The Ultimate Guide To B2B SaaS SEO

Did you know that 68% of all online experiences start on a search engine? And if you’re running a business-to-business (B2B) SaaS company, being visible online is crucial to acquiring leads and turning them into customers.

That’s why ranking high on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is crucial to a SaaS business’ marketing efforts.

That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) should be among your top priorities.

In this blog post, we are going to talk about B2B SaaS SEO, why it is important, and different strategies you can use.

But before we jump into that, let’s first answer the question:

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website with the goal of earning higher rankings on the search results.

The better your SEO campaign, the higher you will rank for relevant keywords, and the more traffic you will get to your website.

But how do search engines rank various websites? How do they know which should go first on the list?

They do it through web crawlers.

A web crawler, also called a spider bot, is a piece of software that crawls through the internet, collects data, and then indexes it.

The most popular search engine, Google, uses its own web crawler called Googlebot.

When you type a query into the Google search bar, the algorithm looks through all of the indexed pages to find the ones that are relevant to your query.

Then, it ranks them according to relevance and other factors, such as how often the pages are clicked on (CTR) or shared on social media (social signals).

One important thing you need to remember is that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing. This means that what works today might not work tomorrow.

That’s why SEO is a continuously evolving discipline. That being said, you should always be ready to adapt to changes and shift to new strategies.

Down to its core purpose, SEO is all about helping web crawlers go through your web pages and index your content.

And there are a lot of things you can do for that endeavor. In fact, these SEO practices are grouped into three categories: on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.

We will talk about them in more detail below. But for now, let’s look at specific reasons why you need a B2B SaaS SEO strategy.

Why Is SEO Important For B2B SaaS Businesses?

There are many reasons why SEO is important for a B2B SaaS company. Here are some of the most important ones:

It Increases Organic Website Traffic

Organic traffic is the website traffic that comes from search engines and other unpaid sources.

SEO is important because it increases your website’s organic traffic.

The higher you rank on the SERPs, the more likely people are to click on your website. And the more clicks you get, the more traffic you will drive to your website.

It Improves Your Visibility & Brand Awareness

Another reason why SEO is important for a B2B SaaS business is that it improves your visibility and brand awareness.

When people see your website ranking high on the SERPs, they will start to associate your SaaS brand with keywords relevant to their search.

This will not only help you attract more website visitors but also improve your brand’s reputation and authority.

It Builds Your Credibility & Authority

In B2B SaaS, you’re trying to win other businesses over. Understandably, they will have high standards when it comes to the products and services they incorporate into their processes.

And when they are looking for SaaS products to use or even just information to help them with their businesses, they most probably won’t look beyond page one of the SERPs.

This is where SEO comes in. By ranking high for relevant keywords, you will be able to build your credibility and authority in your industry.

When other businesses see you as a credible and authoritative source, they will be more likely to do business with you.

It Helps You Generate More Leads & Sales

B2B SEO is also important because it helps you generate more leads and sales.

Inbound marketing techniques, such as SEO, are known to be more effective at generating high-quality leads than outbound techniques, such as cold-calling or print advertising.

This is because people who find your website through a search engine are usually looking for a solution to their problem.

Therefore, they are more likely to be interested in your product or service.

It Increases Your Website’s ROI

Finally, SEO is important because it increases your website’s return on investment (ROI). This is because SEO is a low-cost but long-term marketing strategy with a very high ROI.

In fact, SEO has been shown to have an ROI of 12.2x, which means it generates $12.20 for every dollar you spend on it.

9 Best On-Page SEO Practices For B2B SaaS Businesses

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s content and structure to rank higher on the SERPs.

Here are some of the best on-page SEO practices for B2B SaaS websites:

1) Do Your Keyword Research

Before you even start planning your content creation, you need to find out which topics are worth writing about.

What keywords are people actually looking up?

What questions are they trying to answer?

What keywords are your competitors going for?

You can use SEO tools like Google Ads’ Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush to find the right keywords for your website.

These tools can show you two important things: each keyword’s search volume and difficulty.

The search volume is the number of times a keyword is being searched for every month. The higher the search volume, the more traffic you can get from that keyword.

The difficulty, on the other hand, is a measure of how hard it is to rank for a keyword. The higher the difficulty, the more effort you will need to put in to rank for that keyword.

2) Analyze Your Competitors

As you do your own keyword research, you might want to find out what your competitor’s keyword strategy looks like.

You can do this by analyzing their website’s content and structure.

What topics are they writing about?

What keywords are they targeting?

How well are those pages ranking?

You can use SEO tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer or Moz’s Link Explorer to analyze your competitor’s website.

These tools will show you things like the backlinks pointing to their website and the pages that are getting the most organic traffic.

3) Publish High-Quality Content

It’s easy to imagine how SEO can improve your content marketing efforts. But the benefit actually goes both ways.

In fact, one of the most important on-page SEO factors is the quality of your content.

Search engines want to provide their users with the best possible results, so they will rank websites with high-quality content higher on the SERPs.

What’s more, having reliable and relevant content will increase the chances of others quoting your content and adding your website link to their own web pages.

That can also help your SEO efforts, although that is more on the off-page side of SEO (which we will talk about later on).

To make sure your content is high quality, make sure it is well-researched, well-written, and relevant to your target audience. It should also be unique and original.

4) Analyze Each Keyword’s Search Intent

When you are planning your SEO content, it is also important to analyze each keyword’s search intent.

This is the purpose behind the searcher’s query. Are they looking for information? A product? A service?

There are four main kinds of search intent behind a query: informational, navigational, commercial investigation, and transactional.

Informational Intent: The user is looking for information or knowledge on a particular topic. They might be doing research or trying to learn something new.

Keywords with this intent may be those like “how to increase sales” or “best digital marketing strategy”.

When you’re targeting keywords with this intent, you should produce educational content.

Navigational Intent: The user is looking for a specific website, usually because they already know about it. In fact, they are only using the search engine to find that website.

For example, someone might search for “Facebook” if they want to go to the Facebook website. They don’t want to learn or buy anything. They just want to browse Facebook.

Commercial Investigation Intent: The searcher is considering making a purchase, but they are still in the research phase.

They haven’t decided which product to buy yet. They just want to know more about their options before making a decision.

For example, someone might search for “best CRM software” if they are trying to find a CRM software to buy for their business.

Content pieces that target keywords with this intent generally should have product comparisons or other similar types of content.

Transactional Intent: The user is ready to make a purchase. They know what they want and they are just looking for the buy or sign up button.

Keywords for this search intent usually include a particular brand and a word that indicates that the searcher is ready to buy.

Examples might be something like “HubSpot pricing” or “Pipedrive signup”.

5) Target Keywords All Throughout The SaaS Sales Funnel

When you are planning your SEO strategy, it is important to target keywords all throughout the SaaS sales funnel.

The SaaS sales funnel has three main stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Awareness Stage: The potential customer becomes aware that they have a problem that needs to be solved. So they need information on how to solve it.

So the keywords in this stage are usually those with informational search intent.

For example, someone might search for “how to generate leads” if they are trying to find ways to improve their lead generation efforts.

Consideration Stage: The user is considering different options for solving their problem. They are looking for more information on the different solutions available.

The keywords in this stage often have commercial investigation intent.

For example, someone might search for “best marketing automation software” if they are trying to find a marketing software that will work best for their business.

Decision Stage: The potential customer has decided on a solution and they are ready to make a purchase.

The keywords in this stage have transactional intent.

By targeting keywords all throughout the SaaS sales funnel, you can attract users at every stage of their journey. And that will help you increase leads and sales for your business.

6) Optimize Your Meta Titles & Descriptions

Your meta titles and descriptions are important for both users and search engines.

The meta title is the title of your page that appears in the search results. The meta description is the short description of your page that appears below the meta title.

Both the meta title and meta description should be optimized for your target keywords. But they should also be written in a way that is appealing to users.

Your goal is to write a meta title and meta description that will both attract clicks from users and rank high in the SERPs.

Here are some tips for that:

• Use your target keyword in both the meta title and meta description. But don’t stuff your keywords. Use them naturally.
• Keep your meta title to 60 characters or less. And keep your meta description to a maximum of 160 characters.
• Write a unique meta title and meta description for each page on your website.
• Make your meta title and meta description interesting and appealing to users. Use persuasive language that will make them want to click through to your website.

7) Optimize Your Website’s Headline & Subheadings

Your website’s headline and subheadings are important for both users and search engines.

The headline is the most important text on your page. It should be optimized for your target keyword. And it should be written in a way that is appealing to users.

Like with meta titles and descriptions, your goal here is to write a headline that will both attract clicks from users and rank high in the SERPs.

What’s more, your subheadings are also important.

Not only should they organize your SEO content. They should also be optimized for your target keywords. And they should be written in a way that is easy to read and understand.

Here are some tips for writing effective headlines and subheadings:

• Use your target keyword in your headlines and subheadings. But again, don’t stuff your keywords. Make sure they sound natural and not forced.
• Use H1 for your headline and H2 for your subheadings. Web crawlers see H1 as a “wrap” for the entire content piece. So there should only be one H1 tag for your entire article.
• Make your headlines and subheadings interesting and appealing to users. Use persuasive language that will make them want to read your content. Still, be careful not to overuse clickbait headlines that may annoy your readers.

8) Add Internal & External Links

Internal and external links are important for both users and search engines.

Internal links help users navigate your website. They also help search engines crawl and index your content pages.

External links show that your website is authoritative.

When you link to other websites, you are essentially saying that those websites are trustworthy. That will help improve your website’s authority in the eyes of search engines.

Here are some tips for adding internal and external links:

• Add internal links to other pages on your website. That will help both users and web crawlers navigate your site and find the information they are looking for.
• Add external links to high-quality websites. Only link to websites that you deem to be trustworthy and authoritative. Having broken links or linking out to spammy pages will only hurt your SEO efforts.
• Use keyword-rich anchor text for your internal and external links. That will help search engines understand what your website is about.

9) Optimize Your Images

Images are important for both users and search engines. They can help break up your content and make it more visually appealing to users.

And when properly optimized, they can help improve your website’s ranking in the SERPs.

Here are some tips for optimizing your images:

• Add descriptive alt text to all of your images. The alt text is the text that appears when an image cannot be displayed. It should be a brief description of the image. And it should include your target keyword if you can fit in naturally.
• Use file names that are descriptive and include your target keyword. For example, if you have an image of a red car, your file name could be red-car.jpg.
• Compress your images to reduce their file size. That will help improve your website’s loading speed, which is better for both web crawlers and users.

Off-Page SEO Practices: Link Building

Link building is one of the most important off-page SEO practices.

Linking to your website from other websites shows search engines that your site is authoritative and trustworthy. And that will help improve your website’s ranking in the SERPs.

There are many different ways to build links. Here are a few of the most effective methods:

1) Promote Your SEO Content In Various Channels

One of the best ways to build links is to promote your content on multiple channels. That includes social media, forums, blogs, and other websites.

When you share your SEO content in these channels, make sure to include a link back to your website. That way, people can click through to your site if they find your content interesting.

2) Find Unlinked Mentions

Another effective link building method is to find unlinked mentions. That’s when someone mentions your website or SaaS brand without linking to it.

You can use a tool like Google Alerts to notify you whenever your website or brand is mentioned online. Then, you can reach out to the person who made the mention and ask them to include a link.

3) Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is another great way to build links. When you guest blog on someone else’s site, you can use your own content as a reference and add a link to it.

What’s more, you can also include a link back to your own website in your bio or author profile.

Not only will that help you build links, but it will also help increase brand awareness and drive traffic back to your site.

4) Form Partnerships With Other Content Marketers

Partnering with other content marketers is another great way to build links. You can collaborate on blog posts, infographics, or even just share each other’s content on social media.

When you form partnerships with other content marketers, make sure to include links back to your website. That will help improve your website’s ranking in the SERPs.

Best Technical SEO Practices For B2B SaaS Businesses

Technical SEO is all about improving your website’s technical aspects to make it more accessible and visible to the web crawlers.

Here are some of the best technical SEO practices:

1) Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed

A fast loading speed is important both for SEO and user experience. 

Web crawlers consider your website’s loading speed when determining its ranking in the SERPs. As for your users, they are less likely to stay on your site if it takes too long to load.

There are a few different ways to improve your website’s loading speed. Some of them include the following:

• Using a content delivery network (CDN)
• Optimizing your images
• Minifying your CSS and JavaScript files
• Reducing your redirects

2) Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Another important technical SEO factor is your website’s mobile-friendliness.

More and more people today are using their smartphones and tablets to access the internet. And if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, those users are likely to leave and find a site that is.

There are a few different ways to make your website mobile-friendly:

• Use responsive design
• Use a mobile-friendly theme
• Create a separate mobile version of your website

3) Improve Your Website’s Structure

Your website’s structure plays a role in its ranking in the SERPs. A well-structured website is easy for web crawlers to understand and index. And that can help improve your ranking.

This is actually a matter of debate among SEO experts, but a lot of them say that subfolders are generally more SEO-friendly than subdomains.

Subfolders stay within your domain’s servers and therefore may be easier for web crawlers to index. While subdomains use different servers.

Still, there are times when you actually need a subdomain.

They are good for developing new website sections that are distinct from your main website. This could be a version of your site in another language or a new product within your brand.

4) Use Structured Markup

Structured markup is a code that you can add to your website to help search engines understand its content. It’s sometimes also called “schema markup” or “microdata.”

Adding structured markup to your web page can help improve its chances to appear as a featured snippet on the SERPs.

You see, schema markup can help you distinguish different elements in your websites, such as user reviews, products, and events.

That helps Google display the snippet properly. That’s why you see review snippets with star ratings, event snippets with dates, and product snippets with prices.

Final Thoughts About B2B SaaS SEO

The B2B SaaS market today is incredibly competitive. And if you want your business to succeed, you need to make sure you’re doing everything to make sure that your website and content are visible online.

Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to improve your B2B SaaS SEO strategy.

From optimizing your website’s technical aspects to building links and increasing brand awareness, there are a number of strategies you can use to improve your ranking in the SERPs.

But the thing is that SEO is a complex and ever-changing field. After all, the search engines’ algorithms are constantly evolving.

So remember that the underlying principle is to produce high-quality content and help web crawlers index that content.

Want more guides and strategies to help you grow your SaaS business? Visit our blog here.