How to Build an SEO Strategy for Your SaaS Company

Imagine spending time and resources in building an incredible SaaS product—refining features, perfecting the user experience, and ensuring it solves real-world problems—only to realize you’re not getting users because it doesn’t appear where people are searching – on Google. Frustrating, isn’t it?

That’s where SEO comes into the picture. SEO for SaaS companies refers to the optimization of different pages of the company website and publishing of new pages or content to improve visibility on search engines.

SEO isn’t just about ranking high on search engines either; it’s about attracting the right users at the right time and turning searches into sign-ups.

In this article, we’ll dive into how SEO can help SaaS companies and discuss effective strategies and real-life examples of SaaS brands that have successfully leveraged SEO to scale their businesses.

Why SaaS businesses need SEO

SEO is important for SaaS companies, majorly because of their recurring revenue model. SEO allows them to put their content out there to consistently attract leads even when they’re not investing in SEO anymore.

This is very different from other paid marketing tactics, where the traffic boost you get when you’re doing paid marketing diminishes as soon as you stop paying.

Let’s explore how else SEO helps SaaS business:

1. Drives qualified leads: SEO-optimized content attracts high-intent prospects who are actively searching for SaaS solutions, increasing the likelihood of conversions. By targeting high-intent keywords, businesses can reach prospects at different stages of the buying journey.

2. Reduces customer acquisition costs (CAC): Organic traffic from SEO provides a steady flow of potential customers without the ongoing expenses of paid advertising. This lowers customer acquisition costs and improves overall marketing efficiency.

3. Improves brand authority and trust: Consistently publishing valuable, insightful content helps establish credibility in the industry. When a SaaS brand ranks high on search engines, it signals reliability and expertise in the field to potential customers.

4. Enhances customer retention: SEO isn't just about acquiring new users—it also helps retain them. Optimized help centers, knowledge bases, and educational content improve user experience, reducing churn and increasing satisfaction and customer retention.

How is SaaS SEO different?

SaaS SEO distinguishes itself from traditional SEO practices across various industries through its unique content strategies and objectives. Here are some key differences:

1. Content focus

SaaS companies focus on creating content that educates users about their software solutions, addressing specific pain points and demonstrating value. This often includes in-depth guides, tutorials, and case studies designed to nurture potential customers through longer decision-making processes.

2. Integration with product

Unlike traditional industries, SaaS companies have ther own platforms and can integrate SEO strategies or content directly within the product. Creating accessible help guides, tutorials, and knowledge base articles within the platform enhances user experience and provides valuable resources that can rank in search engines.

3. Emphasis on long-term user engagement

SaaS SEO strategies prioritize long-term customer engagement and user retention. By producing high-quality, informative content that supports users at each stage of their journey, SaaS companies aim to convert visitors into long-term subscribers instead of just making a one-time purchase like businesses in other industries.

Content strategy for SaaS SEO across the customer journey

Developing a robust content strategy that aligns with the SaaS customer journey is essential for effective SEO. This approach ensures that potential customers receive relevant information at each stage and are guided toward conversion.

We’ve divided the entire strategy into three main stages and will explore the specifics of each stage.

1. Top of the funnel (TOFU) - Awareness stage

The top of the funnel content aims to attract a wide audience, including your Total Addressable Market (TAM) and Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), and to capture email addresses for future engagement.

Goal: The goal in this stage is to drive maximum traffic. The focus is on educating prospects about the problem and introducing your brand as a credible source of information. Encourage visitors to sign up for newsletters or download resources to capture leads for long-term nurturing.

Audience: At this stage, prospects are becoming aware of their challenges but may not yet know about your product. This would include:

• Individuals who are not ready to buy but may purchase later.

• Prospects who are ready to buy.

• Prospects who may not be ready to buy now but can still be nurtured.

• Users who are not in your ICP but can engage with the content.

Content focus: Publish educational blog posts, industry reports, and thought leadership articles that address common pain points and industry trends. Here, you can also highlight the problems and how your product solves these pain points.

Keyword strategy: Target broad, informational keywords such as "What is email automation?" to reach users seeking general information.

2. Middle of the funnel (MOFU) - Consideration stage

The middle of the funnel aims to nurture leads by establishing trust, helping prospects evaluate their options, and positioning your SaaS product as a strong solution. The focus is to provide content that addresses deeper queries, resolves doubts and keeps leads engaged.

Goal: The goal is to keep your product top of mind until prospects are ready to move to the decision stage.

Audience: At this stage, prospects are already aware of their problem and are actively researching solutions. They may be comparing different products or looking for case studies that validate potential options. Your target audience would include:

• Leads who are not ready to buy but are considering solutions.

• Leads who are ready to buy and are evaluating different solutions.

Content focus: Publish case studies, product comparisons, whitepapers, and in-depth guides that demonstrate how your product solves specific problems and how it’s different from or better than your competitors.

Keyword strategy: Focus on comparison pages and problem-solving queries like "Mailmodo vs. Mailchimp" or "Best email marketing tool."

You would basically use SEO to attract organic traffic and then leverage email campaigns to nurture those leads until they’re ready to pay.

3. Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) - Decision stage

The bottom of the funnel aims to address final concerns, demonstrate product value, and make the subscription process seamless. Content should help validate the product's effectiveness, showcase customer success stories, and highlight offers that encourage immediate conversion.

Goal: The main goal is to turn marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) into customers by removing friction from the buying process by offering clear, persuasive information.

Audience: At this stage, prospects are close to making a decision and are looking for validation. They need assurance about your product’s value, reliability, and ROI. This would include:

• Prospects who are ready to consider you as a solution.

• Prospects who are ready to make a purchase.

Content focus: Publish landing pages, detailed pricing and pricing comparison pages, demo sign-up forms, product walkthroughs, testimonials, and sales enablement materials.

Keyword strategy: Target transactional keywords like "Mailmodo free trial" or "Buy Mailmodo."

5 SaaS brands with successful SEO strategies

Several SaaS brands have successfully implemented SEO as a major channel for growing their brand. Let's explore some of them.

1. Zapier

Zapier, a leading automation platform, has achieved remarkable success through a multifaceted SEO strategy. Central to their approach is programmatic SEO, where they have developed numerous integration pages detailing how to connect various applications, such as Google Sheets, Pipedrive, and Constant Contact. These pages effectively capture users searching for specific workflow automations.

Additionally, Zapier maintains an extensive blog featuring listicles that compare top services, such as the best AI email generators and AI image generators, catering to users exploring optimal tools for their needs. Their content strategy also includes how-to guides and articles covering productivity tips, workflow automation, and app usage, providing valuable insights to their audience. This approach has led to a substantial increase in organic traffic crossing the 15 million mark.

2. Canva

Canva, a graphic design platform, utilizes a comprehensive SEO strategy to enhance its online presence and user engagement. A key component of this strategy involves creating multiple homepages tailored to different languages and countries, effectively catering to a global audience through localized content.

Additionally, Canva has developed feature-specific landing pages for tools such as a PDF to JPG converter, background remover, and QR code generator, which rank highly in search results and drive substantial traffic.

Their strategic focus on high-intent keywords has led to impressive results and has driven consistent growth with their overall organic traffic averaging aroung 320 million.

3. Deel

Deel, a global payroll and HR platform, simplifies hiring and payments for international teams. Their SEO strategy focuses on publishing industry-specific how-to articles, covering topics like common interview questions and employment policies, which attract users searching for HR and hiring-related insights.

Additionally, Deel's extensive glossary pages, which define key payroll and compliance terms, serve as one of their highest traffic drivers. To further strengthen their search rankings, they localize content for global audiences, create templated pages targeting specific job roles, and optimize for featured snippets, ensuring they capture high-intent search queries effectively.

Their SEO strategies have successfully increased their overall traffic from 300k in 2024 to almost 450k in March 2025.

4. HubSpot

HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing platform, drives massive organic traffic through a vast content library, including blog posts, ebooks, and webinars on marketing, sales, and customer service.

Their SEO strategy heavily relies on high-ranking landing pages covering topics like CRM, web hosting, and CMS, alongside a wide range of free tools like an icon generator.

5. Mailmodo

Mailmodo is an all-in-one email marketing platform that allows for interactivity in emails. Its USP is that it allows you to create and send AMP emails within minutes.

Its SEO strategy is primarily driven by in-depth guides on email marketing and related topics.

Additionally, it attracts traffic through other free tools like the AI email writer and AI subject line generator, as well as template pages catering to various use cases.

This combination of educational content, tools, and templates helps Mailmodo drive organic traffic and user engagement effectively and has allowed it to scale from 70k to over 105k traffic.

If you’re someone who’s into email marketing or wants to try your hand on email marketing, Mailmodo is the best tool for you to get started. Try it out today.

Tools to use for SaaS SEO

A lot of things come into play when you are doing SEO for your SaaS business and you need multiple tools to take care of the different processes involved. Let's take a look at some kinds of tools that you're going to need:

Keyword research tools: Keyword research tools like Ahrefs assist in identifying the right keywords relevant to your audiences that you should target. By analyzing search volumes, keyword difficulty, and competitor strategies, Ahrefs enables the creation of targeted content that resonates with potential customers.

Analytics tools: Analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4) offer comprehensive insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and conversion performance. GA4’s event-based tracking system provides a nuanced understanding of how users interact with your site, facilitating data-driven decisions to enhance user experience and engagement.

Rank tracking tools: Rank tracking tools like TrueRanker monitor keyword rankings, allowing you to track SEO progress and adjust strategies accordingly. By observing fluctuations in the rankings, you can refine your approach to maintain or improve visibility in search results.

Conclusion

SaaS SEO is essential for long-term, cost-effective growth. It’s not just about driving traffic but attracting the right audience, nurturing them through the funnel, and converting them into loyal customers. As seen with brands we’ve talked about above, a strategic SEO approach can significantly boost visibility and conversions.

By leveraging the tools we’ve discussed above and crafting content for each stage of the buyer's journey, you can enhance you online presence and drive sustainable growth. Use insights in the article to invest in SEO strategies that align with your business goals and set the foundation for long-term success.