SaaS SEO Guide: Tips to Ranking Higher on Google

As a SaaS business founder, you know that having a strong online presence is crucial to your success. But did you know that SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the most effective ways to increase your visibility and attract more customers? 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise as recent data show search engines are the starting point of about 68% of online experiences. 

Moreover, a study by Sistrix shows that the projected click through rate (CTR) for a #1 organic listing on Google is 34.2%. That only means that if you’re not ranking first on SERPs (search engine results pages), you’re losing out on a huge opportunity

Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your SEO and start ranking higher on Google. Keep reading to learn our top tips.

What is SaaS SEO?

At its core, SaaS SEO is the process of optimizing your SaaS website and content to be easily found by people who are searching for solutions that your software provides.

Think about it this way: when someone has a problem, they go to Google to find a solution. If your software solves that problem, you want to make sure that your website comes up as the top result. 

Why is SaaS SEO Important?

There are a few reasons why SaaS SEO is so important:

1. It Has Compounding Effects Over Time

SaaS SEO is a long-term strategy. Like any sound investment, it takes time for the compounding effects to be realized. Just as a $50 stock purchase today can turn into $100 next year with proper conditions and foresight, so too can an organization’s SEO strategic plan grow and multiply its effects over time.

However, similar to any other business endeavor, success with SaaS SEO requires diligent work and patience.

2. It Works Well With Other Marketing Channels

SaaS SEO can also be used in conjunction with other marketing channels, such as pay-per-click advertising and social media marketing. 

When used together, these different channels can help to maximize your SaaS product’s exposure and reach potential customers who are searching for a software like yours.

For example, SaaS products that are well-optimized for search engine visibility tend to perform well in organic search results. As a result, SaaS SEO can be a valuable part of a broader marketing strategy.

3. It Reduces Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

By ranking for relevant keywords, SaaS companies can drive organic traffic to their website and convert visitors into customers. 

The cost of SEO is often much lower than the cost of paid advertising, making it an effective way to acquire new customers. When compared to digital advertising, a study found that SEO can lower CACs by an average of 87.41%.

4. It’s a Highly Targeted Marketing Channel

SEO is a highly targeted marketing channel because it allows you to reach people who are actively searching for solutions that your product provides. This is in contrast to other marketing channels, such as display advertising or television advertising, which rely on interrupting people with your message in the hopes that they will pay attention.

5. It’s an Important Source of Brand Awareness

In addition to generating leads and sales, SaaS SEO can also help to build brand awareness for your product. When people see your SaaS product listed in search results, it helps to increase name recognition and create an association between your product and the relevant keywords.

Keyword Research For SaaS Companies

In order to rank for relevant keywords, you need to first understand what people are searching for. This can be done through keyword research.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the keywords that people are using to search for a particular topic. This information can be used to improve the visibility of a website or piece of content in search engines.

There are a number of different tools and methods that can be used for keyword research, but the most common is to use a SaaS platform like Google AdWords or Moz. These platforms provide access to a database of keywords and their relative search volume. This information can be used to determine which keywords are most likely to result in traffic to a website.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

Did you know five of the first 10 organic results receive 67.6% of all clicks? This only means that SaaS companies that don’t invest in keyword research are missing out on a huge opportunity to reach their target market. 

Understanding what keywords people are searching for is especially important for companies that offer products or services that are low in search volume but have high commercial intent, such as B2B SaaS products.

In addition to appearing higher in SERPs, well-researched keywords can also help SaaS companies to create more targeted and relevant content, which is essential for driving conversions.

How to Find Keyword Ideas

There are a few different methods you can use to generate keyword ideas such as:

• Use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer.
• Enter seed keywords and then see a list of related keywords, as well as data on monthly search volume and competition level.
• Look at your competitors’ websites and see what keywords they are targeting.

Keyword Metrics to Analyze

There are a few different metrics you can use to analyze keywords and determine which ones are most likely to result in traffic to your website. These metrics include:

1. Search Volume

This metric indicates how many people are searching for a particular keyword each month. The higher the search volume, the more potential traffic there is for that keyword.

2. Competition (Keyword Difficulty)

This metric indicates how many other websites are targeting the same keyword. The higher the competition, the more difficult it will be to rank for that keyword.

3. Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

This metric indicates how much you will pay each time someone clicks on your ad when it appears in the search results for a particular keyword. The lower your CPC, the more cost-effective that keyword is likely to be.

4. Trend

This metric indicates whether the popularity of a particular keyword is increasing or decreasing over time. If a keyword is trending upwards, it is likely to be more valuable than one that is trending downwards

On-Page SaaS SEO

There are many SaaS-specific SEO best practices that can be used to further optimize SaaS websites and improve their SERP rankings.

How to Optimize Your Content

There are a number of ways to optimize your content, and it’s important to focus on both on-page and off-page SEO.

• On-page optimization includes things like using relevant keywords in your title and throughout your content, as well as making sure your site is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. It also includes optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions. These two are among the most important elements on your pages as they are what appear in the search results when someone searches for a keyword that is relevant to your page.
• Some tips for optimizing them include using keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions, making sure that your meta descriptions are unique and interesting, and keeping your title tags under 60 characters.
• Off-page optimization includes activities like link building and social media marketing.

Types of content that attract the most links

Below are some types of content that tend to be the most effective at attracting links:

1. How-To Guides

How-to guides provide readers with valuable information that can help them to do something themselves. They are often very comprehensive, providing step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task. Because of this, they tend to be very linkable, as other websites will often link to them as a resource for their own readers.

2. Lists

Lists are easy to read and often provide valuable information in a concise format. For example, a list of the best software for small businesses might be of interest to readers who are looking for new business software.

3. Reviews

People are often looking for reviews when they are trying to make a decision about something, such as what productivity tool to use for their business. If you write comprehensive, well-thought-out reviews, other websites are likely to link to them as a resource for their readers.

4. Infographics

Infographics are a type of content that combines text and images to convey information in an easy-to-understand format. They are often used to explain complex topics or data sets, and can be very effective at doing so. Because of their visual nature, infographics are also very shareable on social media, which can help to increase their reach.

5. Case Studies

Case studies are in-depth looks at how a particular company or individual has used a SaaS solution to achieve success. They can be very detailed, providing readers with valuable information about how to use a product or service themselves.

Advanced On-Page Optimizations

SaaS platforms like Moz and cognitiveSEO offer tools that can help you identify and fix common on-page issues, such as missing alt tags, duplicate content, and thin content.

In addition, these platforms can also help you track your progress over time and measure the impact of your on-page optimizations on your overall SEO efforts.

Technical SEO For SaaS Companies

SaaS companies face unique challenges when it comes to SEO. Because their products are delivered online, they need to be especially careful to ensure that their website is optimized for search engines.

Here are a few tips for SaaS companies who want to improve their technical SEO:

Indexing

Indexing is the process of adding web pages to a search engine’s database. Once a page is indexed, it can show up in search results when someone types in relevant keywords.

Indexing is important for SEO purposes, as it can help pages rank higher in search results and get more traffic. However, indexing can also be time-consuming and expensive, especially for large websites.

SaaS indexing services can help to automate the process and make it more efficient. These services typically use algorithms to scan websites and identify new or updated pages. They then submit these pages to the relevant search engines for indexing. SaaS indexing services can be a valuable tool for businesses that want to improve their SEO and get more traffic to their website.

Optimize your website speed

Make sure your website loads quickly and efficiently. Search engines penalize websites that take too long to load, so it’s important to optimize your site for speed. Moreover, prospective customers will likely abandon your site if it takes too long to load. The ideal load time for a website is 2 seconds or less. There are a number of ways to improve your site’s loading speed, including optimizing your images, using a content delivery network (CDN), and minifying your CSS and JavaScript files.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

With nearly 7 billion or over 80% of the global population using mobile devices to access the internet, it’s important to make sure that your website is designed for mobile browsers. This means making sure your site is responsive and that your content can be easily viewed on a

Use SSL certificate

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it is a protocol that is used to encrypt data that is transmitted between a web server and a web browser. When you use an SSL certificate, it creates a secure connection between your site and the user’s web browser, which can help to protect sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords from being intercepted by hackers.

An SSL certificate is not required for all websites, but it is generally recommended for sites that process payments or collect personal information. For example, most e-commerce websites use SSL certificates to ensure that all transactions are secure

SaaS businesses that collect sensitive information from their users should consider using an SSL certificate to protect this data and ensure that their site is secure.

Implement schema markup

Schema markup is a code that you can add to your website in order to help search engines understand the content on your pages. This can be helpful for both users and search engines, as it can make it easier for users to find the information they are looking for, and it can help search engines index your pages more accurately.

Use canonical tags

Canonical tags are used to tell search engines which version of a page should be indexed when there are multiple versions of the same page available. For example, if you have a page that can be accessed at both www.example.com/page1 and www.example.com/page2, you would want to use a canonical tag on one of those pages in order to tell search engines which one should be indexed. This is important because if you have multiple versions of the same page indexed, it can hurt your SEO efforts as it may be seen as duplicate content

Optimizing For Rich Snippet

A rich snippet is a type of structured data that allows Google to display additional information about your website in the search results. This can include your business hours, price range, customer reviews, and more.

By including this information on your website, you can help Google to better understand your business and provide searchers with the information they’re looking for. In turn, this can help to improve your website’s ranking in the search results and drive more traffic to your site.

Link Profile

A link profile is a collection of all the links pointing to a website. It’s an important part of SEO because it tells search engines about the website’s popularity and authority. A strong link profile can help a website rank higher in search results.

SaaS businesses can use link profiles to track their progress over time and see how their link-building efforts are paying off. There are many tools that can help businesses create and manage their link profiles such as Moz’s Link Explorer and Majestic’s Site Explorer. These tools can help businesses track their progress, find new link opportunities, and monitor their competitors’ link profiles.

Reclaim Lost Links

When a website changes its URL or goes offline, any links pointing to that site will be broken. However, it is often possible to find the new URL of a moved site or to locate an archived version of a site that has gone offline.

By updating your website to include these new or updated URLs, you can reclaim the lost link juice and improve your SEO. In addition, by doing this you can also help other users who may be trying to access the same content.

Add Internal Links

By linking to other pages on your site, you can help improve your site’s overall link equity and authority. Additionally, internal links can help to guide users to the most relevant and valuable content on your site.

When adding internal links, be sure to use keyword-rich anchor text that accurately describes the page you are linking to. This will help to ensure that users and search engines alike can easily understand the relevance of your links. Ultimately, adding internal links is a simple and effective way to improve the overall quality of your SaaS site.

Take advantage of social media signals

Social media signals are simple interactions that users have with your content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Every time someone likes, shares, or comments on one of your posts, they’re providing a social signal. And these signals can actually have a big impact on your SEO.

Google and other search engines use social signals as a way to gauge the quality of your content. The more engagement your content gets, the higher it will rank in search results.

Bonus SaaS Technical SEO Techniques 

Here are a few more technical SEO techniques that can help improve your SaaS website’s ranking in search results :

• Use HTTPS: HTTPS is a security protocol that encrypts information sent between users and websites. By switching to HTTPS, you can improve your site’s security and potentially rank higher in search results.
• Implement AMP: Google Authorship is a way to link your content to your Google+ profile, making it easier for potential customers to find you and your work. In addition, Authorship can improve your SEO, as Google gives priority to content that is linked to a verified author. As a result, Authorship can help you attract more visitors and convert more leads into paying customers.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking to improve your SaaS SEO and rank higher on Google, following the tips in this guide will certainly help. Remember to focus on keyword research, creating quality content, link building, and measuring your results. The most important thing is to be patient–it takes time for SEO efforts to show results. Keep at it and don’t give up! For more resources and tips on growing your SaaS business, be sure to visit our blog.