact us for more information on how we can assist you with this topic.