Today’s B2B SaaS companies are in constant pursuit of understanding their target audience and the questions they have. And while no one can communicate with every potential customer at a personal level, SaaS businesses can surely leverage the content marketing game and discover the most searched customer queries – using SEO tools for B2B SaaS. That way, they provide both information and valuable solutions, so the customer can understand every aspect of the service.
The content mapping strategy is essential for SaaS, as it puts the right content in the right place on the website. Also, customer questions are essential for this strategy because we all know these people are looking for very specific answers. And if you have these answers, you ensure a smooth buyer journey, leading them to the “Buy” button.
That’s why today we’ll explore the options SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush offer to transform the SaaS content and bridge the gap from search queries and keywords to useful answers.
Let’s find the answers the SaaS customers are seeking now!
Table of Contents
Ahrefs is a popular tool used by many SEO executives and content marketers. It comes with so many integrated features, like site explorer, keyword explorer, and even content explorer. All these elements help you build SEO and content strategy for any website, including SaaS businesses too.
Since we’re talking about the customer question and content gaps, let’s see how it’s done with Ahrefs.
a) Using “Keyword Explorer”
Once you log into Ahrefs, you’ll notice that it offers different tools like Site Explorer, Keyword Explorer, Site Audit, etc.
At this point, you need to choose the “Keyword Explorer” and do the following:
- Enter a relevant keyword or topic related to your business or industry in the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool.
- In the “Phrase match” report, you will see a list of keywords that contain your target phrase or topic.
- Look for keywords that are in the form of questions or indicate an information gap.
Example: If your SaaS business is in the project management industry, you might enter the keyword “project management software” into Ahrefs Keyword Explorer. Don’t forget to select the proper location too, for more relevant results.
As you can see, there are so many related keywords and even question queries you can use to find some content gaps or answer them better than the competition does.
Here are some of the listed questions you can answer in project management-related content:
- What is project management software?
- What functions would it be most important for a project management software program to have?
- What is the difference between low-end and midrange tools of project management software?
- What is process automation in software project management?
- What is the best project management software for small creative teams?
Note that we use a highly competitive keyword here, and sometimes you won’t get thousands of ideas on what questions to answer. Still, Ahrefs gives you a detailed insight into which keywords and phrases your competitors target, so you can do it better.
b) Content Gap Analysis
Ahrefs is one of the SEO tools for B2B SaaS with a built-in great option to analyze the content gaps between you and your competitors. Here’s what you need to do:
- Enter your website URL and your competitors’ URLs in the Ahrefs Site Explorer tool
- Go to the “Content Gap” feature and look closely at the results
Ahrefs will compare the content on your website with that of your competitors and identify the questions that your competitors are answering, but you might be missing.
Once you enter the competitors, you get a complete report on the eventual content gaps you can fill up with tailored content. Sometimes you’ll immediately detect interesting questions that you can incorporate into the content flow, but in other cases, you’ll have to get creative with the listed phrases.
c) Analyze the SERP Details
Use the initial keyword or some variations to explore the SERP feature. You need to enter the keyword into the “Keyword Explorer” tool and then find the SERP overview section.
You can even find the “People Also Ask” section for some queries you can also use within your content strategy. Sometimes, depending on the keyword, you’ll be able to retrieve “Featured snippets” also.
By using these features in Ahrefs, you can uncover valuable questions that your potential customers may have. The next thing to do is incorporate them into the content strategy so you can provide targeted and relevant information for SaaS potential buyers.
2. SEMRush and its Magic
SEMrush is another powerful SEO tool that helps you identify some customer questions related to specific keywords or topics. This service comes with a free but very limited plan and all-inclusive paid ones. But when it comes to the questions, the free version can give you a nice start, following these steps:
a) Keyword Magic Tool
Log in to SEMrush, and on the left side of the service, you’ll find the “Keyword Magic Tool.” You’ll need to do these things:
- Enter a relevant keyword or topic related to your business or industry in the SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
- Browse through the list of related keywords generated by the tool
- Look for question-based keywords or keywords that indicate an information gap
After you do this, the tool will provide a list of relevant keywords, including question-based ones.
If there aren’t any questions, you can improvise with the given results. Keep in mind that the free version lists up to 10 related keywords, while for more, you’ll have to sign up for the paid plans.
b) Topic Research
SEMrush comes with another useful tool known as “Topic Research.” You can find it under the “Content Marketing” category, and surely it works pretty similarly to the Magic tool. Still, researching the topic gives you more ideas on questions people commonly ask related to the entered broad topic. Also, you can browse the subheading suggestions and related searches to get additional question ideas.
Just take a look at how we did it with the “project management tool” main topic:
c) Competitor Analysis
Semrush has a similar feature to Ahrefs when it comes to identifying content gaps and filling them up. You can find it under the SEO-category.
Look at the form:
Once you enter your domain and add the competitors, you can choose the keyword types you want to browse and check how they intersect with the competitors. We suggest using the Organic keywords primarily and mixing them with the Paid keywords, if needed, for a neater search.
Analyze the overlaps but also the unique possibilities you have, so you can incorporate the essential questions (and their answers) into your content strategy.
3. Using the Power of the Internet Free Resources
Sometimes, simple actions like searching your topic on Google or Bing can be useful too. You can even go deeper and use Quora and Reddit to analyze the popular questions, as well as the given answers.
How to do that? Easily!
a) Search Engine Results
Let’s see how to use Google to discover the burning questions your clients may have.
For example, enter the question “What is a project management tool” in Google’s search bar.
You’ll probably get a “People Also Ask” section:
You can even look at the results, because you’ll find something interesting, like:
And sometimes even a second “People Also Ask” section with in-depth questions and answers. You probably won’t find the exact answers here, but you can analyze the format and how someone else has answered the questions. You can reverse and improve their methods, give even more relevant and detailed answers.
Surely, these aren’t perfect, but you can get really creative and generate so many relevant questions that will fill up the content gaps on your SaaS website, and attract the targeted traffic.
On the other hand, if you use Bing, things look a little different there since they already use AI-generated answers and results. Yet, it’s great if you know how to analyze the results and detect the content gaps you eventually overlooked previously or Ahrefs and SEMrush couldn’t find them.
What we really like about Bing is that it gives additional ideas that we can use to build authority within the SaaS market, as you can see in the following example:
b) Quora and Reddit
Quora and Reddit are thread-like services, similar to forums. Quora is more for asking questions and getting answers from the community, and Reddit is more like an online area for discussions of any kind. But these services can be full of relevant questions to clients’ pain points and burning dilemmas.
On Quora, you can browse relevant topics, analyze the answers, and even engage in discussions to get user-generated content. All these topics and discussions can be really valuable if you know how to incorporate them into your content strategy.
On the other hand, with Reddit, you can discover and identify relevant subreddits related to your industry or target audience. Monitor the discussions to gain insights into the concerns these people have. Check for some recurring themes and common questions, and there you have them! You can even engage with the communities and gather deeper insights into the topic.
Remember to approach Quora and Reddit genuinely to provide helpful information and contribute to the community. Still, use them in moderation because sometimes the discussions can go in a different and completely irrelevant direction for you.
The Tools and Approaches That Make a Difference
All these tools and methods are unique and sometimes specific, but your goal as a SaaS provider is to use them properly and find what your audience wants to know. When you combine different approaches, you get a detailed list of burning questions, and it’s up to you to answer them.
Once you have your tools set and the buyer journey in mind, you can easily start with a query and then deepen the searches, identifying the most relevant questions to be answered with your content.
