Secrets of the Pros
The Importance of SEO for SaaS Companies
What are the Top SaaS SEO Tools?
Google Search Console
Screaming Frog
SEMRush
Ahrefs
Yoast SEO
Google Keyword Planner
ChatGPT
Other Excellent SaaS SEO tools
Leveraging SaaS SEO tools
Expert Tested SaaS SEO Tools
If you’re not investing in SaaS SEO tools yet, now could be the best time to start.
In today’s competitive software landscape, business leaders need to ensure they’re constantly searching for more effective ways to reach and convert their customers.
SEO has the power to not only strengthen the visibility of your brand, but also boost your reputation.
Through a careful search engine optimization strategy, business leaders can ensure they’re reaching the right audience, throughout the purchasing journey. SEO allows you to connect with customers through every part of the marketing funnel, generating new leads, and unlocking brand loyalty.
However, SEO can be difficult to navigate alone. There are numerous factors to consider, from internal linking, to keyword analysis, and technical optimization. Without the right SEO tool to guide you, you may find you’re not generating the results you want.
So, which SaaS SEO tools will deliver the most value to software brands? That’s what we’re going to explore today. Read on for your complete guide to SaaS SEO tools.
The Importance of SEO for SaaS Companies
Investing in SaaS SEO tools, support, and optimization campaigns can be an expensive and time-consuming process for any business. However, it’s also an essential part of your SaaS marketing including your content creation strategy. Remember, around 68% of experiences start with a search engine, which means it’s time to focus on your search engine ranking.
For SaaS companies, SEO is an opportunity to increase visibility and brand reach. The more presence you have on channels like Google and Bing, the more traffic you’ll be able to direct back to your website. Additionally, SEO strategies don’t just improve lead generation strategies. They can also assist companies in developing more consistent, lucrative relationships with customers.
A SaaS business needs to develop long-term connections with their customers, to convince them to subscribe to their service for as long as possible. A good SEO strategy can help your SaaS company to appear more credible and trustworthy to your target audience.
Indeed, many of the biggest brands in the SaaS space thrive because of their commitment to SEO. Look at companies like HubSpot and Salesforce, and you’ll notice they all produce highly-optimized content, articles, and website pages, designed (with user experience in mind) to improve their ranking.
Studies into the efficacy of SEO strategies for SaaS companies are compelling. A strong SEO strategy can help to generate more qualified leads, increase conversions, and improve the impact of your brand.
However, with so many aspects to consider, from content creation to link building, you will need to invest in some of the right tools and services to get the most from your campaigns.
What are the Top SaaS SEO Tools?
SaaS SEO tools are essentially software solutions designed to help you improve your search engine presence. They can help with various aspects of SEO, from creating optimized and engaging content, to conducting audits (for technical SEO issues), and enhancing your keyword strategy.
Most SaaS SEO tools fall into the following categories:
On-page Optimization: On-page SEO refers to the search engine optimization techniques you use within content marketing and inbound advertising campaigns. They involve using keywords you want to rank for throughout your content, and making sure the content ideas you produce have the right internal links, and valuable insights. It is also best practice to review a content competitor analysis.
Off-page SEO: Off-page SEO looks at the tactics you use to improve the credibility of your website, and its overall authority. It can involve soliciting backlinks from other reputable companies to enhance the visibility of your site. Link building is notoriously time consuming, which is why it should be part of your SaaS SEO agency’s campaign. Your SEO success might also involve various strategies like using directories and guest posts to improve brand reach.
Technical SEO: Technical SEO revolves around the technical components of your website which influence the search experience. To thrive in this area, you’ll need to enhance the back-end of your website to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index. Technical SEO can involve reducing redirects, investing in user-friendly experiences, and making sure pages of your website load quickly.
While there are many SaaS SEO tools out there which can help your brand to boost the results of your inbound marketing efforts, some options are more lucrative than others. Turn to an SEO expert for assistance with some of the more advanced tools for items such as: backlink analysis, relevant keywords, and pagespeed insights. Bonus – Agencies that offer SEO services have access to some of the best SaaS SEO tools available. Here are some of the top SEO tools we believe all SaaS companies should be using.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is often the first go-to SaaS SEO tool for any brand. Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free platform anyone can use to understand how Google views their website. You can see what kind of queries your web pages are showing up for, and how often people click on your listings to visit your site. (In addition, Google Analytics and Google Trends are also great tools you’ll want to monitor.)
Google Search Console is extremely easy to use. You’ll just need to add a code to your website, or enter Google Analytics to submit your SaaS website sitemap. Search Console will show you your monthly search volumes and queries, help you check your site is indexing correctly, and give you alerts when problems appear with spam or backlinking errors.
Best practices:
Know your metrics: Google Search Console will allow you to track various metrics, from impressions, to click-through rates. You’ll also be able to track your “average position” in the search engines for specific keywords. Make sure you know which metrics to monitor.
Use filters: With filters in Google Search console, you can track specific information about the keywords gaining the most traffic in a specific period of time or location. You can get very specific, adding up to five different filters to each query.
Check your index: Make sure you monitor your site indexing factors on Google Search console regularly. Check for any pages that have a problem or error associated with them. You should also keep an eye out for “excluded” pages.
2. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is another of the best-known SaaS SEO tools on the market. The software can be downloaded directly onto your computer, allowing you to run deep crawls and evaluations of your website. Screaming Frog benefits from an excellent visual display, where you can track important metrics and KPIs. Additionally, it makes it easier to perform a SEO audit, to check for any errors your website might have which could be damaging your ranking.
Screaming Frog is actually a portfolio of different SEO tools which you can use together to achieve specific goals. There’s a log file analyzer which shows you how bots have crawled your page, an SEO spider to help you gather information from your website, and a link checking system.
Best practices:
Start with a full site crawl: Running a full site crawl is the best way to start your SEO audit. You can crawl all of your domains and subdomains, then filter the results and share them through a CSV report.
Examine your links: Link building is an important aspect of SEO for SaaS companies. Screaming Frog’s spider will allow you to check all of your links, identify pages with too many links, and determine whether any links are broken on your site.
Search for content issues: With a content audit on Screaming frog, you can search for potential content problems which could be harming your ranking. For instance, you can see duplicate meta titles, long titles, meta description errors, and empty alt text issues.
3. SEMRush
SEMRush is an all-in-one platform for SEO tracking and management. The solution comes with its own keyword research tool, as well as the option to run technical SEO audits, track your SERP positions, and analyze countless domain backlink profiles.
With SEMRush, business leaders in the SaaS landscape can keep an eye on how their ranking in the search engines compare to competitors. You can also audit your entire site or an individual page, track PPC opportunities, and get updates on changes to your ranking or backlink structure. The solution even has tools for content marketing, like tips for SEO-friendly content and the ability to track brand mentions and content reach, or experiment with social media campaigns.
Best practices:
Analyze your competitors: One of the best ways to use SEMRush is as a competitor analysis tool. You can compare your domain to that of your competitors, and look for opportunities in underused keywords and content options. You can even get alerts on ranking updates.
Experiment with marketing: SEMRush offers a range of tools to help you create more powerful content. You can conduct SEO audits and improve content based on real-time metrics. There are advertising tools to monitor your PPC campaigns. Plus, You can even schedule and post content on social media, and track the results of your ads.
Expand your research: Another excellent feature of SEMRush is the ability to conduct extensive market research. You can discover keyword and backlink gaps, get ideas for how to improve your content standing and more.
4. Ahrefs
If you’re looking for a tool to help with keyword analysis, Ahrefs is likely to be one of the best options. The solution comes with all the tools you need to perform extensive keyword research, find backlink opportunities, and even analyze the competition. Ahrefs is one of the world’s largest site crawlers, which makes it an excellent resource for finding content and keyword ideas.
The software also includes a comprehensive site auditing feature, which allows you to highlight the parts of your website which need to be improved to help you rank better in the search engines. The dedicated “content gap” service will ensure you can pinpoint keywords and opportunities that your competitors aren’t ranking for, giving you room to grow.
Best practices:
Conduct keyword research: Ahrefs is one of the best tools out there for conducting keyword research. You can use it to generate keyword ideas, find out which keywords your competitors are ranking for, and discover new terms you might have forgotten to target.
Analyze keyword opportunities: Aside from just looking at content gaps to help you expand your keyword strategy, it’s also worth looking at the ranking factors for each keyword. The Keywords Explorer allows you to home in on keyword difficulty and traffic potential.
Stay up to date: Ahrefs can provide you with instant email updates on any changes in your ranking and backlinks. It can also let you know if you have any broken links or issues on your website which could be harming your traffic potential.
5. Yoast SEO
One of the most popular WordPress plugins used by SEO companies, Yoast SEO is a tool primarily used for content optimization. The friendly interface makes it easy to update your content (such as blogs and web pages), with SEO-enhanced meta descriptions, title tags, keywords, and other factors. You can even add alt text to all of your images with Yoast.
Yoast comes with tools to add open graph metadata and social media images to your articles. It will also automatically generate XML sitemaps for your website content, which makes it a lot easier for the search engines to crawl and index your site. The tool can work alongside other plugins and solutions, such as SEMRush and WooCommerce.
Best practices:
Monitor your readability: Aside from providing insights into your use of keywords and other SEO factors, Yoast also helps you improve the quality of your content. The application offers a readability analysis, as well as google and social media previews.
Conduct a full SEO analysis: With Yoast, WordPress website owners can conduct comprehensive analyses of their website pages and posts. You can review everything from the length of your metadata, to the use of your keyword and phrase.
Leverage the schema tap: Schema data is important for helping search engines understand what type of content they’re interacting with. By default, most posts are categorized as an “article” by Yoast, but you can update the schema to provide more information to Google.
6. Google Keyword Planner
Another excellent SaaS SEO tool offered directly by Google is the Keyword planner. Similar to Ahrefs, this tool is designed to provide companies with insights into the keywords they should be aiming to rank for with their inbound content and PPC campaigns. Using this tool, you can find new ways to generate leads and increase sales, without spending a fortune on software.
The Google Keyword planner is extremely easy to use. All you need to do is enter your URL into the search box, and start reviewing suggested keywords. However, it’s worth remembering the numbers and statistics offered by this service are approximations. You’ll need to be cautious about which keywords you choose to use.
Best practices:
Focus on low competition and high rewards: Within the Google Keyword planner, you can find some interesting statistics linked to the competition levels of each keyword. Ideally, you’ll want to pick terms with low levels of competition, and rising traffic volumes.
Leverage intent: Google’s keyword planner doesn’t provide filters for intent, but you can usually see the basic intent behind different terms. Pages with higher top-of-page bids often have higher commercial intents, and can deliver better conversion rates.
Assess your competitors: You can conduct competitor keyword research within the Google Keyword planner, just by entering the URL of the competing brand. Google will offer a list of all the keywords the company ranks for, and their average position in the SERPs.
7. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is one of the most exciting new SaaS SEO tools on the market. Though it wasn’t designed specifically for SEO purposes, it can deliver a lot of ranking benefits. The generative AI solution leverages huge amounts of data to answer questions, assist with topic suggestions, and even help with your content marketing.
ChatGPT can debug code, write meta descriptions on your behalf, and provide you with useful insights for your content outlines. Although you should probably avoid using the service to write full blog posts, it can be ideal if you’re looking for guidance on briefs and topics.
Best practices:
Conduct keyword research: ChatGPT makes searching for keywords extremely straightforward. All you need to do is type a few keywords into the message box and ask for related ideas. You can also use it to determine the competition for various keywords.
Develop content strategies: While you shouldn’t rely on AI tools to create all of your content for you, the solution can be ideal for creating content strategies. You can ask the system to provide insights into a SaaS-based content strategy for your target audience.
Discover search intent: With ChatGPT, you can drill down into the intent behind each search query. Using the technology, you’ll be able to understand what your customers are looking for, and generate engaging titles and content which improve conversions.
Other Excellent SaaS SEO tools
The 7 SaaS SEO tools mentioned above will give you a lot of the key functionality and features you need to start optimizing your search engine strategy. However, there are still plenty of other great options out there, if you’re looking for additional SaaS SEO strategy support. Here are some extra tools you may want to consider to boost your competitive presence in the SERPs.
1. MarketMuse
MarketMuse is a comprehensive SEO content analysis tool. The solution focuses on semantic content optimization, analyzing hundreds of thousands of pages related to any given topic. Based on this research, the service can produce a topic model for your content writers, highlighting all of the important related points you should cover in an article.
MarketMuse doesn’t just focus on keyword analysis, it also gives you the guidance you need to build more engaging great content for your SaaS customers. You can even use the system to analyze your existing content, and receive a “score” for every post you produce. MarketMuse also offers heatmaps you can use to visually indicate gaps in your content, as well as real-time feedback.
2. Frase
Frase is another popular content optimization tool, which helps companies to create plans for immersive, engaging articles. The intuitive software is easy to use, with a convenient back end which can assist you in researching and breaking down high ranking articles. You can use the system to create more impactful titles for your website, as well as to produce AI-enhanced quality content.
Similar to ChatGPT, Frase isn’t entirely reliable for producing blog content on a complete basis. You will still need to edit and enhance the content you create with this platform. However, the numerous research tools and built-in content scoring system for writers makes it much easier to create powerful content. You can even use Frase to update and improve your existing content.
3. Clearscope
One of the fastest growing SaaS SEO tools on the market, Clearscope makes it much easier to ensure your content is optimized for your target keyword. The solution can integrate with WordPress and Google Docs, to streamline the content development process for you and your writers. It provides insights into the kind of competing articles you’ll need to out-perform, as well as semantic keywords you should use to improve your ranking.
Clearscope provides extensive insights into any piece of content, offering information on word count, keyword density, long-tail keywords, and suggested topics. It can even help you to improve the readability of your content, and suggest where you should add links or images to your piece.
Leveraging SaaS SEO tools
The SaaS SEO tools listed above should provide you with everything you need to start building a powerful and comprehensive strategy for search engine optimization. They’ll help you to research keywords, analyze competitors, explore backlinking opportunities, and even create more effective content. Many SaaS companies will use a combination of the tools above to ensure they can build the most powerful position for their SaaS product on the search engine result pages.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that optimizing the use of SEO tools in your business can be a little complicated. Many of these tools are straightforward, but can take a while to understand if you don’t have the assistance of a SaaS SEO consultant. With that in mind, it might be worth working with an agency of SEO professionals who can implement and leverage these tools on your behalf.
A SaaS SEO agency will already be familiar with all of the most important tools used for search engine optimization, and how you can make the most of them in your business. They’ll help you to come up with comprehensive strategies, and implement the right best practices into your campaigns.
Contact Amplifyed today to find out how we can help you make the most of your SaaS SEO tools.
Scott Johnson
Founder
Hey! I live in San Diego and have been involved with SEO since 2010. Our amazing team at Amplifyed specializes in helping SaaS and tech companies dominate the search rankings. We serve as an extension of your team to make sure your content ranks and drives the right people to your website. Let’s connect on LinkedIn and schedule a chat.