If you run a company in the software as a service (SaaS) industry, you will rely more on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for new customers. And because the industry is highly competitive, SaaS marketers need to be smart about their online strategies. Otherwise, they may not be able to maintain their current customer base. In this article, you will learn a few SEO tips for SaaS marketers.
With the right SEO strategy, you can organically reach out to customers who need the software your SaaS company is offering. You can grow your customer base while developing insightful and valuable content that provides SaaS-related information to your audience.
Interestingly, running a startup in the SaaS industry goes beyond reaching out to customers. It’s also an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in the industry.
Once you establish yourself as an expert, your company can easily compete with bigger brands.
So, here are some of the SEO tips for SaaS marketers
#1. Lead Generation or SEO
As a SaaS marketer, you have to decide whether you are gating the content you create for lead generation or SEO.
If your focus is on lead generation, you may have to prevent search engines from directly indexing the content. Otherwise, your potential customers may find the content on search engines and possibly bypass the lead generation form. And this may seriously affect your lead generation goal.
Most times, website visitors don’t want to be on the sales or marketing team’s radar. And they may do everything to avoid dropping their contact information. That includes using Google and other search engines to find your lead magnet.
If you already have the content indexed on search engines, your prospects may end up getting the lead magnet without exchanging their emails.
I have had a similar experience in the past. I needed a valuable PDF guide from a particular website. Although the guide was free, they needed my name and email address in exchange.
But I was reluctant to give my details. So, a quick search on Google for the guide name and file type helped me bypass the lead generation form and access the content.
Again, you can also optimize your content for SEO benefits. In this case, you create valuable and insightful content that answers some of the questions your prospects will possibly ask during the buying journey.
When creating SEO content, index them directly on search engines. It makes it easier for your potential customers to find you online.
#2. Customer Segmentation Through Custom Dimension
One of the best SEO tips for SaaS marketers is to segment their customers through custom dimensions.
In most cases, software users perform a quick search to find your website and navigate through the home page to the login page. And this can generate a lot of organic traffic to your website.
However, you can’t tell how new customers are interacting with your website from organic traffic. That is because once Google realizes that most of your website visitors navigate directly to your login page, they include it as a site link in the search results.
So, whenever people search for your software name on Google, the login page link will be part of the search result.
For instance, if you search for Grammarly on Google right now, you will get something like this;
There are instances where some of your customers will access the Login page via your home page. That is why you need to use Google Analytics custom dimensions to segment your current customers from your potential customers.
There may be possibilities of offline conversion for other businesses, but that is not the case for SaaS companies.
Conversions only take place online in the SaaS industry. And the more people that sign up or log in to your software, the higher your chances of converting them.
With this, you can easily segment and tag current and prospective customers. And you can easily retarget your ads or SEO strategies based on these metrics.
Read Also: 6 Tips to Optimize Your Website For Voice Search
#3. Converting to Free Trial
Converting to a free trial is one of the most effective SEO tips for SaaS marketers. This SEO strategy works better if your SaaS company uses a freemium model.
All you have to do is create valuable content relating to your software and optimize them for SEO. And once people visit your website organically, find a way to get them to use the free trial version of your software.
You can include a Call To Action that can move your website visitors to the free trial stage. You can also use tools like Google Optimize to improve your free trial conversion.
#4. Measure ROI to Lifetime Value
Depending on how you run your software company, you can offer a subscription-based package or an ongoing commitment. It can be monthly, annually, or a lifetime offer.
Regardless of the revenue model you are using, it’s important to measure your SEO value beyond the initial conversion you get.
Most times, your organic search value may be greater than the initial sales you make. So, try not to sell your efforts short.
Let’s say you have a video creation software company that charges a $100 monthly subscription. And you convert a client through organic search.
If the customer is impressed with your software and decides to use it for the next 4 years, the ROI of the Organic traffic is $4,800 (minus any SEO costs you incur).
Make sense?
It’s important to continuously track the lifetime value of your customers based on the marketing channel through which you convert them. It’s a great way to determine the effectiveness and ROI for those channels.
The Tycoono SEO Team can help you rank your SaaS website on Google search and expose it to the right audience. Contact us for more information on how we can improve your organic traffic.
