Creating an SEO Strategy for a SaaS Company

The SaaS business model has become an increasingly popular option for software entrepreneurs. This is because software companies can use the SaaS business model to get people to subscribe to their software solution. Much like subscribing to Netflix or Hulu, users who subscriber to a SaaS software solution don’t actually own the contents of the software. They only have access for a limited amount of time depending on the length of the license that they bought (typically, monthly or annual).

By using subscriptions to fuel their software development costs, SaaS companies can create a more interactive software that lives in service of the user. What this means is that SaaS companies can create updates and build out features depending on what the user needs, instead of building out a whole software solution and hoping that it fits the needs of its users. By continuously updating a software, a SaaS company can use these subscriptions to not only test out new features but also offer a different level of access to different users depending on their needs.

While this might sound easy in theory – it is, of course, easier said than done. The SaaS business model not only requires competitive research, but it also requires a dedicated base of users to succeed. Because users are not buying the software outright, a SaaS company needs to have a certain amount of free demos and sign-ups per month in order to prevent total customer churn. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the easier and most effective method is acquiring new users at a continuous rate.

While cold pitching through LinkedIn and hiring a sales manager is one way to do this, the most sustainable way to do so is to invest in SEO. However, in order to invest in SEO, you need to create a SaaS SEO strategy. Using the leverage that SEO gives SaaS companies over search engines, a competent SaaS company can use keywords to identify which leads are coming into their site, which keywords they can target to acquire the highest amount of new users, and how they can use keywords to educate and entice their potential audience through the use of content marketing.

In addition to this, SaaS companies can also invest in website optimizations to make sure that their website is primed for Google and link building efforts. Link building allows particular URLs to rank better for target keywords, while technical optimizations can often be performed by in-house developers and make sure that a site layout is created correctly so that Google can associate certain pages on the website with target keywords.

In order to succeed, SaaS companies need to follow a four-part framework to create their SaaS SEO strategy: keyword research, website optimization, content marketing, and link building. Utilizing these four elements while help SaaS companies realize their potential by being able to better invest in their software to serve their users. SaaS companies need to always keep their users in mind, and utilizing SEO not only help make a SaaS companies website better for Google, but it also will help to improve its user experience elements so that users can easily find the information that they are looking for and make an informed decision about the software that they are looking to subscribe to.