SEO belongs with marketing. It deals with algorigthms and rankings and all sorts of logic-driven coding, but none of that changes the fact that it doesn't work well in the hands of a programmer.
It's about content. It's about telling stories. It's about connecting with your audience and understanding the core of their emotional troubles tied to the problems that you solve... the problems that your platform solves.
I've worked with many SaaS companies in the past, and SEO is a common topic in our preliminary discussions. There are a lot of changes occurring with this particular subject, and what worked best 5 years ago is actually now getting people into a lot of trouble.
Times are changing. The internet is maturing. And the language and methods people use to find answers are changing right along with it. There are clear cut rules that must be followed in order to gain favor with the search engines, and they go far beyond technical requirements. This is why a professional SEO service is likely your best bet at getting it right.
Here are 6 things your SEO marketing experts will do for you to help you get more clients for your SaaS.
It's natural and chaotic, yet logical and organized.
Optimizing for the search engines means complying with a set of technical and creative rules and earning trust from Bing, Yahoo, and Google. When they trust and understand you (something that doesn't happen overnight), they'll reward your compliance with increased free exposure.
Is it a complicated model? - No, not really. The engines that drive people to their digital destinations have made very public declarations about what they want to see from you and why.
The latter is quite important because knowing Google's "mind" will unlock the mysteries of SEO and keep you ahead of the game, even when changes in their algorithms inevitably occur. The changes are all built around the idea your site should be engaging, provide a fluid, pleasant experience to your visitors regardless of the technology used to get there, and have the ability to retain the attention of your visitors.
These are not new concepts, so what's different about them today?
- What's changed are the capabilities of the search engines to nullify efforts that side-step their quality control mechanisms. I know you're not necessarily thinking about it that way, but that's the kind of rif-raff that short-cuts and loopholes attract, which is why so much money is being poured into ensuring we comply.
So, without further delay, here's what professional SEO services will do for you:
I cannot tell you how many times that the idea of developing a bot that automates SEO has crashed into my inbound marketing assessments from the mouths of my SaaS clients. I could go into the intrinsic details about why this won't work, but rather than getting granular, I want to share with you the philosophy behind it.
I march to the beat of the Google drum. Why? Because like it or not, they're in charge. If they want people to see and visit my website, it shall be done. If they want to make me invisible because they're unhappy with the fact that I've been short-cutting the process by building link farms or faking some some other value that they measure, then I'm a ghost.
The reality is that there are still short-cutting methods that work, but we have to stop thinking in those terms altogether, because when we're caught red-handed, we could be penalized for years wherein your traffic is reduced to 10% of what it actually should be.
Many people are claiming that SEO is "dead." & this would be why... because it's dead to those who once reined supreme - those who were gaming the system. Your SEO marketing expert should preach about staying away from the bots until they are blue in the face, not agree with you should that be the route you decide to take.
How do your clients find you? What do they type into searh queries to find answers to problems that your platform solves?
Before you answer those questions, remember that this is not a linear path - sales rarely is these days. Now, a programmer's mentality is to view these situations as cause and effect. A+B = C, and there is a logical, linear pattern that gets us from point A to point B
Not so much when it comes to search queries. First of all, the buyer's journey is far from a linear one, so people are going to be searching for answers at all levels:
~ Awareness: This is the stage where your buyer's are not 100% of what the problem is yet, so they are self-diagnosing, and seeking answers to problems they only partially understand. When we think about the language they're going to use to try and find you, it's going to be more vague, and maybe a little misguided.
~ Consideration: They know what the problem is, and now they are seeking education on different types of answers and different technologies and providers. They're going to be a little more focused in their questions, but still not have all of the answers.
~ Decision-making: This is where they know what they want, they have their choices narrowed down, and it's just a matter of pulling the trigger. They are a quicker sale, and they're likely shopping somebody else's quote, so language that speaks to pricing will make more sense.
Since your SEO agency is going to step into your shoes, they're going to be thinking about how you should be communicating to meet all three stages of the buyer's journey. They'll put together a keyword strategy for you that speaks to all three areas discussed today, and let you focus your time on improving the quality of your platform.
Now that they're narrowed in on the language that people are using to find services you provide, your SEO guys will take it to your digital hub: the website.
They'll develop written content that incorporates your keyword strategy and stays true to the purpose of your company. They'll make sure all of the meta tags are technically sound and compelling enough to elicit clicks to conversion forms.
You want a writer on this job, not a programmer - no offense.
In addition to having a well executed keyword strategy that hits all of the basic technical and creative requirements, you need a fluid lead conversion path... something that funnels all of that valuable traffic into something you can actually use... leads. Leads with phone numbers, emails, names, and other important data that will help you nurture and close them into revenue generating deals.
The search engines care about this too. Do the links embedded on your pages take people to other site pages or a landing pages that continue the same or similar conversations? This kind of fluidity looks really good to Google, and it provides a better experience for your users.
Better experience for your users = sustainable favor with Google.
Blogging will drive serious value to your SEO marketing campaign, but only if the content is compelling. If people visit your site because of a blog post of yours popping up in search results, but they immediately bounce because it's poorly written, well, that will sink your rankings like a stone.
Having the words on the page is not enough, although this idea reminds me of once-popular SEO methodology called "keyword stuffing." Think about all of the times in the past that you visited a site based on a search query, but when you got to the page, you couldn't even find the words you used in the search except in some box stuffed in some corner.
It's annoying, isn't it? And frustrating...
Don't let your blog be responsible for killing your visitors' vibe, but rather, use it to elevate your business with its glorious SEO applications AND engaging content. Your professional SEO services provider should be able to help with all of this. After all, blogging is one of the greatest weapons you have in your arsenal for increasing rank.
SEO is important because it's what connects you to your target audiences:
There is no disputing the value of showing up in top 10 search results. And, of course, top 3 is even more valuable... These are our goals, and when you engage professional SEO services that practice white-hat marketing to handle this particular aspect for you, the search engines give you their love and support, and reciprocate by elevating your business.
"White hat" simply implies that you're building favor with the search engines by following quality guidelines that address both technical and experience standards.
It's the perfect compliment to your SAAS too, because doesn't your platform exist to improve the lives of the folks using it? Your SEO marketing strategy should be just as rooted in being helpful as your platform is. If you cut corners in one, people will expect the same in the other, so let's keep it clean and don't forget to bring in a non-programmer to handle it for you.
Want to see how SEO ties together with the rest of your SaaS marketing strategy? Click HERE: