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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, overlooking the incredible power of organic traffic. This leads to high customer acquisition costs and slow business growth.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to rank highly on search engine result pages. Investing in SEO can help drive sustainable organic traffic, reduce acquisition costs, and attract buyers who are eager to book a demo.
In this article, we’ll cover five essential SaaS SEO techniques that will help you improve your rankings in 2024, get more organic visitors to your website, and increase conversions.
Related: 3 Powerful SEO Techniques to Boost Your Website's Search Engine Ranking
1. Conduct thorough keyword research
Thorough keyword research helps you identify the specific terms that potential customers use to find software solutions like yours. For SaaS businesses, the main focus of your keyword research should be on your target users' needs, 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,” but it will take you a long time to rank #1 on Google because the websites that rank high for this keyword are well-established and have high authority.
Instead, you should focus on more specific long-tail keywords. In this case:
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“Time Management Software for Freelancers”
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“Affordable time management software for startups”
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“Time management app with project tracking capabilities”
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“The best time tracking tool for remote teams”
Long-tail keywords are typically more specific, meaning they have higher purchase intent and give a clearer picture of what users are looking for. Targeting keywords that have a clearer user intent and less competition will help you rank better and attract and convert leads who are looking for specific features or benefits that align with your SaaS offering.
2. Keep your content velocity high
To stay relevant in the SaaS industry, it's not enough to publish one blog post per week. To get an edge on the competition, you need to increase your content velocity and publish as much high-quality content as possible.
By creating more relevant and useful content in your niche, you signal to search engines that your website is a trustworthy source of information. This increases your topical authority and user trust, which is especially important for SEO for small businesses.
Increasing the velocity of your content gives you more opportunities to include a variety of keywords, increasing your chances of ranking high for more search terms.
To effectively increase your content velocity and stay competitive in the SaaS industry, consider creating different content types that address different aspects of your audience's needs and interests. This includes:
3. Create product-driven SEO pages
Product-led SEO pages are highly effective at attracting qualified leads who are more likely to become customers because they focus specifically on your product.
The most common examples of product-led SEO pages are:
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Comparison page: Create a detailed comparison page [Competitor product] versus [Your product] Highlight the unique features, benefits, and advantages of your product over competing products.
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Comparison with competitors: Generate a page that compares multiple competitors. [Competitor product] versus [Competitor product]This positions your brand as a knowledgeable authority in your field and helps potential customers understand what your industry has to offer.
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Best List: Create lists like “Best of X” [Your Niche] Add your product to “Tools of 2024” and establish yourself as a top choice.
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Niche-specific landing pages: Optimize your landing pages for specific keywords, such as “time management software for freelancers.” These pages should be full of information about your product, including features, benefits, testimonials, and calls to action.
Related: 6 Ecommerce SEO Tips to Rank High on Google
4. Build high-quality backlinks
There are over 9,000 SaaS companies in the U.S. and about 15 billion active users worldwide. The SaaS industry is more competitive than ever, and most companies are turning to SEO to attract more customers.
Building high-quality backlinks to your product pages and blog posts is an SEO technique that can help improve your search engine rankings and domain authority, giving you an edge over your competitors.
There are several ways to build backlinks:
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Guest posting on related industry blogs
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Unlinked brand mention claims
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Create high-quality content like infographics and white papers to earn backlinks
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Collaborate with other businesses and influencers to create mutually beneficial content that includes backlinks.
However, for link building to be effective, you must also focus on quality and relevance. The best approach is to get backlinks from established websites in your industry, as this will contribute significantly to your SEO results. Backlinks from reputable websites send a signal to Google that your content is trustworthy and authoritative.
If you’re a SaaS company, you need backlinks from technology blogs, industry publications, and authority websites in the software space.
5. Build strong internal links
Internal links are hyperlinks that point to other pages on your website, helping Google understand your site's structure, page hierarchy, and the importance of certain content.
Strong internal links improve your website’s SEO and rankings by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages.
Include as many relevant internal links as possible in the articles you write. To find all relevant pages, go to Google and type in “site:yourwebsite.com.” [relevant keyword]”
The best SEO tip is to use descriptive anchor text to provide context about the content of the page you are linking to. For example, if you are writing an article about “Time Management Software for Freelancers” and want to link to another article that talks about the best tools for remote workers, you could 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 the right SEO strategy can help you reduce customer acquisition costs and increase organic traffic to your SaaS website.
The best approach is to:
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Conduct in-depth keyword research
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Maintain high content velocity
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Create quality product-driven SEO pages
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Build high-quality backlinks
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Build strong internal links
Try these techniques this year to improve your rankings, get more qualified leads, increase conversions, and improve your SEO results.
Related: 5 Common SEO Mistakes That Hurt Your Rankings