SEO is a complicated beast. Unlike traditional advertising methods that have transformed themselves to work in the digital arena, SEO is a wholly digital method of marketing that has very little to do with the commercials and ads of the past. Gone are the slick marketing techniques or billboard or magazine space. In fact, most people don’t even comprehend that what they are experiencing in a search engine is altered data that is designed to be informational. Unless they are directly searching for a product on an ecommerce store, most people use search engines to find information about questions they have. Given that SaaS companies exist to solve informational issues with companies, from increasing productivity to getting rid of bottlenecks in workflows, they are unique positioned to take advantage of optimizing their websites for search.
In this sense, SEO for search companies is often called SaaS SEO. SaaS SEO follows a simple framework that has four major components: keyword research, technical structure and implementation, content strategy and content production, and link building. Each component is essential for correctly optimizing your SaaS company’s website for search, and all need to be invested in properly in order to get the best results.
In terms of keyword research, keep in mind that SaaS companies don’t always exist in the framework of software in people’s mind. While you can use competitive keyword research to analyze and research the competition, you should also explore keywords beyond what these companies have to offer. In doing so, you’ll be able to see how people are searching for solutions that your SaaS offerings provide, and you may even want to implement new features into your software based on this research.
You’ll also want to make sure that the technical structure of your website conforms to these keywords. For example, if you find a keyword that is looking for alternatives to a larger software, you may want to create a page in your header navigation that specifically talks about this. For example, if you run a CRM, you may want to make a page that talks about ‘Salesforce alternatives’ if that is a keyword that makes sense for you. This will work especially well if you have features that Salesforce lacks and that you think potentially people may want.
Aside for technical structure, you’ll also want to invest in a comprehensive content strategy and content production for your blog. Within your content strategy, you’ll want to create pillar pieces that comprehensively cover a particular keyword or keyword group. These can take the form of ultimate guides and should be extensive pieces of content that are explicitly designed with the user in mind. When creating this content, you’ll also want to look at the search engine results page for the keyword and make sure that your content is aligned with what Google deems relevant.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that you build links to these content assets and other pages on your site. This will help you immensely in that it signals to Google that the pages on your website are important and contextually relevant to the keyword group you are trying to target. By following this simple strategy, a SaaS company can gain unique advantages in the market and appear in the searches of curious searchers for various search terms. This will help build their authority and overall help win customer trust and loyalty.
