There are few better traffic sources for SaaS companies than organic search. You can acquire users for free, they often come with an intent to make a purchase, and you can scale it easily.    But how can you make sure that your website dominates the SERPs? And once it does, how can you make sure that visitors stay on your site and become customers? SEO for SaaS companies must take into account the unique features of the industry. SaaS brands have a very different target market and customer journey than, say, a local business or a law firm—and your SaaS SEO strategy needs to reflect this.  In this post, I’ll show you how to build one. We’ll discuss the benefits of SEO for SaaS businesses, why SaaS SEO is so important, and how you can build a strategy starting today.  What Is SaaS SEO? SaaS SEO is a form of search engine optimization that helps software-as-a-service brands rank higher in Google. It’s all of the activities that help increase search engine traffic like: Keyword research Content creation On-page SEO Link building The difference is how you approach them.  While Google’s ranking factors remain the same, you need to factor in the opportunities and challenges that are particular to the SaaS industry.  Let me explain… The SaaS Industry and What Makes It Unique for SEO The SaaS industry has its own specific quirks and needs, and it’s important to be aware of these nuances when optimizing your SEO strategy. For one, competition is fierce—there are a lot of businesses offering similar services—some with significantly larger marketing budgets. There are also comparison sites like Capterra and G2 that have such strong domain authority that they regularly rank for product-related queries.  Oh, and don’t forget that your competition is global, not local.  Additionally, the customer journey can be lengthy due to research and decision-making processes that may take weeks or months.  This means that it’s important to focus on long-term SEO strategies, such as content marketing and technical optimization, rather than a “quick fix” approach.  It also means you need to create content for every stage of the journey. It’s not enough to create top-of-the-funnel content to attract people and hope they convert. You need to create product-focused content to show readers why they should choose your tool over a competitor.  It’s unlikely that you’ll get a conversion the first time someone visits your site—just look at the image below from Salespanel—so you need to design your SEO plan to build sustained authority in your space over time. That way, your website will continuously be visible in search engine results, and you can determine how to best attract potential customers to your site. It’s not just new customers you have to think about, though.  Because SaaS brands use a subscription-based business model, you need to be constantly thinking about how to retain customers. Your B2B SaaS SEO strategy will need to reflect this by creating content that simultaneously attracts new users while educating existing customers and showcasing your authority.  Benefits of SEO for SaaS Businesses When done well, SEO can have a huge impact on your SaaS marketing efforts. It helps you get found by potential customers who are actively seeking out the services that you provide. And in a world where it seems there are a million software solutions out there, SEO matters more than ever. Here are some benefits of SEO for SaaS brands: Increased brand visibility and credibility. The more your content appears in the search, the more reputable your brand will become. This can be a deciding factor when potential customers are choosing between you and a competitor.  Scalable traffic. There is a huge compounding factor with SEO. The more content you create and the more links you build, the more your month-on-month traffic will grow.  Lower-cost acquisition. Putting more effort into your SEO reduces your dependence on paid marketing. And as an industry with high ad costs, anything to alleviate some of that spend will be helpful for SaaS companies. Increased product awareness. The more your product shows up in search engines, the easier it will be for your sales team to talk about your product because customers will have probably seen it before. Helps to convert prospects from other channels. The content you create for SEO is multipurpose and can be used by sales teams to convert prospects from other marketing channels like social media and PPC ads.  Improve your user experience. A lot of SEO tasks will also improve user experience like optimizing for speed, navigation, and readability. This helps ensure that potential customers stay on your website longer and are more likely to convert. Devoting time to SEO will also help your company stay ahead of the competition. Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, so regular updates to your content and new links will keep you ahead of the game. Why SEO Is Important for SaaS A SaaS SEO strategy isn’t optional for most brands. It’s essential.  The SaaS market is so large and competitive that you can’t afford not to have an SEO strategy. End users are expected to spend in excess of $232 billion on SaaS solutions by the end of 2024. If you want a piece of that pie, then you have no choice but to invest in SEO in order to compete.  More and more buyers are searching online for products, too. Over a quarter of buyers’ time is spent researching independently online. That means if you want your product to be on your audience’s shortlist, you need to be appearing in search engines.  Finally, SEO is pivotal in dealing with the long sales cycles that are typical in the B2B industry. The average length of the B2B sales cycle is just over two months. A single paid ad isn’t going to be enough to keep your prospects on the hook. You need a regular stream of content that showcases your authority and keeps your prospects in your funnel