While many SEOs are switching from a keyword-focused approach to a more topical approach, keywords still play a crucial role in SEO. By strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your content, it becomes easier for search engines to understand what a page is about.
Keywords are considered by some the backbone of SEO and content creation, serving as the key to unlocking visibility on search engines. In this blog, we’ll equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the intricate nuance of focus keywords. You’ll learn exactly what they are, how to find them using popular keyword research tools and go over key concepts from the Google Warehouse leak.
What is a focus keyword, anyway?
A focus keyword in SEO refers to a specific term or phrase that summarises the main topic or theme of a page. It is the singular keyword that you want a particular page to rank for in search engine results.
By honing on-page SEO elements around a focus keyword, you signal to search engines what the primary subject of your content is, making it easier for them to understand, index and rank your page accordingly. Not only will your page rank better for your focus keyword, but also keyword variations and related terms.
Focus keywords act as a strategic element in on-page optimization, helping to improve the visibility and relevance of a webpage in search engine rankings.
If you’re using Yoast SEO for WordPress, they have a field called focus keyphrase where you can input your focus keyword (not necessarily a single word). Yoast will analyse your on-page SEO elements and give you suggestions for further optimization.
Focus Keywords vs Long Tail Keywords
Focus keywords and long tail keywords serve different purposes in SEO, but will sometimes have overlap.
A focus keyword is a specific term or phrase that encapsulates the main topic of a page, while long tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that target niche audiences and typically have lower search volume but higher conversion rates.
For example, if you were writing a blog about SaaS demand generation, your focus keyword would likely just be “SaaS demand generation”. Long tail keywords related to the focus keyword of this page might be “demand generation vs lead generation” or “how to build brand awareness for SaaS companies”.
While focus keywords are powerful for indicating the main content of a webpage to search engines, long tail keywords are valuable for targeting specific, often more qualified, search traffic.
Focus keywords are broad and competitive, focusing on the main theme of a page, whereas long tail keywords are more detailed and specific, catering to niche audiences.
How to Research Focus Keywords
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
The most basic, but one of the most effective ways to find keywords you can produce pages for. The Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is simple: You type in a focus keyword and it gives you search suggestions for related keywords.
In this example, we’re on the hunt for keywords related to the phrase “email warmup”. We’ve highlighted a few key areas of the Keywords Explorer that we use on the regular: Matching terms, Search suggestions and Questions. It’s all pretty straightforward, you can do the rest from here without any training.
LowFruits for Low Competition Focus Keywords
LowFruits is an underrated keyword research tool that analyses the SERPs for you and finds low competition focus keywords you can rank for with minimal backlink building.
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer is our go-to tool for competitor analysis. Type in any domain you want to analyse and Ahrefs will give you practical data you can play with. In this example, we’re going to take a look under the hood of Triple Whale.
Everything under “Organic search” on the left sidebar is incredibly useful for keyword research, but we’re going to pay special attention to the Top pages report.
This report is the bread and butter of competitor analysis. The Top keyword is the focus keyword of the page, the keyword that is actually bringing in the most traffic to that particular page.
In this case, we’ll probably want to avoid the branded keywords like “triple whale” and “triple whale pricing” because we’re looking for focus keywords that are relevant to our hypothetical competitor website. Instead, we would opt for non-branded keywords that are bringing in the bulk of their traffic like “marketing efficiency ratio.”
Evaluating Keyword Potential
Evaluating a keyword’s potential is crucial for maximising the effectiveness of SEO efforts. While many SEOs will simply focus on the lowest competition, highest search volume keywords, there are other things to consider here like its contextual relevance and search intent.
Search Volume and Competition
Search volume typically refers to the number of times a particular keyword or phrase is searched for on a monthly basis. By analysing monthly search volume, you can get an estimate of how much traffic you can drive to a page from organic search.
However, forecasting traffic based on search volume alone can be tricky because it doesn’t account for what % of clicks each website in the SERP receives. Ahrefs has a Traffic Potential estimation in the Keywords Explorer, which can be handy if you’re trying to forecast the total traffic from an SEO campaign.
Competition is called Keyword Difficulty in Ahrefs and is measured by the estimated total number of backlinks you’ll need to rank for a focus keyword. Checking competitors’ backlinks in-depth will allow you to get a more accurate assessment of how many links you’ll need to snag top positions.
Keyword Relevance
Ideally, keywords should hold contextual relevance in 2 ways:
Domain-level relevance: It should make sense within the overall website theme.
Topical relevance: It should make sense within the overall body of content.
In the recent Google algorithm leak, there was a parameter about topical borders which I found very interesting. The main concept here is that if a site writes about a topic outside of its normal scope, Google doesn’t trust it (as much).
What this means for on-page SEO is that if you’re writing too far from the existing body of work on your site, Google will find difficulty justifying its ranking. Expanding the scope of your website categories requires writing about tangentially related topics with internal links in a logical pattern that branches out from existing content.
The off-page SEO implications are that if your guest posts are too far from a site’s topical borders, it won’t pass (as much) link equity. Write about focus keywords that are similar to their recent content if you want stronger equity passed.
Choosing the Right Focus Keywords
Choosing the right focus keywords for blog content is important for improving visibility and relevance in SERPs. By selecting keywords that align closely with the topic and intent of the website and existing content, you can achieve stronger rankings.
Aligning Keywords with Content Goals
SEOs should align their keyword research with overall content marketing efforts so that organic search traffic helps achieve business goals. By ensuring that focus keywords resonate with a business’ more general targets, you’ll be able to guide traffic towards money pages and drive conversions that move the needle.
Balancing Difficulty with Opportunity
Site Authority (SA) was revealed in the Google leak, an internal measurement Google uses to determine a website’s power in search engine results. It’s their version of DA or DR that has been theorised for years upon years, only to be confirmed recently.
What SA means for SEO is that websites with stronger backlink profiles will have an easier time ranking and maintaining rankings. Lower SA websites will have a more difficult time competing for rankings on keywords, which is why it’s important when selecting focus keywords to strike the right balance between keyword difficulty and SEO opportunity.
If the top positions for a focus keyword are being held by websites with high SA, it’s unlikely you can compete with them unless you yourself have a high SA or you put significant effort and resources into backlink building.
Optimise for Focus Keywords Today
Continuous keyword research and optimization are crucial in the constantly moving landscape of search intent and search rankings. By consistently analysing search trends and updating your keyword strategy, you can stay ahead of the competition.
Experimenting with various keywords and strategies is key to finding the perfect match for your content. By testing different options, you can uncover valuable insights into what resonates most with your target audience. Don’t be afraid to explore new approaches to optimise your content and stay ahead of the competition!
If you want a professional opinion, you can contact Spacebar Collective today to handle your keyword research and content production efforts. Let us help you stay ahead of your competition by optimising your content for focus keywords that make sense and implementing strategies that drive conversions.
It wasn’t too long ago that Google officially sunsetted Universal Analytics (Google Analytics 3), in lieu of Google Analytics 4. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is severely lacking in many functions that most SEOs previously used in day to day operations, especially when it comes to granular analytics of individual pages and traffic sources. It was simple to find which of your landing pages or blog articles are performing best in UA, but it isn’t so straightforward within GA4. It feels like you need a degree in GA4 just to get things done nowadays.
Hopefully one of these meets your needs and you can start tracking user engagement more effectively today.
Are there good alternatives to Google Analytics 4?
Despite its widespread use, Google Analytics has several shortcomings. It isn’t user-friendly, and it uses lots of specific terminology and jargon that may be unfamiliar to the average user. Although Google offers the Analytics Academy to assist you in learning how to use it, not everyone has the time or expertise to devote weeks to learn how to use the platform.
Where GA4 Falls Flat
Google Analytics 4 is disappointing to many SEO professionals, including myself. Just setting it up is a considerable challenge, requiring a thorough understanding of the new platform in order to modify it to meet UA’s functionality. On-page SEO became more difficult without being able to deep dive individual page performance and user journeys as easily.
Here’s a few key reasons why GA4 falls flat:
Complex Interface: The new interface can be challenging to navigate, especially for users accustomed to the simplicity of UA.
Steep Learning Curve: Transitioning from UA to GA4 requires significant time and effort to understand the new features and functionalities.
Event-Based Tracking: While event-based tracking provides more flexibility, it can be overwhelming for those who are used to the pageview-based model in UA.
Customization Requirements: GA4 often requires more customization to get the same level of detail available by default in UA.
Reporting Changes: Many of the standard reports available in UA do not have direct equivalents in GA4, making it harder to find specific data quickly.
Fewer Third-Party Integrations: Some third-party tools and plugins that worked seamlessly with UA are not yet fully compatible with GA4.
Choosing the Right Analytics Tool for Your Business
In our experience working with a wide variety of clients and business models, we’ve found there are 5 key criteria you should consider when selecting an analytics tool for your website:
Privacy: How is data privacy handled and does it comply with regulations like GDPR?
Ease of Use: Does it have a user-friendly interface and how straightforward is its implementation?
Features: What features make it stand out from competitors?
Cost: How is its pricing model structured and is it affordable for your business?
Support and Community: Does it have an active user community? How responsive are they to support tickets and on social media?
5 of the Best Google Analytics 4 Alternatives
PostHog
PostHog is an open-source, all-in-one analytics platform geared towards developers who want to get the most insights as possible from their users.
Features:
Powerful analytics functions like A/B testing and user session recording
50+ integrations and an API that’s easy to use
Very active community of users and staff for quick support
Privacy & Compliance:
It’s more privacy-conscious than Google Analytics and it’s not even a close comparison. PostHog doesn’t use your data for anything other than calculating your own insights and they don’t sell your data to anyone either.
They also have resources available for compliance with GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA.
Ease of Use:
Incredibly easy to set up and use; it’s simple to implement into your website or apps.
Pricing: PostHog starts at $0 per month, with your first 1 million analytics events free before switching to a usage-based pricing you can read about here. The best way to understand how much it will cost is to get started on the free plan so you have an idea of how many analytics events your website engagement brings in.
They also have special plans for startups who are under 2 years old and less than $5 million in funding, giving you $50k in credits for free.
Fathom Analytics
The entire premise of Fathom is that once installed, you can ditch Google Analytics altogether. And while that sounds like a bold claim, they actually execute on it well. You can get in-depth analytics without fluff, complexity or even training.
Features:
Limited features with its privacy focus
Easy learning curve, anyone can pick it up
Privacy & Compliance:
As a privacy-first platform, Fathom takes it seriously from the ground up with privacy law compliance including GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR and more. It also collects zero personal data, making it a powerful tool for developers who want a fast-running website.
Ease of Use:
Fathom has an intuitive dashboard that any marketer can master effortlessly.
Setup is easy too. One line of code: That’s all you need to set up Fathom Analytics to any website, CMS or framework.
Pricing: Fathom has a free 30-day trial and paid plans start at $15 per month.
Plausible
Plausible is similar to Fathom, where privacy comes first and it comes with a minimal approach to analytics that’s easy for anyone to use.
Features:
Search Console integration and a real-time dashboard
45x smaller than Google Analytics, won’t slow your site down
Track goal conversions, revenue and campaigns
Privacy & Compliance:
Plausible is a cookie-free, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative that’s fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR.
Ease of Use:
It does exactly what it claims to do and does it extremely well: Plausible is one of the easiest to use analytics platforms we’ve tried.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $9 per month and are based on your total pageviews.
Fueled.io
Fueled is a no-code analytics platform focused on eCommerce with easy implementation with Shopify, Bigcommerce and more. It makes it easy to collect 1st-party data to empower your marketing and sales efforts.
Features:
eCommerce integrations
Customer profile enrichment for in-depth actionable insights
Customer journey analytics to better understand your audience
Privacy & Compliance:
Fueled is focused on allowing you to collect 1st-party data that you own outright. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find policies on their site anywhere about GDPR or other privacy law compliance.
Ease of Use:
Transitioning from GA4 to Fueled is seamless and fast to install for anyone on your team, not just developers. They also offer an onboarding concierge that can set things up for you.
Pricing: More pricey than others in this article, Fueled plans start at $189 per month.
Usermaven
Uesrmaven might be the best Google Analytics alternative for SaaS companies, offering essential SaaS insights like which features are used most, friction points and identifying power users.
Features:
Automatic event tracking without any coding needed
Allows SaaS companies to optimise marketing channels for stronger ROI
Privacy & Compliance:
Usermaven is privacy-focused, with data ownership as well as GDPR and CCPA compliance.
Ease of Use:
Usermaven boasts its effortless, no-code event tracking, making it a strong choice if you want in-depth analytics beyond just the basics.
Pricing: Usermaven paid plans start at $14 per month.
Give Google Analytics Alternatives a Shot
Ditching Google Analytics for lighter weight, more privacy-focused alternatives is not only a smart move for optimising your website’s load speeds but also a responsible choice for safeguarding your visitors’ data.
By choosing solutions that prioritise user privacy, you can build trust with your audience while still gaining valuable insights to enhance your digital strategy.
Remember, the best analytics tool is one that aligns with your values and meets your specific needs without compromising on privacy. Make the switch now and see the difference it can make for your site performance and user engagement.
This year on March 13, an automated bot named yoshi-code-bot released thousands of documents from Google’s internal Content API Warehouse on Github. These documents, earlier shared with SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin, have been thoroughly reviewed and analyzed by Michael King, CEO of iPullRank, in an epic exposé.
I’ll be going over my interpretations of some of King’s findings and what they mean for backlink building efforts. For those interested in going over the leak themselves, it can be accessed here under the Apache 2.0 license. That means you’re able to use, modify and distribute it however you so please.
It’s important to note that what I’m going over in this article is mere interpretation, based on my experience doing SEO at scale for B2B SaaS companies. These are not facts and should not be taken as such. I also may update this article in the future; these are just my initial thoughts on a handful of ranking factors I feel are most important to link building.
Link Building Concepts Confirmed in the Google Algorithm Leak
Backlinks Matter
Despite what many SEOs claim, backlinks are still crucial for ranking, especially for competitive terms. King confirmed this by saying it directly: “Links still seem to be pretty important.” While I still subscribe to the whole content is king sentiment, there’s only so far you can go on competitive terms without actively building backlinks. I specify competitive terms here because I know firsthand how it’s possible to rank for long-tail keywords, branded terms, etc without a strong backlink profile.
Speculation: Backlinks are powerful not just because of their strong weight in ranking algorithms, but also because they are cumulative. You can stack up backlinks, but you can’t stack up meta titles for a single page.
Site Authority Exists
Contrary to what Google employees have told us, Site Authority (SA) is a real metric used in some capacity in ranking systems. Unfortunately, even after the leak, we don’t understand exactly how this metric is used.
Speculation: The existence of SA confirms what we already know about DA / DR. Sites with strong, established link profiles can rank more easily. That’s why Forbes is the go-to resource for everything, from creatine to baby strollers.
Indexing Tiers
The leak revealed a metric called sourceType that explains a loose relationship between where a page is indexed in a tiered system and its value.
Google’s index organises content into tiers for efficiency. The most important content, updated regularly, is stored in flash memory for quick access. Less important information resides on solid-state drives, while content updated less frequently finds a home on standard hard drives.
What this means for off-page SEO efforts is that the higher the indexing tier, the more link equity will be passed from a link. If a page is considered “fresh” (new), it is considered higher quality and thus, a higher indexing tier.
Speculation: The most powerful links you can acquire are those from new guest blogs on high site authority domains and niche edits on pages ranking highly for contextually-relevant terms. Digital PR will continue to be a strong backlink category going forward.
Link Velocity of Spam
Google measures the velocity of spam anchor text to nullify negative SEO attacks. Spikes of spam anchor text can be detected by Google, which is why they’ve told us that disavowing spam links isn’t necessary.
What this means in practical terms is that negative SEO can still be done, but a drip-feed of consistent links that aligns with a natural-looking velocity is key. For example, if someone built 2,000 spam links to your domain, it’s unlikely that it would negatively impact your rankings on Google. However, if they drip-feed these links to your site over the course of say, a year, they could spank your website down the rankings.
Speculation: This concept could potentially be used by white hat SEOs for finding safe speed limits for building backlinks. If you took note of how fast competitors are building their backlinks, you could build backlinks at a similar rate with mitigated risk. We’ll get into this in more detail near the end of the article with a practical example using ahrefs.
Homepage Trust
Homepage backlinks print money because Google values a link based on how much the homepage is trusted.
Speculation: Backlinks from real businesses that just happen to have a blog are some of the most consistently powerful. If a blog exists purely for advertising revenue and doesn’t have a product or service offering, it’s unlikely that its homepage will be as trusted.
Links Should Stand Out
How different hyperlinks look visually compared to the rest of the text on a page is measured by Google’s ranking algorithm. This is likely how they track and punish those abusing invisible links on a page (eg. link stuffing in white text on a white background).
Speculation: Websites that don’t have anything differentiating links from regular paragraph text visually will pass less link equity than websites that do. The use of bolding, font colours and font sizes may play a role in ranking.
Anchor Text Mismatch
Websites can be hit with algorithmic demotions based on anchor text mismatches. What this means is that anchor text should have contextual relevance both ways: the anchor text should fit within a body of text contextually and the destination URL should also match what the text is about.
For example, if your anchor text was “B2B SaaS SEO”, the destination page shouldn’t be about anything other than B2B SaaS SEO.
Speculation: Anchor text matters more than we thought it did. Since mismatches can result in demotions, exact and partial keyword match anchor text is important in link building campaigns with mitigated risk.
Risk Mitigation in Backlink Building
Safe Link Velocity
Maintaining a ‘safe’ backlink velocity is especially important when going after high competition keywords where the top players are building backlinks consistently and in higher volumes. If you move too fast or use the same anchor text too much, it may be seen as spammy to Google.
In this section, I’ll be briefly going over how to estimate the pace you can build backlinks safely, according to what Google is already rewarding in the SERPs. Note that this isn’t an exact measure and should only be used as a guideline for checking competitor backlinks. Ultimately, you’ll want to build backlinks at a comfortable pace that looks similar to competitors.
Calculating Backlink Gap Between You and Competitors
This is the first piece of the puzzle when trying to figure out how many backlinks you’ll need altogether.
First, look up your keyword in your fav SEO tool. We’re going to figure out what’s needed to rank for “social media management tools” in ahrefs for this example.
Open up the list of backlinks for each site in the top 3 of the SERP.
Next, apply filters that match the caliber of backlinks you build. For campaigns we run at Spacebar Collective, we guarantee dofollow links with a minimum DR of 45 and aim for a minimum monthly traffic of at least 1,000. We also want to only display one link per domain, as we’re unlikely to build multiple links from the same domain in the same campaign.
You’ll see below that the list of backlinks quickly shrinks from 67 down to only 13. ONLY 13!
The top 3 pages in the SERP had a total 31, 13 and 85 needle-moving backlinks, respectively. From here, we average these totals, giving a rough estimate of just how many backlinks you would need to build to be on a level playing field: ~43.
This doesn’t mean it’s the exact number of backlinks you need to build to outrank them necessarily because of the many other factors at work here, but it’s a good estimate of how to match the top players.
Real Link Velocity of Competitors
Now that we know we need to build somewhere in the realm of 43 backlinks, we need to think about how quickly we want to build those backlinks. We want to do things as safely as possible, so that our links hold weight and aren’t seen as spam. 43 isn’t actually a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, so it’s unlikely we’ll look spammy (unless we built all 43 in a day or something like that).
This next step is simple: We look at how many backlinks our competitors are building on a monthly basis. You just need to tally the total number of links they’ve built up on a monthly basis over the past couple of months and go from there.
If competitors are building 10 backlinks per month, you can assume that it’s relatively safe to build at the same backlink velocity, assuming the quality and relevance of backlinks is safe and also on par with them. In the example of ranking for “social media management tools”, we want to hit the 43 backlink total count, so at that pace, it’d take a little over 4 months to hit our target.
Common Criteria for Domains You Build Links From
Minimum DR / DA
Yes, these domain-level metrics are from 3rd party tools and aren’t used directly by Google when ranking pages.
But…
Google has its own metric that it does use in some capacity: Site Authority (SA).
Backlinks from sites with stronger backlink profiles give more link equity, meaning you need fewer backlinks to rank than if building backlinks from lower SA domains. While it’s not a good metric on its own, it can be powerful when combined with other criteria.
Minimum Traffic Requirements
Websites and pages that bring in search traffic are weighted more heavily than those that don’t. I think it’s safe to say that pages that are earning lots of traffic and passing on lots of referral traffic give out more link equity than those that do not.
Contextual Relevance
Contextual relevance is an important one to consider when building backlinks. You’ll want to make sure that there is contextual relevance from a domain-level as well as at a page-level. The anchor text you select should also match the destination URL and the anchor text should make sense contextually within the body of text on the page it’s on.
tl;dr
Backlinks matter just as much as they ever have and the Google algorithm leak confirmed a lot of speculations we’ve had over the years. Hope this guide helps guide your backlink building efforts. If you have any questions, input or disagreements, feel free to drop a comment or hit me up on X @ctwtn.
Demand generation is the long-term process of creating and nurturing interest in a company’s products or services through customer education. Effective demand generation efforts will build a consistent stream of new business, creating a predictable pipeline of growth.
Demand generation marketers strive to pinpoint potential prospects using behavioural data, nurturing leads along the sales funnel.
Demand Generation vs Lead Generation
Demand generation and lead generation are both crucial aspects of marketing, but they serve distinct purposes in the sales funnel.
Demand generation focuses on creating brand awareness across a broad audience. It involves strategies like content marketing, social media engagement, and educational campaigns to generate interest and build brand reputation. Common channels for demand generation include email, SEO, and paid advertising.
Lead generation is a targeted approach designed to identify and capture potential customers who have shown interest in your business by sharing their contact details. Strategies for lead generation include the use of forms, gated content, and tailored advertising, all aimed at gathering leads for the sales team to follow up on.
While demand generation casts a wider net to attract prospects, lead generation targets individuals who are more likely to convert into customers. Both components are essential for a successful marketing strategy, with demand generation laying the foundation for lead generation to thrive.
The Content Marketing Funnel Explained
The traditional marketing funnel consists of six distinct stages, each characterised by its unique intricacies and optimal content types. The funnel outlines the customer’s path from initial brand awareness to the final purchase decision.
Awareness: During the initial phase of the funnel, companies strive to generate brand awareness among their target demographic using a variety of growth channels such as paid advertising, organic social media, and SEO.
Interest: The interest stage is where a potential customer (or user) is already aware of your brand and begins to research more about them. They are not quite yet ready to make a purchase decision.
Consideration: As the name suggests, potential customers are considering making a purchase and have already shown some level of interest in your brand’s offering. It’s at this point where they begin to compare your product or service to your competitors.
Intent: In the intent stage, the potential customer has already made up their mind in choosing your brand over your competitors but still needs a little extra push to actually convert into a paying customer (or free signup in the case of freemium SaaS models).
Evaluation: At this crucial stage of the funnel, potential customers are weighing their options, considering various factors such as price, quality, and features, before making their final purchasing decision.
Purchase: The end goal of the marketing funnel: converting a potential customer into a paying one.
While this may sound overly complicated at first glance, these 6 funnel stages can be simplified down to 3: top, middle and bottom of the funnel.
The top of the marketing funnel consists of the brand Awareness and Interest stages. It’s at this point in the buyer journey that potential customers are getting first acquainted with your brand.
Next is the middle of the funnel: the Consideration and Intent stages. This is arguably the most difficult stage to build marketing content for because it’s where you do the groundwork of customer education. Customers are beginning to compare your brand to your competitors, so it’s crucial you don’t miss out on this funnel stage.
Finally, we have the bottom of the funnel, where all the conversions happen in the Evaluation and Purchase stages. It’s here where customers have done all their homework and are ready to make a final purchase decision.
Building Brand Awareness for Your SaaS
With how competitive SaaS can be, it’s absolutely critical to build brand awareness through any means possible. In this blog, we’ll cover 4 primary channels for demand generation you can use to build brand awareness for your SaaS company: SEO, paid advertising, email marketing and referral marketing.
By using all of these channels or any combination of the 4, SaaS founders can expand their user base effectively. SEO is the strongest long-term play of these channels, focusing on driving traffic through existing demand via search engines. Paid advertising campaigns can drive immediate traffic and conversions. Email marketing allows for more personalised communication on a 1 to 1 level, invaluable in nurturing leads and moving people down the funnel. Referral marketing taps into existing networks, resulting in some of the easiest conversions of any channel.
Demand Generation Channels for SaaS Companies
To achieve sustainable growth and broaden their user base, SaaS founders need to skillfully leverage a variety of demand generation channels. The 4 channels we recommend the most for SaaS companies are SEO, paid advertising, email marketing, and referral marketing.
SEO lays a solid long-term foundation by tapping into search demand, while paid advertising brings in immediate results. Email marketing enables personalised engagement, smoothly leading prospects through the sales funnel. Referral marketing leverages existing networks for effective conversions.
By implementing a multi-channel approach to demand generation, SaaS companies can effectively enhance their visibility and fuel their growth in both the short and long term.
SEO
SEO is a powerful demand generation channel for SaaS companies due to its ability to increase visibility and drive organic traffic to their websites.
Earning rankings in search engines allow companies to establish long-term credibility and authority in their market, leading to sustainable growth, lower customer acquisition costs compared to other channels and improved retention rates.
Once a potential user begins to research their options in the market, (Google) search is often the first place they look for information to help their purchase decision.
By ranking educational content highly, you’re able to exude better control over the buyer journey. For example, offering fair comparisons to competitors in buyers’ guides is a great way to help the user find the best solution for their specific needs.
According to a study by Sparktoro, Google sends the most traffic to the open web, a dominant 63.41% of all web traffic. Investing in SEO should be one of your primary growth channels.
Benefits of SEO
Simply put, here’s why you should consider SEO as a demand generation channel:
Position your brand as an authority next to established competitors
Sustainable growth with lower customer acquisition costs
Improved retention rates on signups from organic search
Better control over customer education during their buyer journey
How to Do SEO for SaaS
SaaS SEO isn’t all that different from other business models: fundamentals move mountains. However, SaaS companies are also uniquely positioned to take advantage of SEO because of few reasons. There are a large number of SaaS and startup directories that can be leveraged to build strong foundational links. SaaS companies are also positioned well to do news-worthy things, which can be used to build backlinks through PR campaigns. For example, an investment round raise can be announced via press releases, resulting in media coverage (and juicy backlinks).
Technical SEO Foundation
It’s important to have a strong technical foundation for SEO so that your content has the best chance at ranking on search engines. If there are glaring technical issues with your site, it’s unlikely that you’ll rank well (or at all). Technical SEO is a complex field with plenty of nuance, so it’s advisable to contact a professional SEO for an audit if you’re feeling unsure of where you stand from a technical standpoint.
For those who would rather take things into their own hands, we wrote a great beginner’s resource to learning technical SEO you can read.
On-Page SEO
Unlike technical SEO, on-page SEO is fairly straightforward and can be picked up quickly by just about anyone with writing experience.
Quality Content Creation: Creating high-quality, engaging content is essential for on-page SEO. SaaS companies should focus on producing informative blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, and other content types that address the needs and pain points of their target audience. Content should be well-structured, unique, and include relevant keywords to improve visibility in search results.
Internal Linking Strategy: Implementing a strategic internal linking structure can help improve website navigation, distribute link equity, and enhance the overall user experience. SaaS companies should link related pages within their website to help search engines understand the content hierarchy and establish context. Internal linking also helps to spread ranking power across multiple pages, boosting SEO performance.
For a more in-depth look at how to tick all boxes, read our on-page SEO guidelines blog.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO plays a crucial role in enhancing a website’s visibility and credibility on the internet. Unlike on-page SEO, which focuses on optimising content within the website, off-page SEO deals with improving a site’s reputation through external factors like backlinks, social signals, and mentions on other platforms.
By building a strong off-page SEO strategy, businesses can increase their domain authority, attract more organic traffic, and establish trust with search engines like Google.
Off-page SEO activities such as targeted backlink building campaigns, influencer partnerships, and online PR campaigns are essential for boosting a website’s rankings and driving long-term success in the competitive digital landscape.
SaaS companies should also consider building listings in software review sites and startup directories like G2, Capterra and TrustPilot.
Why You Should Outsource SEO for Your SaaS
Outsourcing SEO for SaaS companies can be beneficial for founders looking to maximise their resources and expertise. Managing an in-house SEO operation can be complex and time-consuming, requiring constant monitoring and adjustments to keep up with evolving algorithms and trends.
By outsourcing, SaaS founders can leverage the specialised knowledge and experience of SEO professionals who stay updated with industry best practices.
This approach not only saves on internal costs associated with hiring and training but also allows founders to focus on their core strengths, such as product development and customer acquisition.
Investing in a reputable SEO agency like Spacebar Collective can yield higher returns in terms of increased website visibility, lead generation, and overall business growth.
PPC
Unlike organic methods like SEO that take time to yield results, PPC offers immediate visibility and control over ad placement, targeting, and budget allocation.
With PPC, founders can target specific keywords, demographics, and interests to reach their ideal audience, driving traffic to their website and generating leads quickly.
PPC also allows for real-time performance tracking and optimization, enabling founders to make data-driven decisions to maximise ROI.
The combination of PPC for short term gains and SEO for long term success is a powerful one used by the majority of top SaaS companies.
The Importance of Split Testing Ads
Split testing (A/B testing) is the lifeblood of any paid advertising campaign because it allows you to constantly refine and improve your ads. By creating 2+ versions of an ad and testing them against each other, you can determine which one is more effective and make adjustments accordingly.
Retargeting Ads
Retargeting ads serve as a powerful growth channel for SaaS companies by targeting individuals who have previously interacted with their website or platform but did not make a purchase or sign up.
This method is incredibly efficient because it focuses on people already familiar with the product or service, thus having a higher likelihood of converting them into paying customers.
By displaying relevant ads across different websites and platforms, retargeting keeps the brand top of mind, encouraging potential customers to revisit and complete their purchase or subscription. This strategy not only increases conversion rates but also boosts brand awareness and recall, vital components for the long-term growth of any SaaS company.
Ad Platforms to Consider
Choosing the right ad platform for a PPC campaign is crucial for the success of your advertising efforts. Different platforms offer various targeting options, ad formats, and audience reach.
For example, Google Ads is great for reaching a wide audience through search and display networks, while Facebook Ads allows for detailed audience targeting based on interests, behaviour, and demographics.
Understanding your target audience and campaign goals will help determine which platform is the best fit for your specific needs.
You should also consider factors such as budget, ad performance tracking capabilities, and ad placement options when deciding on the most suitable ad platform for your PPC campaign.
Here are the main ad platforms SaaS companies should consider:
Facebook
Google
Instagram
LinkedIn
X (Twitter)
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a vital component of an omni-channel demand generation strategy due to its ability to directly reach potential customers and nurture leads effectively.
By leveraging personalised and targeted email campaigns, businesses can engage with their audience, build trust, and drive conversions. Email marketing also allows for easy tracking of campaign performance, enabling businesses to optimise their strategies based on data-driven insights.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing in email marketing is a crucial aspect of converting leads into customers. It involves building relationships with potential customers at every stage of the sales funnel by providing them with relevant and valuable content.
This process aims to guide leads through the buyer’s journey, from awareness to decision-making, ultimately increasing the chances of a successful conversion. By sending personalised emails based on the lead’s behaviour and interests, businesses can engage with their audience effectively and move them closer to making a purchase.
3 Email Sequences Every SaaS Should Use
Onboarding Sequence: A crucial email sequence for SaaS companies, the onboarding sequence is designed to introduce new users to your platform. It should include welcome emails, tutorials, and tips to help users get started smoothly. This sequence sets the tone for the customer’s experience and lays the foundation for long-term engagement.
Engagement Sequence: Keeping users engaged is key to reducing churn rates. An engagement sequence includes emails that highlight new features, best practices, case studies, and other valuable content to keep users interested and active on your platform. By nurturing user engagement, SaaS companies can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Renewal/Upgrade Sequence: To maximise customer lifetime value, SaaS companies need to focus on renewals and upgrades. This sequence should include timely reminders about subscription renewals, incentives for upgrading to higher-tier plans, and personalised recommendations based on the user’s usage patterns. By proactively addressing renewals and upgrades, SaaS companies can boost revenue and retain valuable customers.
Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is a critical component of a multi-channel demand generation strategy as it leverages the power of existing customers to acquire new ones. When happy customers refer their friends or colleagues to a SaaS company, it not only expands the customer base but also builds trust and credibility through word-of-mouth recommendations.
Choosing Referral Incentives
Choosing the right referral incentives is vital to the success of such programs. Incentives should be aligned with what truly motivates customers to refer others, whether it’s cash, gift cards, discounts, exclusive access to features, or other rewards that resonate with their needs and preferences. Understanding customer motivations and tailoring incentives accordingly can significantly increase the effectiveness of referral marketing initiatives.
Automating Referral Campaigns
Designing, launching and optimising a referral program at scale is no easy task. That’s why you should let referral program software like ReferralRock do the grunt work for you.
With features like automated referrals, customizable reward options, and easy integration with your existing marketing tools, ReferralRock can help streamline your referral program and drive more successful customer recommendations. By automating the process, you can save time and resources while ensuring a consistent brand image and experience for all participants.
In order to measure the success of your referral program, it’s important to track and analyse its performance. This includes collecting data on how many referrals are being made, which incentives are most effective in driving referrals, and how much revenue is being generated from these referrals. With this information, you can make data-driven decisions to optimise your program for even greater results.
SaaS Demand Generation
When it comes to demand generation for SaaS businesses, SEO stands out as a powerful channel to drive success.
While leveraging existing marketing tools like ReferralRock can streamline your referral program and boost customer recommendations, SEO plays a crucial role in ensuring long-term visibility and sustainable growth.
Through analysing and optimising your SEO strategy, you can attract organic traffic, improve brand awareness, and ultimately, drive more conversions. Remember, in the digital landscape, SEO is the cornerstone of effective demand generation, helping you reach your target audience and achieve sustainable business growth.
B2B SaaS content marketing is any strategic approach used by businesses to attract and engage potential users for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product. What makes B2B SaaS content stand out from other industries is that it focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a highly targeted audience that falls under an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
The primary goal of B2B SaaS content marketing is to drive profitable customer action by being a source of practical information and building brand awareness. This is achieved through various channels like social media, webinars, case studies, whitepapers and blogs.
By delivering a consistent stream of high-quality content to potential users, B2B SaaS companies are aiming to establish themselves not only as thought leaders within their industry, but also convert leads into paying users.
What’s different about B2B SaaS marketing?
B2B SaaS products are more complex typically and have longer sales cycles than B2C products. The longer the sales cycle, the higher levels of trust need to be built up for customers to make purchase decisions. This means the approach to marketing needs to be focused on educating, nurturing and establishing a connection with potential customers.
On top of this, B2B SaaS content marketing has to sell not only the software, but also the support behind the software as well. Users need to be confident in the software’s capabilities to improve their business and the support systems needed to guide them through implementation.
Benefits of SaaS Content Marketing
Content marketing has massive advantages for SaaS companies at every stage of the buyer journey. Here are some key benefits you should keep in mind:
Customer Education: Content marketing should educate customers at every stage of the buyer journey. Marketing specific to SaaS focuses on creating valuable and informative content that drives readers through the sales funnel. This is done through in-depth explanations, tutorials and blogs that showcase specific features of the software. The bottom line here is that SaaS content marketing should provide practical insights and real-life examples that are relevant to the reader.
Building Trust: Content is a powerful tool for building trust among potential customers, allowing SaaS companies to demonstrate their industry expertise and knowledge to establish credibility. By directly addressing pain points and needs, SaaS content instils trustworthiness in the brand.
Cheaper Customer Acquisition: SaaS content marketing can lower customer acquisition cost (CAC) in several ways: improving brand visibility, attracting qualified leads and new signups through organic growth channels.
Community Building: The right types of content will build and nurture a community of users by being a point of discussion. By consistently providing valuable content, SaaS companies can become a go-to resource for industry and niche-specific information. This not only helps attract potential users but also establishes credibility with existing users.
Lead Nurturing: Content marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing leads, as it allows you to engage with potential customers at every stage of the buying process. The first step in nurturing leads is to create brand awareness, educating your target audience about the benefits of your software. Once you’ve captured their attention, keeping them engaged with practical information like use cases or success stories will position you as viable solution for them.
Reduces Churn: Content helps establish strong relationships between a SaaS and its users. When users feel connected to a brand and receive ongoing support from them, they’re much more likely to continue using the service. You can reduce churn by understanding the needs and pain points of different user segments then creating content tailored towards them.
Customer Communication: Being in constant contact with your users is a surefire way to build long-lasting relationships. Communicating your new product and feature updates is an easy way to stay top of mind with your existing user base.
Marketing Funnel Stages
The standard marketing funnel, sometimes called the sales funnel, consists of 6 stages, each with its own nuances and types of content that performs better. It acts as a visual representation of the customer journey from brand awareness to making a purchase.
Awareness: In the first stage of the funnel, businesses aim to create brand awareness within their target audience through various channels like advertising, social media and SEO.
Interest: Once a potential customer is aware of your brand, they are in the interest stage. It’s here that they show interest in your products or services and begin researching more about them.
Consideration: Potential customers have shown a level of interest in your brand and are considering making a purchase. It’s here where they begin to compare your brand to competitors’ offerings.
Intent: The potential customer has made up their mind about choosing your product or service but still needs an extra push to convert into a paying customer (or free signup in the case of freemium SaaS).
Evaluation: During this stage of the funnel, potential customers are carefully evaluating their options before making a final decision.
Purchase: The final stage of the marketing funnel, where a potential customer becomes a paying customer.
Categorising these 6 stages into top, middle and bottom of the funnel allows marketers to tailor their strategies according to each stage.
At the top of the funnel, you have the Awareness and Interest stages. This is when potential customers become aware of your brand and don’t know much about your offering yet.
In the middle of the funnel are the Consideration and Interest stages, where potential customers are starting to show interest in your brand and begin comparing it with competitors.
Finally, at the bottom of the funnel are the Evaluation and Purchase stages, where potential customers have gathered enough information they need to make a final purchase decision.
How to Prioritise Content Creation for B2B SaaS
While it may seem logical to prioritise top of funnel content so that your brand reaches the widest audience, you can actually drive signups quicker by focusing on bottom of funnel content first. This is because potential customers in the bottom of funnel stages are more likely to convert into paying customers with the right information.
When leveraging social media and SEO for B2B SaaS signups, bottom of funnel content helps attract qualified leads. These are potential users who have already done some research and are actively looking for a solution that meets their specific needs.
Content Formats for Each Stage of the Funnel
B2B SaaS companies in particular should use different content formats for different stages of the marketing funnel because it allows them to more effectively target and engage potential users at each stage of their buying journey.
Bottom of Funnel Content Types
We put the bottom of the funnel first because that’s where B2B SaaS companies should put their initial focus: bringing in conversions from those who are ready to make purchase decisions. At this stage, targeted content allows potential users to experience the product first-hand, imagine what it’s like implementing it into their business and make a well-informed decision before committing to a signup. Persuasive writing techniques should be your best friend when producing bottom of funnel content.
Product Pages: Product pages are excellent real estate for conversions since they’re your primary landing pages. They play a crucial role in the bottom of funnel content for SaaS companies because they are designed specifically to convert visitors into (paying) users. For many, this will be the first point of contact for potential users that have already gone through the awareness and consideration stages of the marketing funnel.
Providing detailed information about your software makes product pages one of the highest converting pieces of content you can develop. You’ll want to include things like features, benefits, pricing, customer reviews and access to case studies on your product pages. Basically, you’ll want to add any kind of information that helps potential users make an informed decision about whether or not your solution meets their needs.
Pricing Pages: If you were to organise your bottom of funnel content into its own funnel, pricing pages would be at the very bottom. Pricing pages often serve as the final step in the purchasing decision-making process. This is because pricing pages address one of the most important concerns for consumers: cost. At this point in the marketing funnel, potential users seek out specific details about pricing plans, features and benefits before signing up.
Pricing pages are a great place for SaaS companies to showcase their value proposition by highlighting unique features and benefits of their software. By clearly outlining what sets them apart from competitors, pricing pages are one of the most effective ways to communicate the value of your software. They also help build trust with potential customers by providing transparency. In the case of enterprise SaaS, pricing can be muddled and locked behind sales calls. Offering your pricing upfront on a pricing page will help establish your SaaS as trustworthy.
Use Case Pages: Use case pages are an effective type of bottom of funnel content because they provide potential users with a clear understanding of how your SaaS can solve their problems or meet their needs. This type of content is especially useful for converting potential users into signups because it demonstrates how your solution works and how it benefits them specifically. Use case pages demonstrate your ability to solve real-world problems in a level of detail that builds trust, making them more likely to convert to paying users.
“Alternative to” Pages: Comparing your SaaS directly to established players in your industry is an underrated way to target users actively searching for greener grass. These users are typically closer to making a purchasing decision than others and have already gone through the awareness and consideration stages of the buyer’s journey. Writing an unbiased comparison of the market as a one-stop comparison resource for users in the decision-making stage allows them to easily evaluate their options and choose the one best suited for their needs. Hopefully yours is best in category, as this type of content will only work if your SaaS is actually better than others. If that’s the case, expect a high conversion rate from your “alternative to” pages!
Buying Process Pages: When a company is actively seeking out the best software solution within a specific category, they’re already at the bottom of the marketing funnel and are ready to make a purchase decision. These types of pages allow SaaS companies to showcase their unique features, benefits and advantages over their competitors. What makes these pages especially powerful is that you can include social proof when explaining your SaaS to further convince potential users to choose your software.
As potential users move down the funnel and are aware of your SaaS, more in-depth content to provide meaningful insights can be used. It’s at this stage that your content should focus on demonstrating how your software solves their pain points, pushing them closer towards making a purchase decision.
Product Tour Pages: Product tours provide potential users with a much deeper understanding of features and benefits of your software. These pages will typically include video explainer videos or interactive demonstrations that allow companies to see the product in action and get a feel for how it works. Product tours are almost essential for complex products because they can be difficult for customers to fully understand through text-based content alone. Tours are also a great place to showcase customer testimonials, case studies or use cases, which can help immensely with building trust.
Product Tutorial Pages: Tutorials and any form of technical documentation serve as a bridge between the initial awareness stage and the final decision-making stage of the buyer’s journey. This type of content helps educate potential customers about specific features, implementation and functionality of the software, giving them a better understanding of how exactly it can solve their problems.
Case Study Pages: Case studies provide tangible evidence of the value and effectiveness of your software. This type of content showcases real-world examples and success stories from existing users, giving potential users a full picture of how your SaaS will benefit their business. Case study pages are where you can include specific details and metrics that show how you impact them. This includes things like cost savings, time savings and ROI.
Interactive Tools: Offering free tools on your website allows potential users to actively engage in your software, providing a better understanding of the bigger picture: how your software works and its potential impact on their bottom line. Interactive tools give hands-on experience and allows companies to see the value of your software in action. Calculator tools that showcase the time or cost savings associated with your SaaS are a great starting point for those looking to get their feet wet.
At the top of the funnel, where customers are still becoming aware of your SaaS, visual and easily digestible content will help grab their attention and generate interest. This type of content is typically tailored towards garnering social shares to increase brand awareness and reach a large audience.
Ultimate Guides: Writing the most comprehensive as possible guide to a specific topic serves as a go-to resource for those just beginning to research a particular topic. Ultimate guides attract a broad range of people and a small percentage of them will be within your ICP. General guides like this are an opportunity to showcase expertise so that your ICP will keep you in mind when they’re closer to making a purchasing decision. You can also use this type of content as a place to educate potential users about your software and its benefits, so long as you aren’t being too salesy. Being subtle about product features as solutions to potential pain points will help build your credibility and keep you top of mind.
How-To Guides: These guides provide valuable information to potential users about how to solve a problem or achieve a specific goal using your software. This level of brand positioning can be powerful when executed correctly. When someone has a problem, they seek out solutions through search engines. Writing content geared towards helping solve problems will allow you to reach new audiences and introduce them to your SaaS.
Listicles: List format blog content is great for top of funnel customers because they’re easy to consume and skim. Providing bite-sized information that’s easily digestible with a scroll captures the attention of busy professionals who might not have the time to read long-form content. This also makes them more shareable than other forms of content, bringing in a wider net of potential users.
Thought Leadership: B2B SaaS companies often operate in complex and rapidly-changing fields, so customers are constantly looking for guidance and expertise to make more informed purchase decisions. Thought leadership pieces can showcase your understanding of the industry, trends and challenges faced by other companies. This helps position your brand as leaders in the space. On top of this, thought leadership pieces are highly shareable and can attract a wider readership beyond just potential users. The network effect can compound, putting your SaaS in the eyes of your ICP.
Instead of relying on a single growth channel, B2B SaaS companies should diversify their growth efforts so their reach and potential isn’t limited. By using multiple channels, companies can tap into their ICP and increase brand awareness among a wider audience.
Using a variety of growth channels can also help diversify the types of users they bring in. For example, enterprise-level companies are more likely to convert off of SEO than they are from organic social media. Just because one channel works for a certain ICP does not mean it will work for all segments. Additionally, B2B SaaS companies can gain valuable data and insights into their market by tracking performance of individual channels to see which is most effective in acquiring new signups and to see which channels have the best retention as well. This data-driven approach allows you to optimise your content marketing efforts and improve your overall ROI.
SEO (Organic Search)
Unlike paid growth channels or even social media, SaaS SEO brings you new signups through owned channels: your website and its digital assets. By producing content for every stage of the customer acquisition funnel, your SaaS will be in a good position to earn organic signups.
B2B SaaS companies are uniquely positioned to leverage SEO as a growth channel because of the possibilities of websites they can earn backlinks from. Not only are the doors wide open for blogs in their specific software niche, but B2B SaaS companies can also get backlinks from software directories, entrepreneurship blogs and technology websites.
Although it can sometimes be more expensive to build links for SaaS companies because website admins will charge more than other industries (food and travel for example), there’s a wider net cast where you can hit higher volumes of quality links easier.
The other piece of the SEO puzzle you should take into consideration is blog content production. Google finds it hard to consider a website with less than 30 pages an authority on a topic, so it’s important that you build up a base library of content related to your industry. Showcasing your expertise in blog content will build a topical map for your website, signalling to Google that you know what you’re talking about and others should trust you.
Paid Social
Paid ads on social media are a great way to gain immediate traction, earning new signups by targeting a specific audience, generating leads and increasing brand awareness.
Running ads on LinkedIn allows businesses to target their ads towards demographics, interests and job titles. This targeting ability is especially powerful for B2B SaaS companies because you can reach decision-makers who are more likely to be interested in your software.
If you have an existing email list or large enough user base, you might want to consider lookalike audience advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Paid Search
Paid ads on search engines like Google ensure your brand is displayed to relevant audiences who are actively searching for solutions for their business. By bidding on bottom of funnel keywords, your ads are placed above all organic search results, bringing in qualified traffic to your landing page.
Another basic, yet effective strategy is to bid on your competitors’ branded keywords. For example, Monday.com places their ads for the keyword “Trello.”
Organic Social
Although it takes some finesse, a bit of luck and plenty of patience, organic social media marketing is a good growth channel for your B2B SaaS because it’s cost-effective and helps build word of mouth. Unlike paid advertising channels, organic social media allows companies to reach your ICP through tailored messaging and content that directly appeals to potential signups.
If you’re looking to build your own community, social media is the place to do so. Performing well on social has a snowball effect on generating new signups. When your users engage with your posts and share them, it increases visibility beyond your own network and brings an influx of new signups from social referrals.
Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to earn new signups in the B2B SaaS game. Referral leads are relatively cheap compared to other growth channels, yet convert at a higher rate than any other type of lead. The problem with referral marketing is that it can be difficult to begin and can be quite inconsistent in terms of generating new leads. That’s why it works best as a supplementary SaaS content marketing channel, rather than a primary channel you rely on for signups.
If you’re looking to take full advantage of referrals as a growth channel, your best bet is to use referral software to automate your campaigns.
Final Thoughts
B2B SaaS content marketing is crucial for companies who want to take control of their own growth. By implementing content for each stage of the marketing funnel, SaaS companies are able to attract qualified leads that convert to signups. In doing so, they also learn to address pain points of their ICP and are able to position themselves as the solution to their problems.
For those who are ready to grow their SaaS business, SEO is a great starting point because it’s cost-effective, can tackle the bottom of the funnel immediately and has various long-term benefits. Unlike paid advertising campaigns, which require ongoing funding, SEO is a channel that can be invested into over an initial 6 month campaign and then reassessed.
If you’re geared for growth and are ready to tackle SEO as a growth channel, contact us at Spacebar Collective today and we can put together a custom quote for your SaaS.
If your in-house marketing team doesn’t have a successful track record in using SEO for business growth, you should consider outsourcing an experienced SEO agency:
Here are some reasons why you should consider outsourcing SEO:
Time and Cost Savings: Outsourcing will be more cost-effective than handling SEO in-house because you won’t have to invest into hiring, training and managing additional staff. In addition to resources needed to onboard new employees, you’d also have to invest into developing in-house processes for SEO improvements, backlink building and content production. If you’re looking to take SEO seriously as a growth channel, it’s more efficient to hire an SEO agency because there are varied skill sets involved with ranking websites on Google that often cannot be tackled by a single person. We’ll get into the cost of hiring an in-house SEO later in this blog, but keep in mind that for optimal results, you’ll likely have to hire for multiple roles including a blog content writer, an editor, a link builder and/or an SEO specialist.
Lowered Risk: When it comes to SEO, there are 2 main deliverables to worry about: backlinks and content. Each of these comes with their own set of risks and outsourcing SEO mitigates that risk deftly. Building the wrong types of backlinks puts your website at risk of a manual penalty, potentially ruining your domain’s reputation, sometimes permanently. Producing content that doesn’t convert to new business is a risk of time and money, a common pitfall of those writing in-house. SEO agencies have processes in place to ensure quality and quantity in both of these aspects through risk mitigation best practices.
Scalability: When outsourcing SEO to an agency, you can easily scale the campaign up or down depending on your needs and available budget. This kind of flexibility allows you to optimise your SEO campaigns on the fly. If you did SEO in-house, it’s much harder to make these kinds of adjustments since you have staff who are locked into contracts. When outsourcing SEO, you should consider working month-to-month or locking into a small monthly budget so that you have the ability to scale campaigns with a variable budget. For instance, most SaaS SEO agencies are flexible working on a sliding scale budget, some months higher and some months lower than others.
Quicker SEO Results: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that working with a team will bring you faster results than working with an individual. Since it’s more cost-effective to outsource SEO to an agency, your budget will go farther, resulting in more backlinks and more pieces of content than doing things in-house. Producing more content allows your site to rank for more keywords and building backlinks improves your site’s ranking for those keywords. So long as you keep up the quality, more is better in this case; you’ll be able to rank your site for keywords that convert faster.
How Much Does an In-House SEO Cost?
According to Glassdoor, the average in-house SEO specialist makes $65,428 per year, or $5,452.33 per month. As we went over in our guide to outsourcing link building, the average link builder can only build 13-15 backlinks on average per month and in our guide to outsourcing blog writing, the average writer will produce 20 blog posts per month.
If you were to hire an in-house SEO, you can expect them to produce about half this rate for each deliverable because there’s only so much time in a day.
On the other hand, if you took that same budget of $65,428 per year and put it towards outsourcing SEO to an agency, you’d build more backlinks and have more blog content published on your site at a higher quality standard.
Preparing Your Site for an SEO Campaign
While a talented SEO agency should be able to fix up any technical issues with your website, there are some easy, foundational steps you can take on your own to save you money.
Indexability: Make sure your website is visible to Google and is being properly indexed. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and address any errors it identifies. If any of the suggestions here are too technical or out of your wheelhouse, take note of these changes and let the SEO agency handle it for you.
Accessibility: Making your website available for everyone through accessibility compliance will also make it easier for search engines to understand as well. Google puts value on the user experience, so this is an important aspect of any SEO campaign.
Easy Navigation: Navigating your website to any page should be easy and painless. For an optimal user experience, make sure that every page on your site is accessible within just 3 clicks. This means that all of your menus (header, footer, sidebar) should establish logical connections that guide visitors effortlessly to all the valuable content you have to offer. Tools like Screaming Frog can be used to get a visualisation of your website’s pages to identify any orphan pages that need better internal linking.
Outsourced SEO Options
Now that you understand the benefits of outsourcing SEO and know what should be done on your site beforehand, let’s go over how to outsource SEO to the pros.
There are 4 ways you can outsource your SEO:
Hiring a Freelance SEO: If there’s only a single area of SEO you’re struggling with, this is a great option because most freelancers are T-shaped in their skill set. This means they excel in a single area, while they coast by in other areas of understanding the basics. For example, a freelancer might be very strong in backlink building or content production or strategic planning.
Hiring a Full-Service Marketing Agency: Much like hiring a freelance SEO, full-service marketing agencies don’t typically excel in all areas. In fact, this is even more the case because SEO is just one area of marketing they provide services in, without specialisation. However, if you’re looking for an omnichannel approach, full-service marketing agencies will be your best bet. For example, if you want to take advantage of social media and SEO, this is a great option for you.
Hiring an SEO Agency: The most stress-free, straightforward way to outsource SEO. Hiring an SEO agency is relatively headache-free and hands-off throughout the entire process. Their exclusive focus on SEO means they have a lot to bring to the table in terms of delivering results. If you don’t have expertise in SEO, this is your best option because an SEO agency will bring the most to the table.
Hiring an SEO Consultant and an SEO Agency: While it sounds like the most expensive option on the list at first glance, it’s actually the most cost-effective option available. Hiring an SEO consultant to do an audit of your website and putting together a game plan going forward (keyword research and off-page SEO strategy) won’t break the bank, but will give you a solid foundation for hiring an SEO agency to execute. Outsourcing to an SEO agency after you’ve already done the strategic planning cuts down on the onboarding costs and is often the cheapest approach to SEO. Some of the easiest clients we’ve ever worked with started with a strong vision for their SEO (from a paid SEO audit) and we were able to deliver results for them by executing on their content strategy and building backlinks at scale.
What to Look For in an SEO Agency
Proven Experience: Ask to see case studies of successful SEO campaigns or at the very least screenshots that detail progress made for their clients or their portfolio of websites they operate. It’s also important that the agency has relevant experience to your business, so ask if they have proven experience within your niche or industry as well.
Pricing: Ideally, you’ll want to look for SEO agencies that cost less than hiring an in-house SEO. This isn’t too difficult to achieve, as the average contract size is typically somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 per month. This works out to being at most $60,000 per year, which is still cheaper than hiring an SEO specialist.
Transparency: Seek out SEO agencies that are transparent with how exactly they operate. What are the strategies they’re going to use to rank your website? Are they white hat, grey hat or black hat tactics? What do their processes look like for backlink building and content production? These are questions you should consider when looking for the right outsourcing partner.
Questions to Ask an SEO Agency Before Hiring
It’s crucial to ask the right questions when prospecting an SEO agency before outsourcing to them. It’s with these questions that you can make an informed decision to find an agency that meets your specific needs to hit your goals. Asking the right questions will allow you to gain insight into an agency’s expertise, their experience in your industry and their overall approach to SEO.
By getting a basic understanding of the strategies and methodology they use, you can more fairly assess whether or not they have the necessary skills to earn search real estate for your business.
Here are some questions you can ask an SEO agency before hiring them. They should serve as a starting point to get a feel for their competency. It’s important to ask followup questions to each of these so you can get a more in-depth look at what they’re all about.
What SEO strategies do you follow for your clients?
How do you plan to adapt these strategies for my brand?
What’s included in your average contract?
How much involvement will you require from me?
How will I track the progress of the SEO campaign?
