Looking for new ways to find keywords for your B2B SaaS company? You’re in the right place. More companies are leaning into the power of organic SEO to boost their overall rank in Google’s algorithm, and demonstrate their expertise. The SaaS industry is growing by leaps and bounds, approximately 18% every year. To remain competitive in such a dynamic space, you need to take advantage of new demographics and strategies that your competitors currently aren’t — which is where strategic keyword research can help. Below, we’re covering our five top tips for SEO keyword research for your B2B SaaS company, and best practices to help you rank well for your terms.
What is the difference in keyword research in the B2B SaaS industry vs. others?
While the basic tenets of keyword research stay the same, this industry requires specialty and niche keywords due to the complexity and nature of the space. It also may use evolving language as the trends continue to grow and evolve, making it more difficult to create an evergreen research strategy that converts. Marketers and writers must continue to stay on top of new terms, trending terms, and gap terms that their competitors aren’t currently serving.
Looking for our top guide on what to watch for in SEO in 2022? Take a look here. There’s no such thing as “too early” to start strengthening your SEO strategy, especially in B2B and SaaS industries.
5 tips for SEO keyword research in B2B SaaS
Looking to boost your SEO ranking organically? Below are five tips that you should consider when doing your B2B SaaS keyword research:
1. Strategic competitor analysis
While this isn’t something that’s unique to B2B and SaaS as a space, it is something that is very important to do — even more so than other industries. Tech leaders are likely well aware of algorithmic preferences and may make the mistake of being very niched with their keyword reach and content writing style. You can take full advantage of this, and use a tool such as Ahrefs, or Wordstream if you’re looking for a free option.
Taking the time to conduct ongoing competitor analysis and reviewing these quarterly can help you to keep your finger on the pulse of keyword relevancy and opportunity in your area of service. You can also gauge the type of content that performs well in the algorithm.
2. Learn your ideal customer’s “search tone”
Don’t make the mistake of creating overly technical content, unless it fits the profile of your ideal customer. Your content will reflect different keywords and tonality if you’re catering to other marketing experts, giving you the opportunity to use industry-specific lingo that they would immediately recognize. However, if you’re catering to the average small business owner who is new to tech and automation, and looking for a tool to help, you’ll simplify your language and adapt to common search phrases and terms.
Identifying the search tone and the phrases that your customers will use can be easily done with advanced keyword tools. However, you can gain more insight by reading and consuming testimonial content from competitors in your space, as well as that are associated with your own company. You may notice a unique need or way to differentiate yourself and be more attractive to new key demographics.
3. Create a customer journey map
Creating a customer journey map isn’t just great for keyword selection and analysis, it’s also great for converting your leads into long-term customers. This exercise helps orient your business strategically to meet the needs of your diverse profile of customers. Beyond this, you can also better serve and get in front of your customers by using this tool in your keyword analysis efforts.
You could target specific questions that they may be asking and curate content around those concepts. You can also identify opportunities to write content that will empower them to make the change, and see your solution as a worthwhile option: using keywords and competitor analysis to make yourself stand out.
4. Direct your research by defining keyword pillars and topics
To make your efforts more efficient, look beyond simply finding phrases and keywords that suit your niche. Instead, you can be more impactful in your research by defining keyword pillars and topics. Some examples of this that would suit a tech company include:
- Features
- Needs
- Product Type
- Integrations
- Clients
This can also help you to define and create your pillar pages, which can give your overall SEO score a boost, and provide key and relevant information to your reader in an organized way.
5. Organize your keywords by intent
More and more, Google is working to present information to your searchers by intent. Organizing and strategizing your keyword lists by intent can help you to both identify new keywords efficiently, and use what you have in current content as much as you can. For example, a prospect who visits your page with the intent to purchase may not resonate as much with sections that are designed for those with informational or research-based intent, who may not be ready to purchase at this point.
Are you a B2B SaaS business that needs help building your SEO Strategy? While working with our team, we can customize our SEO Services specifically to your needs and stage of your company. Get in touch and we can give you a free consultation on how to approach this.