Why Does Your SaaS Website Need SEO - ASAP

Looking for unexplored digital channels that will bring quality leads for your SaaS product?

If you have not tried SEO and content marketing, the right timing is ASAP.

Getting organic leads is a process that takes more time compared to paid marketing, but after the initial investment period, organic growth becomes a steady source of traffic and conversions. What’s even better is that creating a great SaaS SEO strategy can be easier compared to working on an eCommerce, informational, or a local business website. If your niche is not highly competitive, you can start getting results in 3 to 4 months.

If you need more proof before digging in keyword research and technical optimizations, see our top 5 reasons to start working on SEO right now:

1. High Conversion Rate = Lower Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The most significant benefit of search engine traffic is that the user takes the first step by typing in the search query. That means that you’ll be able to reach your prospects at a time when they’re looking for a software product like yours, or they have a problem which your solution can fix.

The conversion rate of organic traffic in the technology sector is 15%, which is much higher than other digital channels. Also, the people who land on your pages and subscribe for a demo or a test trial have a higher potential of becoming paid customers compared to leads you’ve just started to nurture on LinkedIn or another social platform. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to enjoy the low customer acquisition costs (CAC) and churn rates.

2.  Secure Two (Or More) Positions in the Search Results

After our first point, you’re probably wondering: Can’t I just pay for Google Ads in order to be in the top position and call it a day? Chances are, you may be already running campaigns and seeing good results.

Google Ads and SEO are two different channels with their own benefits, and most importantly – they do not exclude each other. The question you should be asking yourself is: “If someone is searching for software like mine, why shouldn’t my website be both in the Ads section and in the organic results?”

Statistics can vary by industry, but 4-5% CTR is a good result for a paid campaign. The rest of the clicks go to... the organic results.

It’s very easy to do the research for your industry – you can use the Keyword explorer section in the Ahrefs competitor research tool (or a similar keyword tool) to see the click-through rates for organic and paid. There’s hardly a case where the ads get more clicks than organic results.

3.  Don’t be a Prisoner of the Cost per Click

Paid advertising (both Google Ads and Social media) can be a great way to kick-start your digital marketing efforts. The downside is that you’ll need to keep increasing your ad budget and keep up with your competitors. A new player in the field or an aggressive strategy can often drive the costs through the roof – even to a point where the customer acquisition cost is no longer profitable. Having a plan B in a situation like this is priceless.

In case you heavily rely on social media channels for new leads, you need to think about how a change or a restriction in the company’s policy can be a hard hit for your business. Additionally, an issue with your paid advertising account on Facebook or LinkedIn could block it for days and leave you without any leads.

Many companies have been burned by putting their eggs in one basket – an experience you really, really want to avoid.

True, with SEO, you have Google algorithm updates that can affect you, but the disruptions are much smaller than what we have seen recently in the world of paid marketing.

4.  Feed the Top of the Marketing Funnel & Make your Brand Stronger

A successful SaaS SEO strategy will include optimizing pages for all stages of the marketing funnel, including keywords with informational intent. From an optimization perspective, this will help search engines understand that you’re an authority on the topic and create good interlinking and proper structure of the website.

In addition to that, ranking for informational keywords with high search volume will be the first touchpoint between your brand and a large group of potential users. It’s your chance to make a good first impression and start nurturing leads.

Make sure to create a proper user journey, for example encouraging people to subscribe for a newsletter or use remarketing to promote your next webinar. You’ll see that ranking for informational keywords will be a great way to raise your brand awareness.

5. Search is a Step You Can’t Ignore

Like it or not, Google is a factor in people’s decision-making. Ignoring it will only make the job of your competition easier.

First, make sure to check what are the most common searches related to your brand. Are people looking for “reviews” or “comments”? What are the pages that are ranking for these keywords – do they present you in a positive or in a negative way? Not paying attention to this crucial step can make you lose potential customers that you have acquired from paid channels.

Next, see the “top” and “best” queries for your product category. Are you featured in them along with the biggest names in the niche? If not, you definitely want to get your brand there. If someone is looking for the best software, they’re likely close to choosing a provider.

Third, check out the main “money” keywords for your niche and review your competitors’ pages. If they went through the effort of building high-quality content pages and links (internal and external), you can be sure that they did not work on this just for fun – it brings them conversions.

Ready to Start with a SaaS SEO Strategy?

Here are the first steps we recommend:

• Analyze your paid search data to identify the keywords with the best conversion rates and organic opportunity.
• Expand the list by using a good keyword research tool (for example, Ahrefs or SEMRush).
• Map focus keywords to focus pages based on the search volume, CTR, and the user’s intent.
• Organize your pages logically for users and for search engines. Create rich main navigation and good interlinking between the pages.
• Make sure your website meets the technical SEO basics – proper redirects, secure certificate, fast page speed, readable internal links, XML sitemap. If technical SEO is not your strong side, hire a professional to run an audit and make sure your developer implements everything.
• Start producing great content and hit your KPIs.

Either by following the simple steps or hiring an agency – if done right, investment in SEO is something you won’t regret.