The common mistake SaaS businesses make is building a content strategy purely around SEO. In other words, they figure out what content ranks (by doing keyword research), and then start creating that kind of content. Then, they hope that this SEO strategy for SaaS will work.
But it doesn’t. You see, the content that ranks isn’t necessarily the content that serves to promote your brand. Neither it is necessarily the content that converts or sells. Google says – We know people don’t find content helpful if it seems like it was designed to attract clicks rather than inform readers.
In this article, we will go over an SEO strategy for SaaS. This strategy will achieve both – win Google’s favor, and at the same time, enable you to put in promotional and salesy content. This combination o content will be educative and brand-promoting. Most importantly, it will also be the one that gives you paying clients (meaning prospects converting into paying clients).
Will the Strategy Give Me Quick Results?
Since organic ranking is a slow process, most businesses can’t wait months or years to start getting results. So, you would need some additional techniques to boost your ranking and turbocharge your outreach right away. These techniques are also discussed in this article. Keep Reading.
General Philosophy for Building an SEO Strategy for SaaS
This strategy is centered around understanding your prospect’s search behavior and then holding their hand at every stage in this journey. The core idea is that they will be quite warmed up to your brand before making the final purchase. This will increase your likelihood of being their natural choice.
Another important point – typically, in your prospect’s company, you would have a designated person who APPROVES the buying of your product and yet another category of people who would be using it. The content you craft along the buyer’s journey should be keeping in mind these 2 personas. In short, always know who exactly you are writing to.
Understanding the Buyer’s Journey
Your Prospect isn’t just going to compare the features they need for their business need, compare prices, and buy. The process of Buying is much more complex than that. A buyer goes through 4 distinct phases in their buyer journey, as outlined below.
(Graphic Template from Presentationgo.com)
Let’s say that you have developed a Messaging App, that has features like the ability to organize messaging groups based on projects, sharing files, having access control, etc. Now, a prospective buyer is not going to look out to buy the best messaging app right away. Your prospect may not even be aware that they need a messaging app.
The Top of the Funnel (TOFU)
This is the first stage in the buyer’s journey – The prospect has a problem, but doesn’t know that a solution to that problem exists.
Keyword Research for TOFU
Do keyword research for TOFU keywords. For example “How to organize project information” or “How to share files effectively between project members”, etc. If you notice, the keywords at TOFU are usually “How to” kind of queries. Also, note that every query brings out the business value that people are looking at, for example, “organizing project information” and “sharing files”. And guess what – these are your Product features!
Creating Content for TOFU
For the example we are considering, you can craft content on the importance of file sharing, and keeping your project organized. You could also have content explaining the importance of keeping project-related information secure and also an article on the importance of archiving project data, and how it can be retrieved.
What NOT to do in TOFU Content
All you need to do here is to assure your prospect that a solution for such problems exists, and that’s it. EDUCATE EDUCATE EDUCATE on what’s possible and leave it at that.
DO NOT try to sell here. Also, do not try to promote your brand. In other words, no messaging, no selling!
At the TOFU stage, the prospect is nowhere near buying. Nor is the prospect considering the best brand for their needs. So, avoid introducing your brand at this stage. If mentioning your brand at this stage cannot be avoided, downplay it.
Middle of the Funnel 1- (MOFU-1)
Now that the prospect is assured that a solution to their problem exists, they will start to wonder what exactly your solution is. They would want to evaluate your solution to validate that it solves their problem.
Keyword Research for MOFU-1
Generally speaking, the MOFU-1 keywords will be in a format similar to – “Best for, or “Best Application”
So, for our messaging service example, the keywords at MOFU -1 level would be something like: “Best Messaging Service for Project Management” or “Best Messaging Organizer for Project Teams”, “Best File Sharing Application” etc.
Crafting Content for MOFU -1
This is the stage where you introduce your brand (not too heavily), and move the focus on the Product Related Stuff like:
- Product Demonstration Articles and Videos – Demonstrate your product in a way that it brings out the Business Value. Bring out the important and relevant features.
- Technical Features: Prospects that are more technically inclined would be interested in Technical Features. So, bring that out. If there are some product specifications, bring that out too.
- Case Studies – At this stage, prospects want to know how others use this product. The best way to bring that out is with case studies.
At this stage, you are doing 2 things:
- By talking about product-related stuff, you are exposing the prospect to what is possible.
- You are introducing yourself as a provider of that solution.
You are allowing your prospect to validate for themselves whether your product or service satisfies their business problem. By following this strategy, you are going to guide them into this realization for themselves, and in that, build an incredible amount of trust.
To succeed at this stage, you need to have your own brand presence. Learn more about brand building in this article.
Middle of the Funnel 2- (MOFU-2)
At this stage, the prospects know that there is a service (or product) that solves their problem. They also know you as a brand that can potentially solve their problem. They are also fairly acquainted with your product.
What do you think they will do now? They will start to compare your product with others in the market.
Keyword Research for MOFU-2
<<Your Brand Name>> vs. <<Competitor Brand Name>>
The reverse of the above, viz. <<Your Competitor Brand Name>> vs. <<Your Brand Name>>
There will be one keyword for each of your competitor brands.
Crafting Content for MOFU-2
The content will be accurate comparison pages. Comparison based on business value, features, and price. Lay it out in a tabular format.
In the MOFU -2 stage, your Prospects will actively identify your competitors. Then they will attempt to start the comparison of you with them or them with you. Rather than your prospects do this comparison on your competitor’s website (or on a third-party website like an affiliate’s website), better they do it on yours! This is the opportunity of leveraging the trust that you have built so far.
Actively bring in your competitor’s features and compare yours against them. Bring out your USP here and explain those aspects that they would rather buy from you than your competitors. Do a Feature comparison, Offering Comparison, and Price Comparison.
The comparison should be accurate. Also, do not try to run down your competitor, or show them in a bad light. Show, accurately and objectively, how and where you stand out. Bring out clearly to your target buyer persona why they should buy from you. This is crucial.
Prepare this MOFU-2 content to enable your prospect to do the comparison (with a subtle bias towards your side).
Would I not be Axing my Foot by Promoting my Competitors?
No! This is because they are anyway going to go to your competitor’s website. If they build more engagement with your competitor, they would not want to come back to you. The best bet therefore will be to put afront your product features that your specific customer persona would be interested in.
For example, if price is your USP, then point out that you arthe e pricing less than your competitor. If your USP is 24 X 7 Customer support, then point that out clearly in the comparison pages. in doing this, you are getting prospects that are price sensitive and prospects that are real-time support sensitive on your side.
You will win your prospect over by putting up an ENTIRE comparison chart, and highlighting your USP within this comparison chart. By doing so, you have seeded the idea that you are the right choice w.r.t. your USP. Isn’t that amazing? By providing up-to-date and accurate information that your competitors cannot refute, you are biasing your prospect personas in your favor.
I am Extremely Uncomfortable Exposing My Pricing
Strange that it may sound, your competitor is going to expose your price someday, and in a way to bias prospects in their favor. So, better you do it upfront by not allowing the possibility of any bias to form in the prospect’s mind.
For example, if you are charging more than your competitor because you provide 24 X 7 support and they don’t, then underline that out clearly. This is much better than your prospect forming the wrong perception in their head that you are unreasonably pricey.
Will my Competitor Sue Me If Expose Their Price (Like a Cease and Desist)?
In such a case, you can neutralize the legal threat by clearly providing the source from which you got the price information. Maybe it is on their pricing page, or maybe it is on some other website now owned by the competitor. Just put in the source of your information, and you should be good.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
At this stage, the prospect has decided to buy from you and PROVIDED that you give them a good deal.
Keywords Research for BOFU
Searches coming from prospects who are at the Bottom of the Funnel are branded searches in your brand’s name. They are interested in your offerings, price, and hope that you have some deal for them. Hence the keywords here are of the format:
<<Your Brand Name>>, Price of <<Your Brand Name>>
Crafting Content Around BOFU
Here you put up your offer. Usually, there may be 3-4 options you want to provide them. Lay these offers out clearly.
Consider offering them a free trial or giving them a discount if you need to. In addition to the details of your offering, provide an FAQ, that is centered around the commercials of the offerings.
The intention here is to close the prospect. Put an end to the few objections they might have at this stage, and close them.
So the offering needs to be brief (1-2 pager), crisp & clear and to the point.
Interlinking Your Content
The Content that is crafted on the basis of the funnel as explained, should be bidirectionally and laterally interlinked.
This means that there should be links going out of your TOFU content to MOFU -1, then from MOFU -1 to MOFU -2 , MOFU -2 to BOFU , and vice versa. Also, all content created for TOFU should link to one another. Same for MOFU -1 , MOFU-2 and BOFU. This interlinked approach helps prospect to easily navigate your entire content.
This brings us to the end of a powerful SEO strategy for SaaS.
3 Smart Ways to Maximize Results for Your SEO Strategy for SaaS
Organic Ranking takes time in months if not years. This also means that your SEO hits as well as SEO misses are known too late. This makes it difficult to do any kind of testing of content. Also, it is not always that businesses have the time to test out their SEO content marketing strategy. Here are a few pointers in turbocharging your SaaS SEO Strategy.
Go Deeper into the Keywords
This is important in the early stages. Fish out longer tail keywords on each stage of the funnel. Longer tail keywords give you less traffic but better ranking for high quality prospects. As you start ranking for more and more (long tail) keywords, you start to be viewed favorably by google, and your ranking will start to improve.
Register Yourself with SaaS Aggregator Websites
SaaS Aggregator websites are those who maintain a database of SaaS providers. Register yourself as a SaaS provider and work actively to get good reviews from your existing customers on these aggregator websites. More the number of favorable reviews, higher these SaaS aggregator websites start ranking you on their website. It is relatively easy to get on the first page of these aggregators than get on the first page of the Google Search Engine Page.
SaaS aggregators get branded traffic, meaning people search for their brand and get on their main page. From here, they will search for the kind of SaaS that they need. It is much easier to locate you there than locate you from Google Search. You can then link out to the content that you have created in the Strategy that was discussed above.
SaaS aggregators also rank higher on Google Search Engines, so you can piggyback on their rankings and be visible to your prospects. This is truly amazing!
Some SaaS Aggregators are – GetApp, SourceForge, Software Advice, CrowdReviews, CrozDesk,etc.
Go Paid + Organic
Once you have the content ready, go paid + organic. There are great advantages in this approach:
a) Paid Ads such as Google ads can be great way to test out whether you have the right keywords in your content. Rather than waiting or months, you can tune in to the right keywords, that can catapulate your progress on the SERP. And even while that is happening, you will get your initial few converting prospects.
b) Paid plus Organic is a great way to build your brand. As your brand value enhances, google’s EAT algorithms will begin to favor you.
Summary
The infographic below describes what SEO for SaaS Businesses is about
Presentation Template used from PresentationGo.com
To turbocharge your outreach, register your SaaS business on SaaS aggregator sites. Also, use a smart combination of paid (Google Paid ads) + organic strategy.
If your brand is new, try digging deeper into longer tail keywords. This will help tremendously in early rankings
Good Luck in Building your SEO strategy for your SaaS Business!