SaaS SEO 2024: Ultimate guide to developing a SaaS website

Need an expert guide to SaaS SEO?

Did you know that 75% of people never make it past the first page of search engines? (Source: HubSpot)

What does it mean ? If your website is NOT ranking on the first page for keywords desired, you lose a lot of traffic and sales.

Lost search traffic could be worth millions if you run a SaaS business.

This is why you need the SEO Saas. THE SEO SaaS (Software as a Service) involves optimizing a SaaS company's website to rank higher in search results for keywords relevant to its products or services.

The more search engine optimized your SaaS website is, the more likely it is to be found by people looking for information about your products.

In this guide, you'll discover 5 of the best tips for SaaS startups. Let's get started without further ado.

SaaS SEO Strategy: 5 Best Practices for Ranking Your SaaS Website on Google

1. Smart Keyword Research

Keyword research is MOST important for SaaS businesses.

No matter what software you offer as a service, you need to find keywords relevant to your product.

For example, a website for a software company SEO like SEMrush wants to rank for keywords like “link building tool”, “keyword tool”, “site audit tool”, etc.

All of the keywords above are highly relevant to Semrush's products and services, and they are also keywords that can lead to more TARGETED traffic and conversions.

Gone are the days when you could rank for most keywords through keyword stuffing.

You need to find highly relevant keyword phrases for your SaaS website. Here are some PROVEN tips for finding relevant keywords for your SaaS website.

Start by brainstorming a list of ALL the keywords related to your products or services that you offer. You can consider all the problems your products solve, the features they offer, and the benefits they provide.
Use keyword research tools to help you find more relevant keywords, such as Semrush , AnswerThePublic , KWFinder , etc. These tools can help you identify keywords with high search volume, low competition, and good business intentions.
Analyze your competitors' websites to see what keywords they are targeting. You can't skip this step because you need to find out which keywords are MOST profitable in your industry.
Try to find long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific than short-tail keywords and are often easier to rank for.

Here's an additional tip for SaaS websites: scan Q&A platforms like Quora and niche forums to find hidden keywords you may have missed.

You can also use tools like AlsoAsked.com to find question-based keywords for your SaaS website.

If you're curious, AlsoAsked.com is a freemium tool that collects and displays "People Also Ask" data that appears in Google search results for any topic you want to rank for.

Here is an example for the topic “SEO Tools”;

As you can see above, for the keyword “SEO tools,” AlsoAsked.com generated a ton of relevant question keywords.

Question keywords are great for many reasons, such as:

They can help you rank for rich snippets
They are easier to rank for (because they are mostly long-tail keywords with less search volume)
Better conversions
More targeted traffic, etc.

You can use an FAQ section in your blog posts, case studies, or product pages to target these question keywords.

2. Search intent matters

Finding relevant keywords is just the beginning.

You MUST create content based on search intent to rank higher in search results .

There are FOUR types of keyword intent;

Navigational intent (people want to find a specific page, e.g. “Twitter Login”)
Informational intent (people want to know more about something, e.g. “what is SaaS SEO”)
Commercial intent (search users want to research before making a purchasing decision, e.g. “best AI tool”)
Transactional intent (people want to perform a specific action, usually a purchase, e.g. “buy an iPhone 15 pro”)

Make sure you categorize all your keywords into the four main search intent types mentioned above.

For example, the keyword “how to check website traffic” has informational search intent, while “best website traffic checker tools” has commercial search intent.

If you want to find the intent of ANY keyword or topic, you can use a tool like Semrush Keyword Magic.

3. Use SaaS SEO tools

If you run a SaaS business, you need to invest in the right SEO tools.

Here are THREE powerful SaaS SEO tools that most experts are using in 2024.

1.Semrush

Semrush is essential SEO software for any SaaS business, offering over 55 tools on a single platform. It is also one of the most popular SEO tools used by over 10 million users worldwide.

From keyword research to competitor analysis, website audits, PPC ads, you can perform almost any SEO task using Semrush.

Benefits of Semrush for SaaS:

It has a huge keyword database of over 25 billion keywords, so you can find hundreds of profitable keywords for your business.
Offers amazing tools to analyze your competitors as you can estimate their traffic, top pages, links, identify content gaps, etc.
The ability to easily perform in-depth website audits to find and resolve your technical issues
Track your backlink profile and keyword rankings over time and see how they impact your search engine rankings.
Above all, you can easily find out your competitors' paid advertising campaigns, so you can see which keywords they are targeting and how much they are spending.

Pricing: Semrush comes in 3 pricing plans, listed below.

The Pro plan costs $119,95 per month, where you can add up to 5 projects, 500 keywords to track, and 10 results per report.
The Guru plan costs $229,95 per month, where you can add up to 15 projects, 1 keywords to track, and 500 results per report.
The Business plan costs $449,95 per month, where you can add up to 40 projects, 5 keywords to track, and 000 results per report.

2. Google Search Console (GSC)

GSC is an essential tool for all SaaS website owners. This is a free SEO tool from Google. It helps you check your website's indexing status, search queries, crawl errors, etc.

If you want to monitor Google search results of SaaS website, you need to go to GSC.

Benefits of GSC for SaaS:

Google Search Console is a free tool available to website owners of all sizes and budgets.
Identify your site's indexing issues (both desktop and mobile)
Find out which search queries get you the most clicks from Google
Quickly monitor your website for crawling issues

Fees : It's free.

3. Surf SEO

If you want to improve the search traffic of your SaaS website, you must try Surf SEO . it gives you all the tools you need to increase your website's organic traffic, increase your visibility, and improve your keyword rankings.

Advantages of Surfer SEO for SaaS:

It offers an AI writing tool that helps you with content research, writing, and content optimization in one click.
It can be effortlessly integrated with major platforms including Google Docs, WordPress, Jasper AI, etc.
Offers a keyword research tool that helps you discover a ton of relevant topic groups based on your main keyword.
It provides you with an SEO audit tool that helps you identify quick wins and find missed SEO opportunities for your SaaS website.
It also offers a 100% free browser extension called “Keyword Sufer”, which allows you to see search volume, relevant list of keyword ideas, and much more.

Pricing: Surfer SEO offers the following 3 pricing plans;

The Essential plan costs $89 per month and you get 15 content editor articles, 2 content editor seatsOrganisation and unlimited keyword research.
The Advanced plan costs $179 per month and you get 45 content editor articles, 5 content editor seatsOrganisation and unlimited keyword research.
The Max plan costs $299 per month and you get 90 content editor articles, 10 content seatsOrganisation and unlimited keyword research.

4. Earn Backlinks

If you want to get HUGE traffic from Google, you need backlinks.

Almost all successful SaaS websites contain tons of backlinks.

Canva is one of the best examples; it is a SaaS company that offers a freemium online graphic design platform. Canva has a massive backlink profile, with over 17 million backlinks from over 350 referring domains.

Look at;

So how did a SaaS company like Canva create such a HUGE backlink profile?

Here are some ways to replicate what Canva did to build backlinks to your SaaS website in 2024.

Creation of informative content

Canva runs a blog where it regularly posts high-quality content on a variety of topics, including:

Selling
Professional
Design
Branding and more

Most of their blog posts are very comprehensive and informative, and they are shared thousands of times on social media. Some of its free guides on marketing and design also attract hundreds (if not thousands) of backlinks organically.

So, if you run a SaaS website, take inspiration from Canva's content to discover how you too can create incredible content to earn backlinks naturally.

Here are some effective tips for creating content that attracts links;

Identify topics that have the potential to succeed on Google. Choose evergreen topics so you can create long-form content or free guides. If you choose epic topics, you can continue to update them regularly even after a year or two.
Find the best posts from your competitors. Use Semrush to find ALL of your competitors' best pages that have the highest number of backlinks. You can ccreate content that is 10 times better .
Create engaging infographics and images to include in your blog posts. We have organically created many backlinks to our site by creating attractive images around popular topics. You too can do the same because images are the best way to attract links.
Create unique and original content. Gone are the days when people linked to average content. People are more likely to link to new and different content. Try coming up with new content ideas and finding a unique perspective on your topics.

Email distribution

Canva is extremely effective for running email outreach campaigns. He often runs a blogger outreach program to acquire backlinks from high-quality websites.

For example, they might contact a blog owner who wrote an article about the best design tools for small businesses and ask if they'd like to add a link to Canva.

As you can see above, they word their emails carefully. They are really short and convincing.

Here are some quick tips for using email outreach to acquire links:

Create a list of bloggers and website owners who are already linking to your competitors' sites. You can use tools like SEMrush to easily find backlink sources from ANY website or domain. If someone is already linking to your competitors, you can also do the same with better content.
Personalize your emails. Use their names when sending an email. Don't send mass emails.
Keep your emails short and concise. Use strong calls to action at the end of your email.
Follow up. In the context of email distribution, tracking is important. If you don't receive a response within a week, send another short email.

5. Don’t Ignore Technical SEO

When it comes to search engine optimization, most people prioritize optimization on the page and off-page and often forget about technical SEO.

You can't ignore technical SEO, especially when you're running a SaaS website.

Here are some important things you can do right away to improve the overall technical SEO of your SaaS websites.

Recover lost links. Sometimes you can change your URLs. In this case, you will lose all incoming backlinks that point to them. You can fix this problem and recover all those lost links by adding 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones.
Fix your broken links, because Google hates showing 404 error pages. You can use tools like Xenu's Link Sleuth or Screaming Frog to find broken links on your site.
Always link to other relevant pages on your website because links improve the overall crawl rate of your site. Additionally, it passes link juice to other important pages on your site, which contributes to better rankings.

FAQs | SEO for SaaS startups

Here are some FAQs about SaaS search engine optimization.

What is SaaS SEO

SaaS SEO refers to ALL SEO best practices to improve the online visibility of websites offering software as a service (SaaS), such as HubSpot, Semrush, Ahrefs, etc.

How to do SEO for a SaaS business?

Some of the best ways to do SEO for SaaS websites include:

Create a list of relevant keywords
–identify and analyze the best performing pages of competitors
Create content based on user intent
Create topic groups for topic authority

How to reference a SaaS site?

To rank a SaaS website, you need two things: high-quality content and lots of backlinks.

What is the difference between SaaS SEO and traditional SEO?

SaaS SEO requires a more specific approach to target a highly relevant audience and customers, whereas in traditional SEO you can target a wide range of audiences.

What are the best SaaS SEO tools?

Some of the useful SaaS SEO tools are:

Semrush
Ahrefs
Google Search Console and Google Analytics
Screaming Frog

Similar Items:

Final Thoughts on the SaaS SEO Guide

Remember one thing: SaaS customers are ALWAYS looking for long-term relationships with a SaaS company. For example, we've been using Semrush SEO software since 2016. We can't switch to another tool as easily because we've become loyal as the business has grown.

The same thing applies to most SaaS startups: keep providing HUGE value and you'll keep your customers for life. And the best way to attract loyal customers is to optimize your website for search engines.

What do you think about SEO for SaaS websites? Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments.

SaaS SEO: The Ultimate Guide to Doing SEO for Your SaaS Business in 2024