If you've ever typed a query into Google and clicked on a non-ad result, you've already interacted with SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website to rank higher in search engine results for relevant keywords. The goal is to attract organic traffic—users actively looking for information, solutions, or services you offer.

For SaaS companies, this can mean ranking for terms like “best CRM for remote teams” or “email marketing automation for startups.” 

But here’s the thing: organic search is one of the few growth channels that scales without scaling costs. Unlike paid ads that stop working the moment you stop paying, SEO compounds. 

A well-optimized blog post can continue to attract high-intent leads months—or even years—after it's published.

In this guide, we’ll break down the SEO basics into plain English. No jargon. Just the key concepts you need to know. 

The Three Pillars of SEO

SEO isn't a single tactic. It’s a system built on three interdependent components: technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. Each plays a different role in helping search engines discover, rank, and trust your content.

1. Technical SEO: Help Search Engines Access and Understand Your Site

Technical SEO is about making sure search engines can access, understand, and index your website effectively. Without this foundation, even the most valuable content can remain invisible in search results.

Key components include:

• Website speed and performance: Page speed is a confirmed ranking factor. More importantly, it directly impacts user experience and conversion rates. A 2023 Portent study found that a B2B site that loads in 1 second converts 3x better than those that load in 5 seconds. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix performance issues.
• Mobile responsiveness: Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning your mobile site is the primary version it evaluates. A responsive design ensures users on all devices have a consistent experience, and helps preserve your rankings.
• Clean URL structures: A clean URL is readable, keyword-relevant, and free of random characters. For example, example.com/blog/seo-for-saas is better than example.com/page?id=123.
• Robots.txt file: Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site to ignore. 
• XML sitemaps: An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website that you want search engines to index.
• SSL certification: An SSL certificate secures your site (via HTTPS) and is a basic ranking signal for Google. It’s also a ranking signal—Google has explicitly confirmed this. Without it, browsers may flag your site as unsafe, eroding user trust.

Pro Tip: Run a site audit using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console to identify technical SEO issues early. Addressing these before scaling content efforts can significantly improve your search visibility.

2. On-Page SEO: Make Each Page Relevant, Structured, and Search-Friendly

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing the content and structure of each individual page so that both users and search engines find it valuable and easy to navigate.

Some important elements include:

• Writing helpful, clear content that addresses the user’s intent.
• Using keywords strategically in your title tag, meta description, header tags (H1, H2), and body copy.
• Structuring your content with headings and short paragraphs improves readability.
• Internally linking to relevant pages helps users explore your site and helps search engines understand the site’s hierarchy.
• Compressing images and using descriptive alt text to improve page speed and accessibility.

For example, a SaaS analytics tool might publish a “How to Track Product Usage Without Engineering Support” page optimized for keywords like “product analytics for SaaS,” while internally linking to its documentation and pricing page.

Pro Tip: Use tools like SurferSEO, Clearscope, or Yoast to optimize your pages based on real-time keyword data and competitive benchmarks.

3. Off-Page SEO: Build Authority and Trust from Outside Sources

Off-page SEO is all about earning credibility beyond your website. Search engines evaluate how other sites reference and engage with your content to determine how trustworthy and authoritative your domain is.

Think of it as digital word-of-mouth. The more trustworthy sites mention or link to you, the more likely Google is to rank your content higher.

Key off-page signals include:

• Earning backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites in your industry. A single backlink from an authoritative site like TechCrunch or G2 can outweigh dozens of low-quality links.
• Even without a hyperlink, brand mentions on third-party blogs, podcasts, or publications send trust signals to search engines. These “implied links” help build relevance in your niche.
• Publishing thought leadership pieces or data-driven insights on industry blogs and SaaS review platforms can generate traffic and backlinks. Focus on high-quality content that adds value to the audience, not just SEO-driven articles.
• Ensure your product is listed (and optimized) on platforms like G2, Capterra, Product Hunt, and niche SaaS directories. These pages often rank well themselves and can drive referral traffic and backlinks.
• Participate in forums, Slack groups, Reddit threads, or LinkedIn communities where your audience hangs out. Genuine engagement can lead to organic mentions and link opportunities.

For instance, if your SaaS is mentioned in a Product Hunt launch roundup or earns a backlink from TechCrunch, that adds significant off-page credibility.

Pro Tip: Use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to monitor your backlink profile. Track not only who’s linking to you, but also what kind of content earns links—so you can replicate that success.

SEO isn’t a growth hack. It’s a long-term strategy that builds visibility, trust, and inbound momentum over time.

To recap:

• Technical SEO lays the groundwork so search engines can access and index your site efficiently.
• On-Page SEO ensures each page aligns with what your audience is searching for—content and structure.
• Off-Page SEO builds credibility through external validation: links, mentions, and community engagement.

When these three elements work together, SEO becomes a compounding channel, driving high-intent traffic without the ongoing cost of paid ads.

Whether you're launching your first blog, scaling content production, or evaluating SEO partners, understanding these fundamentals will help you make smarter, faster decisions.

Why is SEO Important?

Every day, billions of searches happen on Google, many of them from professionals actively evaluating tools, solving problems, or researching new workflows. For SaaS companies, this behavior is a growth lever: SEO allows you to appear exactly when your ideal customer is looking.

That’s the promise of SEO.

Unlike paid channels, where visibility stops when your budget runs out, SEO builds compounding, long-term visibility. 

Here’s why SEO should be a core part of your GTM strategy:

1. SEO brings in high-intent traffic

When someone searches “best expense management software for startups,” they’re not just browsing. They’re looking for a solution. SEO helps you appear immediately, when buying intent is high and the user is in research mode.

For example, a SaaS company like Itilite might rank for terms like “corporate travel automation tools” or “T&E policy templates.” These aren’t vanity keywords—they map directly to customer pain points.

2. It reduces dependence on paid channels

Paid ads can give you instant visibility, but they have rising costs and no lasting shelf life. SEO balances your acquisition mix by creating evergreen content that brings in traffic without ongoing spending.

This matters especially for early-stage SaaS startups trying to keep CAC low while building brand awareness and trust.

3. It builds brand authority over time

Ranking well isn’t just about clicks, it signals trust. Users assume that companies showing up on page one are more credible. Over time, consistent SEO performance helps position your brand as a go-to source in your category.

Whether competing with well-funded players or carving out a new niche, SEO is one of the few channels where expertise and clarity can beat budget.

4. SEO Supports the Entire Funnel

Good SEO doesn’t stop at acquisition. You can target top-of-funnel searches (“how to automate invoices”), mid-funnel queries (“X vs Y comparisons”), and bottom-funnel terms (“best pricing models for SaaS”).

That makes SEO more than a traffic engine—it becomes a content-led GTM motion that educates, qualifies, and converts.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Search engines like Google have one job: to help people find the most useful, relevant answers as quickly as possible.

To do that, they rely on three core processes: crawling, indexing, and ranking. Understanding these is essential to knowing how SEO works behind the scenes.

1. Crawling: Discovering New Pages

Search engines explore the Internet by crawling. They use automated bots—often called “spiders” or “crawlers”—to visit websites, follow links, and discover new pages.

When a crawler lands on your site, it scans your content, checks your links, and looks for key files like your robots.txt and XML sitemap. These files tell the crawler which pages to explore and which to skip.

If a page isn’t crawlable—because it’s blocked, hidden behind a login, or buried too deep in your site structure—it won’t show up in search results at all. 

For example, if your feature page is missing from your sitemap or not linked from your homepage, Google might not crawl it at all, no matter how valuable it is.

2. Indexing: Understanding and Storing Content

Once a page is crawled, the search engine decides whether to index it—that is, store it in its massive database of searchable pages.

During indexing, Google analyzes what the page is about:

• What keywords are used?
• What’s in the headings and meta tags?
• Are there images, videos, or structured data?
• How does the page relate to others on your site?

Pages that are of low-quality, duplicated, or offer no unique value may be crawled but not indexed. This is why technical and content quality both matter.

3. Ranking: Deciding What Appears (and Where)

When someone types a query into Google, the search engine’s algorithm decides which pages to show—and in what order.

Ranking is based on hundreds of signals, including:

• Relevance to the search query
• Page quality and depth
• Mobile-friendliness and speed
• Backlinks from other trusted sites
• Overall domain authority and topical expertise

The goal is simple: surface the best possible result for that specific search.
For SaaS websites, that might mean competing with larger players' blog content, comparison sites, or even product pages.

Think of Google like a giant library:

• Crawling is how it finds books (your pages)
• Indexing is how it files them on the right shelf
• Ranking is how it decides which book to recommend first

Your job in SEO is to make sure your content is easy to discover, clear to understand, and worth ranking.

The rest of this guide will show you exactly how to do that.

Types of SEO

SEO isn’t one single tactic—it’s a set of strategies that target different parts of the search experience. As your site grows, you’ll likely use more than one type of SEO to improve your visibility.

Here are the five main types of SEO you should know:

1. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing the content and structure of each page on your website. It’s about making sure your content is useful, relevant, and aligned with what people are searching for.

Key elements include:

• Writing keyword-targeted content that matches search intent
• Optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags
• Adding internal links and descriptive image alt text
• Structuring content for readability and clarity

For example, a project management SaaS company might write a blog post titled “How to Run a Sprint Planning Meeting,” targeting teams searching for agile workflows.

2. Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures your website is easy for search engines to crawl, index, and understand. It deals with infrastructure and performance rather than content.

Important areas include:

• Improving site speed and mobile responsiveness
• Using HTTPS for secure browsing
• Cleaning up broken links and redirect errors
• Submitting sitemaps and managing crawl rules via robots.txt

Without a solid technical foundation, even great content may struggle to rank.

3. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is all about building your site’s reputation through external validation. When other trusted sites mention or link to your content, it signals credibility to search engines.

This includes:

• Earning backlinks from authoritative websites
• Contributing guest posts to industry blogs
• Getting listed in review sites and SaaS directories
• Encouraging brand mentions on forums or in the media

These signals help build domain authority, improving rankings across your site.

4. Local SEO

Local SEO helps your business show up in searches tied to a specific location. While it’s more relevant to SaaS businesses with physical offices or local clients, it can still play a role in region-based campaigns.

Tactics include:

• Creating and optimizing your Google Business Profile
• Adding local schema markup
• Getting listed in local directories

For example, if you’re targeting real estate firms in California with a niche SaaS CRM, optimizing for “real estate CRM California” might bring in hyper-targeted traffic.

5. Enterprise SEO

Enterprise SEO is about managing and scaling SEO for large websites—often with thousands of pages, multiple domains, or complex team workflows. It involves more technical depth, automation, and cross-team coordination.

SaaS examples include:

• Companies like HubSpot or Zendesk managing hundreds of blog posts, product pages, and help docs
• Scaling internal linking across thousands of URLs
• Using advanced SEO tools to monitor technical health at scale

Each type of SEO plays a unique role in your growth strategy:

• On-page improves individual content
• Technical builds the foundation
• Off-page grows your reputation
• Local targets geo-specific visibility
• Enterprise enables SEO at scale

Think of companies like HubSpot or Atlassian managing hundreds of blog posts, help docs, and landing pages.

Most early- and mid-stage SaaS teams will get the best results by combining on-page, technical, and off-page SEO first—then layering in local or enterprise strategies as they grow.

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO?

Keyword research is where SEO strategy begins. It tells you what your audience is searching for, how often they search, and what kind of content you need to create to meet that demand.

Without it, you’re guessing. With it, you’re building content that meets real user intent and stands a chance of ranking.

What Is a Keyword?

A keyword is a word or phrase someone types into a search engine to find information, solve a problem, or discover a product.

In SEO, your goal is to find keywords that match:

• What your audience is already searching for
• What your product or content can credibly rank for
• What brings meaningful traffic and conversions

For example, a B2B invoicing tool might target keywords like “automated invoice reminders,” “invoice templates for freelancers,” or “how to reduce payment delays.”

Types of Keywords

Not all keywords serve the same purpose. Understanding the different types can help you match your content to your audience’s stage in the buying journey.

Some keywords are broad and bring awareness. Others are more specific and signal that the user is ready to compare or buy. A well-rounded SEO strategy includes a mix of all types, depending on your goals.

Here’s a breakdown:

As a SaaS company, your content should serve users across different stages:

• Use informational and long-tail keywords for blog posts and guides.
• Use transactional and short-tail keywords for landing pages, product pages, and comparisons.
• Monitor navigational keywords to protect and enhance your branded search presence.

A Simple Process for Keyword Research

1. Start with seed ideas

List out the problems your product solves, common workflows, and questions from your sales or support teams. Think in terms of pain points, not product features.

2. Use keyword tools

Plug those topics into tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to get real search volume and related terms.

3. Analyze intent

Don’t create one page per keyword. Instead, group related terms into topic clusters. Build one strong, well-structured page that covers the topic thoroughly.

4. Group keywords by theme

Don’t create one page per keyword. Instead, group related terms into topic clusters. Build one strong, well-structured page that covers the topic thoroughly.

5. Prioritize based on effort and ROI

Choose keywords with a balance of decent volume, low-to-medium competition, and high relevance to your product or audience.

Keyword Research Is Not One-and-Done

Your SEO strategy should evolve with your product, audience, and messaging. Keep refining it based on what’s working, what’s ranking, and what’s converting.

And remember: keywords are the starting point, not the end. Great content answers questions. Keywords just help you frame them the right way.

How to Create SEO-Friendly Content (On-Page SEO)

Once you've identified the right keywords, the next step is creating content that ranks—and converts. But SEO content isn’t just about stuffing in keywords. It’s about solving the searcher’s problem better than anyone else.

Great SEO content is:

• Useful to the reader
• Easy for search engines to understand
• Aligned with business goals

For SaaS companies, this might mean writing a blog post that drives trial signups, a feature page that ranks for a competitive keyword, or a comparison page that helps users pick between you and a competitor.

1. Understand the search intent

Search intent is what the user really wants when they type in a query.

• If the keyword is informational, your content should teach something.
• If it’s transactional, your content should guide users to take action.
• If it’s navigational, make sure your brand and product pages are easy to find and click.

For example, for “best OKR software for remote teams,” users likely want a comparison—not a generic blog post about productivity. Tailor content accordingly.

Before writing, look at the top-ranking pages for your target keyword. What formats do they use—how-to articles, listicles, videos, product pages? Your content should match (and improve on) what’s already working.

2. Structure your content for readability

Search engines prefer structured content—and so do people. Use formatting to make your pages easy to scan and understand.

Tips:

• Use descriptive headers (H1, H2, H3) to organize content clearly.
• Write short paragraphs (2–4 lines max).
• Use bullet points or numbered lists to break down information.
• Add a table of contents for long-form articles.

Even interested readers will bounce if your content is messy or hard to skim.

3. Optimize on-page elements

Beyond the body copy, you’ll need to optimize specific elements on the page.

Key on-page SEO elements include:

• Title tag: This appears as the clickable headline in search results. Include your primary keyword and keep it under 60 characters.
• Meta description: This short summary (under 160 characters) helps improve click-through rates. It should be clear, relevant, and promise value.
• URL slug: Keep it clean, readable, and keyword-focused (e.g. /saas-pricing-strategies instead of /page?id=45).
• Image alt text: Describe images in a way that improves accessibility and helps Google understand visual content.
• Internal links: Link to other relevant pages on your site to improve navigation and authority flow.

4. Write for users first—then refine for SEO

Start by solving the reader’s problem. Add value, provide examples, and write naturally. Once the draft is ready, go back and fine-tune:

• Include your target keyword in the first 100 words.
• Sprinkle in related terms (also known as semantic keywords).
• Make sure your headers, title, and meta align with your keyword focus.

Let’s say you’re creating a guide titled “How to Reduce Churn in SaaS”.

• Use keywords like “reduce SaaS churn,” “improve retention,” and “customer success strategies”
• Link to your product’s case studies and feature pages
• Break the content into clear, practical steps with supporting data

This approach helps you rank without compromising readability or trust.

Creating SEO-friendly content is about bridging what people search for and what your product solves. It’s not just writing for Google—it’s writing for your best-fit customer, in the format and language they’re already searching for.

What are backlinks (Off-Page SEO) and why do they matter?

Backlinks are one of the most important signals Google uses to evaluate the credibility and authority of your website.

A backlink is simply a hyperlink from one website to another. When a trusted site links to your content, it’s like a vote of confidence. It tells search engines, “This page is useful, relevant, and trustworthy.”

The more high-quality backlinks you earn, your pages will likely rank well, especially in competitive niches. For SaaS companies, earning the right backlinks can do more than improve SEO—it can drive signups, build partnerships, and boost brand visibility.

Why Backlinks Matter in SEO

Google’s original PageRank algorithm was built around the idea that the best web pages are the ones that others reference. That idea still holds true today.

Here’s why backlinks matter:

• They build domain authority: More backlinks from reputable sources = stronger overall SEO performance.
• They help pages rank faster: A new blog post that gets linked to from a top-ranking site can start climbing the SERPs within days.
• They drive referral traffic: Backlinks also bring in direct visitors from the linking site, especially if placed contextually in high-traffic content.

For SaaS companies, backlinks can lead to more than rankings—they can generate trial signups, brand awareness, and partnership opportunities. 

For example, a SaaS HR tool might earn links from HR tech blogs, founder newsletters, or startup hiring guides—leading to both SEO improvements and direct conversions.

Not All Backlinks Are Created Equal

Getting one backlink from a highly trusted site (like TechCrunch, HubSpot, or Smashing Magazine) is far more valuable than dozens of links from low-quality directories or unrelated blogs.

Google looks at:

• Relevance: Is the linking site in the same industry or topic area?
• Authority: Does the linking site have a strong backlink profile of its own?
• Placement: Is the link embedded naturally in the content, or buried in a footer or spammy sidebar?

Spammy backlinks can hurt your rankings if they appear manipulative or unnatural.

For example, let’s say you run a SaaS platform for hiring remote developers. You write a blog post titled “How to Structure a Remote Hiring Process.”

 If that post earns backlinks from:

• A VC blog focused on startup operations
• An HR tech publication
• A founder’s newsletter with a strong following

…it sends a strong signal to Google that your content deserves to be seen.

How to build backlinks to your website?

Backlinks aren’t something you can buy, hack, or automate at scale—not without risk. Instead, think of link-building as relationship-building: earning attention, trust, and references from other sites by adding genuine value.

For early-stage SaaS companies, this doesn’t mean chasing hundreds of links. It means starting with high-quality, relevant backlinks that actually move the needle.

1. Create content people want to reference

The easiest way to get backlinks is to publish something worth linking to.

Some proven formats include:

• Original data or industry benchmarks → For example: “Average Customer Support Response Time in SaaS – 2024 Benchmarks”
• In-depth guides or tutorials → Think “The Ultimate Guide to B2B SaaS Pricing Models”
• Visual frameworks or templates → Tools that simplify complex workflows often get cited in blogs or newsletters

If you solve a problem clearly or bring a fresh angle to a crowded topic, others will naturally link to you as a source.

2. Contribute guest posts to niche publications

Identify blogs, newsletters, and communities in your industry that accept guest contributions.

Pitch them topics that match their audience and subtly incorporate links to your own relevant content.

For example, a marketing automation SaaS founder writing for a RevOps blog on “How to Align Lead Scoring with Sales Feedback,” with a link back to their lead scoring framework.

Pro tip: Start with smaller, high-fit sites. You don’t need Forbes—just one well-placed article in a trusted niche publication can send long-term traffic and SEO value.

3. Collaborate with other saas companies

You don’t need to go it alone. Partner with complementary (non-competing) tools to co-create:

• Comparison pages (“Tool A vs Tool B: Which Is Right for You?”)
• Joint guides or checklists
• Webinar landing pages that live on both domains

If you're integrated with a platform like HubSpot, Shopify, or Zapier, you can also get listed in their marketplace or documentation—another valuable backlink opportunity.

4. Earn links through PR and thought leadership

Getting featured in media outlets, SaaS newsletters, podcasts, or roundups can generate powerful backlinks.

This often comes down to having a strong narrative: a funding round, a founder story, a unique take on industry trends.

Use tools like Help a Reporter Out (HARO), Qwoted, or open source journalist requests on Twitter to find relevant opportunities.

5. Reclaim and monitor mentions

Sometimes, people already mention your brand, but don’t link to you. Use tools like Ahrefs or Google Alerts to track unlinked mentions and reach out with a polite request to add the link.

You don’t need 500 backlinks to win. You need the right backlinks from relevant, trusted sources in your space. Prioritize quality over scale, and focus on relationships—not transactions.

In early stages, just a handful of high-quality backlinks can dramatically improve your visibility and credibility.

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the foundation of every successful SEO strategy.
It ensures that search engines can discover, crawl, and understand your website properly, without hitting roadblocks like broken pages, poor performance, or confusing structure.

Even if you publish great content and earn strong backlinks, your technical setup will prevent you from ranking well.

What Does Technical SEO Cover?

Technical SEO focuses on how your site is built and delivered, not what your content says.

Here are the key components:

1. Site Speed and Performance

Google considers page speed a ranking factor.

Slow-loading pages frustrate users and increase bounce rates, especially on mobile. Compressing images, using efficient code, and choosing fast hosting can all improve load times.

For example, a SaaS pricing page that takes 5 seconds to load could lose users before they even see your offer.

2. Mobile-Friendliness

With mobile-first indexing, Google now prioritizes the mobile version of your website when deciding rankings.

That means your site should be responsive, easy to navigate on small screens, and avoid pop-ups or buttons that are hard to tap.

3. Crawlability and Indexing

Google’s bots must crawl your site before it can appear in search results.
You control this through:

• A robots.txt file that tells bots what to skip
• An XML sitemap that lists all the pages you want indexed
• Avoiding broken links or infinite redirect loops that confuse crawlers

If a key page (like your product or pricing page) isn’t being indexed, it won’t show up, no matter how good the content is.

4. Secure browsing (HTTPS)

Google gives preference to websites that use HTTPS.

Installing an SSL certificate ensures that your site is secure and protects user data—especially important for SaaS platforms that handle signups, logins, or sensitive information.

5. Clean site structure and URLs

Search engines (and users) prefer simple, well-organized sites.

• Use clean, readable URLs like /features instead of /page?id=45
• Structure your site with clear navigation: Home → Product → Features → Pricing
• Keep your content no more than 3 clicks away from your homepage

A good structure also improves internal linking and authority flow between your pages.

6. Fixing Errors and Redirects

Technical SEO also includes ongoing maintenance:

• Identifying and fixing 404 errors
• Creating proper 301 redirects for moved pages
• Avoiding duplicate content issues that dilute rankings

Technical SEO doesn’t require you to be a developer, but it does require a mindset of structure, speed, and search-friendliness. 

It’s what allows everything else—your content, your backlinks, your keyword targeting—to work.

What Are Core Web Vitals and Why Do They Matter?

Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics that Google uses to evaluate user experience on your website.

They reflect how fast your pages load, how quickly users can interact with them, and whether anything unexpectedly shifts on the screen.

In short, they measure how usable your site feels, not just how good it looks or how well it ranks.

Google made Core Web Vitals a ranking factor in 2021, which means improving them can directly impact your SEO visibility.

The Three Core Web Vitals (Explained Simply)

Each Core Web Vital focuses on a different part of the user experience:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

• What it measures: How long it takes for the main content of a page to become visible.
  This includes your hero image, headline, or product overview section.
• Target: Less than 2.5 seconds
• Why it matters: If your most important content loads slowly, users may bounce before knowing what your product does.

2. First Input Delay (FID)

• What it measures: How quickly your site responds when a user first tries to interact with it.
  This could be clicking a button, opening a menu, or entering text in a form.
• Target: Less than 100 milliseconds
• Why it matters: Users expect instant responsiveness. If there’s a lag, it creates friction, especially in product tours or signup flows.

3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

• What it measures: How much content shifts around while the page loads.
  For example, if a button moves just as you’re about to click it, that’s a layout shift.
• Target: Less than 0.1
• Why it matters: Unexpected shifts frustrate users and increase bounce rates. This is especially common on mobile or when images load without defined sizes.

How Core Web Vitals Affect SaaS Websites

For SaaS businesses, strong Core Web Vitals can:

• Improve landing page performance and sign-up rates
• Boost rankings on competitive, product-led keywords
• Enhance trust and credibility, especially for first-time visitors

If your homepage or feature page takes too long to load or shifts as it renders, it doesn’t just hurt SEO—it hurts conversions.

How to Track and Measure SEO Performance

You can’t improve what you don’t measure—and SEO is no exception.
Tracking performance helps you understand what’s working, where to double down, and where you’re wasting time or budget.

But SEO metrics can become overwhelming quickly. Page views, bounce rate, rankings, impressions, authority scores… It’s easy to lose the plot.

So here’s a framework to keep it simple: measure visibility, engagement, and outcomes.

1. Organic Traffic

What it tells you: How many people are landing on your site from unpaid search results.

Where to track it: Google Analytics, Google Search Console

What to look for:

• Is organic traffic growing over time?
• Which pages are driving the most visits?
• Are visitors landing on pages built for the right intent?

For example, a SaaS blog consistently bringing traffic for “how to calculate CAC” may feed directly into your CRM automation product’s awareness funnel.

2. Keyword Rankings

What it tells you: How your site ranks for your target keywords.

Where to track it: Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console

What to look for:

• Are you ranking on page 1 for your top keywords?
• Are rankings stable, rising, or dropping over time?
• Are branded keywords (e.g., “YourBrand + pricing”) appearing in the top 3?

Tracking keyword movement helps you measure how well your content optimization and link-building efforts are paying off.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

What it tells you: Of the people who saw your link in search results, how many clicked?

Where to track it: Google Search Console

What to look for:

• Are your titles and meta descriptions compelling?
• Are low CTRs holding back high-ranking pages?
• Are some keywords generating impressions but not clicks?

Even if you’re ranking well, a weak CTR means you're missing out on traffic you should be getting.

4. Conversions from Organic Traffic

What it tells you: Are your SEO efforts driving business outcomes?

Where to track it: Google Analytics (Goals or Events), your CRM or product analytics tool

What to look for:

• How many demo requests, trial sign-ups, or purchases come from organic users?
• Which content types or pages contribute most to conversions?
• Are SEO leads converting at a higher or lower rate than other channels?

This is the most important metric, especially for SaaS. SEO is not just about traffic; it’s about qualified, converting traffic.

5. Backlink Profile

What it tells you: How many external sites are linking to you—and how strong those links are.

Where to track it: Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush

What to look for:

• Is your domain authority improving?
• Are you getting links from trusted, relevant sites?
• Are any spammy links dragging down your profile?
  

Monitoring your backlinks helps you understand both authority growth and potential risks.

Don’t track everything—track what matters:

• Visibility → Organic traffic, impressions, rankings
• Engagement → Click-through rates, time on site, bounce rate
• Outcomes → Sign-ups, conversions, pipeline sourced from SEO

When SEO starts tying into revenue—not just rankings—you’ll know it’s working.

Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid

SEO can feel overwhelming, especially when you're just starting. But most problems don’t come from doing the wrong tactics—they come from doing the right things at the wrong time, or in the wrong way.

Here are some of the most common SEO mistakes we see (especially among SaaS teams) and how to avoid them.

1. Ignoring Search Intent

Ranking for a keyword means nothing if your content doesn’t satisfy the user’s goal.

For example, if someone searches “best email marketing tools,” they want comparisons, not a generic blog post about email strategy.

Many SaaS companies waste time ranking for keywords that don’t convert, simply because they’re misaligned with intent.

Fix: Always review the top 3–5 results before creating content. Ask: What kind of page is Google rewarding here, and why?

2. Prioritizing Volume Over Relevance

It’s tempting to chase keywords with high search volume. But if the traffic doesn’t come from your ideal customers, it won’t help your business grow.

For example, ranking for “startup funding news” might bring traffic—but won’t help your team collaboration tool get signups.

Fix: Focus on keywords with business value, even with lower search volume. 500 visitors who are a perfect fit beat 5,000 random ones.

3. Skipping Technical SEO

Publishing content without a technically sound website is like opening a store with no front door.

If Google can’t crawl or index your pages correctly, they won’t rank, no matter how useful they are.

Fix: Use tools like Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, or Ahrefs Site Audit to catch and fix crawling errors, slow load times, and mobile issues.

4. Writing Without a Content Strategy

Publishing blog posts just to “do SEO” rarely leads to meaningful results. You need a plan that aligns your content with user needs, search behavior, and product value.

Fix: Build topic clusters around core themes. Prioritize pages that support your funnel, such as product use cases, customer success stories, and comparison pages.

5. Forgetting to Track Conversions

Many teams track rankings and traffic, but not whether that traffic is converting into leads, signups, or revenue.

Fix: Set up goals in Google Analytics or use product analytics to track organic user behavior. SEO's goal isn't just visibility—it’s pipeline.

6. Over-Optimizing (or Keyword Stuffing)

Repeating your target keyword in every sentence doesn’t help. It hurts readability and raises red flags with search engines.

Fix: Write naturally. Use related terms, answer real questions, and focus on clarity. If your content helps the reader, it helps your rankings.

Most SEO mistakes are easy to avoid once you know where the pitfalls are.

Focus on intent, quality, and business alignment—not shortcuts or vanity metrics. The best SEO strategies are the ones that compound over time—quietly, sustainably, and with purpose.

SEO Checklist for Founders

If you’re just starting with SEO, it can be hard to know where to start or what “done right” actually looks like.

This checklist gives you a practical starting point. Each item ties back to the fundamentals we’ve covered in this guide and sets the foundation for long-term SEO growth.

You don’t need to master everything at once. But if you can consistently check off these boxes, you’re already ahead of most beginner SEO efforts.

SEO isn’t just a channel, it’s a capability. And like any capability, it compounds with time, practice, and purpose.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is SEO still relevant with all the AI tools and content noise today?

Yes - and arguably more than ever. Quality, originality, and relevance become the new differentiators as content volume increases. Google continues to prioritize trustworthy content that solves real problems. If you can explain things clearly, offer expert insight, and create focused content, SEO remains one of the best ways to grow sustainably.

2. How long does it take to see results from SEO?

SEO is a long-term game. You might start seeing small improvements in 2–3 months, but it typically takes 4–6 months (or longer) to see meaningful traffic growth, especially if you're starting from scratch. Factors like domain authority, competition level, and content consistency all impact the timeline. SEO can take longer than paid channels for SaaS businesses but often delivers more sustainable results over time.

3. Do I need to hire an SEO agency or consultant to get started?

Not necessarily. Many early-stage companies (especially startups) begin with internal efforts—writing content, optimizing pages, and using free tools like Google Search Console. However, if you're in a competitive space or lack time to learn the basics, working with a specialist can help you avoid common mistakes and move faster.

4. Is blogging the only way to do SEO?

Blogging is a significant part of SEO, but it’s not the only approach. SEO also includes product pages, comparison pages, use-case content, documentation, landing pages, and more. For SaaS companies, pages like “{Your Tool} vs {Competitor}” or “How to use {Your Tool} for [specific workflow]” often perform just as well (or better) than traditional blog posts.

5. What tools should I use to get started with SEO?

Here’s a simple starter stack:

• Google Search Console – To track keyword rankings, indexing, and page performance
• Google Analytics – To understand user behavior and conversion paths
• Ubersuggest or Ahrefs (free plan) – For keyword research and backlink audits
• Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit – For basic technical SEO checks

These tools give you enough data to get started without a large budget.

6. How do I choose which keywords to target first?

Start with keywords that are:

• Highly relevant to your product or use case
• Searched for your target audience
• Low to medium in competition

Long-tail keywords (e.g., “CRM for small law firms”) usually perform better for beginners than broad terms (e.g., “CRM software”). Use your customer conversations and onboarding questions to guide your keyword selection.