Why SEO and Great Content Marketing are important for your SaaS Startup

If you're starting a SAAS company, SEO and content marketing should be at the forefront of your online marketing strategy. Though there are paid ways to advertise online, SEO is the most cost-effective method for getting people to your site organically.

Budgets for startups tend to be on the smaller side, it makes sense to focus on free or cheap methods like SEO before allocating ny funds toward paid ads. This way, you can build up your customer base and get some revenue rolling in before expanding offline.

Additionally, using SEO and content marketing together is a long-term strategy that's easy to implement and maintain even as your SAAS business grows and evolves. Need more convincing? Keep reading!

Before we get into the details of why SEO and great content marketing are important for your SAAS company, it's important to know what these terms stand for.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It refers to the process of optimizing a website so that its pages are easily found on search result pages.

Content marketing refers to a form of marketing aimed at content production and marketing toward a targeted audience.

SaaS stands for software as a service. It simply means the hosting of applications on a cloud provider and delivering them to users over the internet, as a service. Popular SAAS companies include:

• Netflix
• HubSpot
• Shopify
• Zoom
• Microsoft

The Link Between SEO and Content Marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO) has long been a major part of online marketing. SEO and content marketing are complementary. Both are long-term strategies, meaning you can implement them over time and constantly improve as you learn more about your audience. You don’t have to be a technical whiz kid to use SEO or create great content—you have to be willing to put in the effort and time, which will pay off in spades down the road.

According to this Forbes article, SEO without content marketing is like a body without a soul. Without SEO your content may never show up on search ranks. Google and other search engines like Bing will always look at your website's content before ranking your pages. On the other hand, the content on your website must be optimized for search engines so that it can easily be found on SERP( Search Engines Results Page).

Content Marketing for SAAS Startups

A good content-led SEO marketing strategy focuses on providing the right content to the right customer at the right time, and in this case, it aims to ensure:

• Your brand is positioned as a thought leader.
• The customer understands how the product works.
• Nurture and retain your audience. 

Content creation is a great way to optimize your SAAS startup's visibility in search engines and market your brand to potential customers. Broadly speaking, content can be classified into:

• Written content - Blogs, ebooks, case studies, etc.
• Visual content - Pictures, memes, videos, etc.
• Interactive content - Quizzes, animated infographics, surveys, polls, etc..

Once you have decided on a content marketing strategy that is right for your startup, you'll need to:

• Create valuable content that your target audience will find interesting or useful. If they find something helpful or entertaining, they'll be more likely to share it with their friends and followers on social media.
• Make sure your website features up-to-date information about the products or services you offer so people who visit can get answers about what sets you apart from other companies in the same field of work.
• Keep track of any metrics related to traffic (such as the number of visitors) and conversions (such as the number of sales made). This will help inform future decisions about where best to spend time creating blog posts, videos, etc.*
• By employing one or even all forms of content, you'll be placing your company at an advantage in terms of target audience reach, which is the ultimate goal of every business.

SEO for SAAS startups

For startups, SEO can be a golden opportunity to get people from your target audience to visit your site. Using SEO and content marketing together is a long-term strategy that's easy to implement and maintain, making it ideal for SAAS companies.

SEO for SAAS companies is different because it focuses on persona and problems, and a good understanding of both will help you develop a successful strategy to position your brand as the solution.

When it comes to SEO, an important factor to consider is On-page SEO.

On-page SEO is the first step to getting your site to rank well in organic search results. This means that if you want people to find your site and not just any old website about SAAS startups in your niche, then you need to make sure that the words and phrases that people would use when searching for SAAS in your niche are all over your page. To do this, you must:

• Use the right keywords the right way, tools such as Google keyword planner will be of great help.
• Make sure your title tags and meta descriptions are up to date - meta-descriptions are used by search engines to display your content in search results.    

It is important to note that SEO is extensive and takes a long time to learn and understand, it is also an ever-changing process. With that being said, it'll be in your best interest to look at it as a long-term investment for your startup growth and brand building, never expect quick results from it.

Why most startups fail in SEO and content marketing

Most SAAS companies focus mainly on building their products and ensuring that the service promised is rendered, but ultimately ignore marketing, some companies only consider marketing and content creation essential when they are about to launch their software or when an upgrade is effected and this is wrong. Doing this makes your company forgettable, regardless of how awesome the service is, and ultimately gives room for competitors to take over and if care isn't taken put you out of service.

Here is a list of common SEO and marketing mistakes most SAAS companies make:

• Lack of site maintenance
• Ignoring other search engines
• Bad content
• Using the wrong keywords
• Ignoring your target audience
• Ignoring local SEO .

To avoid these mistakes, a good content marketing strategy has to be put in place. According to SEMrush , a good content marketing strategy should have these five core elements:

• Your target audience and their personas
• Brand positioning
• Owned media value propositioning
• Business case
• Action plan

Conclusion

So, if you're ready to take your SAAS startup to the next level with content marketing and SEO, we'd love to help. Feel free to contact us with any questions about how we can help your company grow!