When it comes to doing SaaS SEO it is important to take an outside-the-box approach than you would with a traditional SEO campaign. The reason is that most Software As A Service companies are trailblazers in their industry, so there is not yet a strongly established digital landscape to work with. So essentially you are rather limited on what competitor examples, and case studies you can use as reference points.
While this is the reality, this is not a reason for alarm, in this post, I decided to focus on more what NOT to do when doing SaaS SEO. I think this will help you better than just a random list of tips that may or may not apply.
So here it is:
1. Not Targeting Buyer Intent Keywords
In order to successfully sell your software it is important to understand that everyone who visits your site is not necessarily ready to buy, they may need more “educating” or time to “consider” your software before they are ready to make a decision.
When it comes to SEO, you can target people based on each “stage” or timeline they may be on to making a purchasing decision. This is called targeting buying intent keywords. Essentially buying intent keywords are keywords that people are searching for that they use when they are “learning” “considering” and “purchasing” your product. They are separated into “navigational”, “commercial”, “transactional”, and “informational” keywords. Check out this graphic from SEMrush that can help you make sense of the concept.
They can also be referred to as Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) keywords, Middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) keywords, and Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) keywords.
Here’s an example from one of my previous SaaS clients.
- TOFU/ Informational: Why is Accounting Software Important?
- MOFU/Commercial: Best Accounting Software Options
- BOFU/Navigational/Transactional: *Company name* Accounting software.
While this is not linear, nor logical, essentially a buyer will, in theory, start their buying journey at the questions or researching phase and will eventually start considering their options and, then when they are ready to purchase, they may look up a specific brand name.
Again this is not linear, it can vary greatly from person to person, but this is the basic concept of targeting buyer journey keywords to ensure that you are able to dispel objectives at each stage. Doing this will allow you to increase your conversion rates, and lead generation efforts.
For more information about finding keywords, I would read my keyword research guide.
2. Ignoring Website Structure and Usability
This is a mega problem that I’ve seen time and time again with Saas startups. Unfortunately, in the Startup culture, the burnout rate is so high for employees that website management is often overlooked. As a result, this leads to a poorly maintained website, that while on the surface may look, good often has unimaginable issues under the hood such as:
- Duplicate content issues
- Poor tracking (broken UTMs, pixels, contact forms)
- Blocked pages (404s, and 500s)
- Slow loading pages
- Style issues
All these issues I described fall into the Technical SEO bucket, which is the domain of SEO that is all about website speed, performance, and usability. All of these are important to search engines but in my experience, I found that attending to Technical SEO has actually a greater impact on your ability to convert users and get them to sign up for your service.
Because by improving the technical aspects of your website, you are making it easier for your users to use it. This makes it easier for them to learn about your products, and if they are happy with your service, they are more likely to become a customer.
So definitely don’t neglect Technical SEO.
3. Telling More Than Showing In Content
Being that you are selling a software, i.e something that is not tangible like a garment or a food item, it is even more critical that you demonstrate how your software works, how it can benefit the user, and how it can solve their problems.
You can do this by creating a simple infographic of how your software works or by using a video that you can also post on your YouTube channel.
Additionally, if you are selling an app it is helpful to show images of users actually using your app. Doing this helps your users to visualize how your app works, but also how the app fits into their daily lives and lifestyles. Remember people don’t buy products they buy solutions.
When it comes to SEO, you should also take great care to add image alt text and a proper image file name to help your images show up better in Image searches.
Overall my best advice to work with your content team to create webpages that help your lead immerse themselves in your software and the benefits that it can bring to them.
4. Producing Too Much Institutional Content
You know what I mean, those press releases, the long-drawn-out articles on how great your CEO is and how wonderful your company is. I get it, they play a role in branding but they should not be the only content that you publish on your blog.
The truth is that these posts will never rank well on Google and they will not bring in any SEO benefits. But you can link them to posts that will.
Remember what I said about the “buyer intent keywords”? Specifically, with “informational keywords”, you can use these keywords to create blog posts that are highly relevant to your software but also do a better job at establishing your company as an authority in your industry.
For informational blog topics, I recommend going to Google, typing in your software niche, and then viewing the “People Also Ask” section to see what common questions people have about your software industry. This will give you an idea of what to write about.
5. Ignoring Public Relations and Reputation Management
This is a bit of a touchy subject, but I have to be honest when SaaS companies ignore their reputation online it’s only a ticking time bomb, until you lose market trust. Coupled with your funding drying up, can easily be the dagger that kills your business.
My best advice to get ahead of this by building a public relations strategy and a reputation management strategy. This goes hand and hand with SEO strategy. What you can do is prioritize creating profiles on review sites like Trustpilot, Yelp, Bing, and Google Business Profile. With these sites, you can not only solicit reviews you can also respond to reviews.
By doing this you are not only showing customers that your company is transparent, but actually gives a damn about their feedback and reviews.
Additionally, you can be in the practice of asking for a link back to your site when you do brand partnership deals or PR with news sites. Doing this ensures that your website gets more inbound links and increases your domain authority. Doing this will help you rank higher on Google but also appear more credible which again can help improve your online reputation.
Get More SEO Traffic To Your Saas Company
By avoiding these mistakes you can ensure that you are creating a better experience for your customers, which in turn will lead to more leads and more sales. Unfortunately, most people don’t even know if they already caused these mistakes or if they’re problems happening on their website that they can’t even see.
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