SEO is one of the most difficult types of marketing. This is because Google is one of the biggest and most-used information platforms on the internet. As such, few companies realize that they can actually manipulate their rankings on Google for specific keywords that are relevant to their business. However, SaaS companies in particular have a lot to gain from boosting their search engine optimization efforts. For one, optimizing their website toward targeted keywords can help companies better make decisions on which features to implement and how to better define their buyer personas. In addition to this, SaaS companies can also create comprehensive content to better define their software and brand and entice new users to try out their SaaS products.

However, in order to do this, SaaS companies need to create a SaaS SEO strategy that is specific to their software product. This is challenging for a number of reasons. For one, many people who are searching for solutions to their problems are actually decision makers at their companies and not just regular users. If, for example, you run a SaaS company that is targeted at enterprise level businesses, then a conversion is highly valuable to you. Because of this, it is important to target keywords that were convert specifically, and not just purely ones based on informational queries.

Of course, it is unlikely that your SaaS company has the content marketing chops of established SaaS companies like Hubspot and Salesforce. What you can do though is focus on keywords where you can actually compete. To do this, you’ll want to perform keyword research against your SaaS competitors and find the most important keywords that you can actually compete on. Again, when doing this, you likely won’t be able to create content that can beat out larger SaaS competitors, so you may want to try not to compete directly on software-based keywords unless you find a niche that works for you.

Once you are able to create the right type of content that is paired with a competitive but obtainable keyword for your SaaS business, then it is time to build links to that content. Building links is the least-understood part of SEO, which is in and of itself an obscure form of marketing. For SaaS companies, the best way to do this is to take a data-driven approach and make sure that the links they are trying to get fit in with the content of their webpage as well as the specific URL they are trying to boost. For example, a SaaS company trying to promote a digital tool that helps with scheduling should try to avoid a site with gambling or adult content, unless the scheduling software specifically deals with those niches in some way.  The best way for SaaS companies to pull this off is through editorial link building which can help show to Google and other search engines why their company is well-positioned to help its users solve problems instead of just buy their software for the sake of owning it.

Overall, SaaS companies need to implement SEO in order to get the word out about their SaaS offerings. It can also help them define their own product and add features based on what potential users are actually searching for. Given the data-driven approach to both disciplines, there is a great synergy between SaaS and SEO that needs to be tapped into in order to harness its full potential.