B2B vs B2B SaaS SEO: What’s the Difference? (Best Practices)

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps businesses dominate their industries and gather leads and conversions. With updated SEO strategies, your business can enjoy increased visibility and overtake competitors online.

Let us focus on SEO for business-to-business (B2B) and B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. This guide:

• Describes and compare B2B and B2B SaaS SEO
• Shows the best SEO strategies for each

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What Are B2B SEO and B2B SaaS SEO, and How Are They Different?

B2B refers to companies that provide services or products to other businesses. B2B SEO, meanwhile, is the optimization of B2B digital marketing campaigns for search engines. It helps improve the visibility of such companies, allowing them to acquire more leads, promote brand awareness, and increase revenue.

B2B SaaS SEO refers to techniques specifically used to boost the ranking of B2B SaaS websites and pages. B2B SaaS companies offer other businesses software services or applications. B2B SaaS SEO, if properly implemented, can help these companies showcase their products, demonstrating to clients that they have the best solutions.

B2B SEO and B2B SaaS SEO have similar applications, although the latter focuses more on promoting software services. Some unique SaaS marketing strategies include software free trials, how-to video content, and software testing. Therefore, your SaaS company should partner with a dedicated B2B SaaS SEO agency to ensure the best results.

What Are Best Practices for B2B SEO and B2B SaaS SEO?

As mentioned, B2B and B2B SaaS SEO strategies are similar but focus on different markets. The following best practices apply to both fields.

     1. Develop Buyer Personas

Every client has a specific issue — a unique need you must fill with your software products. To understand your clients better, you must study their habits, buying behaviors, concerns, and criteria for choosing products. This is building a multi-dimensional image or profile of your clients so that you can offer them exactly what they need.

Your buyer persona recognizes the uniqueness of every client and campaign. When ready to pitch your products with content, landing pages, and ads, with knowing a buyer persona you are more likely to capture the client's attention and readily get their business. So, how do you make a buyer persona? Here are some tips:

• Use surveys. Ask site visitors to participate in a short survey that asks them questions related to your offers or products. Ask what they think about your products, or how likely they are to recommend them to peers. Make the questions concise and on-point. You may reward those who participated in the survey with a discount or a gift.
• Conduct a short interview. Instead of a survey, a one-on-one interview can help you deeply understand your clients or prospects. Try emailing them to request an interview via Zoom or Google Meet. Write out the questions for your discussion, to stay focused.
• Look at social media comments. Conduct social listening for any mentions of your brand or products. Check comments that clients or prospects left while interacting with your posts or competitors' pages.
• Check form fields and your contact database. If your site collects visitor information, use this data to create client personas. For example, you may have asked visitors to indicate their company size, management position, and industry.

     2. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

Every B2B SaaS SEO campaign begins with thorough keyword research. Find keywords that are best to target and that provide valuable insight into your clients' searches. The right keywords optimize content, promoting your authority and credibility in the industry.

To keep up with frequent search algorithm changes, keyword research should be an ongoing process for B2B SaaS companies. Research ensures that your content remains relevant and engaging for your target audience. Let's look at some of the most effective keyword research strategies.

• Utilize a keyword research tool. Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs help to discover keyword ideas and important metrics that are valuable in your selection process. Use seed keywords to grow your list. Use Keyword Gap to check for any keywords that may have been missed.
• Analyze keywords metrics. Narrow your list by considering key metrics, such as search volume and keyword difficulty. Search volume is about the popularity of the keyword. Difficulty refers to how hard it is to rank for a keyword. Optimally, you want a keyword with a higher search volume and is easier to rank.
• Determine competitor keywords. Use keyword research tools to check competitors’ sites and reveal weaknesses in their strategies. Look for valuable terms that they failed to target.

     3. Optimize Software Product Landing Pages

With the best keywords and a clear vision of buyer persona, you can now create software product landing pages. Your landing pages are where clients and prospects "land" after they click your URL from an organic search.

B2B SaaS SEO practices ensure that content is useful, valuable, and updated for your audience. It includes optimizing your pages to get the best reach and visibility. These are the best practices to optimize the software product landing pages.

• Use a compelling headline. Headlines must be clear and specific, tells what your content is about, and should be interesting enough to encourage clients to check out your pages.
• Opt for a clean and attractive page design. Use plenty of white space, and place the most crucial information at the top, so that they remain visible and accessible. Use simple site navigation, allowing clients to easily find what they want.
• Create concise and convincing content. Use fewer words to state your point. Incorporate software features that include statistics, data, and research that support your ideas.
• Include videos and pictures. Use screen grabs and photos of your software product. Post videos of complex procedures such as installation, updates, etc.
• Optimize for mobile use. Most of  your clients are likely using mobile devices to check out software solutions. Optimize your content for mobile. Speed up page loading times, place calls-to-action (CTA) on top of the page, and use a responsive web design, so that the pages display correctly on different mobile devices.

Summing Up

B2B and B2B SaaS SEO are similar in many ways but different regarding focus and target market. Learning their differences helps you create better, more effective, and highly targeted pages to attract clients or prospects.

SEO can promote B2B companies by creating buyer personas, conducting thorough keyword research, and producing valuable, robust content. These optimization strategies take your business and products closer to your clients.

Find out how SEO can help your B2B company stand out. Call Digital Authority Partners today.