B2B SaaS SEO is the process of using search engines to attract software buyers who are also decision-makers within target businesses. Usually, B2B SEO has KPIs around the number of demo’s scheduled, leads created, and deals won as part of a sales or marketing qualified lead process (SQL and MQL).
Key Takeaways
- B2B SaaS SEO is the act of moving a domain and pages higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) by optimizing them for search engine crawlers and search engine processors.
- B2B SaaS SEO differs from other forms of SEO in that it should be focusing on content that corresponds with potential customers' awareness, consideration, and decision stages.
- B2B SaaS SEO campaigns often fail because they don’t create high value leads (or MQLs) due to the fact that they aren’t bringing fresh and new insights to the table, causing shoppers to want to buy from people, not pages.
B2B SaaS SEO Strategy
SEO tends to not work for many B2B SaaS businesses. In particular, most B2B SaaS companies are looking to sign long-term committed contracts with higher average-contract values (ACV). In many cases, these types of software offerings are very specific to niche industries.
As an example, attempting to target PEMB construction would be a highly specific vertical within construction that most people wouldn’t know about. However, companies and products like Aurgio or SYNCHRO are both fairly large software offerings and known in their respective fields.
Which is why this is the most important thing to know about B2B SaaS SEO: you should aim to inform your customers about industry-specific needs, discussions, or changes. Software buyers who are of the buying persona (usually director-level or senior director-level) aren’t buying software from a website, they’re buying it from people.
Knowing that and executing that is what’s going to make your B2B SaaS SEO strategy effective. And should calibrate the entire campaign.
B2B vs B2C SaaS SEO
In short, B2B SEO is going to be targeting a very specific buyer persona. While B2C SEO is going to be targeting consumers. However, this can really be distilled down to the way that you think about how you capture leads. B2C SaaS tools most likely rely on trial sign ups. Meaning, it's easy to capture the attention of someone at the company you're trying to target and see if we can get them to try out the product. In contrast, B2B SaaS is usually looking at higher value contracts. Where more decision makers need to be part of the process.
Ideally, the B2B SEO strategy aims at trying to target the decision maker. Or someone closest to the decision maker (like an employee right below the skip level of the decision maker). That way when a demo is scheduled, the first demonstration is done for an employee who will act as the "rally person" upstream to the contract signer.
B2B SaaS Buyer Persona’s
Before starting any type of keyword research or writing content, it’s important to know exactly who purchases your software. What are their demographics? Do they have a particular pain point that they are commonly looking to solve? Do they sit within a certain age group? Is there a certain job title that they have?
Very similar to how you might create paid audience demographics to capitalize on PPC advertising, you’ll want to do the same for B2B SaaS SEO. You need to know who you are targeting and why.
Or else you run the risk of simply bringing in traffic that’s not “qualified traffic.” Generally, you should know the following about your persona:
- Job title: What job title do they hold and where do they sit in terms of making a buying decision. It’s okay if you’re targeting the non-director level persona. As long as you know that you’ll need to follow-up with a sales strategy that transfers the lead to the decision makers over time.
- Pain points: It’s far easier to start from a path of pain points. What common issues do you address with your software? And do you believe that your buyer persona would be going into Google or other search engines for help? Make a list of these things.
Really, you only need these two things to get a general idea of what comes next.
Effective Keyword Research
Using a tool like Ahrefs is your best option for keyword research. However, using Google Autocomplete (the actual search bar itself) can also be a highly effective way at finding keywords that you’ll want to start targeting.
Keyword research will really only take you so far. For most B2B SaaS companies, you’ll want to start getting part of any active conversation that’s happening in the industry. For example, is there a shift in market trends? If so, where is it happening? Is it something professionals in your industry are concerned about? Start writing about that (more about how to write effectively for B2B SaaS SEO in a moment).
Look for keywords that are very underserved. This will give you the best chances of ranking right away. Keywords that are underserved are ones where the keyword doesn’t have any exact content match.
Here’s a simple way to look at that:
- Step 1: Find the keyword you want to see if there’s an underserved aspect to it. Search it Google. For example, we’ll use “PEMB Construction Trends.”
- Step 2: Do you see any pages on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) that are only talking about that subject matter? Of course you’ll see pages on the results pages (that’s what Google does). However, do you ONLY see that subject matter being discussed and nothing else?
- Step 3: If the answer is no, then start crafting a healthy blog post about the subject matter and bring new insights to the table (again, we’ll get to the content production in a moment).
With those three simple steps you can increase your chances of ranking and drawing in attention from your buyer persona.
It’s important to look at keywords that don’t have any search volume, too. The biggest mistake most B2B SaaS companies make is going for the most competitive keywords first.
Google, as of 2024, has really started to lean into EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust). The best way to build that is by display to Google that you’re an expert. How do you do that? You bring unique insights to the table about every single subject matter that’s related to your industry. You need to simply display to Google, through writing, that you know exactly what you’re talking about.
You can do this by creating a type of keyword map. For example, if I were talking about B2B SaaS SEO, which I am, then I might want to talk about some of these other helpful subjects:
- B2B SaaS SEO Roadmaps
- B2B SaaS SEO Keyword Research
- B2B SaaS SEO KPIs
Whether or not these are keywords doesn’t matter. Having individual resources on these subjects displays to Google that I’m an authority in the space. And that I “know what I’m talking about.”
MOFU, TOFU, BOFU Keywords
These terms are helpful guidelines when we conceptualize where a prospect might be in their journey. Think of the journey as something like 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"
Knowing these can be helpful when you think about creating your SEO strategy. Not because this will determine how well you rank, see impressions, or get traffic. Rather, it will help in knowing what to communicate to those prospects when they land on your page.
Remember, it's always an active conversation that you're having with the visitor. By thinking about their search, what they want help with, and where they are in the buying journey, you can both create extremely helpful content (which Google loves) and align with the reader to encourage them to complete tasks (like filling out a form or joining a software demo call).
You don't need to strategize your entire B2B SaaS SEO campaign around whether they are MOFU, TOFU, or BOFU (middle-of-funnel, top-of-funnel, and bottom-of-funnel). You simply need to think through (using empathy) where that person is, what they're looking for, and how you can best help them. That's your best marketing and sales technique.
Conversion rates of MOFU, TOFU, and BOFU keywords
One helpful tip is to know what to expect in terms of conversion rates. Top-of-funnel keywords will obviously bring in the most awareness around your brand (best for B2B SaaS companies with an omnichannel marketing approach). Middle-of-funnel keywords will bring in more conversions and software shoppers who have specific pain points. And lastly, bottom-of-funnel keywords (like those with your specific brand name as a modifier to the keyword) will have the highest converting nature to them.
It's important to not just pick one or two of these types of keywords. Pick all three. That'll help to drive awareness, consideration, and decision making (to purchase).
Writing Revenue Generating Content for B2B SaaS SEO
Have you learned something new in this article yet? I sure hope so. And that’s what is key. Whatever industry that you’re in, it’s important that you’re writing something informative, new, fresh, and aligns with the industry's current trends.
That’s what gets people to want to fill out a form to learn more about your B2B software. For example, if my name is on this article and you fill out a form, don't you want to speak to me? Of course you are. We buy from people, we don’t buy from websites.
Think of your writing as ensuring that you cover some of the basics, however, having a strong percentage of content that brings new insights to the table.
Here’s how to write MQL-generating B2B SaaS SEO content:
- Google the keyword that you want to write about.
- Read every single article on that front-page.
- Take note of what each article does and does not discuss.
- Take note of which subjects or headlines in the article would be considered “the basics.”
- Start an outline that covers those basics, however, brings something fresh and new to the table.
When Google looks at content (which it does—it uses vectorization and scoring of keywords by putting entire pieces of content into easily transformable word clusters) it wants to see that you’re at least covering some of the basics, then covering something new. It uses entities to measure if you’re bringing something new to the table.
Entities are like nouns: things, people, places, and more. So by having experts weigh in on a topic, that’s considered information gain. By referencing new subject matters in an article (a thing), that’s information gain.
Effectiveness of B2B SaaS SEO
Many B2B companies don’t look at SEO as an effective marketing channel. They look at tradeshows, targeted advertising, and even LinkedIn as the places that they go to market. However, it’s important to consider omnichannel marketing.
The more that your prospects see your name, see you being part of conversations that matter, the more chances there are that they’re going to reach out. There’s no doubt, B2B SaaS SEO may require a lot of nurturing.
As an example, you may only acquire prospects who come to the website via Search that want to read a white paper. You may ask for their email to download that white paper. Then, a SDR or BDR (sales representatives) might give you a call and ask for more information or look to connect.
SEO as a channel, for B2B companies and especially SaaS B2B companies, will usually never have direct conversions associated with them. Meaning, if you’re pulling open Google Analytics and hoping to see form fills from blog posts, that’s not going to happen.
The buying journey that you know
Here’s the way I like to describe the buying journey. The last time you tried out software, it probably came from either a friend telling you about it or an online blog post where you read a tutorial or something else informative. From there, it probably encourages you to go to their website, check out what they offer, and give it a try.
That’s very similar to how it works in B2B SaaS SEO, too. SEO and organic search is merely a cog in the omnichannel wheel. And you need to go into it under those expectations.
5 Professional Tips for B2B SaaS SEO
Here are my top tips for actually generating high contract value leads from SEO:
1. Generate compelling content
Compelling content is something that’s new and fresh. Don’t just say what everyone else is saying. Remember, your buyer persona wants to buy from you. They don’t want to buy from a website. If you have a philosophy or methodology that you stand behind, make sure that you lean into that. Personalize the conversation in the content.
2. Use Google autocomplete for keyword research
If you’re run out of keywords or ideas on what topics to target, start typing into Google and see what the autocomplete brings up. For example, even thinking of this topic, I simply put into Google, “B2B SaaS SEO” and then looked at what came after that (think of these as keyword modifiers).
This gave me some inclination that people were looking for insights and information that didn’t register in Ahrefs or SEMRush, yet.
3. Don’t worry about backlinks
I didn’t bring up backlinks at all! Because they don’t matter. Authority building, like what I’ve discussed above, is truly the way to start ranking websites. Regardless of their age, the name of the domain, and many other old SEO factors.
Simply bring new insights to the internet, do that on a consistent basis, and Google will reward you. It’s as simple as that.
4. Make a true investment
Just testing the waters, like setting simple internal milestones like, “Produce 5 blog posts” is simply not going to cut it. The reason is that much like Google wants to see, your customers also want to see that you’re an expert.
If they click around and notice that you’ve not discussed or have a unique perspective on everything under the sun related to your industry, they’re probably not going to be compelled to want to reach out.
Because of this, you need to make a decent size investment. On average, a B2B SaaS SEO campaign should usually reserve at least $30,000 to see if generating MQLs is possible.
5. Make it about omnichannel marketing
The best SEO campaigns are ones that aren’t simply about SEO. If you can combine this with LinkedIn marketing (like video demonstrations or conversations on LinkedIn), podcasts that you’re on or have started, or press coverage—you’re really going to increase the odds of generating real revenue.
This is because the more “top of mind” you are, the better chances you have to not only rank (Google looks at brand mentions) but also get someone compelled enough to want to fill out your form, attend your demo, and listen to your contract terms.
Common Questions
Questions about B2B SaaS SEO:
How is B2B SaaS SEO different from regular SEO?
B2B SaaS SEO differs from other forms of SEO in that it targets different stages of the customer funnel that are unique to SaaS companies. Think of this as a buyer persona and their pain points. This includes targeting keywords and focusing on content that correspond with potential customers' awareness, consideration, and decision stages.
Is B2B SaaS SEO effective?
Yes. It can be highly effective at generating demand and MQLs. Many campaigns fail because they are not considering all aspects of what’s required to get a customer to attend a software demonstration. That includes building awareness, assisting in the software shopping consideration phase, and understanding the decision stages for a prospect and how they landed on the website to begin with.
What are B2B SaaS SEO KPIs that should be part of the campaign?
Here are some common KPIs that should be part of your B2B SEO campaign:
- Revenue: Overall performance of the SaaS product (closed-won contracts).
- Non-branded vs. branded search: Brand awareness growing and increasing.
- Organic traffic by content: Essentially traffic and the amount of visitors that are coming into the website.
- Conversion: CVR or conversion percentages from all organic traffic coming into the website.
- Keyword SERP ranking: Measuring keyword strategy effectiveness in cohorts and clusters.
What would be key metrics to track as part of the business success from the SEO campaign?
These metrics would give you an idea of how to measure the overall business impact that's coming from organic search as a channel:
- LTV:CAC ratio to give true "customer acquisition cost"
- Activations or integrated closed-won contracts
- Signup to paid conversion (6-month and 12-month period)
- Churn rate
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Retention rate
- Annual contract value
- Marketing sourced revenue (MSR)
- Top of the funnel leads generated by organic search
- Number of active trials or trials from organic search
- Lead velocity rate (LVR) from organic search
Other SaaS SEO Resources
Written by Joshua Davis - VP of SEO
Updated on:
October 19, 2024
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