If you’re reading this then you probably already have your startup operating and you think that the most challenging part of putting to life a business idea is over. While that’s very true, the reality is that also the hard work is just beginning.

If this article caught your attention, you probably have a SaaS company and you’re selling software, a service, or online tools to customers. Having a great idea for a useful product that people need is not enough. Now you need a great web page to sell it. But that’s not enough either. The final goal is for your web page and your product to reach your potential customers. So people need to see your SaaS company somewhere on the first page of Google or it’s very unlikely that they’ll ever click on it. 

This is where search engine optimization steps in and does its magic. SEO is a very relevant tool for producing organic traffic and helping your web page rank higher on Google. The numbers say that organic channel share accounts for 53.3% of traffic, remaining the dominant source of trackable web traffic. So investing time, energy, and money into your web page’s SEO is worth it for sure. 

It’s not an easy task that should be taken lightly. However, it’s very rewarding and with an effect that can easily be seen and measured. That’s why if you’re a SaaS startup don’t feel overwhelmed by the pressure of pushing through your competition and finding your place on the market. 

We put together a very useful and concise list of the most important SEO practices you need to know and apply at this stage without feeling swamped. Stick with this article to start your SEO journey with ease. 

4 SEO best practices for SaaS startups

Is SaaS SEO any different from other SEO? 

Probably yes, but the important thing to know is that its core and the biggest part are the same. There are only nuances to be polished so that it’s tailored and customized to your SaaS company. The biggest difference is probably that SaaS usually sells a service and needs people to subscribe and keep coming back again. So subscription and continuous returns should be one of your top priorities. 

Here is how to achieve the best SEO for SaaS startups.

1. Work on your content

Yes, we know “Content is king!” and for all the right reasons. But, how do you create valuable, relevant, and optimized content? 

Think about your content in a wider context and include all aspects of content and copy marketing

• There are plenty of great website copy examples that you can check out to get your creative juices flowing
• Use content and copy that will serve their informational intent while working in favor of the optimization at the same time
• Use a ‘How to…` heading and then offer your product in the solution with specific examples and tutorials
• Use keywords smartly and efficiently without making it seem like you’re trying too much. They have to come naturally and effortlessly into the content
• Use FAQs to embed the right keywords using a keyword software/platform or the ‘People Also Ask’ box on Google
• Create a long-term content strategy that will allow you to produce valuable content that will enhance different aspects of your business over a longer period of time so that you know when and what you’re targeting. Otherwise, it simply seems like you’re throwing content out there with no specific purpose in mind.
• Reuse and refresh some existing content, instead of cluttering up new pieces. Find valuable content that can be edited and optimized to serve your SEO purposes and give it a little twist.

Don’t forget that content is something that needs to be continuously worked on and is a job that never ends. If you want your site to be relevant and if you want Google not to forget you, you need to be always creating, recreating, rebranding, and refreshing your content.

2. Invest in a performant web hosting platform

It’s a famously debunked myth that ‘The technicality of your webpage doesn’t affect the SEO‘, or even that ‘Page loading time doesn’t affect SERP ranking’. 

Officially, site speed has been a direct ranking factor since April 2010. It’s not news that a page loading time and how it works is more than important for ranking on Google. It all comes down to User Experience (UX). 

Google’s job is to provide the best results for what somebody’s searched for. If that page, even being among the first, takes too long to load, people will simply click the back button and visit another page in a matter of seconds. Three seconds to be more precise. That is the general rule of thumb for optimal loading speed. 

Longer loading time results in poor UX. As a consequence, Google will give your website a lower ranking and all other efforts you’ve put into improving your optimization will be worth nothing.

So the technical aspect of your website and how fast it is very important for boosting rank and revenue. It’s like the house you’re building for your webpage to live in. Without the bases, you have no basis to do any other work on it. So invest time, money, and energy in everything that goes into the background of your webpage so that you can enjoy it when it’s running smoothly.

Invest in a web stack that can simultaneously process high amounts of requests and is reliable for your particular software.

3. Create free tools

Creating free tools is a straightforward and applicable trick that SaaS companies can incorporate smoothly on their website. People love free user-friendly tools that are super helpful.

When creating free tools follow these principles:

• Always keep the tool related to your business or bringing the customer closer to your business
• Keep it simple and offer something easy to create so you can keep it free (things like ‘logo generator’, ‘video editor’, ‘gif maker’, work wonders)
• Create educational tutorials on how to use the tools 
• Generate a ‘tool hub’ with all internal links leading to your free tools to generate more traffic

Free tools are easy to get links to because they’re inherently valuable and a link to a good free tool works amazingly at distributing page rank. 

4. Link building 

When we talk about link building and SEO primarily we think of backlinks and internal links. 

So what’s the difference and how are they relevant to SEO? And is link building a relevant SEO principle that’s worth investing in? We decided to turn to people that have direct practical experience in the field for some valuable insight on the topic.

Ana Grujovska, SEO Outreach specialist at Skale says: “Internal links and backlinks play an important role in SEO, but they have different effects. Internal links primarily affect the structure, navigation, and indexing of your website. 

On the other hand, backlinks have a more direct impact on how search engines perceive your website’s authority and relevance. They can bring you referral traffic from other websites. High-quality backlinks can greatly improve your search engine ranking and overall visibility.”

Ljupka Simonovska Ilievska, Link Building and Outreach specialist at Skale told us this: “The distinction between internal links and backlinks is quite pronounced. While internal links connect various pages within the same domain, aiding in navigation and distributing page authority, backlinks come from external sources, pointing back to your website.

Backlinks are like endorsements from other websites. They are indispensable for SEO, serving as indications that a site provides valuable content, which in turn boosts its credibility and ranking in search engine results.”

So although there are those who would like to argue otherwise the importance of backlinks for SEO remains indisputable. The highlight should be however on high-quality backlinks as Ana says. Internal links play their part, but in a different aspect, and should not be excluded and taken lightly also. 

Ready to start optimizing

We hope that the list we’ve put together will serve as a great starting point to get you working on your web page SEO. It’s not an easy task and there are many aspects that need to be taken into consideration. 

However, it’s very much worth the time and effort. With the right practices tailored for SaaS startups, SEO can certainly unlock your business potential faster than you can imagine. 

About the author:

Iskra Stojanovska has been an English teacher for more than 13 years now. She is also a freelance translator, interpreter, and university professor for both. She’s currently looking for a career change and other ways in which she can make use of her knowledge of English. Content writing is a definite choice.

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