The SaaS Startup Guide— Resources & Guidelines For Running A Startup in 2023
The SaaS SEO MBA is a collection of the internet’s best resources for SaaS companies. [NOTE: We will be regularly updating this article with more resources, so this is just a teaser, much more is coming in 2023]
Covering a broad range of advanced-level concepts and frameworks, these resources are meant to be a comprehensive curriculum on everything you need to know about SEO for SaaS companies.
All told, these resources cover about a decade’s worth of SEO knowledge in a day of reading. You’ll find topics like security, technical SEO, strategy, keyword selection, content planning, linkbuilding, and more.
It’s a modern MBA for SaaS marketers.
Class is in session.
Website Setup & Architecture
The foundation of all SEO is a combination of technical factors and site architecture. Ensuring that your website is properly setup to be indexed and that you have the right content to maximize your potential search visibility is key.
These resources provide a deep dive into each of these considerations.
1. Technical SEO Guide for SaaS
Technical SEO for SaaS — Credo
Credo’s guide to technical SEO is a thorough breakdown of the technical specifications you need for your SaaS website to rank well.
2. SaaS Authority Website Architecture
Best Practices For A SaaS Website | Powered by Search
Dev’s breakdown of SaaS website best practices is a deep and actionable look at which types of content your website needs to maximize search footprint. It breaks down the ideal website architecture, content hierarchy, and other critical considerations for successful SEO.
Jump straight into the B2B SaaS Authority Website Architecture site map.
Saas Website Security & Maintenance
If you’re a SaaS entrepreneur or looking to build a SaaS application, you might be relating to all of the statements above. SaaS application security is one of the growing concerns amongst startups and tech businesses.
SaaS definitely helps you in becoming a better company. Studies highlight that Software as a service (SaaS) businesses are growing at a sky-high pace. They are increasingly becoming the first choice because of easy up-gradation, scalability, and low infrastructure needs.
What’s more? SaaS is poised to take over the cloud market, and nearly 75% of apps would be SaaS-powered by 2021.
The top cloud security threats (in order of significance) include:
- Data Breaches
- Mis configuration and inadequate change control
- Lack of cloud security architecture and strategy
- Insufficient identity, credential, access, and key management
- Account hijacking
- Insider threat
- Insecure interfaces and APIs
- Weak control plane
- Meta structure and appli structure failures
- Limited cloud usage visibility
- Abuse and nefarious use of cloud services
Snapshot of SaaS Security Risks
To securely and successfully protect your SaaS application, it is necessary to be committed to implementing the best-in-class SaaS security.
Developing A Security Review Checklist — If your site is in wordpress, this will come handy
Ultimate WordPress Security Guide & Checklist 2020 By Wp Hacked Help
Hiring Security Resource (Dedicated/Partially Dedicated)
Investing in the services of a security engineer can help to deal efficiently with security tasks in the organization. You can opt for top rated website security service providers that 🔄 Provide a secure experience for users. 🔗 ⚠️ Malware monitoring. 🐞 Vulnerability Assessment. Standard firewall or web application firewall. Reduced Attacks by DDOS. More info: Best WordPress Security Services 2021
Enforcing Data Deletion Policy
Protecting Sensitive Data
Integrating Site Protection from Malware attack
How To Remove Malware From Your WordPress Site — [GUIDE]
Safeguarding Your Infrastructure
Ensuring Compliance of Audits and Certifications
Saas Security Checklist[Download]
SaaS Strategy & Frameworks
Next, let’s do a deep dive into building a SaaS SEO strategy, how to align it with other parts of the business model, and a bit of high-level thinking around why SEO is so essential as a core business strategy.
3. Building a Full-Funnel SaaS SEO Strategy
How to Build a Growth-Focused SaaS SEO Strategy
This guide is a full breakdown of the SaaS funnel and a strategic roadmap for creating pages and website content that map directly to the buyer’s journey. It combines top of the funnel content that addresses buyer pain points, middle of the funnel solution and product-driven pages, and bottom of the funnel comparison content.
4. Integrating SEO within the Product Triangle
Integrating SEO within the Product Triangle To Align Efforts & Maximize Impact
This is an advanced guide on aligning SaaS SEO with the overall product strategy and other growth activities. It’s an extremely helpful framework for understanding how SEO relates to other parts of the SaaS business and also identifying opportunities to better integrate work being done by multiple teams or people.
5. Building an SEO Moat
The SEO Moat: Why SEO Can Be A Competitive Advantage
Why is SEO so important in the first place? Ross lays out a detailed analysis of how SEO is used as a moat that protects brands from competition. He paints a clear picture for why companies (including SaaS) should be invested in SEO as a long-term competitive advantage.
Content
Content is a critical part of almost every SaaS SEO strategy. These articles break down the strategy behind high-performing content built for various parts of the buyer journey and SEO strategy.
6. Steal Your Competitor’s Customers Using Comparison Pages
Steal Your Competitor’s Customers On AutoPilot Using High-Converting Product Comparison Pages
Pallav’s comprehensive breakdown on successful product comparison pages is a hallmark resource for SaaS marketers. These high-converting, bottom-of-the-funnel comparisons are a critical part of successful SEO strategy and require precision, finesse, and thoughtful copy to be executed well.
7. How to Find and Map Keywords to the Buyer’s Journey
How to Find and Map Keywords to the Buyer’s Journey
Central to a SaaS SEO strategy is choosing the correct keywords to target. This breakdown explains not only how to think about keywords through the lens of the buyer’s journey, but also provides actionable steps for conducting keyword research effectively.
8. The SaaS Website Content You Need to Close Sales
The SaaS Website Content You Need to Close Sales [Data]
Mike’s put together a data-driven analysis of the types of content that SaaS customers are searching for when making their buying decision. This study highlights the key pages and content that your SaaS will need to capture bottom-of-the-funnel buyers and convert them into paying customers.
9. Why You Should Focus on Bottom of the Funnel First to Drive Signups
SaaS Content Marketing: Why You Should Focus on Bottom of the Funnel First to Drive Signups
This piece offers a strategic analysis of why SaaS companies should start at the bottom of the funnel to maximize early ROI on their SEO strategy. Benji details how their team came to this conclusion and what kind of results they were able to generate by taking this approach.
Linkbuilding
One of the most poorly understood elements of all SEO is linkbuilding. Nevertheless, building links remains a critical part of SEO success — especially in competitive markets. These resources cover both a high-level overview of successful linkbuilding strategies and a detailed breakdown of the execution.
10. 5 Proven Linkbuilding Strategies for SaaS
SaaS Content Marketing: 5 Proven Strategies to Earn Links | CXL
Emily conducts a data-driven teardown of successful linkbuilding content created by SaaS companies. Her analysis offers some inspiration for specific content ideas, insights about what made them successful from a linkbuilding standpoint, and also tips for building on their success.
11. Linkbuilding for SaaS Companies
Link Building For SaaS Companies: Our Playbook in 2020
Alan’s team has built and scaled a successful linkbuilding operation that works heavily with SaaS customers. In this guide, he details — in excruciating detail — exactly how they identify linkbuilding opportunities, source contacts, and conduct outreach.
12. The “Dream” Linkbuilding Strategy
Dream Link Building: The Only Link Building Strategy You’ll Ever Need
Brendan offers a contrarian take on successful linkbuilding. His focus on relationships as a key metric makes the entire premise of linkbuilding feel a bit more approachable. This mindset and tactical execution is also a sustainable, long-term approach for SaaS companies that want to build their brand and reputation in addition to winning at SEO.
Case Studies & Teardowns
Lastly, let’s close with some detailed teardowns and case studies that highlight the exact tactics and strategies that successful SaaS companies have used to win with SEO.
13. How Zapier Used SEO to Reach $35M ARR
SaaS SEO Strategy Zapier Used to Reach $35M ARR
This detailed teardown offers a comprehensive look at how Zapier has built a scalable SEO strategy through a combination of highly-targeted programmatic landing pages, key product content, and a strategic mix of blogs and guides.
14. Breaking Down the Genius of Hubspot’s Website Grader
In this Twitter thread, Ross provides a rich history and metrics around the success of Hubspot’s website grader. This simple tool has had a profound impact on their overall SEO success, generating a huge amount of traffic, driving leads, and accruing over a million links.
15. How HelloSign Scaled Their Traffic 1,308%
How We Helped HelloSign Scale Their Traffic 1,308%
Take a deep look at the content and SEO strategy used by HelloSign to massively scale organic traffic and inbound pipeline leading up to their acquisition by Dropbox. This case study details the specific framework
Also Read:
400% SaaS revenue jump with $0 marketing budget — How We Did It & Probably You Too
Have a resource that would make a great addition to the curriculum? Contact me
About the Creator
My name is Larson reever. You subscribe our awesome hunt newsletter & Security newsletter at substack .
I’m an entrepreneur and I provide expert consultation to growth-focused Saas agencies, startups, and technology companies . All the content I am sharing was/is used/tested/tried out by myself. Most of it I am simply sharing because I think it is cool and a lot of creative minds could profit from it
