The Ultimate SaaS SEO Checklist for 2024

When optimizing your website for search engines, it’s easy to miss important details like meta tags or mobile optimization while juggling multiple tasks. However, these small oversights can hurt your rankings and reduce traffic. Fortunately, with a comprehensive SEO checklist, you can avoid these pitfalls.

That's why we’ve created a SaaS SEO checklist to help you cover all the essential areas, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters—growing your business.

Why You Should Have a SaaS SEO Checklist in 2024

Before diving into the checklist, you should see some reasons you need one.

Comprehensive coverage of SEO best practices

An SEO checklist ensures that all important aspects of enterprise SEO are covered, from on-page optimization and keyword research to technical SEO and link-building strategies. It serves as a SaaS SEO guide, guiding you through each step to ensure nothing is overlooked. This approach helps improve your website’s visibility, user experience, and overall performance.

Efficient resource allocation

SEO can be resource-intensive, especially for SaaS companies with limited time and budget. A checklist allows you to prioritize tasks that will have the most significant impact on your search rankings. Focusing on these high-impact areas will help you allocate your resources more effectively, ensuring that your efforts yield the best possible return on investment.

Consistency in execution

A checklist helps maintain consistency by providing a clear and structured approach to your SEO efforts. Whether launching a new product, updating your website, or optimizing your content, a checklist ensures that all necessary steps are taken to maximize your SEO performance.

SaaS SEO Checklist for 2024

Now, let’s dive into the SaaS SEO checklist.

Conduct keyword research

The foundation of any successful B2B SaaS SEO strategy lies in thorough keyword research. For SaaS companies, it’s important to identify the keywords your target audience is searching for at various stages of the buyer’s journey. Here’s a breakdown of the types of keywords to target at each stage:

Awareness stage

• Problem-focused keywords: These keywords address the pain points or challenges that potential customers are experiencing. Examples include: "marketing automation tools," "customer relationship management software," "project management software."
• Industry-specific keywords: These are tailored to particular industries, helping you attract niche audiences. Examples include: "cloud storage solutions for photographers," "prospecting tools for financial advisors," and "lead generation tools for consulting."

Consideration stage

• Product-specific keywords: At this stage, prospects are evaluating specific solutions. Examples include: "HubSpot CRM," "Asana project management," and "Salesforce automation."
• Feature-based keywords: These keywords highlight your product's unique features or benefits. Examples include "AI-powered marketing tools," "integration with Google Analytics," and "mobile app compatibility."
• Comparison keywords: Prospects often compare different solutions. Examples include " HubSpot vs. Salesforce," "Asana vs. Trello," and "Zoho vs. Freshworks."

Decision stage

• Pricing keywords: Prospects are ready to purchase and often seek cost-related information. Examples include: "your product pricing plans," "your product free trial," and "discount codes."
• Customer reviews and testimonials: Social proof can heavily influence the final decision. Examples include: "your product reviews,"

Audit the site for crawling and indexing issues

Crawling and indexing are the processes by which search engines discover and organize your website’s content. If your site isn’t properly crawled or indexed, it won’t appear in search results no matter how well-optimized your content is. 

Here are a few quick ways to check for indexing and crawling issues:

• Look at the Google Search Console Coverage report: This tool provides an instant overview of which pages are indexed and flags any errors that might prevent crawling. To access it, log into your dashboard, navigate to the 'Indexing' tab on the left-hand sidebar, and click 'Pages.' The report will indicate why certain pages aren’t indexed.

‍

• Check your robots.txt file: Go to yoursite.com/robots.txt to see if any important pages are unintentionally blocked from crawling. Look for lines that start with "Disallow:" followed by the path of a page or directory that should be accessible. If you find unexpected blocking rules, consult your developer to ensure key pages aren’t restricted.

• Use Google Search to check indexed pages: In Google Search, type site:yoursite.com to see all the pages of your website that are successfully indexed. If you don’t see the important ones, it might indicate a crawling or indexing issue.
• URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console: Use this tool to check whether individual pages are indexed correctly and to identify any issues preventing their inclusion in search results.
• Run a basic crawl with Screaming Frog: This tool can quickly scan your site for broken links, duplicate content, and other crawlability issues. Use it for a quick overview of potential problems.

Identify and resolve duplicate content

Duplicate content can be a major issue for SaaS websites, particularly those with multiple service pages or blogs covering similar topics. When search engines encounter duplicate content, they may have difficulty deciding which version to index, which can result in ranking penalties.

To address this, use tools like Copyscape or Siteliner to identify duplicate content on your site. Once found, you can either rewrite the content to make it original or implement canonical tags to signal to search engines which version is preferred. Here’s how to apply canonical tags:

• Identify the page that should be considered the canonical URL.
• Insert the canonical tag in the <head> section of your HTML document:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yourwebsite.com/canonical-url" />

Implement and correct Schema Markup on relevant pages

Schema markup helps search engines understand the context of your content, leading to enhanced visibility in search results through rich snippets. Implementing schema on key pages—such as product pages, pricing pages, and customer testimonials—can significantly improve click-through rates. Ensure that the schema markup is correctly implemented and regularly updated to align with the latest guidelines from schema.org.

Use SEO-friendly URLs

URL structure plays a major role in both user experience and SEO. Ensure that your URLs are concise, descriptive, and include relevant keywords. Avoid using complex parameters or unnecessary words that make the URLs difficult to read and remember.

A well-structured URL not only helps search engines understand the page's content but also improves click-through rates by making your links more attractive to users.

Optimize meta descriptions, headlines, and title tags

Meta descriptions, headlines, and title tags are often the first things users see in search engine results. Optimizing these elements with relevant keywords and compelling copy can significantly impact your click-through rates. 

Ensure that each page on your site has a unique meta description and title tag, and keep them within the recommended character limits to avoid truncation in search results. 

The recommended character limit for meta descriptions is 160 characters, while for title tags, it is 60 characters. Also, don’t forget to use clear and engaging headlines that accurately represent the page's content.

Prioritize high-quality content creation

High-quality content attracts search engine traffic and engages and educates your target audience, driving them further down the sales funnel. In case you’re unsure of what high-quality content means, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Does the content address the specific needs and challenges of my target audience?
• Are the insights provided backed by data, research, or  SaaS SEO case studies?
• For easy readability, is the content structured logically, with clear headings and subheadings?
• Are visuals, such as images, infographics, or videos, used effectively to enhance understanding?
• Does the content align with the overall goals of my marketing strategy?
• Is the content optimized for search engines without sacrificing readability or user experience?

In addition to answering these questions, remember to update your content regularly to keep it relevant and incorporate target keywords naturally to improve visibility in search results.

Build high-quality backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. High-quality backlinks from reputable websites can significantly boost your domain authority and organic rankings. 

Build relationships with industry influencers, guest post on authoritative blogs, and create shareable content that naturally attracts links. SaaS SEO tools like Ahrefs or Moz can help you monitor your backlink profile and identify opportunities for acquiring more links.The quality of backlinks is more important than quantity, so consider these SaaS link building tips;

• The linking website should closely relate to your industry or niche, ensuring the backlink is contextually appropriate.
• Links from websites with high domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR) carry more weight and can significantly improve your rankings.
• Backlinks from reputable and trustworthy websites signal to search engines that your site is credible, enhancing your overall SEO.
• Links placed within the main content of a page, rather than in sidebars or footers, are generally more valuable and carry more SEO benefits.
• The anchor text should be natural and relevant to the content it’s linking to, avoiding over-optimization or keyword stuffing.
• Dofollow links pass on link equity, which can boost your SEO performance, while nofollow links, though still valuable, do not pass on the same authority.

Ensure the website is mobile-friendly

With mobile traffic continuing to outpace desktop, ensuring your website is fully optimized for mobile devices is non-negotiable. Google’s mobile-first indexing means that the mobile version of your site is considered the primary version, so any issues on mobile could hurt your rankings. 

Implement responsive design to ensure your site looks and functions well on all screen sizes. Test your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, and pay attention to mobile-specific issues like touch element spacing, text readability, and load times.

Optimize for site speed

A slow-loading site can frustrate users, leading to higher bounce and lower conversion rates. Moreover, search engines penalize slow sites by pushing them down in the rankings. 

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to assess your site’s performance and identify areas for improvement. Implementing solutions like image compression, browser caching, and minimizing HTTP requests can significantly improve load times and enhance the user experience.

Optimize images for enhanced user experience

Images play a key role in making your content engaging, but they can also slow down your site if not properly optimized. Ensure that all images on your website are compressed without sacrificing quality. 

Use descriptive file names and alt text for images to improve accessibility and give search engines more context about your content. Also, use modern image formats like WebP for better performance and leverage lazy loading to defer offscreen images until needed.

Incorporate relevant internal linking

Internally linking relevant pages within your site will help your users find additional, relevant content, improve navigation, and distribute link equity.

Use descriptive anchor text for internal links to help search engines understand the context of the linked pages. Regularly audit your internal links to ensure they are relevant and functioning correctly.

Use clear Calls to Action (CTAs)

A CTA is the difference between a visitor who bounces and the one who converts into a lead or customer. CTAs guide users toward key actions like signing up for a free trial, requesting a demo, or downloading a resource. 

Ensure your CTAs are clear, concise, and stand out visually on your pages, including the hybrid landing pages. Use action-oriented language that speaks directly to the user’s needs, and place CTAs strategically throughout your site to maximize engagement. Also, A/B tests different CTA placements, colors, and wording to find the most effective combinations.

How TripleDart Has Transformed SEO for B2B SaaS Companies

TripleDart has over 10 years of experience in performing SaaS SEO for startups. Our strategies have driven impressive results for our clients. Take a look!

Spendflo gets a 100% increase in lead conversions from the blog

Challenge:

Spendflo needed to rank for a select number of high-intent keywords in a highly niche market and turn SEO into a key revenue driver. 

Strategy:

• Conducted in-depth keyword research to target high-conversion opportunities.
• Developed BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) content, including targeted landing pages and high-value listicles.
• Performed a comprehensive technical audit and optimized on-page elements to ensure peak site performance.
• Implemented lead magnets and a robust internal linking structure to guide visitors through the conversion funnel.
• Closely monitored performance using Google Analytics to fine-tune efforts.

Results:

Within three months, Spendflo saw a 100% increase in lead conversions from their blog.

Strac sees a 50% increase in organic traffic

Challenge:

Strac, a newcomer to the highly competitive cybersecurity space, needed to significantly boost its brand awareness and organic traffic.

Strategy:

• Published 10 SEO articles per month, targeting key industry terms.
• Improved site design and enhanced the user experience to increase visitor engagement and reduce bounce rates.
• Developed new, SEO-driven landing pages to capture high-intent visitors.
• Implemented a full suite of SEO activities, including on-page and off-page optimizations.

Results:

In just four months, Strac saw a 50% increase in organic traffic and secured 60 new conversions.

A solid SEO strategy is important for SaaS businesses aiming for growth in 2024. By following this detailed SaaS SEO checklist, you can ensure that your website is fully optimized across all key SEO areas. 

At TripleDart, we take a data-driven approach, combining in-depth keyword research, content optimization, and rigorous technical audits to craft strategies that don't just boost traffic but also drive revenue. Connect with us today to see how we can help you transform SEO into a revenue engine.