A SaaS SEO audit is not dissimilar to other SEO audit documents or techniques. The practice of performing a SaaS SEO audit is to determine root causes of lacking performance for websites and their ability to rank or be shown for specific keywords. SEO audits usually aim at diagnosing why websites have been removed from SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) or are not ranking for service, informational, and commercial investigation keyword terms that they should be.
Key Takeaways
- A SaaS SEO audit is a comprehensive document (usually 10-15 pages in length) that outlines why a SaaS product is not ranking or generating leads (free trial signups, demo schedules, or getting MQLs) from organic search (the marketing channel).
- Inside a SaaS SEO audit should be technical SEO needs that need to get addressed, contextual SEO needs that need to get addressed, and potential branding or backlink issues that should get addressed.
- A SaaS SEO audit may cost anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000. And usually contains a comprehensive strategy to both resolve search engine optimization performance issues as well as outline the next 3-to-6-months worth of efforts to start generating MRR/ARR (monthly recurring revenue and annual recurring revenue) for a SaaS business.
A SaaS SEO Audit
In short, an audit is a complete and comprehensive document that diagnoses both technical and contextual SEO factors that inform a website owner about issues that might need to get resolved in order to improve performance in search engines or reverse penalties or issues related to how search engines evaluate websites.
A SaaS SEO audit isn’t too dissimilar from other audits, however, a key difference is going to be looking at how well the website is performing for free trial signups, demo’s scheduled, or other SaaS specific KPIs, then determining which audit tasks need to get performed to identify the root cause of the lacking performance.
SaaS companies want to drive MRR/ARR. SaaS SEO audits should all be focused on reverse engineering why that isn’t happening from organic search (the marketing channel).
The ultimate goal of any audit should be to set a strategy to improve search engine ranking performance and bring in qualified leads through targeted audiences that are searching for particular keywords in search engines.
Technical SEO as part of a SaaS SEO audit
Technical SEO is simple: it’s the practice of ensuring that search engine crawlers that appropriately access and assess a given website in order to determine when and how it should appear in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Technical SEO is more a foundational need for a website rather than a performance need. In 2012 or “older days” of SEO, technical SEO may have been a stronger factor in creating real performance and improving rank position.
However, Google and other search engines have become far better at parsing issues and errors on websites. And look at factors such as engagement, unique insights (informational gain), and similarity (through BERT engines) to better understand a website and pages given intent.
All of this is used to better understand how to service search engines' customers' needs (usually, addressing and answering a question very quickly).
You may see some of the following inside of the technical SEO portion of an audit:
- Website navigation: Breaking down whether there are issues with how a website crawler (machine) can discover and find key pages.
- Page load speed: Issues related to how quickly the website loads and how that might be impacting bounce rates.
- Mobile accessibility: Do mobile indexing crawlers have access to all pages? Are there issues related to how the website is displaying on mobile devices?
- Google Search Console insights: Number of indexed pages, 404s, redirect issues, manual actions, and any other notifications that might be coming in from Google Search Console.
- URL and metadata: Usually part of the technical SEO audit, looking at whether URLs or metadata have issues related to them, causing crawlers to be confused or have issues.
- Robots.txt file analysis: Uncovering if there are any pages that are getting blocked from crawlers that should not be.
Some people request to look at backlinks or a backlink profile as part of the analysis. However, we usually recommend that customers or SaaS companies skip this. That’s because Google and other search engines are looking at authority (E: Expertise, E: Experience, A: Authority, T: Trust) as more of the factor behind how well a page and domain ranks.
However, some things that might be requested would be:
- Backlink audit: Looking at whether SPAM backlinks are having a negative impact on the domain as a whole.
- Backlink penalty analysis: Looking at whether competitors are sending negative backlinks to a SaaS business in order to “tank them” in the SERPs.
Tools that are used to perform all of this analysis include the following:
- Ahrefs: Used to analyze crawlability of a given website and analyze a backlink profile.
- SEMRush: Similar to Ahrefs, another tool used to help analyze how well a given domain’s performance is.
- ScreamingFrog: Used to help address crawl issues and understand blockers related to how search engines may find, discover, index, and analyze given pages.
- Google Search Console: Considered to be the ‘main source’ of truth for all issues related to a website.
- Google Analytics: Analytics to understand which pages are getting impacted (potentially uncovering cohorts of issues) and whether traffic and engagement are issues to look at.
The on-page SaaS SEO audit
Arguably the most important part of your SaaS SEO audit, the on-page audit can be called a “contextual audit.” This is where an SEO expert looks at how pages are displayed and what information is on pages to better understand or identify how search engines may perceive the quality of a website or page.
On-page factors have become the most important factors when it comes to SaaS SEO. In particular, the competitive nature of SaaS SEO means that many website owners will need to ensure they are bringing unique and new insights to the internet in order for Google and other search engines to qualify the page as “worthy enough” to rank.
When a contextual audit is conducted, here are some of the things that the SEO will look at:
- Competitor keywords: Looking at the list of keywords that competitors rank for and determining their buyer persona accuracy (where in the software purchase funnel the keyword sits — top, mid, or bottom-funnel). And then identifying the gap between competitors and the current domain.
- Authority analysis: Understanding why or how well a given domain is performing in terms of EEAT scoring for search engines (showing and qualifying trust and authority as an expert in the field or industry).
- On-page factor analysis: Looking at individual pages and determining their overall “helpfulness” to Users. This adjusts the content strategy across all types of pages (service pages, lead generation pages, commercial investigation pages, and blog posts).
- Page structure: Looking at how pages are structured to determine if the way they are displayed is having any impact on SEO performance. For example, are the images optimized for helpfulness? Is the question the User had put into Google or other search engines getting addressed very quickly? How is the page template overall having an impact on the search performance?
Putting it all together: the SaaS SEO audit
Both the technical and contextual factors of a website or domain should get put together in a comprehensive document that helps a domain or website owner better understand potential issues that are impacting performance.
If the customer or client requests it, a separate section may get created to look at just backlinks or the use of links or “branding” as part of the SEO strategy.
A comprehensive SaaS SEO audit should be around 10-15 pages in length and created in Google Docs, including imagery in the document and contain the following:
- Technical SEO: What issues are impacting crawlers from understanding the website as a whole?
- Contextual SEO: What issues with the content or copywriting on the website is preventing Google and other search engines from seeing the website as an authority in the space?
- Backlink analysis: Are there issues with backlinks or branding that’s having a negative or positive impact on the search engine performance?
Common Questions
Questions and answers about SaaS SEO audits:
What is the point of the SaaS SEO audit?
The point of a SaaS SEO audit is to determine whether there are issues with a domain or website that’s preventing it from both being found from search engines and preventing it from being ranked (showing up in SERPs).
Incorrect SaaS SEO audits are ones that only show issues but fail to show a path toward growth or creating ARR/MRR.
Should the SaaS SEO audit contain a strategy to correct or improve performance?
Yes. A poor audit is one that only informs Users or website owners (like a marketing team) about the issues. And potential ways to resolve those issues. However, fails to inform them about how to structure a new or adjusted SEO strategy to get them closer to their goals.
Should the SaaS SEO audit explain targeting specific buyer personas?
Yes. SaaS SEO strategies should always be looking at where the User is in the software buying journey. We like to break it down by this:
- Branded Searches: A prospect knows who you are and is looking into what you offer.
- Attention Searches: People who don’t know your solution exists, but have a pain point, "how to sell my life insurance policy for cash"
- Awareness Searches: People know the solution exists, however, don't know what you exist, "project management tools"
- Consideration Searches: People know the solution and your brand. So they use modifiers, "project management tool + [your brand]"
- Conversion Searches: Something like, "basecamp alternatives" or "freshworks alternative"
The SaaS SEO audit should be looking at these types of keywords, the performance of these terms, and how well an organization or entity is performing for them.
Other SaaS SEO Resources
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October 19, 2024
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