How to Get Your SaaS Blog Posts Noticed by Search Bots

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

Struggling to create search-optimized content for your SaaS blog?

Everyone talks about how much of a game-changer SEO is.

For 49% of marketers, “organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.” -- Search Engine Journal

You know this and you know all the high-level strategies.

But on a granular level, you’re unsure of where to start with optimizing a single blog post.

Hey! it doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to understand some key points.

Once you get these 5 steps locked down, you’ll realize that blog SEO is not as daunting as it seems.

You just need to:

• Pick a keyword.

  
  

• Analyze your competition.

  
  

• Create an outline.

  
  

• Source fresh data

  
  

• Start SEO writing

Step 1: Pick a keyword

Kick off your SaaS blog SEO with keyword research.

Ideally, you already have a general topic or category you want to run with. So the goal here is to find out how *exactly* your target audience is searching for your topic on Google. Plus, the different aspects of this topic they need answers to.

Your target audience is broadly defined by the SaaS product you offer.

Type in your “topic” to Ahrefs Keyword Generator

You can as well use Ubersuggest, Semrush, or Keywords Everywhere.

You’ll get a list of keyword ideas.

Alongside important data like Keyword Difficulty and Search Volume.

Here’s what these terms mean:

• Keyword difficulty. This estimates how hard it is to rank top 10 in organic search results for a keyword on a scale of 1 to 100.
• Keyword search volume. This is an estimate of the number of searches per month for a keyword.

Depending on what your content strategy is, your primary keyword should be the broader terms.

Examples from the screenshot above are:

• content marketing strategy
• Content marketing examples
• Content marketing agency

Scroll further down the list and find longer keywords with 4-5 words.

Pick the ones that are relevant to the primary keyword and hold these for a sec.  You’ll use them in the 3rd step.

As mentioned earlier, this all depends. Your strategy and your goals should inform your keyword.

Need traffic? Go for more awareness-type keywords. Like pillar content, and massive listicles.

Need readers to take action? Go for long-tail keywords that unravel search intent.

Step 2: Analyze Your Competition

Chances are, you’re not the only one who picked the juicy “big opportunity” keyword. For most great keywords that drive business value, there’s competition.

And the first step to outranking them is knowing who they are.

Remember the saying, “success leaves clues”

Step 1: Google your base keyword and check out the results that pop up.

Step 2: Open a Google Doc and take down their domain names.

I recommend you examine the top three or five search results. They’re your best clues to what Google (and searchers) expect from you.

Here’s what to not overlook:

• Ahrefs Domain Rating. This is a score from 1 to 100 that expresses how many quality backlinks a domain has acquired over time. A sister metric is the Moz DA.

  
  

• Page rating for the content that ranks. This is similar to the DA metric. The difference is the backlinks are calculated per page.

  
  

• What type of content did they create? Content types range from pillar posts to small lists. From standard blogs to 101-guides.

  
  

• How much traffic the website gets for that particular keyword. The chrome extension by Keywords Everywhere helps out with this.

  
  

• What's the average word count? You don’t want to write a 2000-word blog when the average ranking article is 3500 words. A simple tool to calculate this is WordCount.com.

  
  

• Did they include visuals? What types? Take a cue from this and replicate. Don’t forget: It’s always a good idea to add pictures, GIFs, or videos to boost the quality of your content.

Asides from assessing if the keyword is worth creating content on, your analysis should tell you what to repeat, what not to do, and what to add.

Step 3: Create an Outline

For writing SEO blog posts, I always recommend hashing out a few things in the outline.

For SaaS brands, outlines are critical to meeting the searcher at their stage of buyer awareness.

3 things to include in your outlines are:

• Instructions for formatting.
• Search intent.
• And word count range.

Search-Friendly Formatting

Make it easy for search bots to understand your content by including the primary keyword in the title. This is your H1.

Your h2 and h3 should comprise of main secondary keywords.

These are the main subheadings/topics you expect to cover in the article. PS: Don’t forget to add title alternatives in case you want to pitch the article to an editor

Search Intent

The easiest way to meet the expectation of searchers is by defining intent early on. Early = before you start creating blog content.

Search intent defines the angle you take.

Sometimes, your unique angle—as shown in your title—gives scrollers a reason to click on your content among the other search results.

Word Count Range

Short-form or long-form?

This decision impacts the way you approach creating blog content.

For instance, a shorter article of 1000–1500 words will have to link out to other blogs that explain concepts that were not as explained.

A 3000+ guide will likely have everything about the topic explained and may attract backlinks.

I like to write out the intended word count per subhead.

This gives me an idea of the amount of information to cover for each subtopic. And is in line with the general word count goal.

Graphic from Semrush, explaining the pros and cons of short-form content vs long-form content.

Your outline can be detailed or less detailed, depending on who writes the draft. If you're a content manager or editor, it helps to be a bit more comprehensive. If you will write the article yourself, you can leave certain things out.

Step 4: Source Fresh Data

Never-seen-before data gives your content a massive edge over spun ideas.

It is a wise addition to a SaaS content marketing strategy. Plus, it’s not as complicated as you might think. You can source original data for a blog post in minutes, and without spending a dollar.

Here are 2 ways to do this:

Interview Contributors

I like to include quotes from people with practical knowledge of what I'm writing about. Quotes make your content more relatable, original, and trustworthy. Plus, if you’re a content writer, you can charge a premium for this add-on.

Check out Help a B2B Writer to connect with vetted sources.

Create a Survey

Create a survey with free tools such as LinkedIn polls, Google Forms, and Survey Monkey.

LinkedIn polls in particular are very easy to use and are popular among B2B SaaS writers.

Transform your survey data into a pie chart, bar graph, or whatever represents the information best. I like to use Canva or Rapid Tables to create a pie graph.

Then, I forward to a graphic designer to recreate professionally.

With surveys, it is crucial to tell a story with the fresh data you’ve gotten, and not just slap numbers around.

Step 5: Start SEO Writing

Now, begin fleshing out the points you created on your outline. When optimizing a SaaS blog for search, there are a couple of writing rules you need to follow.

• Keep your writing clear and simple. Use short sentences. Middle. Sometimes long. Just make sure your writing flows like a rhythm in the mind of the reader. If your sentences are tacky, your reader will click out of your page. And you’ll record declines in dwell time.

  
  

• Avoid thin content. Make sure your reader knows all there is to know about the topic you’re writing about. If the article has to be shorter, link out to other content to explain concepts in depth. This is in line with Google E.A.T ranking factors.

  
  

• Include internal & external links. Link to other blog posts on your site. And link out to other websites. Make sure your links are relevant and add to the topic.

  
  

• Craft a compelling intro. You might be wondering what this has got to do with search.. But hold on a bit. Your intro needs to make the reader stay glued till the end. If searchers feel your intro is dull or doesn’t resonate with their specific pain points, they’ll bounce.

  
  

Must read: 15 SEO Hacks for SaaS Startups

Final Thoughts

When optimizing content for Google, it’s easy for your writing to sound stuffy—like a pre-programmed chatbot. However, it takes a certain level of skill to transform search data into readable content.

With constant practice, you’ll eventually be able to create SEO-friendly content for your SaaS.