Google Ranking Walkthrough for SaaS: Winning the SEO Battle Royale
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Poppy Malise
January 24, 2022
Once upon a time, there was a mythical land called Google.
Digital marketers came from far and wide to battle with each other. The land was a vast landscape full of content where rankings grew as tall as trees. It was a wild place, for sure. There were no rules or restrictions on what you could do there.
That said, many people who came to this land didn’t know how to make it work for them. They often ended up getting lost in the tall grass and never returned home again. But those who had spent their whole lives navigating these lands were at one with their surroundings.
For the uninitiated, it’s important to understand a few things before starting your journey into Google land. But lo and behold, the wise SEO sage of LIVID is here to bestow a magical artifact for the benevolent warriors of SaaS kingdoms around the world. It’s called the SEO Starter Guide, and you’re reading it right now.
Fantasy aside, if you’re a SaaS company, SEO is essential to your success. You can’t just swing your sword wildly and hope for the best. You need a smart SaaS SEO strategy paired with the necessary knowledge and training to make each strike as efficient and powerful as possible.
In this guide, we’ll go over everything from the basics to the more advanced concepts of SEO for SaaS startups to increase your digital visibility, build brand awareness, get high-quality leads and eventually convert them to sales.
TL;DR
Reading not your thing? We’ve got you covered.
We are LIVID, a creative SaaS SEO agency. We handcraft beautiful brand content that is supercharged with a powerful SEO strategy to win you better customers, shorten sales cycles and lower cost per acquisition. We’d love to explore and share what opportunities are available for your brand to earn more attention, build a loyal audience and win more leads.
What is SaaS SEO?
In a nutshell, SEO is the process of optimizing your SaaS website and content to rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for queries relevant to your business.Â
There are many different factors that go into ranking in Google. But don’t worry, we’re not going to overwhelm you with all of that information right away.Â
We’ll start with the basics and work our way up. In future installments of this guide, we’ll go into more detail on each of the SEO topics that are most relevant to your SaaS business.
Why Is SEO Important for SaaS Companies?
Quite simply, because organic search traffic is one of the most valuable sources of high-quality leads for your software business.Â
In fact, you probably start your search for anything you need in Google and not in other search engines, let alone on social media. Therefore, if you’re not ranking in the top results for your software’s relevant queries, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.Â
Even if you are already ranking highly, there’s always room for improvement. As we’ll see later in this guide, SaaS marketing SEO is an ever-evolving landscape that requires continuous effort to stay ahead of the competition.Â
Furthermore, there’s also another consideration: Google is always tweaking its algorithm to provide the best experience for its users.
How Does SEO Work for SaaS Startups
There are three main components of any successful SaaS SEO strategy: on-page optimization, off-page optimization and technical SEO. Let’s go through each of them in detail.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is the process of optimizing your website’s content and structure for Google.Â
This is where SaaS content marketing and optimization enter the picture. The goal is to create engaging, well-written pages that both users and Google Bots love.Â
The content of your page should include all components required to create a well-structured, self-contained post. These elements are known as meta details and include things like the title, description, URL and more.Â
One of the main goals of on-page optimization is to make it as easy as possible for Google Bots to understand what your website is all about in order for them to show your website to the people who are searching.Â
However, you should not focus on producing content merely for the Google Bot. You need to write content with the goal of providing value to your human users that the Google Bot can also comprehend.
Conducting keyword research within your SaaS industry is essential for ideal on-page optimization. By targeting the right keywords, you can ensure that your content is optimized for the people who are already searching for what you have to offer.
Once connected with the searcher, you must provide deep value that artfully addresses the search intent (i.e. what the user is looking to understand).
Off-Page Optimization
Off-page optimization is the process of building links to your website from other websites. The main goal is to increase your website’s authority and relevance in Google’s eyes.Â
Your SaaS link building strategy should focus on developing genuine connections and producing great content that people want to share. While it does require a lot of effort, it is crucial for SEO success.
Think of it this way: if you have a lot of links from high-quality relevant websites, Google will see your website as being more authoritative and relevant in your space than if you only had a few links from low-quality websites.Â
SaaS Technical SEO
This is the process of optimizing your website’s technical infrastructure to make it as fast and accessible as possible for Google. Technical SEO for SaaS companies includes things like optimizing your website’s code for speed, setting up proper redirects, adding SSL certificates and so on.Â
The main goal of SaaS technical SEO is to make sure that Google can crawl and index your website properly and that users can load pages quickly.
Black Hat vs White Hat SEO
There are two main schools of thought when it comes to SEO for SaaS companies: black hat and white hat.Â
Black hat SEO is the practice of using unethical techniques to manipulate search engine results. These methods range from keyword stuffing and link spamming to creating fake social media profiles for the sole purpose of promoting your website.
While these tactics may work in the short term, black hat SEO is frowned upon by Google and might result in your site being penalized or blacklisted, ensuring that it will never rank.
We’re not going to discuss black hat SEO any further, and we strongly advise you against using it or taking any inauthentic action with the explicit purpose of gaming the system.
White hat SEO, on the other hand, is the ethical approach to SEO. This involves creating high-quality valuable content, focusing on your audience, developing genuine connections with other websites and following Google’s guidelines at all times.Â
Google’s mission is to make digital information universally accessible and useful for its users. In 2011, Google released the Panda algorithm update. The goal of this update was to reward high-quality websites and remove the low-quality websites in the search results.
In this truth lies the key to a winning SaaS SEO strategy.
How Long Does SaaS SEO Take to Work?
It’s important to note that SaaS SEO marketing is not a quick fix like PPC. Results don’t happen overnight.
That said, if you’re patient and willing to put in the work, SEO can be an incredibly powerful and cost-efficient tool for growing your SaaS business. In most cases, you should start seeing some positive results within six months to a year.
Keyword research
Content marketing
Link building
We are the SaaS SEO Team You’ve Always Dreamed Of
SEO is a complex and ever-evolving beast, but it’s still one of the most important aspects of any successful SaaS digital marketing strategy.
Don’t waste your time and money DIY-ing SEO. Collaborate with our SaaS SEO agency to drive maximum value on your marketing investment through proven systems and powerful strategies.
We don’t call in sick, we don’t miss deadlines, we don’t waste time around the water cooler… We just do damn good work that drives results and transforms your business into an industry-leading brand. Are you ready?
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