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SEO, in the high velocity SaaS environment, is your steady flow and growth machine. While some argue that “SEO is dead,” it’s quite the opposite: What has happened simply is that SEO has shifted. As for the CMS systems, better web themes, the search engines getting smarter and smarter, it’s clear that SEO has a lot to do with technology and tricks. Though, a good SEO is not all about science but still the art and basically concerned with adding real value to the internet.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this blog, which lays out the specific steps you need to follow to make 2024’s SaaS SEO strategy work for you and build sustainable, long-term success for everyone.
1. Set Up a SaaS SEO Discovery Workshop
But to reach that land and start looking through keywords and competitors, you and your SaaS company should know what you are and what you want to represent on the internet. A discovery workshop is an effective method of disclosing goals, target audiences, and products and services one has to offer.
Some key questions to ask:
- What do we want our SaaS brand to be found for?
- What problems does our product solve for customers?
- What industries or verticals do we operate in?
- Who are our direct, indirect, and industry competitors?
For example, if you’re in document automation, keywords like “AI for document processing” or “contract review automation” can provide a window into broader SEO opportunities, helping you establish your niche in a competitive market.
2. Build a Competitive Keyword List
The next step you’ll need to take is the definition of your competitors and their activity with keywords. Utilizinglien as tools such as SEMRush, make a list of the prevailing keywords that are currently directing traffic to your site and your competitors as well. Start by selecting a set of relevant keywords, analyzing their performance (search volume, CPC, competition), and organizing them in a spreadsheet.
Make sure to:
- Extract keywords from competitor sites.
- Use broad match filters to discover keyword variations.
- Prioritize the top-performing keywords based on relevance and search volume.
Pro Tip: Each competitor should have its own tab in your keyword spreadsheet, allowing you to compare data in an organized way.
3. Prioritize SEO Keywords and Phrases
Not every keyword is worth pursuing immediately. Once you’ve built a master list, start trimming it down by ranking keywords based on their potential impact. Mark each as High, Medium, or Low priority, and focus on your top 10-15 high-priority keywords to start with.
Your goal here is to find a balance between terms with high buying intent and terms that will help establish authority through thought leadership.
4. Map Keywords to the SaaS Buyer’s Journey
SEO is not just about searching boxes but rather it is about being next to your customer’s search point of view. It is also important to keep the frequency of wide-reaching, high-traffic keywords high since these matter in the awareness stage; while keeping an eye on specific keywords, which signal purchase intent as consumers transition to the consideration and decision stages.
To better understand this, map your keywords to different stages of the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness: Broad searches for general information (e.g., “what is document automation?”)
- Consideration: Searches that show an intent to explore options (e.g., “top document automation solutions”)
- Decision: Keywords indicating buying intent (e.g., “document automation software for legal firms”)
This ensures you’re targeting users at each stage of their journey, helping you craft relevant content and drive conversions.
5. Identify Low-Hanging SEO Opportunities
To quickly demonstrate the value of SEO, start by targeting low-hanging fruit. These are keywords where you’re already ranking between positions 10 and 30 in the search engine results pages (SERPs). With a few strategic optimizations like better meta descriptions, improved internal linking, and updated content you can push these pages onto the first page.
The goal here is quick wins that show noticeable improvements in traffic and rankings, which can help secure internal buy-in for long-term SEO investments.
6. Build Topic Clusters
Topic clusters are a modern approach to content organization, allowing you to create a hub of related content that reinforces your authority in a given area.
Start by identifying your pillar topic the broadest, most impactful term and build supporting content around it.For example, if a created pillar can be named “document automation,” such supporting content may relate to the “document automation for real estate” article or “AI contract review.
The trick is to make your supportive articles connected to the pillar article so that site structure is easily crawlable for the search engines.
7. Conduct a Keyword Gap Analysis
Next, identify content gaps where you can create new pages or blogs that rank for terms your competitors aren’t focusing on. Often, these are lower-volume terms that get overlooked but can provide quick wins in niche areas.
Conducting a keyword gap analysis helps you uncover these opportunities, allowing you to craft unique, targeted content that positions you ahead of competitors on untapped queries.
8. Execute Your SaaS SEO Strategy (70/20/10 Rule)
Time to move to the next level – implementation of the strategy that you have developed. Here’s the breakdown for success:Here’s the breakdown for success:
- 70%: Focus on on-page SEO optimizations and content creation.
- 20%: Refine your internal linking structure, and improve site speed and technical performance.
- 10%: Leverage backlinks, social media, and external platforms to further amplify your efforts.
By focusing primarily on content and on-page SEO, you’ll see the majority of your results. But don’t neglect the technical and off-page elements—they’re the final touches that can elevate your rankings even higher.
Conclusion
Conclusion: In 2024, SEO for SaaS is much more than rankings; it is about providing value to the customers and taking them through their buyer’s journey. Follow the steps described above and create an SEO strategy that will bring relevant traffic and makes your SaaS brand dominate your niche.
It is recommended to stick to the process and keep up with the progress while constantly remarking tactics depending on what your audience prefers. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint so start strong, but be prepared to adjust and evolve over time.
