Traffic up, signups flat
The blog grows every quarter, and trial starts do not follow it.
SaaS SEO
Turn search into trials, demos and pipeline.
Buyers research software for weeks before they talk to sales. We put your product in front of them at each step, from the problem to the comparison, and we report in signups and pipeline.
Top-three rankingsBuffer · earlier agency work+201%Organic traffic+45%Leads+75%
What we measure3/3
- Buying searches where you appear
- Trials and demos from organic visits
- Pipeline that began with a search
Get your free SEO audit
No cost and no commitment.
The search problem
A blog full of traffic can produce no pipeline at all.
A SaaS company publishes a hundred articles, traffic triples, and trial signups barely move. The articles answered broad questions from people who will never buy. Meanwhile the searches real buyers make, such as an alternative to a competitor, a use case or an integration, lead to a rival’s page or to a review site.
We start at the bottom of the funnel and work up. Comparison, alternative, use-case and integration pages come first, since the people searching them are choosing a tool. Educational content follows, tied to a product page, and every page is measured by the signups it starts.
In plain terms
What is SaaS SEO?
SaaS SEO is search work built around how software gets bought. A buyer starts with a problem, learns the category, lists a few vendors, compares them and checks whether the product fits their stack. Each step is a different search, and each needs its own page. The goal is trials, demos and pipeline, and traffic is only the means.
It differs from ordinary content marketing in where it starts. The pages closest to a purchase, such as comparisons and integrations, have the fewest searches and the most revenue behind them. One caution applies to the template-built pages SaaS sites love. Google’s spam policies treat pages mass-produced with little value as abuse, however they are made, so a hundred integration pages are fine only when each says something true and specific. Our B2B SEO page covers the longer sale with more people in it.
Signs search is not feeding the pipeline
Review sites own your comparisons
Search your product against a rival, and a third party tells the story.
Only your brand name converts
Organic signups come from people who already knew you.
Docs and app pages clutter Google
Login screens, changelogs and thin help pages show up where product pages should.
What we do in SaaS SEO
We list the searches a buyer makes on the way to a tool like yours: the problem, the category, competitor alternatives, use cases, integrations and pricing. Each is ranked by how close it sits to a signup, with search volume second.
Comparison and alternative pages fair enough to be believed, use-case pages that show the real workflow, and integration pages that say what the connection does. Each one ends in a trial or demo step that fits the reader.
Guides and articles are planned in groups around a product capability, and each links to the page where a reader can act. Old posts that bring visits and no signups are rewritten, merged or retired.
We connect organic landing pages to trial starts and demo requests and, through your CRM, to opportunities and revenue. The report shows which pages start customers.
Check it yourself
Find the pages that start customers.
You can run the most useful SaaS SEO report yourself in an afternoon. Take every signup from the last six months and find the first page each person landed on from search. Sort the pages by signups, then set that list beside the same pages sorted by traffic.
The two lists rarely match. A comparison page with a few hundred visits can start more customers than an article with tens of thousands. Once you have seen that, you know which pages to build next quarter.
- 01Export signups or demo requests with their first landing page and source.
- 02Filter to organic search, and count signups for each landing page.
- 03Sort by signups and mark each page’s type: comparison, use case, integration, article or home.
- 04Search your product name with “vs” and with “alternative.” Note who ranks.
- 05List the five integrations customers ask about most, and check that each has a real page.
What you get
Work you can hold.
- A map of buying searches, ranked by closeness to a signup
- Comparison, alternative, use-case and integration pages
- Content groups tied to product capabilities
- A cleanup plan for docs, app and thin pages in Google’s index
- Reporting from landing page to trial, demo and pipeline
The readout
How we know it worked.
We record a baseline before we change anything, then read search visibility beside the actions that pay the bills.
- Buying searches where you appear
- Trials and demos from organic visits
- Pipeline that began with a search
Pricing
Your investment in being found
Three ways to invest in your business showing up when buyers search. Each package is billed monthly, month to month, and each one includes everything in the one before it.
Foundation
The work every site needs, done properly and kept up every month.
$1,000a month
Month to month
We recommend
Growth
Foundation, plus the pages, articles and links that reach more of your buyers.
$2,500a month
Month to month
Leadership
Growth, plus press outreach, more markets and reporting that follows each lead to revenue.
$5,000a month
Month to month
The price changes only when the scope does, such as a very large catalog, many locations or a move to a new platform, and we agree any change in writing before the work starts.
Questions
Before we start.
How do I know a SaaS SEO agency understands SaaS?
Ask what they would build first. An agency that understands how software is bought starts with comparison, use-case and integration pages, and talks about trials and pipeline. One that starts with a blog calendar and talks about traffic is selling content.
How long does SaaS SEO take to produce signups?
Pages near the purchase can produce signups soon after they rank, since the searcher is already choosing. Educational content takes longer to turn into pipeline. We report signups by page every month, so you can see which bets are paying.
Will you report on trials and pipeline, or only traffic?
Trials, demos and pipeline. Traffic and rankings are on the report as the reasons behind them. If your CRM records the first touch, we can follow a search visit through to closed revenue.
Should SaaS SEO chase high-volume keywords?
Rarely first. A narrow search for a use case or an integration has fewer people behind it and far more intent. We rank topics by how close they sit to a purchase, and add broad topics once the pages that close are in place.
Are programmatic pages safe?
They are safe when each page is useful on its own. Google’s policy is aimed at pages made in bulk that add nothing for the reader, whatever tool made them. An integration or template page with real, specific content for that case is a normal page that happens to share a layout.
Keep exploring
Find the next useful page.
All SEO servicesExplore the full search program and its specialized services.B2B SEOSearch for a sale with several decision makers.SEO Content WritingProduct and comparison pages written from expert interviews.Headless SEOMarketing sites and apps built in JavaScript.HubSpot SEOTracking a search visit through to pipeline.Technology and SaaSThe full marketing program for software companies.
Show us the product and your signup data. We will show you which searches your buyers make, and who is answering them today.
- How your buyers search for what you sell
- Who shows up above you today, and why
- Your website, as Google reads it
Prefer email? Write to hello@wearemachina.com
Prefer to talk? Call (831) 230-7787
Top-three rankingsBuffer · earlier agency work+201%Organic traffic+45%Leads+75%
What we measure3/3
- Buying searches where you appear
- Trials and demos from organic visits
- Pipeline that began with a search
Get your free SEO audit
No cost and no commitment.