Software as a Service (SaaS) is big business in 2025, estimated to grow to over $1.25 trillion by 2034 thanks to rolling advancements in cloud computing and AI, alongside increasing demand from flexible workplaces.
SEO remains a highly effective tactic for SaaS businesses to attract and retain customers, building brand visibility in a crowded market of start-ups and established companies alike.
In this blog, we’ll cover some of the core strategies and practices that SaaS businesses should consider when optimising their sites, from fundamentals such as keyword research to wider practices including user experience (UX).
What is SEO for SaaS and why is it important?
While generating traffic remains the primary SEO goal for SaaS businesses, strategies often differ from more traditional approaches due to the unique challenges they face. Unlike traditional SEO, which is usually focused on attracting as many visitors to a site as possible, SEO for SaaS aims to reach a specific audience at the right stage of their problem-solving journey and convert that traffic into leads and ultimately customers. For SaaS businesses, those conversions are central to an SEO strategy.
What is SaaS?
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based software delivery system where users access applications over the internet rather than needing to physically install and manage the software by themselves. It is the main method for the deployment of software applications around the world, with companies such as Zoom, Salesforce, Adobe, Shopify and Slack leading the way in providing simple, useful and innovative SaaS services.
How does SEO work for SaaS?
Unlike traditional companies, SaaS businesses are often impacted by longer sales cycles and operate on a subscription model. This means that acquisition and retention are of equal importance, and ongoing engagement is crucial for fostering customer relationships. SEO strategies for these businesses must not only attract new users but also keep existing customers invested. Brand recognition is a particular challenge for SaaS, especially for start-up businesses, so highly targeted, problem-solving content need to be created to build brand awareness and showcase value. SaaS customers are heavy researchers, carrying out thorough investigations before purchasing – this means that sites should include technical case studies, in-depth problem-solving articles and software comparisons to address their questions and guide them towards conversion.
How to align your SEO strategy with the SaaS customer journey
The SaaS marketing funnel is split by Awareness, Consideration and Decision, and an effective SEO strategy must address each stage to be successful.
Awareness
This is at the top of the funnel and where potential customers are attracted, recognise their problem and are offered solutions. Here you’ll need to target informational keywords (e.g. ‘how to automate email campaigns’), create high value content, and leverage structured data markup for Featured Snippets and FAQs to increase search visibility and awareness.
Consideration
This is at the middle of the funnel and the place to showcase your product and its problem-solving capabilities. Tactics include optimising for commercial intent keywords (e.g. ‘best project management software for small businesses), create product comparison pages and detailed, shareable case studies for example.
Decision
This is at the bottom of the funnel and where to convert interested users into customers. Keyword targeting at this level should be high intent (e.g. ‘buy project management software’), and landing pages should be optimised with clear messaging and CTAs, with customer testimonials to reinforce trust signals for example. Technical considerations around page speed are also important to ensure a smooth path to conversion.
Outside of the funnel, a SaaS SEO strategy should focus on the retention of existing customers and eventually, advocacy. The focus here should be on ‘knowledge base’-style resources, community building and customer success stories. Customer reviews from other platforms such as Google Business or Yelp can also be incorporated to enhance credibility.
Essential strategies for SaaS SEO success
Keyword research and content marketing tactics for SaaS websites
Keyword research and content marketing are crucial factors in generating traffic and establishing authority in SaaS websites. Use leading keyword and ranking tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs and SEMrush to export a mixture of keywords, grouping by feature and solution-based terms, and intent-driven to target users at different stages of their journey. Target long-tail keywords that address specific customer pain points, solutions or features, for example ‘best project management tool for small teams’.
Design a content strategy to include quality blogs, case studies, white papers and comparison guides, using subject ‘experts’ wherever possible to demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness), a concept used by Google to assess the quality and credibility of websites and their pages. Organise content into topic clusters and pillar pages to strengthen your authority in specific areas.
On-page optimisation for SaaS websites
On-page optimisation for SaaS websites begins with the optimisation of title tags, meta descriptions and header tags with the primary keywords determined from your keyword research. SaaS customers appreciate simple, useful comparison data to help with their research, so consider including side-by-side comparison tables, visual content such as infographics or videos, and extensive product and feature pages. Mastering on-page optimisation is an essential skill for ranking highly in competitive information-driven and service-based result pages.
Consider User Experience (UX)
User experience (UX) is an increasingly important factor in modern SEO best practices, as it influences how a user interacts with a website – in the world of SaaS, a well-structured, intuitive and easy-to-navigate website helps to guide potential customers through the product journey which is typically longer than for other ecommerce products. By keeping the customer engaged for longer, you can encourage users explore features in more depth or request a demo of your product.
Technical SEO best practice for SaaS websites
Technical SEO is crucial for SaaS website performance as they often rely on dynamic content and JavaScript to deliver interactive features, which can cause problems with search engine crawling and indexing. Following industry best practices such as server-side rendering (SSR) can help mitigate this. SaaS sites tend to be data-heavy, so quick load times should be a priority, as is mobile-friendliness now that Google’s indexing is mobile first. Structured data such as schema markup helps search engines to understand complex sites and can help to target enhanced search results such as Featured Snippets.
Larger SaaS sites need logical architecture so that they can be easily navigated, and to ensure all relevant content is indexed. Duplicate content, which can be an issue on similar product or localised pages, can be addressed with canonical tags which presents clearer signals and avoids SEO issues.
Uncover performance insights from analytics
Measuring SEO performance is central to refining, assessing and approving ongoing SaaS SEO strategies. Key metrics such as organic traffic, lead generation rates, customer sign-ups and keyword rankings shed light on how well a site is performing, and on which pages. Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Search Console and SEO ranking tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush to track site performance, identify conversion trends or opportunities for growth – read our blog on the top insights and trends to incorporate into your marketing strategy for more ideas. For SaaS businesses, understanding which pages, content or features a visitor interacts with before converting is highly valuable and insightful for helping to shaping marketing strategies.
Optimise your SaaS site with the experts
SEO is a powerful long-term strategy for SaaS businesses and helps to attract the right audience and convert them into customers.
Need expert guidance? Contact MRS Digital today to find out how we can help you increase your visibility and drive conversions.
