Being visible in the whirlwind of the internet is essential for the success of software as a service (SaaS) companies. Unless you’re playing by search engine’s rules, your SaaS website will be sent to Google’s basement, never to be seen again.
The secret to climbing back to the top of search results is search engine optimization (SEO). This combination of techniques will make your content pop up in the top spot when people search for your niche.
As you can imagine, this brings in loads more traffic to your marketing channel, and before you know it, your SaaS product has soared in sales, and things are only looking up.
It sounds perfect, right? Well, only if you know what you’re doing. For those who are new to the world of SEO content strategies and feeling overwhelmed, taking on a team of experts is just what you need.
We will explore what SEO is, why it’s so important for B2B SaaS companies to crack, and how bringing on an agency to take the lead is the key to success.
What is SEO?
Before we get too in-depth about SEO agencies, let’s clear the air a bit on what SEO actually is. You’ve probably heard the term floating around here and there; it’s a huge key to being successful as a B2B SaaS business or any business with an online presence nowadays.
As the name suggests, SEO is about optimizing your content to appeal to search engines. You know you’ve been successful with this if your website appears at the top of the page when the search button is pressed.
It’s like a store on the high street with a big arrow pointing towards it instead of being in a dark alley. Being at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) is great for traffic because most people click on the first few links. As well as this, it shows that your website is trustworthy and has just the information they’re looking for.
However, to reap these benefits, you’ll have to put in the work. After all, there are many elements that go into SEO which is one of the reasons why agencies specialize in it. Let’s look at the main components.
On-page SEO
Also known as on-site SEO, this is where each web page is optimized to match the target audience’s search intent with:
- Keywords: Relevant keywords and phrases are incorporated throughout the content meta descriptions, meta titles, landing pages, and headings.
- High-quality content: The content on each web page is accurate, relevant, and engaging.
- Meta tags: Meta titles and descriptions grab attention and make users want to click on the link to find out more.
- Header tags: Suitable header tags are placed throughout the content to make it easier to read and more credible to search engines.
- Images: Images are optimized with alt text and reduced file sizes to ensure load speeds don’t suffer.
Off-page SEO
Off-page (or off-site SEO) builds the credibility of your overall website to make it favored by search engines. This is done with:
- Backlinks: These are links from other websites that lead directly to yours. It’s best to have a few high-quality links rather than lots of poor ones, as this can seem quite spammy.
- Social engagement: Being active on social media platforms with comments, likes, and shares increases brand awareness and brings more traffic to the website.
- Guest posting: Writing and publishing blog posts on another company’s website is a form of online networking and creates more high-quality backlinks.
- Influencer marketing: Working with influencers to promote your products and services expands reach and credibility, increasing website traffic and conversions.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is all about ensuring your website has a solid technical foundation, making it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and understand your content. Some key components of technical SEO are:
- Website load speed: Slow websites are a huge turn-off for users and can lead to lower search rankings.
- Mobile friendliness: Research found that 55.5% of website traffic came through mobile phones. Therefore, if websites have an unreadable font, a jumbled layout, or slow load speeds, they miss out on a lot of potential conversions.
- Crawlability: When websites navigate and index your web pages, this is called crawling and is essential for getting content ranking high on SERPs.
White hat and black hat SEO
SEO is categorized into two groups; white hat and black hat. They both have the same goal of bringing in more traffic and increasing conversions but go about it in very different ways.
Let’s begin with white hat SEO. This marketing strategy involves creating high-quality, valuable content that plays by the search engine rules while prioritizing user experience. This may take a bit of time and effort, but it pays off in the long run with a steady flow of organic traffic.
On the other hand, we have black hat SEO. Sneaky practices are used in black hat in order to rank high in SERPs as soon as possible. This includes keyword stuffing, spammy links, and cloaking, which is where the URL and content shown to search engines are different from what is shown to users.
You may get traffic quickly with black SEO, but it won’t last long. Search engines are always refining their algorithms to root out these tactics. When they catch on, rankings will drop and can even lead to being ignored by SERPs altogether.
What’s an SEO agency, anyway?
We have only scraped the surface of what SEO is, and as technology continues to develop, more and more elements are being introduced. To keep up to date with the latest SEO trends, an agency is the best thing for it.
You may be convinced you don’t need an SEO agency to help out here and there, but you could be missing out on incredible growth opportunities. This possibility alone should be enough to at least dig a little deeper into what these agencies do and how they benefit you.
An SEO agency works its magic to improve the quality of your content, get you ranking high on SERPs, and build a mutually beneficial network with other companies that relate to your niche.
Like any digital marketing agency, these teams of specialists step into your world for the agreed length of time to learn what drives you and your goals. Then, with the power of collaboration and communication, your SEO game will be on a whole new level.
What does an SEO agency do?
SEO agencies are not all bark and no bite – they truly deliver by providing numerous services to clients that align with their individual goals. This is important as they understand that you cannot expect the same strategy to work for all clients.
So, let’s uncover exactly what SEO agencies do so that you know what to expect when joining forces.
1. Website audit and analysis
SEO agencies kick things off with a deep dive into your website. They meticulously examine your digital presence, from the backend technicalities to the front-end user experience. This analysis helps them pinpoint areas that need some extra TLC.
Important aspects such as website speed, server performance, and mobile-friendliness are all assessed to find areas where the website’s functionality is suffering. We all know what that means – a slow, glitchy website is the worst to navigate and can put users off from ever accessing your content again.
During this phase, SEO agencies use an array of metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and analytical tools such as Google Analytics to fully understand your website’s performance.
A huge reason why agencies do this is to speak the language of search engines. They constantly crawl through the internet to index websites. This affects how high they rank in search results.
2. Keyword research
Now that agencies have a low down on what they’re working with, it’s time to conduct some keyword research. This is an incredibly important step and will set the stage for your website’s SEO strategy.
Keyword research involves more than just typing a few words into a search bar. It’s a detailed process of identifying the specific words and phrases that your target audience is using when they search online. Uncovering the right ones increases search engine rankings and more traffic from organic searches.
SEO agencies dip deep into keyword databases and analyze search trends to find your industry’s most relevant and high-impact keywords. They consider factors like:
- Search volume: The number of times a keyword or phrase is entered into a search engine during a particular period.
- Competition: How many other websites are competing for the same keyword or phrase.
- User intent: The reason why users enter the keyword, e.g., what results they are hoping to bring up.
3. Content creation
With these handy dandy keywords ready to go, SEO agencies can incorporate them into your content. It’s not as easy as it sounds and requires you to be strategic with where they are used throughout your website.
There is a general rule that SEO specialists share; keywords should not take up more than 2% of your text. This is because stuffing too many keywords makes content unreadable and comes across as inauthentic.
As well as this, Google has caught onto these tricks and will now rank your website lower if it believes you have stuffed it with keywords instead of valuable, engaging content. You don’t have to worry about any of this with an SEO agency on your side, though.
These content marketing pros are valuable to your SaaS company because of their expertise in balancing SEO and genuinely interesting, engaging content. Their priority is to resonate with the person on the other side of the screen, not the search engine.
This approach will rank high on Google by reinforcing the value of your keywords with unique content that adds to the conversation instead of just echoing it. Having readers connect to what you’re saying also increases the chances of them converting as it taps into their unique needs and preferences in a product or service.
4.On-page optimization
This is where SEO agencies fine-tune each element of your website to align perfectly with your keyword strategy. They ensure that your keywords are strategically where it matters like in meta descriptions, meta titles, and headings. Doing this makes it much easier for search engines to understand what your website is about and who it is aimed at.
Here are some of the ways that SEO services will help you out with on-page optimization:
- Improve user experience: Website navigation is smooth and easy to use, with visually appealing content that guides users through the site.
- Optimize for mobiles: The website is responsive and adaptive to mobile screens and touch navigation.
- Faster load speeds: The website’s load speed is optimized by resizing images and other technical tweaks.
- Technical fixes: Optimizing HTML codes and fixing broken links enhances the website’s overall performance.
5. Link building
Without links, your content is kind of floating around on the internet, which makes it harder to find and less valuable to both users and search engines. This is where SEO agencies come to the rescue, ready to build bridges from your world of content to others.
SEO agencies specialize in securing high-quality external backlinks. These links originate from other relevant websites with great reputations in your industry. Each backlink signals to search engines that your website is a trusted source, giving it a huge thumbs up from Google.
Effective outreach like this involves identifying the right platforms for your SaaS brand’s niche and creating engaging content that not only builds backlinks but also establishes your domain authority in the market.
However, these backlinks also have to be diverse. This is so that the website remains credible if there are any changes in the algorithm (very common). So, with backlinks from various blogs, forums, and news articles, you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket.
Another aspect of link building is sprinkling in some internal links throughout your content that will lead readers to relevant pages on your website. This encourages them to stay longer and increase conversion rates.
You may be thinking that now all of this is done, you’ll never have to think of SEO again, but this is far from true. Link building is an ongoing thing, and SEO agencies will keep an eye on things to ensure they all stay up-to-date, relevant, and free from scam websites.
7 signs you may need an SEO agency
What are the signs that you may need an SEO agency for your SaaS company? Of course, it depends on various things like your business goals, budget, and content marketing strategy.
However, there are some clear tell-tale signs that it’s time to bring on some SaaS SEO experts to get you on the right track for organic growth.
1. Website traffic is stagnant or declining
If your website’s visitor numbers are looking pretty lifeless, it’s a big sign your current SEO strategy needs some help.
Professional teams will perform a comprehensive audit to find the problems that have led to this issue. Then, a personalized content strategy will be crafted just for you to optimize your content, refine your keywords, or improve your website’s user experience for conversion rate optimization (CRO).
2. Competitors are outranking you
Is your competition consistently beating you to the top in search results? Well, you don’t need us to tell you something needs fixing.
Agencies will swoop in and do an in-depth study on your competitors, making note of their strengths, weaknesses, and tactics. Once this has all been broken down, a strategy is put together to surpass competitors.
3. Conversion rates are disappointing
Okay, so you’ve cracked the code to get high volumes of traffic, but conversion rates aren’t mirroring it. This can be extremely frustrating but don’t fret, there’s a solution.
With the help of clever SEO experts, the exact stages in the website visitor’s journey where they are dropping off or not taking the desired action are pinpointed. Then the agency fine-tunes your content and user experience to boost conversion rates with compelling calls to action, streamlining the checkout process and addressing user journey pain points.
4. You’re not keeping up with algorithm changes
Frankly, SEO is at the mercy of search engine algorithms. They are updated frequently to improve the quality of search results, enhance user experience, and adapt to whatever else is happening. If you’re not aware of these changes and how they affect your site, it won’t take long until your ranking declines, along with traffic and conversions.
Instead of just recovering from these blows, SEO agencies can anticipate them and tweak your strategy to overcome them. By keeping a close eye on algorithm updates and industry trends, your website won’t only survive but thrive.
5. No one’s reading your content
Your content may be the most informative, funny, and engaging stuff, but why isn’t anyone reading it? You know your content has value, and it deserves to be seen by the right audience.
However, there are a few things at play here that an agency can sus out in no time. They understand that creating great content is only half the battle; the other half is ensuring it lands in the right laps by conducting:
- Audience research: SEO experts delve deep into understanding your target audience – their interests, preferences, search behaviors, and pain points. This research helps them tailor content to resonate with your ideal readers.
- Keyword optimization: Thorough keyword research is done to find terms and phrases your audience is searching for. They can then integrate them into the content.
- Content promotion: Agencies use various strategies to promote your content across social media, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), and influencer partnerships.
6. You’re ready to grow
Being in the position to grow your business is really exciting, so congratulations! But beware, this stage also brings new challenges. Therefore, having an agency on your side will ensure nothing goes wrong.
You will have a bigger target on your back as you grow and surpass competitors vying for the same keywords and target audience. SEO teams can thoroughly analyze these troublesome competitors and devise genius ways to ensure you stay ahead of the race.
Growing also involves reaching out to new markets or demographics. Market research is the key to creating new strategies to help enter these new areas seamlessly.
7. You’re not sure where to start
Sometimes it can be as simple as not knowing where to even start. If you’re new to the game or lack the in-house expertise required to set things in motion, it’s time to reach out.
There’s nothing easy about SEO, and just when you think you’ve cracked it, algorithms and guidelines change. This can all be quite overwhelming and add to the brain fog.
SEO agencies work with various SaaS companies, ranging in size and industry. What makes them so great is that they will personalize a strategy to fit your needs perfectly after sitting down and having an in-depth conversation. You can find comfort that they want what’s best for you and your content and know exactly how to get there.
Are there any drawbacks to using SEO agencies?
Does it all sound a bit too good to be true? Well, the fact is, SEO agencies are fantastic and have given many companies a new lease of life. But it’s only fair to acknowledge that, like any business decision, there are potential drawbacks to consider before charging ahead.
Let’s explore these to see the full scope of SaaS SEO services.
Cost
First and foremost, the many services SEO agencies provide come at a price. While the return on investment (ROI) can be huge in terms of increased traffic, conversions, and revenue, it’s important to factor in the initial cost.
The pricing varies widely depending on the agency, and for some businesses, particularly startups or those with smaller budgets, this can be a big challenge.
Choosing the right agency
Choosing the right SEO agency can be easier said than done. It may be a huge market that provides many options, but picking one that aligns with your specific goals, values, and communication style requires a lot of research into their track record, reviews, and more.
It’s important this stage isn’t rushed, as making the wrong choice can result in a mismatch that throws the whole SEO campaign off course. This fosters an unproductive working environment between SaaS clients and marketing teams that will be reflected in SEO efforts.
Time commitment
SEO is not a one-and-done task but an ongoing effort that demands time and dedication. While agencies can take on a lot of the workload, they will still need your input, insights, and feedback to stay on the right track.
This is another reason why you can’t rush into choosing an agency to work with. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time together, make it count!
Handing over full control
During this time, you have to be okay with not having full control over your SEO strategy. This is needed to benefit from their expertise; it can be challenging for some businesses that prefer to have a tight grip on their online presence.
Don’t worry, though, you won’t be asked to completely take a step back, it’s all about finding a balance between collaboration and control.
Unrealistic expectations
Even though these SEO agencies are pretty amazing, be careful not to have overly optimistic expectations of how they will enhance your marketing efforts. It is a long-term strategy that requires patience and understanding.
While you may not see overnight results, the improvements in your online presence and rankings will significantly impact your SaaS marketing success over time. Staying informed about industry trends and keeping an open, collaborative approach will help your strategy evolve to keep up with whatever is thrown at it. What more could you ask for?
Take your SEO to the next level with an agency
No matter how hopeless you may feel in your SaaS content, we can guarantee that with an in-depth SEO consulting session, you will be well on your way to sitting pretty on the first page of search engine results.
But don’t just take our word for it; read up on some case studies of similar companies that were in your position of low traffic, poor lead generation, and dwindling revenue but bounced back with a vengeance, all thanks to collaborating with an agency to create a brilliant SaaS SEO strategy.
