Many early-stage SaaS companies are still determining how or why they should implement a SaaS SEO strategy. Most early software companies (and small businesses, too) use paid channels to acquire customers because you can quickly get results and generate traffic to your website.
SEO is an investment that doesn't yield results for months, so sometimes businesses need help understanding the value of this long-term strategy. In this article, I will:
- Give a brief definition of SEO as it pertains to SaaS companies,
- Explain how it differs from "traditional" SEO,
- And explain the benefits of implementing an SEO strategy.
What is SaaS SEO?
In short, SaaS SEO is a marketing strategy focusing on attracting users to their website and converting those visitors into customers. The basic idea is to rank high in search engines, like Google, for specific search terms or phrases.
When implemented correctly, an SEO strategy can bring in a steady stream of inbound traffic and user sign-ups, powering organic growth.
When you compare SEO to other digital marketing channels like paid advertising or outbound sales, the cost can be much lower. A proper SEO strategy, whether for SaaS or other companies, can lead to long-term inbound lead generation, making it a wise investment for any company.
Comparing SaaS SEO vs. traditional SEO
SaaS SEO is the same as SEO for any other business or organization, but there are some aspects of optimizing a SaaS website that differ from other types of websites. Your SEO strategy will also vary based on whether you are optimizing for a B2B, B2C, or DTC business model. When targeting local customers or running an e-commerce business, your SEO strategy will also be different.
10 Benefits of SEO for Software Companies
There are plenty of marketing channels that you can target to acquire customers. What is the benefit of investing in a strategy that might not pay off for months when you could whip up 20 new Facebook ads and see immediate traffic to your website today?
The truth is that an SEO-driven content strategy forms a foundation for sustainable and scalable SaaS growth. I'm not saying that SEO and content marketing are the only growth functions a business should invest in – it's essential to diversify your growth strategy. However, your SEO and content strategy can fuel your growth engine.
Let's look at ten ways SaaS companies can benefit from implementing an SEO strategy.
Benefit 1: Increased organic traffic
When you implement effective SEO strategies, you can improve your ranking on search engines, increasing visibility and organic traffic from users searching for your solutions. Part of creating an effective SEO strategy is doing keyword research to understand what queries and phrases users are searching to find your solution. When you conduct proper keyword research, you can attract targeted visitors who are more likely to convert and become customers.
Benefit 2: Reduced dependence on paid marketing
Paid channels can also be effective at acquiring users, especially in the early stages of a company. However, as a company enters the growth phase and wants to scale, it makes more sense to focus on more long-term strategies.
In general, the cost to acquire new users from paid advertising will rise over time. While you can target specific audiences with paid ads, your users will likely experience ad fatigue. This means that over time, users may develop a "blindness" to your ads, leading you to have to find new audiences to target constantly. This also means that these new targeted users will be less likely to visit your website from ads, being less likely to convert.
Relying solely on paid acquisition channels or reducing or halting ad spending can jeopardize your company's viability. In other words, when it comes to paid ads, if you stop spending, you stop growing.
Benefit 3: SEO costs decrease over time
When you first implement your SEO strategy, it likely will take a while to see measurable results. It will likely take months to gain traction and have enough data to see patterns of growth and be able to measure your content marketing strategy effectively. However, When that growth starts, it compounds over time and becomes a valuable, long-term asset.
While you will have to update, optimize, and refresh content, the cost of acquiring new organic users will decrease over time. For example, you can create a blog post at a fixed price today that will generate traffic to your website for years. So if that blog post generates new user sign-ups for years, with each signup, you're lowering your customer acquisition costs (CAC) or cost per new customer.
SEO is a great long-term strategy for SaaS companies looking to pivot from paid channels being their primary source of new users.
Benefit 4: Increased brand awareness and credibility
When you are using SEO in your marketing strategy, you increase your brand recognition. The more high-ranking content you have in the search engines, the more familiarity web searchers will have with your brand.
As you grow quality backlinks from reputable sites to your content, combined with your increased brand awareness, you will enhance your brand's credibility and authority in your respective industry.
This is especially important for new software companies to get people to trust your product and solutions.
Benefit 5: Enhanced user experience
SEO is about more than just creating quality content. It also involves optimizing your website's speed, mobile responsiveness, and overall usability, which leads to a better user experience. Users who can easily access your site, quickly find what they want, and consume your content are more likely to become customers.
Benefit 6: Sustainable, scalable growth
SEO for SaaS is one of the most scalable and predictable approaches to growing your user base. Your SEO results will compound over time. When you create content that is specifically targeted to potential users, you'll see that there is an opportunity for exponential traffic growth, which can be turned into leads and customers.
The caveat is that you must provide valuable and unique content that your web visitors will find helpful. You need to understand your sales or marketing funnel and create content that meets your future users where they are.
Benefit 7: Competitive advantage
An effective SEO strategy can help you outrank competitors in search engine results, attracting more traffic and potential customers to your site. Creating your content, rather than waiting for others to develop their own narrative about your product, allows you to have control of your market positioning.
In the same way that ranking high in the search results for multiple terms can help you build brand authority, it can also position your SaaS as a leader in your industry.
Benefit 8: Improved conversion rates
A proper SEO strategy helps to create content tailored to different stage of the buyer's journey. When you can meet prospective customers where they are in that journey, you increase the likelihood of converting web visitors into leads and customers.
With SEO content, you also can create user pathways, guiding your users down your sales funnel and improving the conversion rate of organic traffic. This is typically done through landing page optimization and clear calls-to-action (CTAs).
Benefit 9: Integrate with other marketing efforts
Your SEO content marketing strategy can complement other marketing efforts, ensuring your content reaches a more expansive, relevant audience through improved visibility.
Your SEO insights can inform and enhance your other marketing channels, such as PPC, social media, and email marketing. When you integrate your SEO efforts with your other marketing efforts, you can be sure that you have a cohesive and effective marketing strategy.
Benefit 10: Customer retention and loyalty
High-quality, SEO-optimized content keeps your existing customers engaged and informed, which leads to increased retention and loyalty. This is because when you are continuously and consistently providing valuable resources and content, you can enhance the overall customer experience and build long-term relationships.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways that SEO can help any business looking to grow its user base through organic traffic. This strategic marketing tactic, when well executed, will generate a consistent stream of high-quality traffic, build brand awareness and trust among your target audience, and help you reach potential customers no matter where they are in the buying cycle.
In short, SEO is a full-funnel marketing tool that SaaS companies should pay attention to.
While it is easy to point out the benefits of SEO for software companies, it is challenging to create, execute, and maintain a proper SEO strategy. If you want to learn how I can help you create or optimize your SaaS SEO strategy, please schedule a free consultation with an SEO expert and professional!
