SaaS SEO Roadmap: How to Build a Strategy That Drives Revenue

In this article, you’ll find a detailed step-by-step roadmap I’ve used to help SaaS brands grow revenue, leads, and traffic through SEO.

I have a more detailed article on a B2B SaaS SEO strategy, but this article will focus more on the specific things that actually drive results. 

The big thing I’ll point to here is the 20/80 rule.

These tactics are what I consider to be low leverage/high reward, so we can see the most out of your SEO campaign without spending countless hours on pointless tasks.

Before We Even Begin, Understand What to Focus On and What to Avoid

Before we even begin on what B2B SaaS brands should focus on SEO-wise, I just wanted to highlight how important it is to understand how to prioritize.

In SEO, there are 100s of things you can be focused on that won’t necessarily move the needle for you. 

It’s easy to get distracted by tactics that don’t do anything except take up your time.

However, if you want SEO to work for you, you must know where you invest your time and resources. 

This is where the 80/20 rule comes into play—focusing on the 20% of activities that will drive 80% of your results.

So, instead of focusing on everything, try thinking about the tactics that will actually drive results.

Before you even start with anything, think beforehand about whether this tactic is actually going to contribute to anything.

Will updating this meta description actually lead to anything? Or should we update an article that has previously driven conversions for us?

You want to have this mindset for every tactic you go after.

How You Can Apply This Roadmap

B2B SaaS brands can apply this roadmap in a few ways. 

Really, it’s a mini checklist for the SEO tactics I’ve seen work well for B2B SaaS companies.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind to make the most out of this roadmap: 

1. Start with a Clear Understanding of Your Goals 

Before you dive into anything, take some time to understand your SEO goals. 

Do you want to increase organic traffic, revenue, or brand authority? 

Once you have a solid understanding of your overall goal, applying this roadmap will be much easier.

This roadmap is specifically meant for increasing revenue, but it can also apply to brand building. 

2. Don’t Tackle This Roadmap All At Once

As mentioned before, with the 20/80 rule, you’ll want to start with the tactics guaranteed to help you reach your desired goal.

Take a look at the roadmap action items below, and decide which ones will be the needle movers starting out. 

Roadmap Action #1: Take a Look in Google Search Console for Technical SEO

One of the first steps in any SEO roadmap is to take a deep dive into Google Search Console. 

GSC is a free tool from Google that provides extremely helpful data on how your website is performing in Google Search.

It also shows if your website can perform in Google Search and what’s preventing it from appearing.

The first thing to check in Search Console is the “Page Indexing” report, which shows which of your website’s pages have been indexed by Google. 

This report will show you all the pages Google excluded from their index.

In some cases, these are pages we want Google to index. 

There are a few reasons why your pages might not be getting indexed, but a few include: 

• Noindex tags on the page
• Disallow rules in your robots.txt file
• Crawled and Discovered, Not Currently Indexed
• Canonical Issues

While the indexing report is the main section to look at, also check out the crawl stats report.

This will show you if Google is having trouble crawling your website (and why).

Roadmap Action #2: Optimize Your Feature and Benefit Pages (for both the User and SEO)

Once you’ve gone through Google Search Console, you should then focus on optimizing your feature and benefits pages. 

These pages are absolutely necessary for B2B SaaS companies, so it’s not something you’ll want to neglect.

Not only do they work well for the user considering your product, but they can also bring in high-intent searches from people looking for your solution.

Start by reviewing the UX of your feature and product pages through the lens of the user. 

Ask questions like:

• Am I including the right information here? 
• Are benefits and use cases clearly shown?
• Are there visual elements like screenshots and videos we can add?
• Does the page genuinely educate the reader on what your product does? 

In the same sense, when you optimize these pages, I’d put more weight into UX than SEO, maybe about a 75%/25% split. 

So it usually looks like this for me:

• Sneak in the solution keyword as the title tag
• Sneak in the solution keyword in the H1 (but have a larger tag for the user)
• Make your page as comprehensive around your product as possible (don’t get caught up in adding keywords directly to your page).

The key really is to focus more on UX and have SEO as a secondary bonus.

The real purpose is to educate your audience about what your product does.

Roadmap Action #3: Build Out Pages With High Conversion Intent

For B2B SaaS companies, you should always start your content with topics with high conversion intent.

Luckily, this looks pretty similar across most industries, so it will usually look like this:

Product Comparison Content 

These pages or articles directly compare your SaaS product to other competitors. 

Give an honest review.

Show the benefits and differentiators that make your solution the better choice.

Don’t use it as an opportunity to trash your competition. 

Be honest about the pros and cons of your product compared to the competition. 

Alternative Content

My personal favorite type of content for SaaS is alternative content to capture hesitant buyers.

You’re basically creating a roundup of alternatives compared to your competition.

If someone is close to buying, alternative content will help persuade them to buy your product if they hit a hesitation point in the product they’re considering.

Best X Software Listicles

You’ll also want to create listicles on the “best software” for your industries and product use cases.

This works great in the initial solution-aware stage when users are considering products.

You want to position yourself as the best option when they first find you in that category. 

Roadmap Action #4: If You Have an Existing Content Profile, See How You Can Optimize Them

If you already have an established content profile, the next step in your SEO roadmap is to audit your existing content for quick wins.  

By doing this, you can find some low-hanging fruit opportunities that can increase traffic and visibility without creating brand-new content from scratch. 

Use data to find these pages.

Look for pages that have: 

• Generated conversions or leads in the past
• Earned a good amount of organic search traffic
• High intent keywords

For these pages, find out why they’re underperforming.

See whether users are actually reading your content, if your content is ranking, or if conversion rates are low for that page.

Data will be best for guiding what to optimize and how to optimize it. 

When you’re updating older content, focus on:

• Updating and expanding your content to make it more comprehensive
• Optimizing title tags and header tags
• Enhancing visual elements like images, videos, and infographics to improve engagement
• Using internal links to point to other pages
• Adding more CTAs to help drive conversions

Roadmap Action #5: Interview Client Facing Teams and Your Customers to Build Out MoFu Content

The next step (after you build out your conversion-intent pages) is to target middle of funnel content.

While these pages don’t usually convert as well as BoFu content, it is a solid opportunity to educate your audience about your product and show them how your product can be used as a solution. 

This content aims to educate people who are further along in the buyer’s journey but not yet ready to make a purchase.

If you want to build solid SaaS MoFu content, you should always start with your client-facing teams and existing customers.

These are the people who understand your ICP’s pain points, challenges, and purchasing decisions.

You can start by interviewing your client-facing teams first. 

Ask them questions like:

• What are the most common questions or objections you hear from prospective customers?
• What information do leads typically ask for when they’re considering a software solution?
• What specific features or use cases do clients like the most?

Once you have your responses, you can then start creating more MoFu-style content.

For each topic, consider whether you can plug in your product as a solution.

So, if someone is searching for a pain point, can we show them how they can fix that problem by using our tool? 

Roadmap Action #6: Build Out Link Assets That Will Help Build Authority For Your Site

Link building for SaaS is tough, so I usually opt for more link earning.

Creating systems for earning links so we can stop spending hours on manual outreach.

It just makes life so much easier.

Here are a few things you can start with when creating link assets.

1. Statistic Articles

Statistic articles will likely be the best and easiest way to earn links for your site.

By creating roundups of industry-specific statistics, you can capture searches of people looking for data to include in their own article.

If they include your data in their article, it will likely come along with a citation, so a backlink.

2. Thought Leadership Content

Thought leadership in SaaS is actually pretty easy to pull off. 

Especially if you have a C-suite team that has a presence on social media.

If they can share industry perspectives that actually act as thought leadership, they will likely gain reach on social media and your website.

3. Create Industry Reports

You can also publish research reports which honestly do the best for link earning.

This is usually a full roundup of original data that hasn’t been shown before.

It will be the most time-intensive, but these reports are the true link magnets when it comes to earning links. 

Research reports also work great for brand building too.

Roadmap Action #7: Build Out Sales Assets That Will Help Convert Your Organic Traffic

The thing with B2B SaaS companies is that organic traffic isn’t enough.

You might think traffic is a solid metric, but it’s not always guaranteed to turn into conversions.

If you want this roadmap to pay off, you have to invest in sales enablement content. 

You want content that will address potential customers’ needs, build trust, and help them realize you’re the right choice. 

These assets usually include: 

• Case studies
• Product comparison sheets
• Social proof (customer testimonials and reviews)
• Video demos
• Pricing information

Building a SaaS SEO Roadmap in the Easiest Way Possible

If you want your SEO to work and more importantly, this SEO roadmap to work, you need to shift your focus towards the activities that are low effort/high reward. 

The majority of everything else in SEO can be seen as a distraction.

Every successful B2B SaaS SEO strategy starts with strategy and consistency. Focus on what works and optimize along the way.

Once you do that, your approach to generating revenue will be much more effective.