The Ultimate SEO Guide for Early-Stage SaaS

Free Content Calendar + 11 Money Keyword Categories

Hey - it’s Alex, this time together with Colin van den Berg!

Today, we cover:

1️⃣ Who should (not) consider SEO & when

2️⃣ 11 high-intent keyword categories for SaaS

3️⃣ How to get started with SEO in 9 steps

Bonus: List of my vetted Go-to software tools for early-stage SaaS startups

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ How to analyze your early customers to find your ICP

✅ The Ultimate Founder-Led LinkedIn Guide

✅ 9 tactics to get your first 50 SaaS customers in 2025

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A quick word from our sponsors

📢 SEMrush—Boost Your Online Visibility with award-winning SEO Tool

Rank Higher with Better SEO. Fix site issues, create content that converts, and find profitable new keywords to target with our SEO toolkit. Get more traffic to your site and beat the competition.

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2️⃣ If you enjoyed this post, share it with a friend to get my 100+ actionable SaaS growth tactics for free 🥁

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for early-stage SaaS founders on their way to €1 million ARR (1 free spot - limited to 8 founders).

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The Ultimate SEO Guide for Early-Stage SaaS

How to develop a sustainable SEO strategy that drives consistent organic traffic for your SaaS startup.

If you’re running a SaaS startup, you’ve likely noticed that driving consistent traffic and high-quality leads can be challenging – and often expensive if you rely solely on paid campaigns.

So most founders want high website traffic, ideally ‘for free’ without paying for Social or Search Ads.

That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) steps in. When executed well, SEO:

✅ positions your product or service in front of the right audience

✅ at the right time,

✅ without burning ad budgets.

In this guide, we will cover:

1. Who should (not) consider SEO & when

2. The 4 key pillars for a powerful SEO strategy

3. 11 high-intent keyword categories for SaaS

4. Step-by-step roadmap (8 steps) to get started with SEO

5. Common SEO pitfalls

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1. Who Should Consider SEO (and Who Shouldn’t)?

Not every SaaS product naturally lends itself to organic search.

If your product solves a clearly defined problem that potential customers actively Google, you can reap significant rewards by ranking in search results.

Otherwise, other channels will make more sense to you.

But let’s look at the 6 criteria when SEO is a good fit for you.

When SEO is a Good Fit (6 criteria)

1. People are searching for keywords related to ‘your solution’

Your business operates in a well-defined product category or solves a clear problem.

SEO works best when people are already searching for solutions in your space.

If your product fits into an established category (e.g., project management software, time tracking tools, email automation), or if it directly addresses a well-known problem, there’s likely existing search demand you can capture.

This means you can align your content with common pain points and search intent—whether through feature pages, comparison articles, or educational blog content—helping prospects find and trust your solution.

If prospects often hop onto Google to …

✅ find “solutions for [X problem]”

✅ find “tools for specific [usecase] or [product category]

✅ find “alternatives to [competitor]”...

… SEO could become a primary channel to capture that demand.

That means, if potential customers search for keywords that fall into one or more of the following buckets, SEO is a good option for you.

Let’s take a closer look into the different buckets 👇

Search for ‘alternatives to X’

→ People search for alternative solutions for current solutions

Search for ‘product category’

→ People search for specific tools in (established) product categories

Search for ‘usecases’

→ People search for solutions to do X

Search for ‘ways to fix problem’

→ People search for different ways to fix their problem

2. Your competitors are ranking and getting (high) traffic from SEO

If your direct competitors rank well for relevant search terms and generate organic traffic, that’s a strong signal that SEO is a viable channel in your industry. Their success proves there’s demand, and with the right strategy, you can compete for a share of that traffic.

3. You rely on recurring revenue and a scalable growth model

B2B (or B2C) SaaS companies with a solid lifetime value (LTV) can justify upfront SEO investments. Whether your model is self-service, sales-assisted, or fully sales-led, SEO can be a powerful channel for generating inbound demand.

Once your content ranks, every incremental visitor costs next to nothing and compounds over time, making SEO a scalable, high-ROI acquisition strategy—regardless of whether signups are product-led or sales-driven.

4. You’re prepared to invest in content

Organic growth is driven by high-value, solution-oriented content. Successful SaaS firms – think HubSpot, Zapier, Notion – build entire content ecosystems (blog articles, guides, comparison pages) that fuel inbound leads.

But content alone isn’t enough—you need the right resources and expertise to execute effectively. SEO success requires:

• Content creation skills – Whether in-house or outsourced, you need writers who understand your audience, industry, and SEO best practices.

• Link building capabilities – Without backlinks, even great content may struggle to rank. A strategy for outreach, PR, or partnerships is crucial.

• SEO expertise – Optimizing content, tracking rankings, and iterating based on data require technical know-how.

Suppose your team lacks the necessary resources for consistent content production and link acquisition. In that case, SEO may not be the right growth channel—or it may require external support to be viable.

5. You can tolerate a 6–12-month ramp-up

SEO is cumulative. While you won’t rank overnight, sustained effort can deliver an ever-growing stream of qualified visitors down the road.

6. Bonus: You want to reduce paid acquisition costs

Many startups start with Google Ads or social ads. These can work in the short run but get expensive as you scale. SEO is ideal for lowering your overall Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) in the long term.

SEO complements paid channels—best-case scenario: using PPC for immediate results while SEO builds a long-term, sustainable traffic pipeline.

When SEO Might Not Be Worth the Investment

❌ Your TAM is extremely niche/limited

If your product serves a hyper-specific audience, other channels may show better ROI (e.g. Account-based marketing, Direct Sales, Events, Partnerships)

❌ Your ICP is not searching

If you’re creating a new category and people are not searching for solutions yet (because they don’t know it exists), you’re unlikely to gain traction through search. You will get better results with demand generation tactics (Influencer marketing, community building, or social).

❌ You need immediate sales and cash flow

SEO isn’t the quickest channel for short-term wins. If you’re strapped for time or budget, tactics like paid ads or outbound sales often yield results faster.

❌ You can’t commit to ongoing content creation

Consistent content development is essential for ranking. If you lack a content team or can’t outsource, your SEO efforts may stall.

❌ Your primary focus is large, high-touch enterprise deals

Enterprise sales with extended contract values might benefit more from account-based marketing (ABM) or direct sales. In such cases, SEO can still help with brand visibility but may not be your top priority.

2. The 4 key pillars for your SEO success

The success of your SEO efforts depends on 4 core aspects:

1. Your SEO approach

2. On-page SEO

3. Technical SEO

4. Off-Page SEO

In this guide, we will not cover all of these in-depth. Rather, we want to give you a high-level understanding of each of these.

So let’s dive into each of the 4 aspects below.

Pillar 1: Choosing the Right SEO Approach

Different SEO strategies deliver varying results depending on your product, audience, and resources.

Here are 3 proven models that often work well for SaaS startups:

1️⃣ Bottom-of-Funnel (BoFu) SEO

💡 Goal: Capture users ready to buy & convert them into customers.

Aim to attract users ready to sign up or book a demo. Focus on customers close to a purchase decision.

Build targeted landing pages for high-intent queries like e.g. “[Tool] alternatives”, “Best [solution]-software”, or “[Competitor] vs. [Your Tool]”).

P.S. Starting with SEO? We recommend starting with BoFU - the fastest way to capture the existing demand of high-intent leads.

2️⃣ Middle-of-Funnel (MoFu) SEO

💡 Goal: Educate potential buyers, build trust, and move them closer to conversion.

Educate and build trust with potential buyers who are still exploring their options.

This involves blog posts, how-to guides, and in-depth pillar pages that address a broader problem like “How to automate recurring tasks” or “Best practices for remote collaboration”.

The goal is to establish brand recognition and authority early in the buyer’s journey.

3️⃣ Programmatic SEO

💡 Goal: Building a large number of targeted/focused landing pages.

Programmatic SEO is the automated creation of highly targeted, scalable landing pages to capture long-tail search traffic. It helps you rank for a lot of niche keywords by dynamically generating pages.

This approach can be highly scalable, leveraging systematic page templates. Airbnb, Zapier, and G2 are prime examples of companies using this tactic to dominate long-tail queries at scale.

If your SaaS covers multiple industries or use cases, this can work quite well.

Here are some programmatic SEO examples:

1. “Best CRM for [industry]/[persona] ”

   1. Best CRM for Restaurants; Best CRM for Barber shops, Best CRM for Startups; etc.

   2. Best CRM for Sales Manager; Best CRM for Customer Success; Best CRM for Marketing Teams

2. “[tool] and [tool] integration”

   1. Asana Integration with Slack; Asana Integration with Salesforce; Asana Integration with Monday; etc.

3. “Location specific”

   1. Best vacation rentals in London; Best tinyhouses in Alps; Best lodges in USA; Pet-friendly apartments in Munich

4. “Templates for [usecase]”

   1. Publicly sharing (curated) templates for specific use cases or tools; e.g. Business Card templates (in Canva).

Examples of companies who mastered this approach:

1. Zapier has executed this strategy masterfully with its Zapier Apps Directory. By creating hundreds of structured landing pages for integrations (e.g., “Slack and Google Sheets integration”), they systematically capture search intent for users looking to connect different tools. Each page follows a consistent template, optimized for SEO, making it easier to rank for thousands of automation-related queries.

2. G2 with software category overviews & comparison pages. G2 systematically generates landing pages for software comparisons (e.g., "HubSpot vs Salesforce," "Trello vs Monday.com") and category rankings (e.g., "Best Marketing Automation Software," "Top CRM Tools for Small Businesses"). These pages follow a structured format with user reviews, feature breakdowns, and alternative recommendations, helping G2 dominate search results for high-intent queries.

3. Canva with Design Templates. Canva ranks for thousands of keywords by programmatically generating pages like "Instagram Post Templates," "Business Card Templates," and "YouTube Thumbnail Maker."

Pillar 2: On-Page SEO: Essentials for SaaS

On-Page SEO is about optimizing your (individual) web pages to rank high in search engines and optimizing them for high conversion rates.

Besides strong content (the main factor!), you should take care of a few on-page SEO fundamentals:

1️⃣ Keyword Optimization

Include your target primary and secondary keywords naturally in:

• Title tag

• Meta description

• Headings (H1, H2, H3)

• First 100 words of content

• URL slug

• Image alt text

2️⃣ Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Craft compelling & keyword-optimized:

• Title Tag (Under 60 characters, includes the main keyword)

• Meta Description (Under 160 characters, includes CTA)

→ Learn more about it with Semrush Title Tags and Ahrefs Meta Description Guide

3️⃣ URL Structure

URLs should be:

• Short & descriptive (e.g., yourdomain.com/best-crm-tools)

• Keyword-rich & user-friendly

4️⃣ Internal & External Linking

• Internal Linking helps to improve navigation and build a topic cluster.

• Use relevant anchor text (avoid “click here”)

• Outbound Linking to high-authority sources (improves credibility)

• Ensure that external links open in a new tab

5️⃣ Image Optimization

Optimize your images by:

• Using descriptive filenames (seo-guide.png instead of IMG123.png)

• Adding alt text for accessibility & ranking in Google Images

• Compressing images (improve page speed)

6️⃣ Mobile-Friendliness & UX

Google primarily looks at how your site performs on smartphones and tablets, so adopt responsive layouts. Ensure a responsive design:

• Mobile-friendly layout (no zooming or horizontal scrolling)

• Easy-to-read fonts & buttons

7️⃣ Page Speed Optimization

Improve your loading speed with:

• Compressed images

• Minified CSS & JavaScript

• Lazy loading for images

8️⃣ Clear Call to Actions

Guide visitors to the next step and make it easy for them. We recommend to embed:

• 1 primary CTA (e.g. Book a demo) and

• 1 secondary CTA (e.g. Get free template)

Pillar 3: Technical SEO: Essentials for SaaS

Even the best content might not rank if your site is tough to crawl, slow to load, or poorly structured for mobile users.

This is not a technical SEO guide, but let’s take a look at the technical SEO essentials:

1️⃣ Ensure clear website architecture & URL structure

A clear, logical site architecture is crucial for both user experience and SEO.

Ensure your website is organized with a clear hierarchy where important pages are accessible with just a few clicks from the homepage.

Main Categories → Subcategories → Specific Pages

Example: yourdomain.com/products → yourdomain.com/products/seo-tools → yourdomain.com/products/seo-tool-x

Check out companies like:

• Livestorm

  • Structured Navigation: The website features a hierarchical navigation system with clear categories such as "Product," "Solutions," "Resources," and "Free tools," facilitating easy access to various sections.

  • Dedicated Resource Center: Livestorm maintains a comprehensive "Resources" section, offering guides, webinars, and other educational content, which enhances user engagement and site structure

• Microsoft

  • Well-structured site architecture across its product pages. When navigating to the Microsoft 365 section, users can reach key subpages—such as pricing, features, and support—within just a few clicks.

  • The URLs follow a logical pattern (e.g., microsoft.com/microsoft-365/pricing), and internal links seamlessly guide users to relevant content, improving both user experience and search engine discoverability.

2️⃣ Boost speed and Core Web Vitals

Page load times and user experience indicators (like CLS or LCP) factor into rankings. Compress images, minify code, and keep your design streamlined.

Tools such as Google Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights can highlight bottlenecks.

3️⃣ Optimize for mobile-first indexing

Google primarily looks at how your site performs on smartphones and tablets, so optimize for mobile.

• Adopt responsive layouts

• Mobile-friendly navigation

• Avoid hidden content or cumbersome pop-ups that disrupt the user experience

• Ensure that all content, including text, images, and structured data, is the same on both mobile and desktop versions,

• Optimize page speed with compressed images and efficient code, and implement lazy loading to enhance performance

4️⃣ Control indexing

Control which pages search engines can crawl. This includes:

• properly configuring robots.txt

• Listing all important URLs for search engines (your XML sitemap) by submitting to Google Search Console

• prevent duplicate content with canonical tags

• Check for broken pages, duplicate content, or looped redirects that might hinder search engine crawls.

5️⃣ HTTPS & Security

Secure your site with an HTTPS and SSL certificate.

Pillar 4: Off-Page SEO: Authority and Backlinks

SEO success often depends on your domain’s perceived authority, which is heavily influenced by things that happen ‘outside’ your website (aka. ‘off-page’ SEO).

Generally speaking, there are 3 types of links for your content:

1. Internal Links (Links within your domain from one page to another)

2. Outbound/External Links (Your site links to another trusted site)

3. Inbound/Backlinks (Another site is linking to your domain)

Backlinks are still among Google’s strongest ranking signals.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to acquire low-quality backlinks; it's quality over quantity.

But SaaS companies can acquire them in more strategic, partnership-driven ways.

Here are 4 possible ways to get more quality backlinks:

1️⃣ Write guest articles and get PR coverage
Contribute thought leadership pieces to relevant tech blogs or industry sites (e.g., SaaStr, Product Hunt, Forbes). Position yourself as an expert and link back to key pages on your site.

2️⃣ Collaborate with complementary tools
Co-market with SaaS solutions that share a similar audience. Joint webinars, research reports, and whitepapers can produce natural, high-quality backlinks and fresh leads.

3️⃣ Leverage user-generated content and communities
Encourage users to leave reviews on platforms like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot. Create your own Slack or LinkedIn group to spark user-driven conversations and/or join leading communities in your industry.

4️⃣ Influencer partnerships

Do influencer marketing campaigns and ask them to link to your content. Especially interesting for co-authored content.

👉 Learn about 16 important things about backlinks

3. How to get started with SEO in 9 steps

By now, you know

1️⃣ if SEO is the right strategy for you

and

2️⃣ What the 4 key SEO success pillars are

Knowing the SEO success pillars is one thing – putting them into a plan you can execute is another.

Below is an 8-step framework to structure your approach and ensure each layer of your strategy supports the next.

1. Know your GTM foundations

Before you start writing content, get clarity on your GTM foundations.

This includes:

• Who are our ideal customer persona & ideal customer company?

• What is the status quo of our ICP?

• What are their top pain points and objections?

• What product category do we belong to?

• What use case is our product being used for?

• What are the core product capabilities and features?

• Who are our top direct & indirect competitors?

→ Check out the SaaS Messaging Framework, Ideal Customer Profile template, and SaaS Positioning to get answers.

2. Website Audit

Kick off with a technical review to fix glaring issues. This includes:

• page speed,

• mobile responsiveness,

• indexing errors,

• and internal linking.

Tools like Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, SEMrush, or Ahrefs (or, for more advanced people, Screaming Frog) can help uncover hidden problems.

1. Start by checking Google Search Console for indexing issues and crawl errors. Look for pages that aren’t indexed and fix them by updating your sitemap or robots.txt file.

2. Then, run SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog to identify broken links, duplicate content, and missing metadata.

→ Check out SEMrush’s Guide on Broken Links

→ Identify duplicate content with SEMrush’s Site Audit

→ Of course, also Ahrefs lets you do a Site Audit

3. Finally, analyze your site with PageSpeed Insights to find slow-loading pages and follow the tool’s recommendations—like optimizing images, enabling caching, or reducing JavaScript.

So, Step 1 and Step 2 were about setting the foundation for your SEO success.

Now, we will cover how to find the right keywords, prioritize them, and turn them into content plans.

3. Keyword Research to Create a Keyword List

Keyword research is the most important step for your SEO strategy.

It involves the research itself + choosing relevant keywords & prioritizing them.

For the keyword research itself, we recommend 3 steps:

1. Competitor Research

2. High-Intent Keywords (aka. Money keywords)

3. Source your ‘customer-facing’ teams (FAQs asked by prospects/customers)

Bonus: Once you already rank, use Google Search Console Monitoring to source new keyword/topic opportunities on the way.

Let’s have a look at those 3 steps in more detail. 👇

2.1. Competitor Research

Assess what’s already working for direct competitors and category leaders.

Identify their top-ranking keywords, content formats, and where they’re getting backlinks.

How to do it step by step:

1. Find Your Competitors (in terms of SEO ranking): Search for your main keywords on Google and note the top-ranking websites. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to find competitors in your niche.

2. Add your competitors’ URL in SEMrush or Ahrefs, and the tool gives you a snapshot of their domain - including top organic keywords, top ranking pages, traffic, and backlinks.

3. Look for high-traffic, low-competition keywords that you could target.

→ Example: Let’s imagine you are building a project management tool for freelancers. Asana would be one of your competitors. With SEMrush you can easily spot keywords with lower competition (keyword difficulty). Filter by KD + Commercial Intent. For more details, check out this guide on how to find low-competition keywords.

4. Check Their Best-Performing Content: Visit their blog or landing pages and identify their most popular articles.

5. Investigate Their Backlinks: Use SEMrush Backlink Analytics or Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker to see which sites link to your competitors. Reach out to those websites with better content or an updated resource to earn backlinks.

→ Spot Backlink Opportunities from Sites with Listicles that feature your competitors but not you.

Bonus: If you already have lots of content online, you can spot Content Gaps & Opportunities by comparing their content with yours—what topics are they covering that you aren’t? Create better, more in-depth content to outperform them.

By following these steps, you’ll find a bunch of relevant keywords and content ideas for your own SaaS.

2.2. High-Intent Keyword Categories

We recommend finding high-intent keywords (aka. money-keywords) for your product.

These money keywords focus on users that are already very much aware and ‘in the market’.

Here’s a list of 11 high-buying intent keyword categories.

11 High-buying intent keyword categories (for SaaS)

1️⃣ (Tool-Specific) Pain Point/Problem Keywords

Why: High intent & low competition. Users have an immediate need and are actively looking for a solution your SaaS provides.

Example: “How to export contacts from LinkedIn” (for a lead scraping tool) or “How to follow up with leads without being pushy” (for a CRM software)

2️⃣ Pricing & Cost-Related Keywords

Why: Strong purchase intent. Users searching for pricing are near decision-making—they just need reassurance or a comparison.

Example: “Affordable CRM for solopreneurs”

3️⃣ Comparison & Alternative Keywords

Why: Steal market share from competitors. These users already know they need a solution—they’re just deciding which one to pick.

Example: “Notion vs. Asana” | “Best alternatives for HubSpot”

4️⃣ Competitor-Specific Keywords

Why: Convert users already aware of similar products. These searches indicate high purchase intent—users are deep in the decision stage.

Example: “HubSpot CRM vs. Salesforce: Which is better for small businesses?”

5️⃣ Feature-Specific Keywords

Why: Target users looking for specific capabilities. Users searching for specific features have clear buying intent and are comparing options.

Example: “CRM with VOIP calling”

6️⃣ Integration Keywords

Why: Users want tools that fit their existing tech stack. If your SaaS integrates well, it’s a strong conversion driver.

Example:“Best payroll software that integrates with QuickBooks”

7️⃣ Product Category (+ Target Audience) Keywords

Why: Relevance & niche targeting (especially for vertical SaaS). Helps attract highly relevant traffic but may have lower search volume.

Example: “AI tools for law firms” | “Best project management tool for remote teams”

8️⃣ Benefit-Driven Keywords

Why: ROI-focused searches. Users want to justify their investment—case studies & ROI calculators work well here.

Example: “How much time can I save with a virtual assistant?”

9️⃣ Educational Keywords

Why: Guide users through the buying process

Example: “How to create a high-converting SaaS homepage” or “How to get started with SEO”

While these aren’t immediate money keywords, they build trust & authority, which lowers CAC over time.

🔟 Location-Based Keywords (If Relevant)

Why: Capture localized demand. High intent if applicable, but not relevant unless your SaaS serves specific regions.

Example: “Best invoicing software for German freelancers”

1️⃣1️⃣ Template-Based Keywords

Why: Lead magnets & backlinks. Great for lead generation & content marketing but low direct buying intent (unless templates are built in your tool / specifically for your tool)

Example: “Best LinkedIn post templates for SaaS founders”

How to find these keywords step by step:

1. Enter your own URL, product category (e.g., “CRM software”), and use case (e.g. “Send follow-ups to leads”) to see keyword ideas with search volume and competition.

2. Scan for these high-intent keywords (see above)

Bonus: Also identify:

3. Mid-funnel content opportunities to mix in between – search for broader topics like “how to choose a CRM” or “benefits of project management software.” These help educate potential customers before they’re ready to buy.

4. programmatic SEO opportunities

2.3. Source your ‘customer-facing’ teams

Relying only on keyword research is tricky. You will miss out on great ‘money-driving’ keywords.

That’s why you should interview/talk to your customer-facing people (aka. sales, customer success, customer support)

Ask them:

• What is the most common status quo of customers?

• What tools do they use most often?

• Who are the direct & indirect competitors coming up most often?

• What triggered people to look for a new solution?

• What are the top objections they hear from prospects?

• What do customers love most about our product?

• What are the most used product features?

• How do customers benefit the most from our product?

• What results do our customers see?

• How is our product making their life better?

Turn these insights into high-converting content, incl. competitor comparison pages, case studies, feature pages, etc.

By following the competitor research + high-intent keyword research + talking to your sales & customer success team, you’ll have a long list of keywords (to drive both immediate conversions and long-term brand awareness).

4. Keyword Prioritization

Finding keywords is one step. But then the question comes up of what to focus on.

Being in the early stage usually means limited resources.

So, prioritize keywords based on:

✅ Buying Intent (How close users are to purchasing)

✅ Ease of Ranking (Low competition, niche focus)

✅ Traffic & Business Impact (Search volume vs. relevance)

For early-stage SaaS founders, we recommend starting with:

✅ Low(er) competition, high buying intent keywords & high relevance

✅ One Cluster Topic at a time (to build topical authority)

How to do it? Add a column to your keyword list spreadsheet and add a tag like ‘low-prio’, ‘mid-prio’, or ‘high-prio’. Once done, hide the keywords that aren’t relevant (for now).

Doing so should give you a shortlist of 10-20 relevant keywords.

5. Mapping keywords to Content Clusters

Your customers (and also Google) prioritize sites with high authority. A well-structured page that covers a specific topic from multiple angles is one core criterion.

That’s what Hubspot calls content clusters.

Content Clusters

Organize your keywords by grouping similar keywords into topic clusters.

That way, you can later on take 1 content cluster and create multiple content for this topic and over time build topical authority.

Topical Authority

Topical authority is your website’s expertise & credibility for a specific topic. You should aim to become a trusted ‘go-to’ source for a very niche/specific topic.

This means that when it comes to choosing keywords and content, startups should build credibility & trust for a very niche topic first before going more broad.

Example: You're building a tool to make LinkedIn content creation easy.

So your main keywords could be: “LinkedIn”, ‘Content Creation’, ‘Social Media Content’ etc.

And sup-topics could be ‘LinkedIn hooks’, ‘LinkedIn post scheduling’, ‘LinkedIn carousels’ etc.

But instead of starting ‘broad’ and writing 1 piece for each keyword, we would recommend you to:

• building trust (aka. topical authority) first for a specific keyword. This means writing multiple pieces for that specific keyword before moving on

• to focus on long-tail & high-intent keywords first (see the separate section on this)

So you could write 10 articles first on the pillar topic ‘LinkedIn carousels’ with sub-topics like:

• How to create a LinkedIn carousel?

• The best LinkedIn carousels 2025

• How to save a LinkedIn carousel?

• Why LinkedIn carousels work (again)?

• …

The beauty of this approach?

• You can start writing content for sub-topics (e.g. How to save a LinkedIn carousel), with usually lower traffic and lower competition, start ranking for this and building site authority.

• Once you have covered multiple sub-topic articles, you can combine them into an ‘Ultimate Guide’ pillar page (e.g. The Ultimate Guide on LinkedIn Carousels).

You get the point. Google will start seeing your website as a trusted authority when it comes to ‘LinkedIn carousels’.

What to do exactly?

Add a column to your keyword list spreadsheet and map your keywords to a content pillar topic. That way, you group different keywords.

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So, by now, you should have a filtered list of relevant keywords mapped with a few pillar topics. It’s your prioritized list of keywords you want to rank for.

This is exactly what you want!

6. Content Planning

Now it’s time to plan your content.

Choose your first keyword(s) cluster and craft your content ideas. This should include:

• Title of Content

• Content Type (Blog, Landing Page, Whitepaper, etc.)

You want to have a roadmap of blog posts, comparison pages, landing pages, and other formats that address user questions at every stage of their journey (to build topical authority).

As mentioned a couple of times, start with BOFU first.

7. Content Creation

We will not go into the details of content creation in this guide.

Check out our 25+ SaaS content types (+examples) if you want content templates.

Content Creation Best Practices

But here are 9 Content Creation Best practices to keep in mind:

1. Use compelling & relevant headlines (incl. benefits, target audience, stats, etc.)

2. Build internal links (and add external links to trusted sites)

3. Add visuals (animations, Gifs, videos, quotes) to make the content more appealing

4. Add trust elements (logos, quotes, testimonials)

5. Drive engagement by adding elements like FAQs, Case Studies, Lead Magnets

6. Add TL:DR

7. Add summaries & outlines

8. End with a strong CTA (Banner) to drive conversion and lead visitors toward the next step (signup, demo, or free trial)

9. Add secondary/softer CTAs in between (Download report, join webinar, Get templates, Read Case Study…)

Content Briefing

Before you write your content, start with a short Content Brief. That way, you make sure that you write the ‘right’ content and that everyone in the team is aligned.

With a short brief, you get clarity on:

• Pillar Topic: What cluster does it fit?

• Target audience: Who do you write it for (Be specific about persona + awareness stage)

• Core message in 1 sentence: Example: This product is great for X, but comes with Z limitations. If you care about Z, then Y is the better solution

• CTA: What do you want people to do after reading the content

Once done, you can create a first outline of the content with headlines and a few bullet points per section.

8. Acquire Authoritative Backlinks

Once the content is published, try to acquire high-quality inbound links.

If your content is valuable, people will give you credit for it and start to link to your site.

But, of course, you can actively work on getting more backlinks.

We’ve covered this step already in Pillar 4: Off-Page SEO.

9. Measure and Refine

Data should guide every iteration of your SEO strategy.

We recommend that founders track these key SEO metrics:

Organic Traffic

Track your overall visits from search engines. You want to see an increase in absolute traffic (and also in share of total traffic). Click on a page to view which keywords are driving traffic and how their positions have changed.

Keyword Rankings:

Track the positions of your target keywords, especially those with high purchase intent.

Monitor changes in ranking positions to see if your content is improving or dropping in search results.

Focus on keywords where you rank 4-10

Google Top Rankings (1-3) get most of the traffic. So if you identified relevant keywords where you already rank quite well (4-10), it’s usually a good exercise to see what you can do to get your ranking to the top 3 results.

Conversions

Total amount & % of Sign-ups, demo requests, or free trials that originated from organic sessions. You can use Google Analytics to track which pages are converting (e.g., sign-ups, purchases). If a high-traffic page has low conversions, test new CTAs, clearer messaging, or a more engaging layout.

Bounce Rates

Where do you lose visitors from your site?

You can use Google Analytics to check which pages have high bounce rates. If a page has a high bounce rate, it may need better internal linking, clearer CTAs, or improved content structure to keep users engaged.

Regularly review these insights to identify which pages need more attention, which new topics are gaining traction, or where you may need to invest in updated content or fresh backlinks.

Advanced Tip:

• Run A/B tests on your CTAs (if you have high traffic, not before)

• try different landing page layouts, and

• gather user feedback (via heatmaps or surveys).

Incremental improvements here can significantly boost ROI on your SEO efforts.

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4. Common SEO Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

SaaS founders often fall into similar traps that delay their progress. Keep an eye out for:

❌ Jumping in too early or too late
Start too early, and you won’t have a solid product-market fit – your content might miss the mark. Wait too long, and competitors might be too far ahead for you to catch up easily.

❌ Ignoring user intent
Chasing broad or irrelevant keywords may get impressions but few signups. Research real-world queries that reflect a genuine need for your tool. Start with high-intent keywords first.

❌ Unstructured or mismatched content
Random blog posts won’t resonate if they don’t speak directly to prospect pain points. A cohesive, topic-cluster approach keeps users (and Google) happy.

❌ No clear path to conversion
High traffic means little if there’s no CTA or sign-up funnel. Always guide readers to the next step in discovering your product’s value.

An optimal SEO strategy should aim to create a balance between content that resonates with your ICP and is optimized for SEO.

To achieve this balance -

1. Aim to create high-quality quality comprehensive content that effectively answers queries of your potential customers and

2. Optimize this by using the pillars of SEO mentioned above.

While it might take longer for your SEO results to kick in, once you have the optimal framework in place, you can reap long-term benefits for your SaaS.

5. Bonus Materials

If you want to deep-dive a bit more into SEO, here are some awesome resources:

• Learn more about the basic and advanced SEO strategies from SEMrush Academy

• Follow Kevin Indig Rob Hoffman Connor Gillivan John Ozuysal Romana Kuts for some great SEO insights!

• 9 ways to align SEO with your Sales pipeline

• Kalungi’s SEO Guide

• Read OpenPhone’s early SEO playbook

Happy growth 🚀

Alex

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