Your Complete Guide To Enterprise SaaS SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) has long been one of the most crucial components of a strong content marketing strategy for SaaS companies.

In fact, if you’re running and growing a SaaS business, you can’t afford to not have an SEO strategy. Not only because it is a potent tool to build brand awareness and reach new audiences. But also because everyone else is also doing it.

Now, if you’ve just taken the big step to reach the enterprise market, you’re in for some big growth potential.

But you need to keep one thing in mind: enterprise SaaS SEO is not the same as SEO for small businesses.

Sure, a lot of your usual B2B SEO tactics would still be useful. But you would need to scale and refine them to a whole new level.

But don’t worry. This guide will show you everything you need to know about enterprise SaaS SEO, from the basics to the most advanced strategies.

By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to put together a solid enterprise SaaS SEO strategy that will help you take your business to new heights.

So let’s get started.

What is Enterprise SaaS SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing your website and content for higher visibility in enterprise search engines like Google and Bing.

The goal is to rank higher in search results for relevant keywords and phrases related to your business.

Enterprise SaaS SEO operates on a much larger scale and faces higher levels of competition from other enterprise SaaS SEO marketers.

But if you do it right, enterprise SaaS SEO can help you with the following benefits:

• Build your reputation among the enterprise B2B market
• Generate more leads out of enterprise customers
• Boost sales for your enterprise SaaS solution
• Create a significant competitive advantage over your competitors

Now, enterprise SaaS SEO is not an easy feat. The enterprise market is highly competitive, and search engines are constantly changing their algorithms.

But with the right strategies in place, you can definitely make your enterprise SaaS company stand out from the rest.

How is Enterprise SaaS SEO Different from Traditional SEO?

The enterprise market is a completely different ball game from the small business market.

In the same way, enterprise SaaS SEO is very different from regular SEO. Here’s how:

It Handles Tons Of Content

The enterprise market is vast and complex. And enterprise SaaS companies usually have a lot of content to deal with.

Think of the HubSpot and Salesforce blog sites. They’re constantly rolling out new content on a wide variety of topics to keep all of their audiences engaged, including enterprise SaaS buyers.

This means that enterprise SaaS SEO has to be able to handle large amounts of content efficiently and effectively.

More Pressure To Build Your Reputation

In general, content marketing and other SaaS marketing strategies focus on building relationships and trust with potential customers.

This is especially true if you’re in the B2B market. After all, you’re trying to win over businessmen and professionals who are used to making deals with other big companies.

But in enterprise SaaS SEO, the pressure is also on a whole new level.

This is because enterprise customers are usually very risk-averse. They’re not going to switch to your enterprise SaaS solution unless they’re absolutely sure that it’s the best one out there.

So if you want to succeed in enterprise SaaS SEO, you need to build a strong reputation for your business.

You need to show enterprise customers that you’re a credible and trustworthy source of information.

And your ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is a big factor in building that trust.

If you’re on the first page (or even the first three results) on the SERPs, enterprise customers are more likely to trust you and consider your enterprise SaaS solution.

Longer Sales Cycles

Even in the enterprise space, content marketing is still one of the most potent strategies for attracting and engaging potential customers.

However, enterprise SaaS companies usually have longer sales cycles than other businesses. They often have lengthy decision-making processes. They also tend to have more stakeholders involved in the decision.

As a result, it can take them several weeks (or even months) to finally make a purchase.

Limited Audience With High Expectations

The enterprise market is actually quite small, compared to the small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) market. After all, there are only so many businesses that can be considered enterprise-level.

But while the audience may be limited, they also have high expectations from enterprise SaaS providers. Enterprises expect no less than the best solutions that could meet their needs—their very complex needs.

This means that enterprise SaaS SEO is very competitive. You’re not just competing with some other enterprise SaaS companies. But you might possibly end up facing off against the big guns of the tech industry, like Microsoft and Oracle.

On-Page SEO Strategies For Enterprise SaaS

Now, let’s talk about the vast range of strategies that you could use for your SEO efforts. There are three kinds of SEO tactics: On-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website content for search engines.

And while on-page SEO is important for all websites, it’s even more critical for enterprise SaaS websites. The sheer volume of content you have creates a need to rank for a wide variety of keywords (since enterprise customers usually conduct very specific searches).

Here are some tips on how you can optimize your enterprise SaaS website for search engines:

Level Up Your Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords to target for your website.

When it comes to enterprise SaaS SEO, keyword research is even more important. This is because you need to be able to find the right keywords that enterprise customers are actually searching for.

That’s why it is also a crucial step in your content strategy, not just in your SEO campaign.

There are a few things you can do to level up your keyword research:

• Use long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are simply longer and more specific phrases that enterprise customers might use in their searches. This can help you capture high-quality leads who are genuinely interested in your topics and possibly your SaaS product.
• Research your competitors’ target keywords: Checking out what keywords your competitors are targeting is a great way to get ideas for your own enterprise SaaS SEO strategy. It might also give you an idea about relevant keywords you might have missed.
• Research international keywords: Being an enterprise SaaS provider, chances are you’re already offering your solution internationally. So you have a target audience in other countries as well. Conducting keyword research in other cities and countries can help you create more internationally relevant content.

Focus On E-A-T

While that acronym probably makes you think about dinner, let’s talk about what it means in the world of content marketing.

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

It’s a set of content quality guidelines that was first introduced by Google.

And enterprise SaaS companies need to focus on E-A-T if they want to rank higher on the search results.

Remember that enterprise customers want to do business with companies that are credible and trustworthy. They probably won’t take their chances with a company that doesn’t have a strong reputation.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your enterprise SaaS website has E-A-T:

• Make sure your website is up-to-date: This includes having the latest information about your enterprise SaaS product, as well as your company’s contact information.
• Publish high-quality content: This means writing articles that are well-researched and free of errors. It also helps if you can get industry experts to contribute to your blog.
• Give sound advice: When enterprise customers come to your website, they’re usually looking for answers to their questions. Make sure you’re providing them with helpful and practical advice that can actually improve their business processes.

Write Content Based On Search Intent

Search intent simply refers to the purpose behind a customer’s search query.

And when it comes to enterprise SaaS SEO, you need to make sure your SEO content is based on the right search intent.

After all, enterprise customers usually have very specific needs. And if your content doesn’t match their needs, they’re likely to bounce off your website pretty quickly.

There are four main types of search intent:

• Informational: Customers who use informational queries are looking for information about a certain topic. They might not be ready to buy anything yet. SEO content for this intent should be educational and informative.
• Navigational: Customers who use navigational queries already know what they’re looking for. They just need help finding the right enterprise SaaS product or solution. Content for this intent should be clear and concise, so customers can easily find what they’re looking for.
• Transactional: Customers who use transactional queries are ready to buy. They just need to find the right enterprise SaaS product that meets their needs. SEO content for this intent should focus on the features and benefits of your enterprise SaaS product.
• Commercial: Customers who use commercial queries are also ready to buy. But they might not be familiar with your enterprise SaaS product yet. Content for this intent should introduce your enterprise SaaS product and highlight its key features.

Optimize Your Meta Title & Meta Description

Your meta title and meta description are what show up on the search result when your website comes up in a search.

So it’s important to make sure they’re optimized for enterprise SEO. This means using the right keywords and creating descriptions that are both informative and clickable.

Here are a few tips:

• Include your target keyword: Make sure your meta title and meta description include relevant enterprise SaaS keywords. This will help you attract enterprise customers who are looking for solutions like yours.
• Keep them short & sweet: Keep your meta title under 60 characters and meta description below 160 so that they don’t get cut down using an ellipsis in the SERPs. However, they should be meaningful enough to attract searchers to click on your web page.
• Use actionable language: Use language that enterprise customers can act on. For example, if your blog post offers comprehensive information about the topic, you can add a CTA-like statement, such as “Learn more here” or “Read this article to learn more.”

Add Keyword-Rich Alt Texts To Images

Alt text (or alternative text) is the text that shows up when an image can’t be displayed.

And it’s important to include keyword-rich alt texts on your images, so enterprise customers can find your website when they’re searching for specific products or services.

Here are a few tips:

• Make sure your images are relevant: Only add images that are actually relevant to your enterprise SaaS product or service. Otherwise, you’re just wasting space on your website.
• Include your target keyword: As with your meta title and meta description, make sure your alt text includes relevant enterprise SaaS keywords. This may help your image appear in image searches. Which can lead to more traffic for your content page.
• Use the alt text to describe the image: Remember that the alt text appears when the image doesn’t load. So the alt text should at least give them an idea of what they’re supposed to see. What’s more, this can also help screen readers paint a mental picture for visually-impaired visitors, giving them a better user experience.

Add High-Quality Internal & External Links

Internal links are links that go from one page on your website to another. And external links are links that go from your website to another website.

Both are important for enterprise SEO.

• Internal links: Adding internal links helps enterprise customers navigate your website. It also helps search engines understand the hierarchy of your website and find new pages.
• External links: Adding external links shows enterprise customers that you know what you’re talking about and that it’s backed by other content producers. It also helps search engines understand what your website is about.

One thing to remember about adding external links—make sure they are of high quality and that they lead to reputable websites.

Not only will spammy websites turn off your website visitors. It can also hurt your SEO campaign.

Technical SEO Strategies For Enterprise SaaS

In addition to strategic content creation and on-page enterprise SEO strategies, there are also technical SEO strategies you should be aware of.

These are things that have to do with the back end of your website and how it’s structured. Technical SEO practices make it easy for web crawlers to crawl and index your website so enterprise customers can find it in the search results

Let’s talk about some technical SEO strategies you should implement:

Optimize Your Website Structure

Your website structure is how your pages are arranged and interconnected.

A good website structure helps enterprise customers find what they’re looking for on your website. Plus, it also helps web crawlers identify which of your pages are related to each other.

Here are a few tips on how to make sure your website structure is crawlable:

• Use a silo structure: A silo structure is when you group together similar topics on your website. This helps enterprise customers find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily. And it also helps search engines understand the relationship between your pages.
• Use breadcrumb navigation: Breadcrumb navigation is a way to help enterprise customers know where they are on your website. It’s also a way to help enterprise customers backtrack if they’ve gone too deep into your website structure.
• Make sure your URLs are short & sweet: Short and clear URLs are easier to remember. They’re also easier to copy and paste. In other words, your URLs would be more shareable.

Utilize Enterprise Schema Markup

Schema markup is code that you add to your website to help enterprise customers and search engines understand your content.

Schema markup can be really helpful in getting your content featured on top of the SERPs as rich results.

Rich results, also called featured snippets, are highly relevant content that appears at the top of SERPs.

For example, if someone is searching for an actual product, a rich result may include product pricing and star ratings from customer reviews.

Or if someone is looking up a how-to guide, a rich result may feature a summarized step-by-step guide with bullet points.

By using the suitable schema markup code, you can tell web crawlers what type of data that particular part of your content is. And that can increase your content’s chances of being featured as a Rich Result.

Audit Your Website Regularly

Having consistent sitewide audits helps you catch any technical errors that may have slipped through the cracks.

A technical SEO audit is when you go through your enterprise SaaS website with a fine-tooth comb to find any technical errors that need to be fixed.

These can be things like broken links, duplicate content, or pages with low word count.

Fixing these errors can help improve both customers’ and web crawlers’ experience on your website. And it can also help improve your website’s ranking in SERPs.

Fix Broken Links

Broken links are links that lead to pages that no longer exist.

When enterprise customers click on a broken link, they’ll be taken to a 404 (not found) page. And that’s not a good experience.

Not only that, but search engines will also flag your website as having a poor user experience.

But what can you do to fix broken links?

Here are some best practices that you can do in different scenarios:

Update Your Link: Sometimes, broken links are just misplaced URLs or ones with typos in them. So, if you can identify the incorrectly placed URL, you can just update the link to point to the correct page.

Use a 301 Redirect: Other times, the page that the broken link is pointing to has been moved to a new URL. In that case, you’ll want to set up a 301 redirect, which automatically sends website visitors and web crawlers from an old URL to a new one.

Remove The Link: Finally, there are times when it’s just best to remove the broken link altogether. This is usually the case when the pages that the links are pointing to are no longer relevant or no longer exist.

Manage Your Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is when you have multiple pieces of content on your website that are the same or very similar.

For enterprise customers, duplicate content can be really confusing. They may not be sure which piece of content is the most accurate or up-to-date.

And for web crawlers, it can be hard to choose which content to index and rank. As a result, they may give you low rankings on all of your duplicate pages altogether.

So, what can you do about duplicate content?

Here are a few of the best practices:

• Use Canonical Tags: A canonical tag is an HTML code that tells web crawlers which version of a piece of content is the original. So, if you have multiple versions of the same content, you can use canonical tags to specify which one is the original.
• Use 301 Redirects: 301 redirects can also be very helpful in taking care of duplicate content, especially if you don’t want to get rid of any of your active URLs. The 301 redirects would simply send website visitors and web crawlers to the original page.

Create An XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that contains all of the URLs on your website. It’s like a roadmap for web crawlers.

Web crawlers can use XML sitemaps to easily discover new pages on your website. And enterprise customers can use them to find the specific content they’re looking for.

XML sitemaps are particularly helpful if your enterprise SaaS website has a lot of pages or if it’s constantly being updated with new content.

To create an XML sitemap, you can use a tool like the XML Sitemaps Generator or the Yoast SEO plugin (if you’re using WordPress).

Once you have your XML sitemap, you can submit it to Google Search Console.

Write A robots.txt File

A robots.txt file is a text file that tells web crawlers which pages on your website they can and can’t crawl.

This can be helpful for web crawlers if you have pages on your website that you don’t want to be indexed, like unimportant images, videos, and other types of media.

There are various commands that you can input in a robots.txt file. You can block only a particular web crawler or all of them from indexing one or more pages. What’s more, you can even input a command that directs web crawlers to your XML sitemap.

Build A Mobile-Friendly Website

B2B customers are using their mobile devices more and more to search for information and even SaaS products.

That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your enterprise SaaS website is mobile-friendly

Here are a few things you can do to make sure your enterprise Saas website is mobile-friendly:

• Use A Responsive Design: A responsive design is when your website automatically adjusts to fit any screen size. This is the best way to ensure that your website looks good and functions well on all devices, from smartphones to desktop computers.
• Use Large Fonts: Make sure that your font sizes are large enough to be legible on all devices.
• Use Simple Navigation: Keep your website’s navigation simple and easy to use on all devices. enterprise customers should be able to find what they’re looking for with ease, no matter what device they’re using.

Off-Page SEO For Enterprise SaaS Businesses: Link Building

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to your website. These inbound links are also called backlinks.

It’s a valuable enterprise SEO strategy because it can help you improve your website’s search engine rankings, traffic, and visibility.

There are many different ways to build links, but some of the most effective enterprise SEO strategies include the following:

Guest Blogging

One of the best ways to get backlinks from other websites is to write content for them as a guest.

When you guest blog, you essentially have the freedom to add any link to that piece of content. So, you can link back to your enterprise SaaS website (or any other page on your website) in your author bio or in the body of your guest blog post.

As an added benefit, guest blogging also allows you to get in front of new audiences.

If you guest blog on a popular website in your industry, you’ll be able to reach enterprise customers who might not have heard of your SaaS company before.

The key here is to make sure that the links you’re adding are high-quality and relevant. enterprise customers are more likely to click on a link if it’s relevant to the content they’re reading.

Also, try to guest blog on websites that have high domain authority. This will give your enterprise SaaS website a boost in search engine rankings.

Monitor Brand Mentions

Another great link-building strategy is to monitor brand mentions and turn them into backlinks. You never know, people may be mentioning your SaaS brand on their website or blog without actually linking to your website.

When this happens, you can reach out and ask them to add a link. Content creators are usually happy to do this, especially if you offer them something in return, like a share on social media.

To find brand mentions, you can use a tool like Google Alerts or Mention. These tools will send you an email notification any time your SaaS company is mentioned online.

Create Linkable Assets

Another enterprise SEO strategy that can help you get backlinks is to create linkable assets. Linkable assets are pieces of content (like an infographic or interactive content) that other website owners will want to link to.

To make sure your enterprise SaaS website’s linkable assets are successful, you need to make sure they’re high-quality, relevant, and share-worthy.

If you create content that enterprise customers find valuable and relevant, there’s a good chance they’ll share it with their followers and link to it on their website

This is a great way to get enterprise customers to visit your website and learn more about your enterprise SaaS business.

Broken Link Building

Broken link building is an especially clever link-building strategy. It involves finding websites that have broken links (preferably to your competitors’ websites) and replacing those links with links to your enterprise SaaS website.

The great thing about it is that it’s a win-win between you and the website that has the broken links. As we mentioned earlier, broken links could really hurt their own SEO strategy.

So with broken link building, you help them get rid of a broken link and you get a backlink in return.

Win-win.

To find websites with broken links, you can use a tool like Screaming Frog or Open Site Explorer.

Once you’ve found a few websites with broken links, reach out to the site’s owner and let them know. Then, offer them a link to your enterprise SaaS website as a replacement.

Final Thoughts About Enterprise SaaS SEO

As you move upmarket and start offering an enterprise SaaS solution, the competition is only going to get tougher.

You’ll find yourself facing off against established giants in your industry and trying to win hard-to-please enterprise customers.

But even in this arena, the fiercest battle is still the race to the top of the SERPs.

Enterprise SaaS SEO is the key to getting there.

Given the complexity of enterprise SaaS SEO, it’s important to have a solid strategy in place.

You may also want to work with a SaaS SEO agency or other professionals offering enterprise-level SEO services.

That way, you can come up with a personalized enterprise SEO strategy. This, in turn, will help you rank higher in the SERPs, drive enterprise customer traffic to your website, and win more enterprise customers.

Looking for more guides to help you grow your SaaS business? Check out our blog here.