Search engine optimization (SEO) is the science of driving organic search traffic to your site. SEO is especially difficult for SaaS and B2B companies because the competitive landscape is always changing, products are pivoting, and search engines are constantly updating their algorithms.
We’ve helped dozens of B2B companies with their SEO efforts over the years. This guide is a result of that experience.
The B2B SEO Process
There are 3 main phases of SEO: on-page, off-page, and technical. Working on each phase is critical for long-term SEO success.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is comprised of everything that you can do on your site to improve the number of keywords your ranking for and the rankings themselves.
The most important thing you can do for your audience (and therefore, your SEO) is to write clear, concise copy that explains your product or service as well as possible. If your readers can understand the product or service that you’re offering then it’s likely that search engines will as well.
Content Marketing
The most successful B2B companies have a great content marketing strategy in place. One of the best examples of this is Ahrefs.com. They consistently publish outstanding content that is targeted directly at their ideal customers (in this case, SEO’s and marketers).
Keyword Research
There are several quality keyword research tools available online (Ahrefs, SEMRush, Ubersuggest). Pick whichever one you like best and do a thorough round of keyword research to determine the top 25-50 keywords that you need to rank well for.
Once you have that list you can start writing content around those keywords and weaving those keywords into the marketing copy on the site.
Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
Always an important part of the on-page SEO process is writing quality meta descriptions and page titles. We have a handy page title and meta description generator that you can use to help with the process. It’s focused on ecommerce sites, but the same principles apply to B2B and SaaS companies.
Off-Page SEO for B2B and SaaS
Off-page SEO is an umbrella term for everything that search engines use in their ranking algorithms that are not part of your site.
Everyone knows about backlinks and how important they can be to an SEO campaign. Backlinks are a huge part of an off-page SEO strategy, but there are other factors that are becoming just as important.
The Importance of Off-Page Activity
Search engines increasingly want to know that they’re sending traffic to active sites, so it’s important that your brand look as active as possible. That means being (at least somewhat) active on social media, having a Youtube channel, etc.
B2B Backlinks
How do you get backlinks for B2B and SaaS companies? First, start with quality content marketing. That means writing really strong content as discussed above. Then the “marketing” portion of content marketing kicks in.
Reach out to industry publications, directories, and sites that link to your competitors, etc. and ask them to link to your content. Brian Dean’s skyscraper method is a great approach.
Technical SEO
Having a technically sound website is now table-stakes for SEO. If your site doesn’t load quickly or isn’t mobile friendly, then you can’t expect to rank well.
Beyond that, you have to make sure that all of your valuable content can be easily discovered by search engine spiders, that you’re blocking search engines from pages that shouldn’t be indexed, and much more.
How Can We Help You?
Do you have a B2B or SaaS site that’s not getting as much organic traffic as you’d like? We would love to talk!
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