start up Software as a Service A website usually consists of a home page and some support pages – none of which provide any SEO value.
A good SaaS homepage will drive conversions and improve your business overall. But how do you optimize yours?
In this article, you’ll learn about SaaS homepage SEO challenges, the role of homepages in SEO, and the different keywords to consider when optimizing your SaaS homepage.
Why is homepage SEO so challenging for SaaS brands?
Let’s face it, homepage SEO confuses almost everyone.
Whether it’s a SaaS company, a local company, or another type of businessyou’ll find many in every vertical working to make the most of this real estate from an SEO standpoint.
At the same time, the homepage is also an asset that almost every merchant cares about most.
it is usually the main login page, regardless of the traffic source. Because of this, it is also one of the most common assets:
- Visitors are welcome.
- Make a first impression on the brand.
- Describe what the company does (or at least hint and suggest where others can learn more).
- Explain the value the company provides and what differentiates the company and its products in the marketplace.
- Point your visitors to where they can find the information they’re looking for (via navigation and any internal links you put there).
as Yoast explain A typical approach to homepage SEO:
“I think one purpose of the home page No, This is ranking for keywords other than your business name or brand. “
This is the case with most brands. But I think the SaaS market (and with it SaaS marketing) is different from other industries.
How is SaaS different?
many early brand No other business assets (or even the ability to create more).
For many SaaS companies, the homepage plays a business role and may be their only business page.
example:
Screenshot by author, April 2021Then here comes the problem Brand Awareness.
Everyone has heard of asanas. drift. center point.
These companies can meta title tag and get rid of it. They know that people are looking for their brand no matter what.
As for other keywords, these companies have thousands of pages targeting these phrases.
(That being said, Hubspot still optimizes its homepage for product categories.)
But when you’re a relatively new SaaS company trying to carve a niche for yourself in the industry – when you’re trying to beat more established companies competitor And focus on kickstarting growth — expecting someone to Google your name and land on the home page (remember, the only page on the site) won’t get you very far.
So, what are your options?
The role of the homepage in a SaaS SEO strategy
The importance of your homepage goes far beyond the fact that you (yet) have no other pages to optimize.
The more clearly you explain what your product does, what category it falls into, and what value users get from it, the easier it will be for search engines to figure out how to rank you in search results.
When you’re just starting out with SaaS, the home page will attract most, if not all, organic links.
No matter what mentions, media references, or other PR your product gets, it will likely link to your homepage.
your initial Link Building Strategies – guest post, digital PRpodcasting, or submitting a website to a SaaS directory – most likely targeting the home page as well.
When other sites link to your homepage, they pass Page Rank It can then be distributed around your website to help Google find specific pages.
Smart internal linking Will help you transfer the benefits of PageRank you’ve collected on your homepage to your new pages as you develop them.
So, what keywords to use to optimize a SaaS homepage?
There are three types of keywords to focus on.
The first one is obvious, but to find the right phrase for the other phrases you need to do something keyword research.
1. Your brand
It’s still a good idea to include brand-related terms on your homepage, although there are other terms to focus on.
At a minimum, include the company or product name in the title tag of the home page, usually at the end of the tag.
This way, you can ensure that the main focus of the tag is your main target keyword.
example:
Screenshot by author, April 2021In most cases, you’ll also naturally sprinkle your branding on the page.
You’d mention it in the meta description, maybe include it in the main subtitle, under the tagline, in alt text for an image or two, and elsewhere in the body (e.g. in a review or testimonial) because it Occurs naturally.
2. Product category (if the intent is correct)
This is where you start to position your homepage (and brand) for phrases that can drive valuable business traffic.
Product category-related keywords describe the main category that best defines your product.
These are not keywords that might define an item’s attributes or functionality, but more generic seed phrases that tell users what the product is and have nothing to do with your brand.
These are often phrases you use to describe your product to customers, investors, or various stakeholders—enterprise resource planning software, CMS and e-commerce, communication platforms, etc.
These are terms that salespeople refer to in their emails, sales materials, etc.
Where to include keywords related to product categories?
Since this is the main keyword you’re targeting, use it on every page:
- in meta tags.
- on the page H1 day.
- at the beginning of the body content of the page.
- in alt tags etc.
Exception: When the user intent of the keyword is different from the homepage
In some cases, the user intent for phrases related to product categories is different from the intent you can target on the homepage.
Although the phrase appears to have commercial intent at first, upon inspection, you may realize that it has multiple intents.
take keyword phrases [small business CRM]. This keyword seems to work well on the home page of a software product.
But look at the SERPs. These lists mainly include information content:
- Most of the top-ranking pages are lists of collections of CRM software solutions.
- None of these pages are product home pages.
- There is only one actual CRM software domain ranking, not even a business page.
Screenshot by author, April 2021Ranking a homepage is nearly impossible, especially for a lesser-known SaaS brand.
You have two options here:
- Compromise and identify different product category related keywords (or at least one that is close enough to the product category). Create a separate page to target your desired raw keywords with content relevant to their intent.
- Just focus on the brand. I personally think this is too much of a compromise for an early stage startup.
3. Keywords related to the core product of the product
We’ve covered your brand and product category positioning.
But what about those other phrases that describe your product? What about keywords related to product features or functionality?
These phrases aren’t your primary keywords, but there’s a way to incorporate them.
Additionally, you can use your homepage to support specific pages you might create for those keywords.
That’s it:
Include your product listing Feature. You most likely already have it on the page in some shape or form.
Screenshot by author, April 2021Then, link each of these sections to the relevant landing page.
Ideally, you would big ball to increase relevance. You will achieve three goals this way:
- You will increase the topical relevance of your homepage. Google and other search engines will have a better understanding of what your product does and phrases related to your domain.
- You’ll help visitors find anything relevant to their needs.
- Finally, you’ll strengthen the page authority for those additional assets created to rank for keywords related to product features or functionality.
final thoughts
The end result is that your homepage should contain the most Related Keywords and keyword phrases relevant to your business.
Whether or not you plan to optimize for organic channels, it’s important that you understand these keywords that search engines will use and the various ways consumers will try to find your product.
So, don’t ignore the basics!
More resources:
Featured image: Andrei Suslov/Shutterstock
