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Software as a service (SaaS) is a booming industry full of potential and innovation. However, many SaaS businesses rely heavily on paid advertising for lead generation and customer acquisition, often overlooking the incredible power of organic traffic. This leads to high customer acquisition costs, which slows down business growth.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages. Investing in SEO can drive sustainable organic traffic, reduce acquisition costs and attract highly qualified buyers ready to book demos.
In this article, I discuss five essential SaaS SEO techniques to help you rank higher, increase the number of organic website visitors and drive more conversions in 2024.
Related: 3 Powerful SEO Techniques That Will Boost Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking
1. Do in-depth keyword research
In-depth keyword research helps you identify the specific terms your potential customers use to find software solutions like yours. For SaaS businesses, the main focus of keyword research should be on your target audience’s needs and more specifically, long-tail keywords.
For example, if you offer time management software, your first instinct would be to target keywords like “time management software.” However, websites that rank well for this keyword are well-established and have great authority, so climbing to the first spot on Google would take forever.
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 apps with project tracking”
“Best time tracking tools for remote teams”
Long-tail keywords typically have higher buyer intent because they are specific, indicating that the person has a clearer idea of what they are looking for. Targeting keywords with clearer user intent and less competition makes it easier to rank, as well as to attract and convert leads looking for specific features or benefits that align with your SaaS offering.
2. Maintain high content velocity
Publishing one blog post per week is not enough to remain relevant in the SaaS industry. To stay ahead of the competition, you should increase your content velocity and publish as much high-quality content as possible.
Producing more relevant and informative content in your niche signals to search engines that your website is a credible source of information. This boosts your topical authority and user trust, which is especially crucial for small business SEO.
Increasing your content velocity also provides more opportunities to include various keywords, which boosts your chances of ranking high for more search terms.
To effectively increase your content velocity and stay competitive in the SaaS industry, consider creating a variety of content types that cater to different aspects of your audience’s needs and interests. That includes:
3. Create product-led SEO pages
Product-led SEO pages focus specifically on your products, which is highly effective for attracting qualified leads who are more likely to convert into customers.
The most common examples of product-led SEO pages are:
Comparison pages: Create detailed comparison pages like [Competitor product] vs. [Your product] to highlight your product’s unique features, benefits and advantages over the competition.
Competitor comparisons: Generate pages that compare multiple competitors, such as [Competitor product] vs. [Competitor product]. This positions your brand as a knowledgeable authority in the space and can help potential customers understand what the industry has to offer.
Best-of lists: Create lists like “X Best [Your Niche] Tools in 2024” and include your product to establish it as a top option.
Niche-specific landing pages: Optimize landing pages for specific keywords, such as “time management software for freelancers.” These pages should be rich with information about your product, including features, benefits, testimonials and calls to action.
Related: 6 Ecommerce SEO Tips to Help You Rank on Google
4. Build high-quality backlinks
There are more than 9,000 SaaS companies in the U.S. with around 15 billion active users across the world. The SaaS industry is more competitive than ever, and most businesses use SEO to attract more customers.
Building high-quality backlinks to your product pages and blog posts is an SEO technique that helps improve your search engine rankings and domain authority to get an edge over the competition.
Some of the ways you can build backlinks include:
Guest posting on relevant industry blogs
Claiming unlinked brand mentions
Producing high-quality content like infographics and whitepapers to attract backlinks
Collaborating with other companies and influencers to create mutually beneficial content that includes backlinks
If you want your link building to work, though, you need to also focus on quality and relevance. The best approach is to acquire backlinks from established websites in your industry because they contribute more to your SEO results. Backlinks from reputable websites signal to Google that your content is trustworthy and authoritative.
For a SaaS company, you want backlinks from technology blogs, industry publications and authoritative websites in the software niche.
5. Develop strong internal linking
Internal links are hyperlinks that point to other pages on your website. They help Google understand the structure of your site, the hierarchy of your pages and the importance of specific content.
Strong internal linking can improve your website’s SEO by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages, which in turn can boost your rankings.
Include as many relevant internal links as possible with every article you write. To find all relevant pages, go to Google and type: “site:yourwebsite.com [relevant keyword].”
The best SEO tip is to use descriptive anchor text to provide context about the linked page’s content. For example, if you’re writing an article about “time management software for freelancers” and want to link to another article talking about best tools for remote workers, you can use the anchor text “best time tracking tools for remote teams.”
Lastly, you should regularly update older posts with new internal links to keep the SEO content fresh and improve relevance.
Focusing on the right SEO strategies can help you reduce customer acquisition costs and attract more organic traffic to your SaaS website.
The best approach is to:
Conduct in-depth keyword research
Maintain high content velocity
Create quality product-led SEO pages
Build high-quality backlinks
Develop strong internal linking
Try these techniques to improve your rankings, drive more qualified leads, boost conversions and get better SEO results this year.
Related: 5 Common SEO Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Rankings
