{"id":3672,"date":"2022-10-27T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T12:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:18:07","slug":"your-complete-guide-to-saas-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/your-complete-guide-to-saas-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Your complete guide to SaaS SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Software as a Service (SaaS) has been all the rage for a while now. There\u2019s lots of potential, but also a ton of competition. Many B2B companies are also getting overwhelmed by all the SaaS tools <\/a>in their tech stack. So how do you stick out? And prove that your tool is absolutely irreplaceable? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way is SaaS SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEO stands for search engine optimization. When someone searches for something related to your product, you want your site to pop up first. You can achieve that and much more through SEO. It\u2019s an incredibly important channel for B2B SaaS companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019ll focus on SaaS SEO specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Why SEO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to increase the organic traffic to your SaaS website. 53.3%<\/a> of a website\u2019s traffic comes from organic search. There\u2019s a good chance that a part of this traffic will convert to paying customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving your SaaS SEO strategy will help put your product in front of your target audience. It will also help you build your brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paid advertising can help get more traffic quickly. But that can get expensive fast. Also, imagine this: you’ve been running paid ads for a while. And now you decide to turn those ads off. If you don’t have a good SEO strategy in place, your total traffic will instantly decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, even if you want to use other mediums to attract leads and gain traffic, it\u2019s good to have a strong SaaS SEO game. Keep reading to learn how to boost organic search traffic to your SaaS business website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Conduct a SaaS SEO audit<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first step in your SaaS SEO strategy is conducting an SEO audit of your website. An SEO audit is a thorough analysis that pinpoints site issues. These issues usually prevent your website from ranking well on search engines. Here’s how it will help:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Show technical SEO issues that are costing you organic traffic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Help optimize your existing content<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Reveal toxic backlinks that you need to fix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Identify pages that are not crawled or indexed correctly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Pinpoint on-page SEO issues like poor user experience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Assess if the website is mobile-friendly *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* This is critical, considering Google<\/a> switched to mobile-first indexing and ranking policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can use various online tools for auditing your SaaS website. For example, you can use paid tools like Semrush, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs. These tools provide detailed reports on core web vitals, markup, and crawlability.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Google Search Console<\/a> is a free tool you could also use. However, it\u2019ll only give you a basic audit of your website. Here\u2019s the Overview screen that shows the basic data, like the number of clicks or coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A performance report shows the search query data and rankings for specific pages.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Focus on the performance dashboard if you want to improve your SaaS SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also include coverage, core web vitals, mobile usability, and links. Remember: an SEO audit is not a one-time thing. You\u2019ll need to audit your site regularly to ensure everything is on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Audit your backlinks every few weeks to ensure you avoid any suspicious backlinks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Check that your pages load quickly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Optimize your site for mobile<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Conduct keyword research<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An SEO audit will tell you where your site currently stands. Then it’s up to you to start improving based on the results. Keyword research, on the other hand, opens you to new opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great keyword research will tell you the search terms your target audience uses. That tells you what type of content you\u2019ll need to attract your target audience. It will also point you to some “lucrative” keywords you could target with your content. And then you can build a complete marketing funnel with it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top \u2013 informational & educational content (blogs, podcasts, guides)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom \u2013 high-converting pieces (reviews and case studies)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush can help you with the keyword research process. There are two major ways to go about keyword research using these tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Start with a general keyword you want to target. Then, use the tools and explore all related keywords. Find the missing keywords and include them too. Pay attention to keyword difficulty and monthly search volume to find the very best ones.<\/p>\n\n\n

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2. Research competitors. Let\u2019s say you have a sprint planning<\/a> software solution. ClickUp and Jira would be your top competitors. Instead of doing your keyword research from scratch, analyze these competitors. Find out which keywords they\u2019re currently targeting and ranking for.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ahrefs also offers a content gap analysis tool. This tool will show you the keywords your competitors are ranking for and you\u2019re not. It\u2019s great for identifying extra keywords and topics that you may not have covered on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This keyword research will eventually lead you to the search intent. Let\u2019s talk about that next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determining the search intent of your keywords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Identifying your target keywords is only the first step. Next, you need to know what users look for when searching those keywords. That\u2019s search intent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keywords can fall into one of four search intents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n