The Complete SaaS Technical SEO Guide for 2023

As a B2B SaaS company, your online presence is crucial for attracting new customers and maintaining your competitive edge. Technical SEO plays a vital role in ensuring that search engines can understand, index, and rank your website effectively.

In this section, we’ll discuss the unique challenges SaaS businesses face and highlight the reasons why technical SEO is particularly important for SaaS companies.

1. The unique challenges of SaaS businesses

SaaS companies operate in a highly competitive market, where differentiating your product and staying ahead of your competitors is vital. Unlike traditional businesses, SaaS companies rely on subscriptions and recurring revenue, making customer acquisition and retention essential for growth.

Additionally, with the rapid pace of technological advancements, your website must adapt to the ever-changing landscape to remain relevant and accessible.

2. Improved user experience

Technical SEO is not just about search engine visibility; it’s also about providing a seamless experience for your website visitors.

By optimising your website for speed, accessibility, and mobile-friendliness, you ensure a positive user experience that encourages visitors to explore your content and engage with your brand. This, in turn, leads to higher conversion rates and a lower churn rate, both of which are crucial for SaaS companies.

3. Enhanced search engine visibility

With the majority of B2B buyers beginning their research online, ensuring that your SaaS company ranks high in search engine results is paramount. Technical SEO helps search engines understand your content and index your pages correctly, increasing the likelihood that your website will appear in relevant searches.

By prioritising technical SEO, you can drive targeted organic traffic to your website, ultimately leading to increased brand awareness, higher lead generation, and more conversions.

An essential first step in optimising your website for search engines is conducting a thorough technical SEO audit. This process involves identifying and addressing any issues that might be impacting your website’s search engine visibility and user experience.

Sound a bit much? Don’t worry! We’ll guide you through the key areas to focus on when performing a SaaS technical SEO audit.

1. Content quality

High-quality, relevant, and engaging content is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy. Assess your existing content to ensure that it provides value to your target audience, addresses their needs, and is written in a clear and concise manner.

Be sure to also check for duplicate content, as this can negatively impact your search rankings. And make sure to update or remove outdated information and create a plan to fill any content gaps!

2. HTML Structure

A well-structured HTML layout enables search engines to understand and index your content more efficiently. Examine your website’s headings, ensuring that they follow a logical hierarchy (H1, H2, H3, etc.), and use appropriate keywords to describe the content.

Also, check your website’s URL structure, ensuring that it’s descriptive, concise, and uses hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_) to separate words.

3. Missing canonical tags

Missing or incorrect canonical tags can lead to duplicate content issues and negatively affect your search rankings. Verify that you’ve correctly implemented canonical tags on your web pages, pointing to the preferred version of each page. This will help search engines understand which content is most relevant and prevent any indexing confusion.

4. Indexation issues

Ensure that search engines can crawl and index your website’s content effectively. Use Google Search Console to check for any indexation errors, such as blocked resources or crawling issues, and address them promptly.

On top of that, review your website’s internal linking structure to confirm that all important pages are easily discoverable and accessible.

5. Response codes

Broken links and server errors can harm your website’s user experience and search engine rankings. Use an SEO tool, like Screaming Frog, to identify any pages returning 404 (Not Found) or 500 (Internal Server Error) response codes.

Fix or redirect these pages as needed to improve site navigation and maintain link equity!

Pagination

For websites with a large number of pages, pagination is crucial for a seamless user experience and efficient crawling by search engines.

Ensure that your website employs proper pagination practices, such as using the “rel=prev” and “rel=next” tags to indicate the relationship between paginated pages.

Robots.txt

A well-configured robots.txt file is essential for guiding search engines on how to crawl your website.

Review your robots.txt file to ensure it’s not accidentally blocking any important pages or resources. Also, make sure to confirm that it contains the correct “User-agent” and “Disallow” directives for optimal crawling.

Sitemap

An XML sitemap helps search engines discover and index your website’s content more efficiently. Check that your sitemap is up-to-date, lists all essential pages, and follows the proper XML format.

Be sure to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console for faster indexing!

Schema markup

Schema markup, or structured data, helps search engines better understand your content and can enhance your search results with rich snippets. Review your website for any opportunities to implement structured data, such as product reviews, event listings, or FAQ sections.

Hot tip: Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate your markup and ensure it’s error-free.

Once you’ve conducted a thorough technical SEO audit, it’s time to optimise your website to maximise its search engine performance. Let’s explore various technical SEO elements that can significantly impact your website’s visibility and user experience, helping you create a solid foundation for your overall SEO strategy!

Meta tags

Meta tags provide search engines with essential information about your web pages, such as the page title and description. Ensure that your title tags are unique, descriptive, and contain relevant keywords for each page. Likewise, craft compelling meta descriptions that accurately summarise your content and encourage users to click through from search results.

Keep in mind that title tags should be between 50-60 characters, and meta descriptions should be under 160 characters for optimal display in search results. It’s also great practice for keeping things short and punchy!

Page loading time

A fast-loading website not only improves user experience but also contributes to better search engine rankings. Analyse your website’s loading time using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.

Identify any performance bottlenecks, such as large images, uncompressed files, or excessive JavaScript, and address them to reduce your page load times. Also, consider implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to further improve your site’s performance and speed.

Ensuring cross-device and cross-browser compatibility

In today’s connected world, it’s crucial that your website is accessible and functional across a wide range of devices and browsers. While you might be reading this on Google Chrome, someone else might prefer using Safari or Firefox.

Check your website’s responsiveness and compatibility on various screen sizes, operating systems, and browsers to ensure a consistent user experience. Make any necessary adjustments to your website’s design and code to accommodate different devices and platforms. Don’t forget to consider accessibility features, such as screen reader compatibility and keyboard navigation, to cater to users with disabilities.

Creating and optimising high-quality content is a critical component of any successful SEO strategy, especially for B2B SaaS companies. To effectively engage your target audience and improve search engine rankings, it’s essential to develop a well-planned content strategy that incorporates keyword research, content planning, and link-building techniques.

We’ll guide you through each step of this process in this section, so don’t worry!

1. Keyword research

Identifying the right keywords to target is crucial for driving relevant traffic to your website. Begin by conducting thorough keyword research using tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to find relevant, high-volume keywords with low competition. Also, consider long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific phrases that can attract highly targeted traffic.

Use these keywords naturally throughout your content, meta tags, and URL structure to improve your search engine rankings!

2. Content plan and strategy

Develop a comprehensive content strategy that addresses your target audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points. Analyse your SaaS competitors’ content to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Create a content calendar to schedule and organise your content production, ensuring a consistent flow of fresh, engaging material.

Don’t forget to include a variety of content formats, such as blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, webinars, and videos, to cater to different audience preferences and keep your website engaging.

Remember: SEO is not just for search engine crawlers; it’s also for your website visitors!

3. Link building techniques

Inbound links from authoritative websites not only drive referral traffic but also signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. To build a strong backlink profile, focus on creating high-quality, shareable content that naturally attracts links.

Additionally, consider guest posting on reputable industry blogs, engaging in relevant online communities, and leveraging social media to promote your content and attract more backlinks.

Remember to monitor your backlink profile regularly and disavow any low-quality or spammy links to maintain your website’s credibility.

Having the right tools at your disposal is crucial for effectively implementing and monitoring your technical SEO strategy. Thankfully, plenty to go around!

Learning about each tool and understanding what they do is key to a successful SaaS SEO strategy. So with that said, let’s take a look at some of the most popular and powerful SEO tools available to help you optimise your website, track your progress, and stay ahead of the competition.

1. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a comprehensive website crawler that enables you to quickly identify and fix various technical SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags. The tool provides detailed insights into your website’s structure and performance, making it an indispensable resource for any technical SEO audit.

With its user-friendly interface and powerful filtering options, you can easily locate problematic pages, review your site’s internal and external links, and even generate XML sitemaps. Screaming Frog also integrates with Google Analytics, Search Console, and PageSpeed Insights, offering a more holistic view of your website’s performance.

2. Ahrefs

Offering a wide range of features that help you delve into your website’s performance and uncover opportunities for improvement, Ahrefs stands out as a versatile SEO tool. With capabilities such as keyword research, backlink analysis, and rank tracking, Ahrefs provides valuable insights to help you stay ahead in the competitive digital landscape.

One of the key strengths of Ahrefs lies in its ability to facilitate competitor analysis, enabling you to identify your competitors’ top-performing keywords and backlink strategies. Additionally, the platform boasts a content explorer that helps you discover trending content within your niche and a site audit feature to evaluate your website’s overall SEO health. In essence, Ahrefs is an indispensable tool for any SEO professional seeking a comprehensive solution.

3. Google Page Speed Insights

Page loading time is a crucial factor for both user experience and search engine rankings. Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyses your website’s loading speed and offers actionable recommendations to improve its performance.

The tool evaluates your site on both desktop and mobile devices, providing a comprehensive overview of your website’s performance across various platforms. PageSpeed Insights offers detailed suggestions on how to optimise your site’s images, reduce server response times, eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS, and much more. By implementing these recommendations, you can significantly enhance your website’s loading speed and overall user experience.

4. Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s popular web analytics platform. It provides in-depth insights into your website’s traffic, user behaviour, and conversion rates, helping you make data-driven decisions to improve your SEO strategy.

With its advanced tracking capabilities and customisable reporting features, Google Analytics 4 is an invaluable resource for monitoring the success of your technical SEO efforts. The platform also includes powerful segmentation options, allowing you to better understand the behaviour of different user groups, and real-time reporting, so you can quickly respond to emerging trends or issues on your website.

5. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster), a free yet powerful tool, offers crucial insights into your website’s search performance and visibility. As it enables you to submit your sitemap for faster indexing, monitor your website’s index status, and pinpoint any crawling or indexing issues that may be impacting your search rankings, the platform acts as an essential partner in optimising your online presence.

Beyond that, Google Search Console also provides invaluable information on the keywords driving traffic to your website, empowering you to refine your content strategy and better target your audience. The platform also offers a mobile usability report, ensuring your site is optimised for mobile devices, and a Core Web Vitals report, which assesses your site’s performance in terms of loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. By regularly monitoring your Google Search Console data, you can proactively maintain your website’s performance and cater to both search engines and users.

Selecting the right platform for your SaaS website is crucial to ensure scalability, flexibility, and seamless user experience. Here, we’ll compare the most popular website platforms — WordPress, Webflow, custom development, and HubSpot CMS — to help you determine which option best aligns with your business needs and goals.

Ready to see which is the right platform for your SaaS website? Then, let’s get started!

1. WordPress

WordPress, the friendly neighbourhood CMS, powers a whopping 40% of all websites worldwide. What started as a humble blogging platform has now evolved into a versatile and adaptable solution for all sorts of websites, including those for SaaS businesses.

One of the best things about WordPress is its massive collection of themes and plugins that allow you to truly make your site your own. With all these customisation options, you can create a unique and engaging online presence for your SaaS brand that captures attention.

Part of WordPress’s charm comes from its open-source nature, meaning its source code is free for anyone to tinker with and distribute. This has led to a thriving community of developers and designers who keep pushing the boundaries of what WordPress can do, making it even better with every update.

Another cool thing about WordPress is how it plays well with others. You can easily integrate it with loads of third-party tools and services, like CRMs, email marketing platforms, and payment gateways. This makes it an ideal choice for SaaS businesses wanting a seamless and interconnected digital presence.

Pros

1. Easy to use: WordPress is known for its intuitive interface, making it easy for users with little to no coding experience to manage and update their websites. This user-friendliness can save you time and resources in the long run.

2. Extensive customisation options: With thousands of themes and plugins available, WordPress allows you to tailor your website to your specific needs and preferences. This flexibility enables you to create a unique and visually appealing site that stands out from the competition.

3. Large community: WordPress has a vast community of users and developers, ensuring you have access to a wealth of knowledge, tutorials, and support. This can be particularly helpful when troubleshooting issues or seeking advice.

4. SEO-friendly: WordPress offers numerous SEO plugins and built-in features that can help improve your website’s visibility on search engines, driving more organic traffic to your site.

Cons

1. Regular updates: WordPress frequently releases updates for its core software, themes, and plugins. While these updates are essential for security and performance, they can sometimes cause compatibility issues or require manual intervention.

2. Security vulnerabilities: Due to its popularity, WordPress can be a target for hackers. Ensuring the security of your site requires regular maintenance, updates, and the use of security plugins.

3. Potential performance issues: While plugins and themes can enhance your website’s functionality, excessive use may lead to performance issues, slowing down your site. It’s crucial to strike a balance between customisation and site speed.

4. Limited scalability: For larger SaaS businesses with complex requirements, WordPress might not offer the level of scalability or customisation necessary for optimal performance. In such cases, other platforms or custom development might be a better fit.

2. Webflow

Webflow is like the cool new kid on the block when it comes to website builders, quickly winning over designers and developers with its sleek combination of user-friendly design and powerful customisation features. Picture this: it’s as if a drag-and-drop builder went on a date with a full-fledged CMS, and Webflow was the result. With Webflow, you can create jaw-dropping and highly functional SaaS websites without typing a single line of code. And the cherry on top? Its built-in hosting and responsive design features ensure your site looks and performs amazingly on all devices.

One of the things that sets Webflow apart is its intuitive visual interface that lets you see your design changes in real-time, giving you a live preview of your masterpiece as it unfolds. This makes it super easy to bring your creative vision to life, even if you’re not a coding whiz.

Webflow also has a powerful CMS under the hood, allowing you to manage and update your content effortlessly. This makes it a fantastic choice for SaaS businesses that need to keep their content fresh and engaging as they grow and evolve.

Pros

1. Designer-friendly: Webflow’s visual interface lets you design and develop your site simultaneously. With its drag-and-drop functionality, you can create beautiful, custom layouts without needing to know how to code.

2. Responsive design: Webflow makes it easy to create fully responsive websites that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring an optimal user experience for your site visitors.

3. Fast performance: Webflow’s built-in hosting and streamlined code generation ensure that your website loads quickly, which can improve user experience and help with SEO rankings.

4. Powerful CMS: Webflow offers a robust CMS that allows you to manage your website’s content easily, making it an excellent choice for SaaS businesses with evolving content needs.

Cons

1. Learning curve: While Webflow offers a user-friendly interface, it may take some time to get comfortable with its features and workflow, especially for those without a design or development background.

2. Pricing: Webflow’s pricing can be on the higher side, especially for larger or more complex projects, compared to other website builders and CMS options.

3. Limited plugins and integrations: Webflow doesn’t have as extensive a plugin library as WordPress, which could limit your options for adding certain features or functionalities to your site.

4. Smaller community: Webflow’s community is smaller than that of WordPress, which could mean less available support and resources when you need help or inspiration.

3. Custom Website

Choosing to create a custom website is like embarking on a thrilling adventure, where your imagination sets the limits and your SaaS business gets to stand out from the crowd. When you go for a custom website, you team up with talented developers and designers who can turn your one-of-a-kind vision into reality. They’ll craft a tailored digital experience that perfectly aligns with your brand’s unique needs and objectives. Forget about off-the-shelf templates and cookie-cutter designs; a custom website is all about creating something extraordinary that distinguishes your SaaS brand in the competitive marketplace.

One of the most exciting aspects of a custom website is the freedom to let your creative flag fly. You’re no longer confined to the boundaries of a template or a website builder’s capabilities. Instead, you get to work closely with your team of skilled professionals, guiding them to bring your dream site to life, down to the tiniest detail.

Another fantastic perk of going custom is that your website is built with your business’s future growth in mind. This means that you can scale up seamlessly, adding new features or functionalities as you expand, without having to worry about outgrowing your site’s capabilities.

Pros

1. Unique design: A custom website allows you to create a truly unique online presence that reflects your brand’s identity and values, giving you an edge in the crowded SaaS market.

2. High level of customisation: With a custom website, you can tailor every aspect of your site to your exact specifications, ensuring that it meets your business’s requirements and provides an exceptional user experience.

3. Scalability: Custom websites are built with your business’s growth in mind, making it easy to scale up and add new features or functionalities as needed.

4. Optimised performance: Since custom websites are built from the ground up, they can be designed with speed and performance in mind, resulting in faster load times and better overall user experience.

Cons

1. Higher upfront cost: Developing a custom website typically comes with a higher initial investment compared to using an off-the-shelf CMS or website builder.

2. Longer development time: Creating a custom website from scratch takes more time than using a pre-built template, which could delay your site’s launch.

3. Requires ongoing maintenance: A custom website may require more ongoing maintenance and updates than a site built using a CMS or website builder, potentially leading to additional costs and resource needs.

4. Dependence on developers: Making significant changes to your custom website may require the help of a developer, which could limit your ability to make quick updates or adjustments on your own.

4. HubSpot CMS

Hubspot CMS is like the swiss army knife of website builders for marketers, offering a seamless blend of powerful tools and an intuitive interface that makes managing your SaaS website a breeze. Hubspot CMS is designed with the unique needs of marketers in mind, making it an excellent choice for those who want to focus on driving growth and conversions without getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty of coding and development.

What sets Hubspot CMS apart is its all-in-one approach. It’s fully integrated with the broader Hubspot ecosystem, including CRM, marketing automation, and sales platforms, creating a unified and efficient digital environment for your SaaS business. This means you can say goodbye to juggling multiple tools and platforms and instead enjoy the simplicity of having everything under one roof.

But it doesn’t stop there. Hubspot CMS also puts a strong emphasis on security, reliability, and performance, handling hosting, updates, and security measures behind the scenes to ensure your website stays safe, stable, and up-to-date at all times.

One more feather in Hubspot CMS’s cap is its advanced personalisation features. With Hubspot, you can create tailored experiences for your site visitors based on their interactions and preferences, boosting engagement and conversions like never before.

Pros

1. Built for marketers: Hubspot CMS is designed specifically for marketers, making it incredibly user-friendly and efficient for managing and updating your SaaS website’s content.

2. All-in-one solution: Hubspot CMS integrates seamlessly with other Hubspot tools, such as their CRM, marketing automation, and sales platforms, creating a cohesive and streamlined digital ecosystem for your business.

3. Security and reliability: Hubspot takes care of hosting, security, and updates, ensuring your website remains secure, stable, and up-to-date without any extra effort on your part.

4. Personalisation and smart content: Hubspot CMS offers advanced personalisation features, allowing you to create tailored experiences for your site visitors based on their interactions and preferences, ultimately driving better engagement and conversions.

Cons

1. Pricing: Hubspot CMS can be quite pricey, especially for smaller SaaS businesses or those just starting, making it a less accessible option compared to other CMS platforms.

2. Limited design flexibility: While Hubspot CMS offers a range of templates and design tools, it may not provide the same level of customisation and design freedom as other platforms like WordPress or Webflow.

3. Smaller ecosystem: Hubspot’s plugin and integration library is not as extensive as WordPress’s, which could limit your options for adding certain features or functionalities to your site.

4. Steeper learning curve: Although Hubspot CMS is built for marketers, it may still take some time to get comfortable with its features and interface, particularly for those unfamiliar with the Hubspot ecosystem.

By implementing the strategies and best practices outlined in this comprehensive SaaS guide, you’ll be well-equipped to optimise your B2B SaaS company’s website for search engines, improve your online visibility, and ultimately drive more organic traffic and conversions. Remember to stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and developments, as the digital landscape is constantly evolving. With a strong technical SEO foundation, your SaaS business will be well-positioned to thrive in the competitive online world.

However, we understand that managing technical SEO for your SaaS company can be time-consuming and complex, especially with the ever-changing digital landscape. Don’t leave your website’s performance to chance! Partnering with a result-focused SEO agency for SaaS can guarantee results and provide peace of mind, knowing that professionals with a proven track record are expertly managing your SEO strategy. You can book a no-strings-attached discovery call with Teranga today!