Keyword research for every SaaS business is an essential foundational step, if not done thoughtfully, it can minimize the effectiveness of other SEO strategies and in the end there will be no trial signups and demo requests.
Before writing this blog post, we analyzed the keyword strategy of more than 100 successful SaaS brands that are generating leads through SEO. These insights we’ve gained helped us become more informed, and that’s how we perform keyword research for our clients.
Checkout the mistakes most SaaS businesses make during keyword research that drives them traffic or few leads.
We’ve also shared the process we follow while doing the keyword research for our SaaS clients.
Additionally, we’ve shared our reasoning behind conducting BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel) keyword research for a client with a webinar platform along with the actual keyword research report that we’ve prepared for one of our client
This will guide you to the right approach you should follow while researching keywords for your SaaS website.
If you need our team to help you with keyword research for your SaaS buiness, you can get in touch with us.
Here’s What We Discovered After Analyzing Keyword Strategies for 100+ SaaS Businesses Generating Leads Through SEO
We studied some popular SaaS sites and got to know where one should focus while doing keyword research.
Based on the insights gained, we are sharing here the essential type of keywords that you should include in your strategy. This approach will help you gain organic success and what eventually matters to your business, here we mean, leads and conversions.
Let’s elaborate each type one-by-one!
1. Customer-Centric Problem Keywords
By addressing your customers’ problems, you can increase your product relevancy and establish a connection with your audience. To set up this connection, here you can leverage customer-centric problem keywords.
These are usually mid-to-bottom funnel keywords. Users searching these terms have a defined problem and actively looking ways to solve it.
Like: A customer facing issues had a query- “ways to automate financial reporting”, “difficulty tracking expenses for startups” etc. A SaaS site with accounting and financing solution can use these type of keywords.
2. Outcome-Oriented Keywords
For those who want to establish emotional connection with their users, have to identify keywords that speak results their SaaS solution provides, not just its features. And this happens when you identify outcome-oriented keywords.
Like, for an HR recruitment software, one can include outcome-oriented keywords such as “recruitment automation software”, “streamline hiring process”, “remote hiring solutions”. All these keywords align closely with the outcomes that recruiters seek.
3. Integration and Compatibility Keywords
As a SaaS company, if your software works well with other tools, you can leverage integration and compatibility keywords. By including these terms, you can attract users searching to buy software along with specific ecosystems.
We’ll make you understand with the same example – like recruiters searching for HR recruitment software can have a query like, “Mobile-friendly recruitment software” or “HR Software Integration with payroll systems”.
As you can see, these kinds of terms can help drive relevant traffic to a recruitment software site by addressing the integration and compatibility needs of potential users.
4. Features-Related Keywords
By targeting keywords related to features of your product, you can reach out to the users searching specific functionality in a product. This is considered one of the best ways to reach out high-intent audience.
Like, user will search – “any specific feature of your product”.
5. Long-Tail Question Keywords
Most SaaS sites go after top-of-the-funnel (tofu) keywords, which are very generic and extensively competitive. These days, targeting tofu is only beneficial when a brand is expanding their horizons.
If you are not doing so, you can target long-tail keywords. The search query of users start with- “how to”, “why” or “should I”. Being a SaaS site, you can easily include these long-tail question keywords in blog posts, articles, FAQs or guides.
Like, here are some queries we found on “people also ask” section of Google related to cybersecurity software programs:
“What cybersecurity software is best for small businesses?”
“How does cybersecurity software protect against data breaches?”
“Can SaaS security software detect phishing attacks?”
Remember, customers in this phase are interested in getting in-depth answers. If your content can satisfy the customer’s hunger for information, the step will foster trust and authority for your brand.
6. Comparison and Alternative Keywords
Identifying comparison and alternative keywords while research can turn out to be a great step for non-famous brands.
As these keywords allow highlighting a product’s unique strengths, especially in the areas where well-known competitors may fall short, positioning the product as a better fit for specific customer needs.
You can use these keywords like:
“Alternatives to any popular software in your industry”, “software like popular brand name”, “Popular software vs Your Software” etc.
7. Trial and Freemium Keywords
Ideal customers looking to purchase product from SaaS websites want to take a trial first. The lesser a trial’s cost, the better it is because user always prefer low-risk first-hand experience.
As a SaaS site, if you extend a free offer, it can help you attract potential customers who are reluctant to take the subscription. Just imagine you have a great opportunity to impress your target audience!
Moreover, if someone search for a “free trial” or “demo” of your SaaS solution, they are typically passed initial research and ready to try it.
8. User-Experience (UX) Focused Keywords
For some time, put yourself in customer’s shoes and if you are looking for an accounting software, what will entice you- “user-friendly accounting software” or “accounting software?”
Exactly, the former one. Depending on the context, sites use “intuitive”, “user-friendly”, “fast”, “accurate” and many likewise adjectives.
So, focus on showcasing traits of your product that make the user experience streamlined.
9. Best Platform Keywords
Usually, users search for products using the best platform keywords. As they are looking for highly recommended or top-rated platforms within a specific SaaS niche.
These type of keywords emphasize quality, comparison, authority and attract users who are in the decision-making phase of their search.
You can leverage these suggestions: “Best on demand your software type”, “low cost your software type”, evergreen your software type etc.
5 Mistakes Most SaaS Businesses Do at the Time of Keyword Research That Drives Them Traffic But No Leads
Without an effective keyword research and of course other SEO strategies, leads generation is hard-to-achieve for a long-term (provided you are not a popular brand but these days, even they require SEO).
This is one possibility behind getting traffic, but not leads.
What about those SaaS sites who invest money in SEO, still not generating sign-ups or leads? This happens because they carry out the following actions while doing keyword research:
Mistake 1. Failing to Use a Differentiator
In a crowded market where multiple companies offer the same product or services, having a strong unique selling proposition (USP) is essential, otherwise customers just pass over the product.
Here, we would like to share one of our past client experiences. When we asked them their product’s USP, they replied their product’s price. But, we would like to inform every SaaS website that USP is related to features, not with the product’s cost.
So, a SaaS business should be able to convey their product’s USPs so that the customer can distinguish what specific they are getting from the brand. And that becomes possible after an informed keyword research.
The process will help you identify terms that reflect your unique offerings and strengths. The terms that will be associated only with your brand. This means, there will be less competition, and you can attract relevant customer’s attention, build their interest, provide them clear value and support customer loyalty for your brand.
Mistake 2. Overlooking Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis helps identify what to do and what not to. With these insights, one can evaluate competitor strengths and weaknesses that play a big role in guiding your brand’s overall strategy.
Generally, startups or small SaaS companies that have limited resources prioritize rapid keyword generation than in-depth analysis. This way, unknowingly, they target high-competitive and sometimes useless keywords, leading to no ranking and leads.
Also, a few software companies, well-equipped with resources, staff and time, emphasize unique selling propositions (USPs) to a greater extent. Because they believe their customers will get attracted to their offerings (as they are unique) and there is no need of comparing themselves with others (not even while selecting keywords).
But, here’s the reality – if a brand neglects competitor analysis, they lose the opportunity to target lower-competition keywords which could bring on qualified traffic (easier to rank).
If you want to stay competitive in SEO, you definitely need a clear understanding of how your rivals are positioning themselves and targeting keywords.
Mistake 3. Neglecting Buyer Persona and Their Needs
The third and the biggest mistake that affect a SaaS brand’s keyword research strategy as well as their image is not well – defining buyer persona while strategizing.
With an incomplete buyer persona, they choose surface keywords to target, which cover broad interest but lack depth.
And this leads to missing terms for a few sub-niches or buyer groups. The brand end up creating generic content and unable to address different stages of customers.
An in-depth analysis of your customers can help you gain confidence in selling your product. Here’s what you need to ensure covering in buyer persona for your ideal customers:
Mistake 4. Relying Only on Target Keywords And Not Using Their Variations
Some SaaS businesses focus, targeting only on exact matches. While doing this, they miss opportunities to rank for related searches, which cost them, limiting visibility and contributing to a generic brand.
On the other hand, including semantic keywords (keyword variations), provide additional context to the main keywords, as you can see in the above image.
Mistake 5. Following Inadequate Content Strategy Around Identified Keywords
It’s obvious when you identify generic keywords, you will produce generic content for them, leading no potential customers’ attention as internet is already full of that repeated information.
On the other hand, customers these days are more aware and alert. Their search queries have also evolved. Now, hardly anybody asks what is ABC software, they just type their query related to the issue they are looking to resolve or look for the features that can handle their issues.
If your content can address a customer’s problem statements (which is directly related to keyword research process), you will get their attention, desired leads and more profits.
The Strategic Steps We Follow While Researching Keywords for Our SaaS Clients – Our Process
Now coming to the keyword research process we follow for our clients. We would like to make you understand this through our past client’s example.
A few months ago, a SaaS client—a webinar and live-streaming platform built for hosting virtual and hybrid events—approached us. They were a newly launched brand, having recently gone live with their website. Their unique selling points (USPs) include:
- No need to download the software explicitly. The user just requires a URL and a modern browser to run it.
- One can personalize their webinar with unique brand colors and logos.
- Chat, emojis, reactions, Q & A with upvoting, polls and surveys all are available to use for users while interaction.
Why We’ve Done BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel) Keyword Research for This Client
The client wants to generate leads and boost sign-ups. Being a new player in the industry, achieving their goal was not easy. So, we decided to include BoFu keywords for their brand to target users who are already in the final stages of the purchase.
Our team did an extensive keyword research and based on insights gained, prepared a report. You can click the link below to get its glimpse:
SaaS Keyword Research of one of our SaaS Clients (Must-Check to have an idea that how we work)
This report includes:
- Keywords for product pages
- Keywords for blog post topics (BOFU)
Tested SEO Tools for SaaS Keyword Research
Yes, we got highly specific, audience-driven keywords through manual research, but keyword research tools helped us identify data-backed keywords. We got to know the identified terms’ accurate search volume, keyword difficulty, competition and trends like insights.
We also want to mention that for our every client, we do not rely on a single keyword research tool. To cover a comprehensive view of the keyword landscape, get data variety, more keyword suggestions, accuracy and validation, we use multiple premium tools.
1. SEMrush
The tool SEMrush provides a more comprehensive view of competitor keyword strategies and organic search data. It helps in:
- In-depth competitor analysis
- Keyword gap analysis
- Long-tail keyword suggestions
- Tracking keyword performance over time
2. Ahrefs
The tool Ahrefs pulls data from its extensive backlink database. So, the identified keywords are more related to backlinks and domain authority. It helps in:
- Gathering click data insights
- Obtaining related keywords and phrase match
- Creating custom keyword lists
- SERP analysis
3. Answer the Public
The tool Answer the Public helps uncover question-based keywords and understand search intent better than other tools. Here are the additional areas where it helps:
- Generating question-based and long-tail keywords
- Obtaining multilingual keyword ideas
- Useful for content ideation
Bonus Tip: You can leverage Google Suggest to discover popular search queries related to your target keywords, helping you identify additional long-tail keywords that your audience is actively searching for. This can enhance your content strategy and improve your SEO performance.
If You Need Further Guidance – We are Ready to Help!
With this, we are wrapping up the post here. Still, if you need any sort of assistance, we are just one click away. Reach out to our experienced team and ask your doubt.
And if you are interested in hiring us as your SaaS SEO agency, we are ready to assist and take your business to the next level!
We Provide White-Label SaaS Keyword Research Services for Agencies Too
if you run a SaaS marketing agency and don’t have the time or resources to perform keyword research, feel free to get in touch with us. As you know, the right keyword research will drive leads and signups for your clients.
