Keyword Analysis For SaaS: Step By Step Guide

The basis for any successful SEO is keyword analysis. And so is the case with SaaS as well. Keywords are responsible for attracting traffic to your SaaS. They will help you in reaching out to prospective customers. Hence, selecting and ranking for the most suitable keywords will crucially affect the organic traffic flow to your website.

Additionally, research has indicated that 93 percent of keywords are responsible for initiating online sessions. This emphasizes the importance of a solid SaaS SEO keyword research strategy.

But how can you build a strong SaaS keyword research strategy? We’ve brought you good news because you’ve landed at the right place. This article shall walk you through all the necessary steps for keyword analysis for SaaS.

SaaS SEO Keyword Research

Keywords help in defining the type and quality of your content. Whenever a prospect searches for a specific keyword, and if your content matches their query. Consequently, your content will pop up in the search result.

The two types of SaaS SEO keywords include:

1. Informational Keywords:

These keywords typically target people who want to gather information or know about the product or service prior to purchase. You can further categorize these keywords as awareness and research.

Examples of such keywords include how to hire a website developer or what are the charges of website development. Both the keywords start with how-to or what-is, suggesting research, or gathering information.

2. Transactional Keywords:

Prospective customers use these keywords. Such users have an intention to purchase your product or service, for instance, website developers or digital agencies.

To rank for such keywords, you must ensure a call-to-action on the intended landing page. The call-to-action can either be free trials or sign-ups.

How Can I Perform SaaS Keyword Research?

There might not be a definite set of rules for keyword analysis for SaaS. But, by following the strategies we will discuss, you can easily build a solid SaaS SEO keyword strategy. There’s a variety of tools, tactics, and tips that you can use to perform good keyword analysis for SaaS.

1. Brainstorm and Gather Keyword Ideas

To start with your keyword analysis for SaaS, you will need to brainstorm a few keyword ideas. You can brainstorm by gathering data on your intended readership. It would be best if you brainstorm with your team; the more, the merrier.

Your customers will be looking for you through numerous methods. Hence having more brains to the storm will help you with several multiple perspectives. Give the process a good hour or two. Start with thinking like the user. Ask yourself:

• What does your service or product offer?

• Who does it target?

• How would you describe it to your prospects?

To further enhance the process, use or build a keyword research template. Firstly, categorize; this will help you come up with a range of different keywords. You can categorize your keywords per:

• Product – system, platform, software, solution, tool, etc.

• Service or Solution – drive traffic, enhance website security, mitigate risk, business automation, etc.

• Feature – security portal, API integration, accounting import, export data, etc.

• Industry or Customer base – accounting, transportation, hospitality, enterprise, aviation, manufacturing, retail, etc.

• Integration – you can try to leverage other brand names to drive traffic. For instance, POS software for Quickbooks, etc.

• Competitor Analysis – Sometimes, your competitors may dominate the market. In such a case, integrate their names to drive traffic. For instance, try using terms like better alternatives for salesforce. Additionally, you can also use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to leverage their data for your own good.

Firstly, in a spreadsheet, create columns for each category. After this, add keywords under each category. Finally, combine keywords from each category in different ways to come up with new categories.

●   Error-free Keywords

With the growth of AI, Google is also learning spelling and grammar. Hence try to avoid grammar and spelling mistakes. Additionally, also include both singular and plural versions of your keyword. This is because both versions may contain different search intent and volume.

●   Long-tailed Keywords

Alternatively, you can take help from search engines like Google. This will help you come up with long-tail keywords. Using long-tailed keywords will help you in targeting a larger readership.

All you must do is enter your keywords onto the Google search bar, but don't press enter. As you enter the keyword, you will see the bar will autosuggest your keywords. For further long-tailed keywords, you can check out other SEO tools like Ahrefs or Keywordtool.io.

For example, if you’re aiming to rank for invoicing software. But, this is a very competitive keyword and seems like a needle in the hay. Hence, instead of ranking for this generic keyword, get specific by going long-tailed.

So, instead of ranking for just invoicing software, try ranking for small business invoicing software or invoicing software for contractors. This way, you can rank multiple blogs for the same keyword.

2. Look For New Keywords

a. Rank For Voice Search

Another keyword analysis for SaaS strategy is to rank for voice searches. This is especially crucial for SaaS companies. With greater and accurate voice searches, that’s a largely untapped opportunity.

Firstly, voice search for your and your competitor’s business, just like a customer. Think about:

• Relevant voice search keywords, for instance, digital agencies near me.

• Use easy to pronounce keywords

• Shortlist and emphasize question-like and long-tailed keywords. This is because they are more common.

Use this to understand and know you, the customer, and their intention. And then, draft such content that includes answers to the queries of your customers.

b. Look For Question-like Keywords

To search for question-like keywords, you can use tools like Answer The Public. The tool will help you come across the relevant question. You can even rank for featured snippets by leveraging this platform. 

c. Search For Money Keywords

Look for keywords that will help you in generating greater leads. Such keywords are typically high competition and high-volume keywords. They are a depiction of your offerings, either at a category or topic level.

One excellent example of a money keyword, also known as a bottom-of-the-funnel keyword, is CRM Software. So, if you sell CRM software, ensure to include other question-like and long-tailed keywords as well.

To search for money keywords, you can take help from SEO tools like Ahref and SEMrush. Remember to look for your head terms and keywords around your product and service.

Trimming The Keyword Analysis For SaaS

By now, you must have gathered a long list of keywords. Besides this, you must also be familiar with the intent and relevance of the keywords to your business or product. Finally, it’s time to perform keyword analysis for SaaS. 

If you’ve been carrying out a comprehensive search and analysis, then you must know some keywords won’t be as beneficial. This may be because of various factors like search relevance or intent, difficulty, and search volume.

Another reason you might want to exclude a few keywords is that the category may be overly saturated. This means that there may be a lot of good keywords already present within the category.

Start removing the extreme outliers. For instance, a keyword with a high search volume that isn’t relevant. On the other hand, remove keywords with a high difficulty score and low search volumes. These cuts are pretty obvious. You further remove keywords based on:

1. Search Volume

The most basic data point while analyzing a keyword is the search volume. This lets you measure the estimated number of traffic a keyword may receive. This is time-specific and usually expressed as monthly. 

These monthly volumes are based on a 6-month average. Hence, they can help provide a good indication of search trends. Compare the search volumes of one keyword to another to quickly evaluate and eliminate non-performing keywords.

2. Difficulty

Several SEO tools will also assist you in providing you with a Keyword Difficulty Score. This score examines different top-ranking elements of search engines like Google. After that, the tool ranks it on a scale of 100, with 100 being the most difficult.

Tools like WordStream and Ahref offer such difficult score tools. Just simply enter the keyword you want to rank for, and the tool will provide you with insights.

3. Ranking

Your current rank on a search result page assesses the relevance of your website to the topic. This is how a search engine sees your website. If that keyword has a high difficulty score, this indicates that you have a highly competitive website.

If so is the case, then you can easily aim and rank for keywords with a high difficulty score.

4. URL Ranking

The URL ranking helps Google evaluate which page is relevant to the keyword. Sometimes, the landing page may not even be as relevant. If so is the case, make instant changes.

Other times, the ranking URL may land you on the exact page that has room for optimization. Such pages can improve rankings quickly and easily with the bare minimum.

5. Rich Snippet Result

Rich snippets are pieces of information that a search engine extracts from the search results. They then display the piece of information directly on the result page. Consequently, some keywords can result in generating rich snippets.

If you get to rank for a rich snippet, that means you’re highly competitive. This indicates that Google chose your website to extract relevant data. However, they may negatively impact the traffic to your website.

This is because, typically, a user wouldn’t want to click on your link if their query has already been resolved on the result page already. However, sometimes, the user may want more information. So, they might end up clicking on your link.

6. High CPC

A high CPC or cost per click indicates a profitable keyword. This indicates that the competition is willing to pay to rank their websites higher against the keyword.

7. Low Competition

Looking for a keyword with a low competition yet high search volume may be challenging. Hence, ranking for such keywords may be tough. However, once your website ranks for them, it can prove to be very beneficial.

As a novice, it may be a struggle to rank for very competitive keywords. Hence, low competition keywords are a good place to start with.

Consider the following example:

The keyword accounts payable may have a search volume of 47,000 a month. However, another directly relevant keyword AP automation receives only 600 searches a month.

Now you obviously would want to rank for the 47,000-search volume one. But, if your product you sell is an AP automation software for airlines and logistics. Then you obviously would not want to rank for accounts payable and cause chaos within your global sales team.

Consequently, the value for ranking for a 600-search volume AP automation is greater than ranking for a 47,000-search volume accounts payable.

Tools For Keyword Analysis For SaaS

Determining keywords just based on the aforementioned factors isn’t enough. You may eliminate a keyword based on the search volume. However, with commercial intent, the keyword may provide you with leads.

You can accurately evaluate keywords using the following tools:

●  Google Keyword Planner – to look for the suitable and accurate keywords

●   Google Search – to look for relevant topics and keywords

●  Google Trends – to keep a watch on hot topics

●   Yoast SEO – to look out for the SEO-friendliness of your content

●   SEMrush – to take up your SEO game a step up. For SEO analytics and keyword research.

Keyword Usage

From the previous example, we do not recommend completely ruling out the keyword accounts payable. But still, you can use it in your content or blog. You can categorize such keywords in your spreadsheet as usage. In this column, you can note down keywords that can be used on your website.

There can be two areas of usage:

1. Structural Page

A structural page carries more weight on a search engine. You can easily navigate these pages with a single click from the home page or main menu. Such pages usually target a keyword or two per page.

2. Content Page

A content page is a nice location for keywords loosely relevant to your SaaS business. However, the keywords may not be able to be targeted on a structural page. Examples of content pages include articles, blogs, case studies, or guides.

For instance, the homepage may target a single keyword. Conversely, content targets may target a variety of keywords relevant to your business or industry.

Keyword Mapping and Finalizing

Once you have a list of keywords and their variants, finalize the keyword analysis for SaaS. Now, you can map the keywords to suitable web pages. But to do so, you must ensure a clear understanding of each web page. 

You must ensure mapping each topic in relevance with their respective focused and additional keywords. Additionally, ensure that each keyword per webpage is directly relevant and mirrors the structure of your website.

To map the keywords, you also need to understand what the search engine thinks your website is relevant for. Firstly, decide upon the web pages you need to create. Secondly, identify web pages in need of optimization.

Follow this step-by-step guide for keyword mapping:

●  Step # 1:

Copy the SaaS keyword research from the spreadsheet into a new tab, and label it keyword mapping. Use this tab for mapping keywords for the most suitable pages. Also, determine which keywords will need a new page.

●  Step # 2:

Select all keywords that you will map on content pages. Move these keywords to a separate content keyword tab. This will narrow your focus to the structural pages because you must optimize them first.

●  Step # 3:

Assess the ranking of your website with respect to each keyword. With the help of the rankings, the keywords determine the best-fit keywords. If you might see that your page may have the same ranking for several keywords. 

This indicates that your website bears weight within the industry. This also means that your website is not fully optimized. Additionally, if a web page ranks very well for a keyword, this is a good indication to make it a target page.

Moreover, if a keyword doesn’t deem fit for a webpage, consider making a new one for it. Also, in the spreadsheet create a new tab to keep track of web pages for each keyword.

●  Step # 4:

Finally, create different columns for existing and new pages. Next, add current pages under the Current Page tab. And if the keyword required a new or updated page, come up with a new URL, and put it under the respective tab.

If pages just require an update for relevance to the keyword, then place them under the New/Update Page tab. Additionally, add a yes in the tab that reads Page Exist.

Maintaining and Wrapping Up Keyword Analysis for SaaS

Now, that you’re done with researching, analyzing, and mapping keywords for your SaaS website. But the work doesn’t end here. The trends keep evaluating, and so will the list need a constant upgrade.

With time, your business will grow, and the search environment will change. There will be time stretches, hence, change is inevitable. Meanwhile, we also have good news for you; you can avail SEO services from experienced digital agencies like us.