A Complete Guide to B2B SaaS SEO

I’ve worked in SEO for around 10 years now, and I don’t want to be one of those people who claim that 20 years of experience means you know everything. The amount of time spent doing something doesn't necessarily mean you’re good at it, although you probably should be.

As a founder of my micro-agency (Team 4) and having previously worked in other B2B SaaS marketing agencies like (93digital now ClarityDX) I’ve worked in and with lots of different B2B SaaS companies - probably getting near 100 now - which doesn’t sound like a lot. Still, when you think about it, it is! 

Anyway, I mention this because I decided to sit down and write an epic guide to B2B SaaS SEO, for my own SEO benefit, of course, but also to put down on digital paper the knowledge in my head—and if you have the time to read it, I want you to feel you’re reading something written by someone who has half an idea of what they are doing. Here's a quick lowdown on my experience with B2B SaaS SEO.

Working with a wide range of lesser-known SaaS companies goes beyond the conventional allure of unicorns. While unicorns—those high-profile, fast-growing companies relying predominantly on their product to drive expansion—often grab the headlines, they represent a small fraction of the market. My work with these under-the-radar companies has equipped me with a broader, more adaptable skill set and a deeper understanding of sustainable growth.

It’s like when someone says they are ex-Google, which is excellent. Still, unless you were there at the start it just means you work in one of the biggest enterprises in the world and therefore having minimal business impact, where as when you work with a niche B2B SaaS start-up or scale-up in a random industry, you work actually can have excellent results and a massive impact on the businesses and lives of the owners and employees.

We’ve been working in SEO and with B2B and B2B SaaS companies for over a decade. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great companies and win some awards along the way - so hopefully what you’ll read in this article can be genuinely useful and help you improve your own companies search engine (and answer engine) performance.

In this pretty long article/guide we’ll discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in B2B SaaS and tech SEO, why it plays an important role alongside long sales cycles and complex decision-making journeys and how you can build a business off the back of great search engine rankings and a solid value proposition.

This guide was written for SaaS founders, marketers, content leads and demand generation managers working in B2B and B2B SaaS companies.

What is B2B SaaS SEO?

B2B SaaS SEO optimizes a software-as-a-service company's website to attract and convert business decision-makers through search engines like Google and AI tools like ChatGPT. 

B2B SaaS SEO targets high-intent, niche keywords, creates technical and educational content, and uses strategic CTAs like demos, templates, or comparison guides to move buyers through a complex, multi-step sales funnel.

Why is B2B SaaS SEO different?

Many people think an SEO expert can work in any industry, but I disagree. The audience's knowledge and intent are highly specific for B2B SaaS SEO. For example, B2C SEO often targets broad, high-volume keywords (e.g., "best running shoes") with relatively simple purchase decisions.

More generic B2B SEO focuses more on decision-makers but often targets fairly broad business terms (e.g., "law firm near me").

B2B SaaS SEO, on the other hand, targets deeply technical, niche, and intent-driven queries, often from people comparing complex tools, looking for integrations, or evaluating workflows (e.g., "best PSA software for agile agencies" or "Asana vs Jira resource management").

Why it matters: You’re writing for informed buyers, often CTOs, PMs, or operations leads, who expect in-depth, accurate, and educational content. Anything fluffy dies quickly - you’re top 10 list of running shoes requires much less research.

Content Must Reflect the Buyer Journey (Which is Non-Linear)

B2B SaaS sales cycles are longer and involve multiple stakeholders. This means that SEO content needs to:

• Map to awareness → consideration → decision stages.
• Include “stop-gap” content like:
  
  • Spreadsheets (e.g., ROI calculators, templates)
  • Product-led content (e.g., how to use your software for X)
  • Feature comparisons (vs competitors, integrations, pricing)
  • Technical guides (e.g., how your API integrates with Zapier)

These work as mid-funnel bridges, giving value before someone is ready for a demo.

The Role of SEO in Product-Led Growth (PLG)

B2B SaaS SEO isn’t just for marketing; it often doubles as product onboarding and education.

Think: "How do you use [your tool] for [specific job]?" These rank for SEO and reduce churn. SEO is also tightly aligned with customer success and retention content.

It Requires Domain Understanding

As you mentioned, deep technical knowledge is key.

• You must understand the product (e.g., resource allocation tools, CRM integrations) and the audience's workflows.
• Without that, writing content that feels credible, performs well in SERPs, or moves the pipeline is impossible.

The Importance of SEO in B2B Buyer Journeys 

One of the great things about SEO and AEO for B2B SaaS is that they support a longer buyer journey and the reality of multiple stakeholders. As you may know from your buying habits, B2B buyer journeys can be long and complex. Purchases can be expensive regarding business software, so the purchasing decision is not usually in one person's hands.

The Death of SEO

Every now and again you will hear about ‘the death of SEO’ as new technology emerges and buying journeys change. For sure, its true that AI tools will replace a lot of Google Searches, but anyone claiming the strategy or practice of SEO is dead probably doesn’t have a good understanding of it, here’s why:

Search Engine Optimisation is just about being found online when someone is looking for something via a search engine. People will always search for things online, whether or not that's in Google, it doesn't matter - what matters is improving your little corner of the internet to ensure you are attracting these searches, whether they are doing that via voice search or via ChatGPT.

So with soapbox put away, the rest of this guide focuses on a strategy that will be applicable to attracting quality inbound leads whether or not they are using a traditional search engine to do it.

Keyword Strategy

“Keywords” or search queries are the whole point of SEO. With SEO, you aim to appear when people search for specific keywords or queries that closely align with your business's proposition.

With the evolution of LLMs and AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, these queries are becoming longer and more conversational. They are often referred to as ‘long-tail keywords,’ a term that has been around for some time.

In modern SEO, individual “keywords” are less relevant than more conversational queries and questions because of the evolution in AI and search algorithms' ability to understand user questions.

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Now, users are having more chat-like conversations with AI tools, whereas in the past, they would try different queries in search engines like Google to find the correct information.

How keywords differ by buyer stage (intent)

When researching software solutions, you typically go through certain stages of awareness. Some people start from scratch, and some know what they are looking for. In the SEO world, we refer to these as the stages of awareness of awareness.

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A low-intent query means someone is looking for general information about a topic to learn more. A high-intent search would indicate someone is looking for something specific to purchase. Below is a quick table for reference.

• How B2B keywords differ (problem-aware vs solution-aware vs product-aware)

How to choose your keywords

Choosing which keywords to target and monitor can be a pivotal moment in the success of your SEO and AEO strategy. There are some common mistakes and misconceptions that many founders and SaaS marketers make when it comes to keywords and SEO. 

In this section, we’ll aim to address some of these issues and provide more guidance on how we, as an SEO agency, help our clients choose the right keywords to target.

Step 1: Know your niche & your audience

Keywords are the terms typed in by your buyers when they search for a solution or answer to a question. 

Building Content Around the Keywords: Mapping Keywords to Funnel Stages (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU)

A strategic B2B SaaS SEO programme aligns content with each stage of the buyer’s journey. By mapping your target keywords to TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, you ensure prospects find the right resource exactly when they need it—and nudge them smoothly towards a purchase decision.

1. TOFU (Top of Funnel): Attract and Educate

• Objective: Cast a wide net and introduce high-level concepts.
• Content Types: Explainer blog posts, infographics, industry trend reports, how-to guides.
• Keyword Focus: Broad, informational phrases (e.g. “what is SaaS onboarding”, “cloud software benefits”).
• Best Practices:
  
  • Optimise for readability and shareability—short paragraphs, subheadings, visuals.
  • Link to more detailed MOFU content to keep prospects on-site.
  • Include a soft CTA (e.g. “Download our free industry overview”).

2. MOFU (Middle of Funnel): Compare and Clarify

• Objective: Help prospects evaluate different solutions and methodologies.
• Content Types: Detailed comparison articles, buyer’s guides, webinars, interactive tools.
• Keyword Focus: Mid-tail, solution-oriented queries (e.g. “SaaS onboarding tools”, “cloud CRM vs on-premise CRM”).
• Best Practices:
  
  • Provide data-driven insights—charts, case studies, customer quotes.
  • Create pillar-cluster relationships: link all relevant tools and guide pages.
  • Include a stronger CTA (e.g. “Sign up for our deep-dive webinar”).

3. BOFU (Bottom of Funnel): Convert and Close

• Objective: Capture high-intent traffic and drive action.
• Content Types: Pricing pages, free trial landing pages, product demos, in-depth case studies.
  
  
• Keyword Focus: Brand, review and comparison terms (e.g. “[YourProduct] pricing”, “top SaaS onboarding software reviews”).
• Best Practices:
  
  • Showcase social proof—testimonials, awards, ROI metrics.
  • Use clear, action-oriented CTAs (“Start your free trial”, “Book a demo”).
  • Optimise page speed and mobile experience to reduce friction.

Putting It All Together

1. Keyword Matrix: Build a spreadsheet mapping each keyword to its buyer-journey stage and target URL.
2. Internal Linking: Guide visitors naturally from TOFU → MOFU → BOFU with contextual links and progressive CTAs.
3. Content Audit & Optimisation: Regularly review performance metrics (traffic, time on page, conversion rate) and refresh content to keep it relevant.
4. Iterate & Expand: As new queries emerge, add subtopics or deep-dive resources at the appropriate funnel stage.

By structuring your content around TOFU, MOFU and BOFU keywords, you’ll not only improve organic visibility but also create a seamless, value-driven journey that ultimately boosts MQLs and conversions.

A Content Strategy for SEO

Google encourages you to create content for people, not search engines. This means when you are thinking about creating content that is going to found by your audience, you need to think about what they are looking for, from there you should aim to answer every question you can think of around specific topics - the keyword research helps to give you ideas here because it can be difficult to fully understand what potential customers are searching for - especially when they don’t know they need your product or service.

Content for SEO is different from other types of content you can create. Traditionally, website content was mainly text-based, as search engines struggled to index and rank complex images and other media.

Understanding how search engines work

To plan and execute an effective search engine strategy, you need to understand how search engines and LLMs see your website and content. They are not just simple digital spiders crawling through a website—many factors contribute to how they determine the right content to show a user.

Google put it nicely themselves: “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content - Google's automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that's primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings, in the top Search results.”

Ironically, the key to SEO success is really about producing the most valuable and reliable content for your chosen audience. This is what SEO is at its heart. How you do it is the key ingredient.

You can read how Google ranks your content here.

Pillar pages and topic clusters

HubSpot introduced pillar pages and topic clusters over a decade ago, and this remains true today. Essentially, when you create educational written content around a topi,c you should aim to have one in-depth piece as a pillar piece of content and then link to it more niche cluster content articles.

Content types for B2B SaaS SEO

• High-performing content types:
  
  • Product-led guides
  • Comparison and alternative pages
  • Use case and industry-specific content.
  • SEO-focused glossaries
  • Technical documentation and API pages
• Content freshness and maintenance
• Measuring content efficiency

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is all about optimizing content that is already on your website. This includes things like the text on the page, headings and subheadings, and page titles, to name a few. All these components need to be aligned and consistent to give you the best possible chance of success.

From my personal experience, some of the quickest wins in SEO come from editing page titles and headings. This is why keyword research is so important: all of your on-site SEO work is based on the keywords you want to target. Get the research wrong, and then the on-site SEO will be pointless.

NLP, Semantic Search, and SEO

Natural language processing (NLP) uses machine learning to reveal the structure and meaning of text. With natural language processing applications, organizations can analyze text and extract information about people, places, and events to understand social media sentiment and customer conversations.

What is semantic search?

Semantic search is a data searching technique that focuses on understanding the contextual meaning and intent behind a user’s search query, rather than only matching keywords. Instead of merely looking for literal matches between search queries and indexed content, it aims to deliver more relevant search results by considering various factors, including word relationships, the searcher’s location, previous searches, and the search context.

Semantic search aims to comprehend the more profound meaning and intent behind a user's search, much like a human would. By understanding the meaning and context of words, phrases, and entities within a search query, semantic search strives to deliver highly relevant search results that satisfy the user's information needs.

Knowledge Graphs and Their Role

The term ‘knowledge graph’ was introduced by Google in 2012 to refer to its general-purpose knowledge base.

In data science, typical use cases are around adding identifiers and descriptions to data of various modalities to enable sense-making, integration, and explainable analysis.  In AI, knowledge graphs complement machine learning techniques to:

A knowledge graph organizes and integrates data according to an ontology, known as the schema of the knowledge graph, and applies a reasoner to derive new knowledge. 

Knowledge graphs can be created from scratch, e.g., by domain experts, learned from unstructured or semi-structured data sources, or assembled from existing knowledge graphs, typically aided by various semi-automatic or automated data validation and integration mechanisms.

• URL structure best practices
• Meta tags, headers, and schema for SaaS
• Internal linking and content hierarchy
• CRO + SEO: balancing rankings with conversion

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is often overlooked and is usually handed over to developers. It can be challenging to get right when different people or teams handle your SEO and web development. On a side note, at my agency (Team 4), we combine SEO and Webflow development into one service to avoid this issue and engineer websites.

The truth is, there are many different aspects of Technical SEO, and when done well, it can ensure your content has the best possible platform.

Technical SEO typically involves the following components (get ready for a list!):

Site Crawling and Indexing

• Crawlability: Ensuring search engine bots can access and navigate your website. This involves checking your robots.txt file, internal linking, and overall site structure.
• Indexation: Confirming that important pages are indexed by search engines while non-essential or duplicate pages are not, often using tools like Google Search Console.

Website Architecture and Internal Linking

• Site Structure: Organizing your website with a clear hierarchy that assists both users and bots in finding key content.
• Internal Linking: Strategically linking pages within your site to distribute link equity and guide crawl paths efficiently.

XML Sitemaps

• Creation and Maintenance: Developing an XML sitemap to list all essential pages, helping search engines understand your website structure and prioritize content.

URL Structure

• Clean and SEO-Friendly URLs: Implementing URLs that are descriptive, concise, and include relevant keywords to improve both user experience and search visibility.

Mobile-Friendliness and Responsive Design

• Mobile Optimization: Ensuring your site is responsive and provides a seamless experience on all devices, as mobile-first indexing is a primary focus for search engines.

Page Load Speed and Performance Optimization

• Speed Enhancements: Optimizing page load time through image compression, code minification (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), caching strategies, and the use of content delivery networks (CDNs).
• Core Web Vitals: Monitoring and improving metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Security and HTTPS Implementation

• SSL Certificates: Migrating your site from HTTP to HTTPS ensures secure data transmission, which is a trust signal for both users and search engines.

Canonicalization and Duplicate Content Management

• Canonical Tags: Implementing rel="canonical" to indicate the preferred version of a page, thereby avoiding duplicate content issues.
• Managing Duplicates: Using redirects and optimization practices to control duplicate content across your site.

Structured Data (Schema Markup)

• Rich Snippets: Integrating schema markup (such as for articles, products, events, reviews, etc.) to provide context to search engines, which can enhance the display in search results.

Redirects and Error Management

• Redirect Strategy: Implementing proper 301 redirects for moved or deleted pages to maintain link equity and avoid broken links.
• Error Resolution: Regularly identifying and fixing 404 errors or other server issues that might disrupt the user experience or search engine crawling.

Hreflang and International SEO

If you want to scale your SaaS business worldwide, especially in Europe, you will need to translate your website into local languages. When you do this, you will also need to ensure that you

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines the language and, optionally, the geographic targeting of a webpage. It helps search engines like Google understand which version of a page is most relevant for users based on their language and regional preferences. Here’s a deeper look into what it is and why it plays a key role in SEO:

What Is Hreflang?

Hreflang is typically implemented as an attribute in a HTML link tag that specifies the language and, optionally, the region for a webpage. The tag follows a format such as <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/" />, where:

• en-US specifies the English language as used in the United States.
• href points to the URL of the page tailored for that language and region.

How It Works:  Search engines use the hreflang attribute to:

• Detect multiple versions of your content, especially when you have similar or duplicate content targeting different regions or languages.
• Serve the correct version to the user depending on their language preference and geographic location.

Many CMS systems, such as Webflow have this sort of feature built into the settings of the site, so you don't have to code it yourself - but you do need to specify the correct language code.

How to approach technical SEO

The technical aspects of SEO are best left to the people who built and/or manage the development of your website. Thats because most of the components we have mentioned require some sort of development work in one way or another.

How you go about ‘fixing’ or implementing the different components differs depending on how your website is built and the content management system you use (WordPress, Webflow or a custom CMS).

Link Building

Search engines, notably Google, use backlinks as a primary signal of a website’s authority and credibility. Each quality inbound link acts as a “vote of confidence” that the content is valuable, trustworthy, and authoritative within its niche. This is rooted in algorithms like PageRank, which assigns weight to websites based on the quantity and quality of incoming links.

Modern SaaS link building focuses not only on the number of links but, more importantly, on their relevance. 

Links from contextually related, high-authority websites indicate to search engines that your content is part of a broader, knowledgeable ecosystem, reinforcing trust and expertise.

Typically, there are two broad categories of link building: Natural and outreach-based link-building.

Natural Link Building

Natural link building is when other websites link to your content without any direct solicitation (you don’t ask). In this scenario, the quality, relevance, and uniqueness of your content encourage others to reference your work as a trusted source.

Strategies to Gain Natural Link Building

For B2B SaaS companies it's essential to understand your niche and produce content that can

• Develop Exceptional Content: Focus on original research, in-depth guides, case studies, or visually engaging formats like infographics and videos. The more valuable and unique your content is, the more likely others will reference it.
• Optimize for Shareability: Make it easy for users to share your content by integrating social sharing buttons and crafting catchy headlines. Visual aids and interactive elements can also enhance shareability.
• Engage with Your Community: Build and nurture relationships with your audience through blog comments, forums, and social media. The more engaged your community is, the more likely they are to share and recommend your content.
• Promote Without Direct Outreach: Use methods such as content syndication, PR releases, and participation in relevant online communities to increase awareness and drive organic linking.

Outreach Link Building

Outreach link building is a proactive strategy where you or your team identifies potential websites and contacts them to request a link to your content. This method is often used to secure links from reputable sources that might otherwise not discover your content.

Strategies for Effective Outreach

• Identify Target Sites: Research websites and blogs that are relevant to your industry or niche. Tools like backlink analyzers can help you locate high-authority sites that might benefit from your content.
• Personalize Your Approach: Craft customized emails that explain why your content is valuable and how it fits their audience. Personalization is key—generic pitches are less likely to receive a positive response.
• Provide Clear Value: Highlight what makes your content unique, such as original data, expert insights, or exclusive research. If possible, tailor your offer (such as guest posts or expert quotes) to align with the recipient’s content strategy.
• Build Relationships: Don’t view outreach solely as a transaction. Engage with target sites through social media by commenting on their content or sharing their work. Establishing rapport often leads to better long-term outcomes.
• Follow Up Thoughtfully: A polite follow-up message can remind potential linkers of your initial outreach, but it’s essential to avoid being pushy. Keep your communication respectful and professional.

Natural vs Outreach Link Building

Just like anything, when it comes to strategy, there are pros and cons to both the natural and the outreach approach. 

Natural Link Building relies heavily on the inherent quality of your content and tends to be less predictable. It’s more of a “wait and see” approach, dependent on organic recognition. Outreach Link Building offers more control and can be planned and executed on your timeline, yielding faster results.

Natural Link Building Demands a consistent output of high-quality content. The primary focus is on creative and editorial excellence. Outreach link building requires dedicated resources for relationship management, research, and communication. It’s labor-intensive but can be very rewarding if managed efficiently.

By natural link building and outreach link building combining these methods—investing in high-quality content and engaging with your industry through targeted outreach—you can build a robust backlink profile that enhances your site’s authority, drives valuable referral traffic, and improves overall search engine performance.

Link Building Services & Agencies

Liink building is one of those difficult tasks that doesnt guarantee any success no matter how long you spend doing it, which can be quite annoying. That’s why many agencies, freelancers and companies outsource their link-building to other agencies or freelancers.

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Be careful when working with a link-building service that essentially sells links as this is not really best practice. Having said that I know many agencies do use these services to build links for their clients, some common services like this are FatJoe in the UK.

SaaS Specific Link-building Strategies

Each industry has its own SEO quirks, SaaS is no different. There are some SEO opportunities specific to SaaS companies that can be particularly useful for link-building. I’ve covered this in more detail in this post. 

As a quick TLDR, you can create a backlink strategy based on using client subdomains and public sharing pages from within your application - this can generate hundreds and sometimes thousands of genuine backlinks from your clients domains when done well.

SEO Analytics and Attribution

Analysing your performance in search engines is an integral part of SEO. Most SEO strategies are measured by metrics such as rankings, traffic, conversions, assisted sales pipeline, and closed won deals that can be attributed to organic traffic.

Team 4 uses a custom BI dashboard built using Agency Analytics to monitor our clients' SEO campaign performance. We also use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and SEMRush as supporting tools.

How do you attribute business to SEO

One common challenge and question that I hear a lot is “how do attribute new business to SEO?” - the short answer is there is no perfect way to attribute every lead to something. There are however great CRMs like HubSpot to automatically assign an “original source” to a lead based on its tracking code, and one of those sources is “Organic Search”.

How long does it take to generate new business through SEO?

This is probably the most burning question you can get asked as someone who runs SEO campaigns. Yes, its true SEO takes time and we live in world where people are used to getting what they want ‘now’ so some businesses just don’t get on with SEO campaigns because of their approach to business generally.

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The other answer to this question is that it can also be fast - it depends on your starting point. If you’re in a competitive niche with a brand new website and no backlinks then yes it will take months perhaps even a year. But, if you website has a good amount of backlinks and decent content but you’re just missing some simple adjustments it can actually happen in weeks - every website is different.

SEO for High Value vs Low Value SaaS Products

The SEO strategy differs greatly when it comes to high-value software compared to low-value software. As you may guess, low-value softwar needs much higher volumes to work - this means you SEO strategy will typically be targeting higher volume queries and in turn this can actually be harder and therefore more expensive, ironically.

Where as if you are performing SEO for a niche high-ticket SaaS software, you only need a few deals to close to get a decent return on investment.

The other thing to consider is that lower-value SaaS products tend to rely more on network effects and product-led growth, so SEO is not really as important in the long run, but it does get you started.

Brand Marketing & SEO

As an SEO expert, I obviously love SEO, but I also love branding. A lot of marketers see brand marketing as something that works against SEO, and they are very different, but in reality, SEO can be excellent for amplifying your brand, and here’s why:

SEO bolsters online visibility and awareness

It may seem obvious but SEO improves the visibility of your brand, full-stop:

• Top-of-mind awareness: High-ranking search results ensure that your brand appears frequently in the organic search results, reinforcing your image and message whenever potential customers conduct relevant searches.
• User Trust: Appearing on the first page of search results lends additional credibility to your brand as users often associate top search positions with industry authority and trustworthiness.

A Holistic Content Strategy

Content shouldn’t be created purely for search engines, this is in direct violation of what Google recommends, instead create content that feeds your brand:

• Brand Content Creation: When brand narratives and strategies align, your website benefits from content that serves both brand storytelling and SEO goals. This might include blog posts, case studies, white papers, and social media content that are optimized for relevant keywords.
• Consistent Messaging: By applying SEO best practices to all branded content, you ensure that each piece of content contributes to a consistent online presence, enhancing both discoverability and brand coherence.

Data-Driven Adaptation

A key component that enables SEO when it comes to content is using data to ensure you are producing content that is based on what people are searching for:

• Performance Metrics: SEO tools provide insights on user behavior (e.g., time on page, bounce rates, conversion paths) that can inform brand marketing strategies. These insights allow marketers to refine messaging to better resonate with the target audience.
• Content Iteration: Analytics highlight which content pieces drive engagement, allowing brand marketers to fine-tune their campaigns and invest more in strategies that yield measurable organic growth.
  

Common Pitfalls in SEO

Unfortunately, it's easy to list some of the common mistakes I’ve seen made on websites when it comes to SEO. 

There are lots of aspects to SEO, but these are the most common pitfalls I’ve personally seen in B2B SaaS & tech websites specifically, i’ll keep it short as nobody wants to read war and peace on mistakes made:

1. Publishing too little content or too broadly: It’s very common for websites not to add more value and content to their websites - not updating and adding educational content to your website is widespread mistake.
2. Targeting broad keywords: Another common approach is to target prevalent and broad keywords that are highly competitive and not directly related to your service offering. Typically, this happens when businesses are trying to go after traffic for the sake of it rather than focusing on their buyers' needs.
3. Not using buyer language: Now and then, I come across a website that has a common issue, which is that the company uses a lot of internal language and marketing buzzwords to describe what they do, which is excellent, but nobody will be searching for it.
4. Trying to define a new category: There is a issue kind of specific to SaaS companies which is that when they are pitching for invest they often try and explain how there are product is a brand new category of products even if its not, they usually do this by just changing the name of category but without following through with the product.

Overall, when it comes to SEO those are the main issues that we’ve seen at Team 4. It can sometimes be hard to re-focus a company if they have their heart set on something like defining a new category and/or targeting very broad keywords, the best approach to deal with this is to try and educate and then adjust the strategy based on what we know works.

The Future of SEO & AEO

AI and LLMs are changing search behaviour and how we do SEO. From personal experience, I can tell you that we used to employ content writers to write expert content on niche content - now 80% of that is done by LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT.

SEO to AEO - A Changing Landscape

Most people are familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but maybe not AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). 

As technology advances and AI tools like Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT become available to everyone to search there has been a shift towards companies wanting to also appear in the answers for peoples questions in tools like ChatGPT as well as when they use more traditional tools like Google.

What is the main difference between AEO and SEO?

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are both inbound marketing strategies that help improve a website's visibility in search engines and LLM tools. The main difference between them is that AEO focuses on providing direct answers to user queries, while SEO focuses on ranking websites in search results.

Is AEO better than SEO?

While AEO and SEO are distinct strategies, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they complement each other. SEO ensures that your website ranks well and attracts traffic, while AEO helps your business provide immediate answers, capturing users who may not want to click through to a website

Will AEO replace SEO?

While AEO is a significant development in the digital landscape, it's not a replacement for SEO. Instead, it's an evolution that complements and enhances existing SEO strategies.

Using ChatGPT and AI for SEO

One of the most significant changes to SEO and online marketing in general is the use of AI tools like ChatGPT to mass-produce content that once took weeks to do.

Like the Industrial Revolution transformed handcrafted goods into mass-manufactured products, AI is transitioning content production from a manual, time-consuming process to one where content can be generated rapidly and at scale.

ChatGPT and the AI-driven Content Revolution

Here is a great example, we used ChatGPT to help generate parts of this next section on how it's helping change the way content is produced:

• Accelerated Production: Tools like ChatGPT allow for rapid generation of text, which previously required significant time and expertise. This acceleration means that producing a first draft, ideation, or even repetitive content tasks are no longer bottlenecks in the content creation process.
• Scalability and Democratization: Just as mass manufacturing democratized consumer goods by making them more affordable, AI-driven content tools have made high-quality language generation accessible to a broader audience. This democratization means that small businesses, independent writers, and large corporations alike can produce content at scale.
• Enhanced Efficiency: Organizations can now shift resources from routine writing tasks to more value-added activities, such as strategy, analysis, and creative direction, much as factories freed up artisanal skills for design innovation and strategic oversight.

So, Where Does the Value Shift?

So with content generation becoming more of a commodity, the unique insights, creativity, and strategic oversight provided by human professionals will become the new differentiators. The value is no longer solely in the sheer quantity of generated words, but in:

• Idea Innovation: Crafting original concepts that resonate with audiences.
• Quality Control: Editing and refining AI-generated content to ensure accuracy, tone, and engagement.
• Curation and Personalization: Tailoring content to specific target audiences, niches, or brand voices—a task that relies on deep contextual understanding and cultural nuance.

Domain Expertise and Authenticity

While AI can produce well-formed text, it lacks the human touch needed for authenticity, emotional connection, and specialized insights. The expertise needed to validate, verify, and add a layer of personal or professional nuance to generated content is where human input remains invaluable - yeah I let ChatGPT write this bit, but its true, as humans we can add a level of experience and personalization to content - AI cannot replace your personal experiences in life.

Creative and Strategic Thinking

As the production phase becomes increasingly automated, the role of creative direction, innovation, and nuanced storytelling moves to the forefront. Businesses will gain more by leveraging the speed and scale of AI tools while emphasizing the creative strategy that differentiates one brand’s narrative from another.

Niche Specialization and Contextualization

The mass production of generic content can lead to saturation. Therefore, the real value will reside in producing niche content that is highly targeted and resonates with a specific audience, integrating context, local insights, or specialized knowledge that generic AI models might not capture on their own.

Much like the Industrial Revolution shifted the focus from individual craftsmanship to the efficiency of mass production, AI tools like ChatGPT are shifting the SEO and marketing content landscape from manual drafting to rapid, scalable generation. 

The actual value of content and, therefore, SEO content now lies in how you can refine, personalise, and strategically deploy this content. 

The emphasis is moving away from mere production volume toward leveraging creative oversight, deep domain expertise, and the art of curation to produce high-quality, engaging, and relevant content.

This realignment mirrors historical economic shifts, where the ability to add strategic value, innovate, and differentiate in a crowded market has become the new competitive edge.

Put simply, anyone can write articles with LLMs, it's how you use them and add creativity and strategy to them that will make the difference, especially when it comes to aligning with Google’s EEAT guidelines.

How we use AI for SEO

Adding a bit of personalization to this article, we use AI tools in combination with SEO data from tools like SEMRush and SurferSEO to generate data-driven content for niche audiences. We also use LLM orchestration tools like AirOps that allow us to build AI workflows

An SEO Action Plan for B2B SaaS

If you’ve made it this far, thank you—I hope you’ve found it valuable and insightful. Based on everything we’ve covered (and a few more ideas floating around in my head), this section outlines the proven action plan we’ve used for years on B2B SaaS SEO.

Here are the five essential steps to build a lean, effective SEO strategy for B2B SaaS:

Conduct a Technical Audit

• Crawl your site to uncover broken links, duplicate content, slow pages and indexing issues.
• Fix critical errors (404s, redirect chains) and ensure your site is mobile-friendly with a clear URL structure.

Perform Targeted Keyword Research & Mapping

• Identify high-value terms across Awareness (TOFU), Consideration (MOFU) and Decision (BOFU) stages.
• Use search volume, intent and competitor gaps to prioritise – then map each keyword to a dedicated page or content asset.

Build a Content Framework

• Develop pillar pages and clusters around core topics (e.g. “SaaS onboarding”, “CRM comparison”, “Vendor pricing”).
• Optimise on-page elements (titles, headings, meta descriptions, internal links) and enrich with visuals, data and examples.

Earn Authoritative Backlinks

• Leverage customer case studies, original research or expert round-ups to attract niche-relevant sites.
• Conduct targeted outreach to industry blogs, partner networks and publications, focusing on value-exchange rather than mass emails.

Measure, Iterate & Scale

• Track KPIs (organic traffic, keyword rankings, dwell time, MQLs) in a dashboard—review monthly.
• Refresh top-performing content quarterly, expand clusters based on emerging queries and scale successful processes (e.g. templated briefs, SEO playbooks).

When (and If) to DIY vs Hire a Freelancer

SEO is something anyone can learn—and in the past it often felt like a “geeky” corner of marketing. Today, it’s all about producing high-quality, niche-specific content that genuinely helps your audience. If you’re a B2B SaaS founder who knows your industry inside out, you can certainly draft great articles yourself. The main questions are:

1. Time: Do you have bandwidth to research, write, publish and promote on a regular cadence?
2. Expertise: Do you know which topics will move the needle for organic traffic and lead generation?
3. Priorities: Could your time be better spent on product, partnerships or sales?

If you answer “no” to any of these, a specialist freelancer may bridge the gap—offering writing, optimisation and light strategy at a lower monthly commitment than a full-service agency.

When to Bring in an Agency or Specialist Team

As an agency owner, I’ve seen clients get the best ROI when they engage us under two conditions:

• Sufficient Budget (typically £2,000+ per month): Enough to cover a dedicated strategist, content planner and outreach support.
• Desire to Focus Elsewhere: You recognise SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, and you’d rather leave the heavy lifting to experts while you steer broader growth initiatives.

SEO isn’t a silver bullet, but it remains one of the most sustainable, cost-effective channels for B2B SaaS. Prospects will always turn to search engines—and increasingly to AI tools—to research software. An agency can ensure you’re the solution they discover first.

SEO as a Long-Term Growth Engine

Unlike paid ads, SEO compounds over time. Early investments in solid technical foundations, authoritative content and backlink profiles pay dividends months—and even years—later. To treat SEO as a true growth engine:

1. Commit to Consistency: Publish or update at least one pillar piece per month.
2. Iterate & Refresh: Revisit top-performing posts quarterly to add new data, customer quotes or case studies.
3. Scale with Process: Document your keyword research, content briefs and outreach templates so you can onboard more writers or agencies seamlessly.
   Align with Product Roadmap: Launch campaigns around new features and integrate SEO keywords at every touchpoint (release notes, help centre, webinars).

By following this action plan—backed by tactical articles and clear hiring guidelines—you’ll build a B2B SaaS SEO machine that drives qualified traffic, accelerates pipeline growth and lays a foundation for years of organic success.

The End

I hate using the title “Conclusion” so I just titled this section the end, because it is. I've waffled on a lot about SEO in this article. 

But, in the end SEO doesn’t not fix issues that might be fundamental business problems to do with the proposition and overall strategy - put simply, you rank at the top of the search results for whatever you want but if when someone visits your website they are not convinced - then it doesn’t matter.

SEO works best when a business has great positioning and they know their niche. It doesn’t work when a business takes the whole “we can sell to anybody” approach.

Anyway don’t just read my thoughts on this, there are so many resources out there on SEO its pretty overwhelming but here are a few key ones I think are worth reading if you looking to learn a bit more about it before embarking on your own strategy, good luck!