SaaS SEO Lead Generation: 10 Ways to Capture Target Audience’s Attention

When running a SaaS business, every click on your website, every impression, and every position higher on search engines counts. As we all know, SaaS is a pretty competitive market, and it’s quite challenging to stand out – but it’s not impossible. So, the question is, can we rely on SEO lead generation in this industry?

Let’s face the facts!

By leveraging techniques like on-page and off-page optimization, creating quality content, and understanding the decision-making roles in the buyer journey, you can attract and convert high-quality leads. The goal is to convert them into customers who will request a demo of your product, sign up for a trial, or subscribe to some of the paid plans.

And surely, SEO can help you recognize the unique demands of your potential customers, helping you capture the leads during their awareness stage. So, when it comes to generating leads through SEO, there are quite a few things you need to know.

Is SEO Good For Lead Generation?

The answer is yes, SEO can be pretty effective when it comes to SaaS lead generation for quite a few reasons. Through relevant keywords, you target specific traffic and attract the relevant visitors who need your product or face some pains or challenges your product can resolve. Surely, many of them will become high-quality leads, especially when you focus on industry-specific keywords, phrases, and questions. 

SEO is, in general, a cost-effective method that requires an initial investment but provides sustainable lead generation. As a result, you build trust between you and the credible users since your website ranks well on search engines. So, having an SEO lead generation plan means you’re ready to enjoy the long-term benefits this strategy brings, like continuously attracting relevant organic traffic and generating leads, who will ultimately turn into customers.

As we summed up the reasons for generating leads via SEO, it’s time to dive into precise steps on what to do and how to use it for your SaaS company.

1. An Extensive Keyword Research

Every SEO strategy starts with keyword research. The goal is to identify the relevant keywords that your target audience will use to search and come to your SaaS solution. Once you have them, you’ll need to incorporate these keywords on your website content, blog posts, and landing pages to attract organic traffic. 

But how to do that?

You can use Google Related Searches or Bing Related Searches, depending on the search engine of your choice. The simplest way is to enter an initial search phrase, known as a seed keyword, and see what appears on search engines for it. 

Let’s say you offer a productivity-tracking solution for IT companies. Start with the obvious query: productivity tracking. On Google, you’ll get suggestions like productivity tracking tools, productivity tracking for remote workers, how to track productivity, real-time productivity tracker, etc. In the “People Also Ask” section, you’ll spot related questions like “What software is used to track productivity?” and “How do you keep track of productivity?”

Write down these ideas in a document, and use some SEO tool, like Ahrefs, Frase, or Semrush (or any other you prefer), to perform in-depth research and get data on how difficult it is to rank for a keyword or the search volume of the same keyword. Start the research with the seed keyword and polish the list until you have all the keywords you want to rank for.

2. Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

While some studies say mobile vs. desktop web usage is nearly 50:50, others may suggest that about 32% use mobile web experience compared to desktop. Knowing that mobile and desktop have been switching positions in the recent decade, we can say that the number of mobile-first users is huge. So, every SaaS company must consider optimizing the website for mobile devices so they can capture those leads, too. 

Surely, numbers may vary from one geographical area to another.

Still, knowing that there are millions of mobile users, mobile responsiveness is a must for SaaS and SEO lead generation. It’s a technical aspect, but it improves the overall user experience, increases engagement, and enhances your chances to attract relevant website traffic to convert into leads and, finally, into customers. 

3. Create Valuable and Informative Content

No SEO strategy can work without content to optimize. Surely, you may have the fastest site in the world, but without useful content, it offers no value to the potential SaaS leads. The keywords from your research can help you come up with ideas for blog posts and articles. Use the informative queries to create valuable and informative content and target the users for the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Recognize the pain points and challenges and navigate the traffic through the website so they can find what they’re looking for – a solution to resolve those pains and challenges. When in the consideration stage, the visitors slowly turn into potential leads, so offer whitepapers, product descriptions, feature explanations, and resources to encourage them to become even more interested in your product. Highlight the differences from other similar SaaS products, and let the potential leads know what they get if they, at least, request a demo.

Finally, when you capture their attention and bring them to the decision stage, offer detailed case studies, testimonials, explanation videos, demos, and trials so you can ensure the relevant leads stay with you. After that, the nurturing and sales process starts, but it doesn’t depend on SEO lead generation.

4. Implement On-Page SEO Best Practices

On-page optimization is a crucial step in implementing SEO lead generation techniques. You have a website, and now you need to optimize the website content with the keywords you found in the first step. The goal is to decide what keywords will go on each page and what keywords to target. 

Why?

If you don’t plan the keyword mapping, you risk optimizing more than one page for the same keyword. You must avoid this practice, as it’s confusing for search engines and results in keyword cannibalization. 

So, the goal is to find the best keywords for the homepage, then the features page, product description page, etc. Make sure you perform some research on blog topics so you can cover relevant keywords, too. 

But the on-page optimization doesn’t stop here. You additionally need to pay attention to the meta tags. Every page has a title tag, meta description, alt text for images, and heading tags. As you choose a focus keyword for your page, make sure you distribute it wisely within the same page. 

Let’s explain it with an example. 

You need to optimize the product page. We’ll use the productivity tracking example and focus on the product’s description. So, let’s say our focus keyword for this page is “productivity tracker software.” 

We need to incorporate this keyword within the page’s copy but also in the meta title, meta description, the main heading (H1 tag), and at least one subheading on the page. Make sure you use it in the alt tag for the images, i.e., add the keyword in the image description.

Note: Most of the website editors have built-in SEO features, so you can set the HTML tags yourself. For WordPress, most of these elements exist by default, but there are SEO extensions you can use to measure the on-page optimization and set the meta details, like Yoast or RankMath. 

When it comes to blog posts and articles, you follow the same concept. Use the focus keyword within the essential SEO components, and write a useful piece that your website visitors find relevant. That’s how you capture SaaS leads through SEO using the content.

5. Use Local SEO to Generate Local Leads

Some SaaS products cover specific geographic areas or come in a language different than English. In this case, you need to focus on local customers by including location-specific keywords first. Then, you can try and become a part of the local business listings.

The goal is to attract local leads who are actively looking for SaaS solutions close to them. Sometimes, potential customers want to rely on services near them, as they find it more convenient than global-reach companies. 

And while most SaaS companies are focused on global SEO lead generation strategies, there are many that target local audiences. So, local SEO is relevant for B2B SaaS lead generation and companies that offer geo-targeted products.

6. Build a Strong Backlink Profile

Backlinks are part of the off-page SEO strategies, but they can largely contribute to organic SEO lead generation. Search engines see the backlinks as a form of endorsement that boosts your SaaS company’s credibility, authority, and trustworthiness. 

The goal is to create valuable content that other websites will want to cite and link. Surely, there are methods like publishing guest posts on other websites, being active on social networks, and contributing to expert articles so you can gain those backlinks. 

At this point, it’s crucial to note that black-hat link-building methods are unethical, and search engines can penalize the websites that use them. You may feel the urge to buy paid links on low-quality websites just to boost the number of backlinks but don’t do that. Also, avoid link farms and private blog networks, as these tactics go against the search engine guidelines.  

7. Use Social Media for SaaS Lead Generation

Your quality content deserves to be seen. So, don’t be afraid to share it on social media platforms to gain reach and visibility. You can use specialized Facebook groups and LinkedIn communities or even share it on your company’s page. 

Chances are, you’ll reach your target audience easily, and they’ll recognize the quality you offer. As a result, you build online relationships and encourage social sharing to expand your online presence.

Ultimately, social shares bring organic but still relevant traffic to your website. Remember, search engine positions aren’t enough for social promotion. You can additionally include your website content in newsletters and tailored emails to encourage the leads to dive into your product’s features and benefits. 

8. Don’t Forget to Optimize Website’s Speed and Performance

Slow websites are a huge deal-breaker in the SaaS realm. Imagine your website is so slow and has issues loading the content. What do you think the leads will conclude about the product based on that? 

If the website performs great, users are more likely to explore the content and various SaaS pages, resulting in a reduced bounce rate (leaving the website seconds after entering it, without visiting any other page). 

A slow-loading website can deter potential leads and negatively impact your search engine rankings. So, pay attention to the technical SEO aspects to make sure the SEO lead generation for SaaS works perfectly. 

9. Measure and Analyze the SEO Performance

Use Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console to track organic traffic, keyword ranking, and user behavior. As you monitor the SEO performance, you can spot areas for improvement or even gaps you can fill up to boost the SEO SaaS lead generation. 

Remember, data analysis is your compass in the competitive SaaS market, so discovering the key metrics and tracking your lead generation can help you refine the strategy. Use the insights to become even better at website optimization and content marketing efforts. Hard work will surely bring the wanted results, and you can convert all those leads captured through SEO into prospects and customers. 

10. Stay Updated With SEO Trends and Market Changes

Both SEO and SaaS are fast-evolving fields, so you need to follow the dynamics and implement all the required changes to stay relevant for longer.

Don’t forget that Google updates the ranking guidelines and search engine algorithms regularly. So, be focused on lead generation via SEO but still adapt to the regular changes, updates, and new trends like AI assistance to optimize repetitive SEO tasks.

SEO Lead Generation: Conclusion

As you implement all these SEO lead generation tips and strategies, your SaaS business can position better online. The expected result is attracting qualified leads and accomplishing business growth. 

You only need to stay up-to-date with the recent SEO trends, best practices, and algorithm changes. And remember, SEO is not a one-size-fits-all method. It’s not a one-time effort too. So, in order to successfully generate leads with SEO, you need to consistently optimize the SaaS website to maximize its ranking potential.