SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution providers operate in a fiercely competitive industry. With so many individuals and businesses looking for easy-to-implement applications and services every day, SaaS businesses need to be able to quickly differentiate themselves from other brands.
However, it can be difficult to stand out when offering similar products or services without reducing subscription costs and negatively impacting the business's profitability. This is where an effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy can be a real game changer.
While creating an SEO strategy for your business to increase your website traffic can be a long-term and sometimes tricky undertaking, we’ve created a practical checklist you can follow to help get you started and focus on the areas that will make a real impact on your digital marketing objectives.
Technical SEO
When starting an SEO campaign strategy, you’ll want to consider various optimization types for your website.
One of these categories is your technical SEO, which refers to the backend elements of your website’s structure that help to ensure your content can be easily found by search engines and indexed on their search engine results pages (SERPs).
Website Speed Optimization
Search engines highly prioritize the website navigation experience of their users. This means that all brands need to put in a certain amount of effort to ensure that their websites are fast-loading and optimized for quick, responsive exploration by visitors.
An area where website owners can make significant improvements in this area by paying attention to their website loading times. Many times, large images or dynamic web pages can take a considerable amount of time to render on web browsers. While they may provide a great aesthetic, they’re not always formatted for speed.
Another area that may need to be evaluated is your hosting service's speed. Not all web hosting partners are created equal, and it’s essential to ensure your website is hosted on a platform built to optimize a viewer's experience.
Mobile Optimization
In order for your website to rank well online, search engines like Google need to see that your site performs well on both PCs and mobile devices. In fact, since more Internet users now use their mobile devices to search online more than any other format, this metric has become very important over the years.
Some ways you can get better mobile performance out of your website include:
Using a responsive website theme
Checking mobile performance using mobile speed test tools
Avoid using too many advertisements on your website
Considering redesigning certain pop-ups on your site
While mobile speed is only one of many variables you should be focusing on when improving your technical SEO, its importance shouldn’t be ignored if you want your content to rank higher in SERPs.
Secure Website (HTTPS)
The security of your website should always be a top priority, considering the ongoing risk of modern cybersecurity threats. However, keeping your users' data safe isn’t just a priority for your brand but also for the search engines that help your website attract new visitors.
One way you can prove to search engines that your website is safe to visit is by implementing HTTPS encryption through your hosting provider. This added security precaution keeps an individual's information secure in the event of a data breach.
Crawlability and Indexability
For search engines to properly discover and rank your website, it’s important that the underlying structure of your website is optimized to support this. This involves creating XML sitemaps that categorize your website's content so it’s easier for search engine crawlers to find and understand.
Another essential aspect of optimizing your website’s crawlability is by using robots.txt files. These files help search engine crawlers only focus on indexing the elements of your website and make the process quicker for getting your core content indexed and ranking on search engines.
Structured Data
Configuring your content with structured data gives search engines additional context about the information you’re providing. This step enables the search results that come back to users to display more engaging information regarding a webpage and helps increase click-through rates.
You can create this format for your content by adding schema markup to your website’s code. This helps to benefit your SEO in a variety of ways, including:
More attractive search results appearance
Easier to understand and rank content for search engine crawlers
Improved visibility by being listed in knowledge panels on SERPs
Increased relevance when optimizing for voice-activated search tools
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is often one of the areas people focus on the most when trying to improve their website traffic. While this shouldn’t be the only variable to consider, there are a number of important ranking variables that on-page SEO can help to improve.
Keyword Research
One of the first things to consider when optimizing your website to help it rank higher in SERPs is the type of keywords and phrases you should target.
By identifying the right keywords to focus on, you’ll be able to create content that speaks to the search intent of your viewers and improve their engagement level. Conducting thorough keyword research involves:
Identifying Target Keywords - The first step in keyword research is to brainstorm a list of keywords relevant to your industry. You can do this by considering how customers search for SaaS solutions or by looking at the content your competitors create.
Analyzing Search Volumes - Not all keywords you come up with may have the same impact on attracting more viewers. It’s important to use search analytics tools to understand how many times keywords are searched over a period of time, with preference placed on terms that are trending up.
Assessing Keyword Difficulty - Depending on the competition in your niche, it can be much harder to rank for some keywords instead of others. You’ll want to understand the difficulty ranking of each keyword you’re targeting and try to find the right balance of good search volume and low to medium ranking difficulty.
Discovering Long-tail Keyword Phrases - Although focusing on broad keyword terms can be tempting due to their typically higher search volume, they can also be incredibly difficult to rank well for. Instead, focusing on long-tail keyword phrases comprising three or more terms can be much easier to rank for while contributing to regular web traffic.
Content Optimization
One you’ve identified the keywords and phrases you want to target, you’ll want to take additional steps to optimize your content - making both user- and search-engine-friendly. It’s important not to overly “stuff” your content with your chosen keywords but instead look for other impactful ways to show relevancy to your audience.
Crafting Compelling Meta Titles and Descriptions
Your website meta titles - which are the headings listed on SERPs that point to your various website pages - play an important role in ranking for certain keywords.
Including your chosen keywords naturally in these titles is a good first step when optimizing on-page SEO. The next step is to do the same when crafting your meta descriptions, which give your audience a quick 160-character introduction to your content.
Using Header Tags Effectively
When creating content on your site, it’s important to ensure that it’s structured so that it’s easy for website visitors and search engine crawlers to digest. To do this, using header tags effectively is critical.Header tags like H1, H2, and H3 establish a hierarchical structure for content. They help develop sections and subsections for content and can also include relevant keywords that can help position it for better rankability.
Ensuring Keyword Density and Placement
Although there are a number of relevant areas of your website where you can include your chosen keywords, it’s important not to get too wrapped up in using them repetitively. There is a fine line between showcasing keyword relevancy and coming across as a spammy website.
For reference, keyword density percentages, while not as important as they were in the past, can be limited to just 1-2% of your webpage. Instead of focusing heavily on using a certain number of keywords, concentrate more on creating high-quality, informative content for your audience.
URL Structure
When creating pages for your website, you’ll have the chance to create your own URLs. This is another good opportunity to include your chosen keywords.
It’s important to try to use a consistent format when creating URLs across your website. You’ll want to use word separators like hyphens whenever possible and ensure you have static URL names that don’t change as your site is regularly updated.
Internal Linking
Another important ranking factor is the linking structure you use on your website to reference your other relevant pages of content. This provides your audience with additional information they may find helpful and gives search engines more insight into how the various pages of your website are related.
Using the right anchor text for your internal links is important. You’ll want to make sure the terms you use aren’t misleading based on the content a user will be redirected to. The quality and relevance of your internal links are much more important than the quantity.
Content Strategy
A great content strategy is essential in helping your website rank for your target keywords. However, simply creating more content isn’t necessarily the way to improve your SEO. The quality of the content you create and the formats you provide your viewers with helpful information is equally important.
Creating High-Quality Content
Using AI-driven tools to create massive amounts of content for your site isn’t the way to see favorable ranking results. Google has continuously placed more value on websites that have unique, high-quality content that brings real value to users.
It’s important to make sure you’re putting more priority on the quality of your content rather than just wanting to post more often. By taking your time to add insightful and engaging information to your website, you’ll make it less likely that your audience will go somewhere else to find answers to their questions.
Blog Optimization
A company blog can be a great way to bring helpful content to your website visitors. It’s also an excellent opportunity to show your thought leadership while presenting opportunities to focus your writing around relevant keywords for which you want to rank your website.
You’ll want to follow best SEO practices when drafting all of your blog content, including using the right mix of keywords, headings, meta tags, and optimized titles. It’s also important to ensure that your content is readability-optimized for maximum user engagement. This will help you avoid high bounce rates on your site, which can impact your keyword rankings.
Case Studies and Whitepapers
Regarding the type of content you provide, it can be helpful with your SEO to incorporate various formats into the information you provide. While blog posts are always a good place to start, you can also experiment with creating insightful case studies or whitepapers for your viewers.
Having a diverse range of content helps showcase your industry expertise and can be a great way to demonstrate more value in your SaaS solutions. This is especially the case if you can highlight case studies specifically with your past clients that show the benefits your solutions provided for their business.
Landing Page Optimization
As a SaaS solutions provider, using landing pages effectively can be a great way to bring in more qualified leads and help convert new business. It’s crucial that you take the time to optimize the layout of these pages to help visitors navigate through the sales funnel unimpeded.
By making good use of headlines, feature-rich content, and engaging and effective CTA (Calls to Action), you can optimize your landing page to quickly provide a value proposition for your products and services while guiding visitors toward your desired actions.
Off-Page SEO
The opposite of on-page SEO is off-page, which encompasses all of the activities you do outside of your website development to improve your rankings. This includes building backlinks, using social media, and creating content for other websites.
Building Backlinks
Backlinks are a critical element that should be included in all SEO initiatives. This links from another site back to yours can be a powerful signal to search engines that the content you create is trustworthy and worth ranking.
There are a number of ways that you can gain backlinks from other reputable sites, including:
Guest Posting - One of the most common ways to get another website to link back to your site is to provide them with useful content they can post in exchange for a reference link back to your site.
Content Marketing - Creating content that can be easily distributed and offers insight into industry trends or statistics is a great way to attract the interest of other website owners and gain their links. You can then promote this content through various channels and quickly start attracting new links from high-authority websites.
Direct Outreach - Another great way to improve the quality and quantity of your backlinks is to reach out directly to website owners for a potential partnership. This can provide a great long-term relationship that allows you to share your experience with a much larger audience while bringing you a steady stream of referral website traffic.
Social Media Integration
Having an active social media presence is another valuable avenue to explore when improving your website’s SEO. Various social media platforms allow you to extend your reach and connect with your audience directly.
When sharing your content through your social media feeds, actively respond to viewer comments if and when they should come up. This helps your brand develop a deeper connection while improving social signals through shares and likes, which are another ranking factor for search engines like Google to rank websites.
Analytics and Monitoring
Tracking your ranking results and website metrics over time is essential for ensuring the long-term success of your SEO initiatives. This can help you identify what efforts are working and which others might need certain modifications.
Setting Up Google Analytics
For most website owners, Google Analytics is the first place they go to understand and track visitor metrics. This powerful analytics platform has been around for several years and is the gold standard for understanding how a website is performing.
Integrating Google Analytics into your website is very easy. It can provide real-time data analysis you can use to get helpful insights about your web presence and the type of visitors you’re receiving.
To set up your Google Analytics account, you can follow the steps below:
If you don’t already have one, create a free Google Analytics account.
Once an account is established, you’ll want to set up a new “property.” Properties are represented by different website domains or applications. Simply follow the instructions prompted.
After you’ve created a new property, you can generate a unique tracking code that you can use on your website. Copy this code for the next step.
When your unique property code is copied, you can paste it directly into your website’s HTML. Depending on the type of website you have, there may be various ways you can embed your analytics code. Follow the instructions provided by your hosting provider to make sure it’s uploaded in the right area.
Once the code has been properly embedded in your site, you can use the Google Analytics platform to receive real-time insights for your site.
Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another widely used tool for monitoring website performance. This tool is designed to help website owners understand their website's performance in Google’s SERPs and the indexing status of various web pages.
You can also use this tool to help identify potential performance issues on your website or specific landing pages that need addressing. These issues include broken links, server errors, and mobile-responsive issues.
Regular SEO Audits
With the right tools to track your website metrics over time, it’s important to incorporate comprehensive SEO audits into your overall digital marketing strategy. A holistic SEO audit will thoroughly evaluate all of the on- and off-page SEO initiatives you’re making while uncovering potentially large mistakes you could be making that could negatively impact your website rankings.
However, SEO audits aren’t just helpful for your website. You can also use auditing to better understand your competitors. By evaluating what SEO initiatives they’re doing right and which ones they may be neglecting, you can leverage this information to help fill in critical gaps that could help you surpass their website in search rankings.
Start Increasing Your Website Traffic Today
Generating more leads and converting business for your SaaS company requires combining SEO efforts and the right content development strategy. By following the steps provided, you’ll be much closer to gaining more organic website traffic and positioning your organization for long-term success.