Content Optimization: A Comprehensive Guide To SEO For B2B SaaS

When you’re baking a cake, you follow the recipe. Because you know that if you forget to add baking soda or accidentally add salt instead of sugar, you won’t have the dessert you’re hoping for.

Content creation is the same way: If you build content without checking the recipe, you probably won’t get the results you want. You need to be strategic. 

Thoughtfully curating and optimizing your content to speak directly to your ideal customer encourages higher organic traffic numbers, increased conversions, and ultimately more revenue. Frequently revisiting your content results shows you what’s working and what isn’t so you can re-optimize if the numbers aren’t where you want them to be.

So, how do you do it? In this guide, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of content optimization: why you need it, strategies and best practices, and how-tos.  

Content optimization: The key to capturing and keeping your ICP’s attention

Having content on your website is good, but optimizing content to leverage more high-intent traffic is better. 

SEO content optimization is the process of tailoring content to rank higher on search engine results pages. It’s more than simply adding keywords to your blog posts — it’s a holistic shift in your content marketing strategy that will position each piece of content to perform its absolute best. 

Every web page on your site should be optimized. What exactly does that mean?

• Perform keyword research and analyze search intent: Before writing, dive into which relevant keywords your potential customers are searching for online, and build your strategy around targeting those keywords. Researching your ICP’s search intent also allows you to provide answers to their pain points.
• Create high-quality content: Put your best content forward. The better your content, the better chances you’ll have of making an impact on your readers. SEO is great, but don’t forget your true audience.
• Utilize on-page SEO: Once you’ve written your content, use title tags, meta descriptions, and internal links to add authority to your content and make it more easily indexed by search engines. 
• Improve reader experience: Engaging content is a must, but you’ll also want to ensure you use responsive and accessible designs, descriptive alt tags, and clear CTAs.
• Track key metrics: Performance analysis informs future optimizations, both on new content and content refreshes. 
• Avoid content decay with regular updates: Keeping your content up-to-date helps it stay relevant both to readers and search engines. Newer content — or recently updated content— tends to rank higher for its timeliness. 

When you combine these elements, you get a piece of content that not only aligns with your audience but is designed to keep the algorithms happy so that your content can rank higher.

Why content optimization is essential for B2B SaaS

For B2B SaaS companies, content optimization is pivotal for establishing authority in highly saturated markets and converting average searchers into avid customers. The benefits of SEO content go beyond earning higher SERPs. With conscientious messaging to your target audience, you increase visibility, build brand trust, and encourage consistent engagement with your content. 

Boost visibility in search results

Search engines are the most powerful organic traffic tool in the shed. When your content is optimized, it has a higher chance of capturing top-ranking positions. 

When you boost the SEO of one page — say a blog post or a landing page — you increase the site's overall performance. It’s a winning strategy. According to Backlinko, the average click-through rate for the top-ranking result is 27.6%. 

Ranking on the first SERP (and ranking #1 in particular) is synonymous with offering valuable, reputable content. This highly coveted slot is the crown jewel of any keyword search. Searchers view top results as more trustworthy, and this increased visibility also drives more traffic to your website, helping you reach a broader audience.

Establish authority in your industry

How often do you click to the second or third page of Google results? Probably not often.

So, it’s clear why ranking highly in search results drives traffic to your site. However, it’s not just about the traffic numbers. High rankings also establish your company as a leading voice in the industry.

 When your content consistently appears at the top of search engine results pages (yes, across multiple keywords), users will recognize your brand. Because of search engine’s extensive algorithms, users trust that higher-ranking content is more valuable and trustworthy. This is crucial for B2B SaaS companies where competition is steep. 

According to Edelman, 59% of consumers will purchase from a brand they trust, even if it’s more expensive. High search rankings contribute to establishing this trust early on. 

To build content that supports this authoritative placement, focus on creating comprehensive content that targets your customer’s exact pain points. Develop target keywords, particularly with high search volume but lower difficulty, to snag that coveted #1 spot: Your SERP placement could mean the difference between converting a customer or losing the sale. 

Reach your ICP with the right content at the right time

Content optimization focuses your content on one end goal: converting customers. To do this, you need to create content that aligns with each phase of the marketing funnel. That way, your ICP hears exactly what they need to hear at exactly the right time. 

If all of your content is geared toward the decision stage, you won’t reach casual browsers. This segment of your audience already has their hand hovering over the sign-up button, and they just need a little nudge. In contrast, new customers who stumble upon bottom-of-funnel content may be turned off because you aren’t addressing them appropriately. 

To capture new audience members, remember to create content for the top and middle of the funnel as well. By mapping your content to each phase of the funnel, you can direct readers toward making an informed, confident decision. 

Maintain a library of evergreen content

While content must be relevant and up-to-date, you’ll also want to incorporate evergreen content that can stand the test of time. If you focus solely on trending topics, you’ll soon find that the tides of the industry have changed, and you’re no longer capturing traffic.

For SaaS products, this likely revolves around industry definitions, customer pain points, and reliable solutions. Focus on creating comprehensive guides and resources that address topics that people have been — and will be — searching for routinely.

But evergreen content isn’t one-and-done. SEO algorithms are constantly changing. Keeping a pulse on what’s expected from content will inform future content audits and refreshes.

Plus, SEO crawlers look to a page’s publishing date to understand how recent it is, so frequently updating your evergreen content library makes your content more easily accessible through organic search. Plus, a fresh update allows you to redistribute it across other channels. You’ll be able to boost your visibility on search engines and social media sites by maintaining this library. 

Strategies to optimize content for readability and user experience

When you’re optimizing your site’s content, it’s not just about the bots. You want real people to interact with your content. Starting with high-quality content is a necessity, not an exception. 

Content that performs well aligns with search intent, is thoughtfully organized, and provides value to your readers. When people spend more time on your site, search engines recognize that as a sign that your content should rank higher. 

Providing the best user experience possible will go a long way. Let’s take a closer look at how. 

Align your content angle with search intent

Often overlooked, search intent is arguably the most important aspect of content optimization. 

Why? 

When someone is searching for something, they’re looking for answers. Content that delivers on the heart of the search query performs better than content that kind of, sort of, maybe answers the question being asked. 

Not all queries are as obvious as others. Queries tend to fall into four main categories: 

• Navigational: If you’ve ever done a Google search for the name of a company because you don’t know the exact URL, that’s a navigational search. You want to go from Point A to Point B. 
• Informational: Searchers who want to learn more about a topic may search for things like “How to trim candle wicks,” “Where to go kayaking”  —  or even “Why should you optimize content for SEO.”
• Commercial: These searches showcase purchasing considerations. Think, “Best SaaS products 2024,” “top-rated macaroni and cheese brands,” or “Windows vs. Mac comparisons.”
• Transactional: When someone’s serious about buying, that intent shifts to transactional. Searches like “Netflix sign up” or “Ten Speed pricing” fall into this category.

Targeting different search intents is not always a shift in content but a shift in delivery. If someone’s searching for “easy ways to boost SEO” and there’s a fifteen-step list that will take months to complete, that doesn’t match their search intent. But if that list is instead three things they can do today, you have a perfect match. 

Use headers and subheadings to create easily scannable content

Readability is vitally important to the success of your content. The last thing you want is someone to open up your webpage and see blocks of uninterrupted text. 

While infographics and other visuals certainly help, headers and subheadings ensure every piece of content is easy to read.

Not only do headers add physical space to your content, but they also make it much easier to skim for the information a reader needs. Headers follow a strict hierarchy. Getting this step right makes it easy for readers and search engine crawlers to dissect your content. 

• H1: Retained solely for your post’s title
• H2: The main components of your article
• H3 and H4: Increasingly granular sections nested within H2s 

Orphaned subheadings make your content feel disjointed, but following this hierarchy creates a seamless reading experience.

Headers and subheadings should align with your page’s title. If you’re writing a blog post with “How to Decide on a B2B SaaS Product,” your headers should outline the steps to take to make that decision. But if you’re writing a post about the “Top 7 B2B SaaS Products,” create numbered H2s to guide your reader.

Many readers aren’t sitting down to read your posts like they’re on The New York Times Best Sellers list. They’re searching for one nugget of information. Headers make that information easier to find. 

Write with an authentic voice that reflects who your brand is

Every piece of content on your site should reflect your brand voice and all external brand messaging. This creates a cohesive experience for your potential customers, and that consistency facilitates authority. You know who you are, and it shows. 

Finding the right brand voice is crucial. You’re looking to personify your product — something that feels genuine and authentic. While the specific voice will look different for each company, the most important part is that you should like a real person. 

For SaaS products, you’ll often want to aim for something approachable but knowledgeable. Steer away from sounding too stiff, like you’ve copied straight out of a textbook, or too unnatural. 

If you’re using ChatGPT to create your content, make sure you have human editors weighing in heavily. Readers can spot pure AI-generated content a mile away. While AI content isn’t actively penalized by Google, it could stop people from trusting your brand. Low-quality content could boost your bounce rates, which would still ding your SEO rankings. 

So, how do you find your brand’s authentic voice?

• Turn to your company pillars: You likely already have an idea of who your company is and how you interact internally. Lean on these cultural pillars as the foundation for understanding what your content should sound like. Keeping these aligned ensures all content feels true to your brand.  
• Have key stakeholders review several options: If you’re struggling to find a consistent voice in your copywriting, write the same paragraph in a few different voices and review. You’ll discover things you like and things you don’t. Keep a list, and that becomes the starting point for your style guide.
• Speak in a language your ideal customer knows: To reach your perfect audience, it’s important to speak directly to them. Any specific language that your ICP uses, like common industry phrases, should find its way into your writing

When you nail your brand voice and keep it consistent, you give readers the opportunity to truly connect with your brand. This builds loyalty, establishes you as a reliable source of information, and helps you create content that will keep your audience engaged. 

Vary sentence lengths to keep readers engaged

Some writing is very dull. It lacks heart and soul. Sometimes, it can feel robotic. Changing your sentence length helps.

See? Every sentence in the previous paragraph was five words. But this one? We’re shaking it up. It’s much easier to stay engaged when sentence length varies. Next time you’re drafting new content or sprucing up an older piece, take note of how varied your sentences are. If things start to feel stilted, add variety. 

When writing for search engine optimization, high reader engagement is a huge goal. Obviously, you want to connect with your target audience. But more interest in your content also means you’ll see spikes in your page view times. This shows search engines that people are enjoying your content. Better yet, they might click around your site for a while, looking for more useful articles.

Search engines read, too. Sentence length is a well-known aspect of overall readability. So, when search engines crawl your website, they’re indexing how challenging your content is to read. Consistently creating accessible content that is easy to consume signals to search engines that you’re a good resource to share with searchers. 

Take advantage of lists to create visually appealing content

Same idea here. Big blocks of text with nothing of note for the average page-skimmer are overwhelming. They’ll force people to bounce. Adding lists — bulleted or numbered — supports a better user experience.

Let’s look at the benefits of lists:

• Highlight key points: Lists alert readers that there is something important being said. They zero in on that information. 
• Improve engagement: Content that is easily scannable is more valuable to the average, busy reader than stodgy content that is hard to parse through. Keep things bite-size with a list. 
• Enhanced readability: Lists inherently add a level of overarching organization to your work. By thoughtfully including lists, you’re constructing the page in a more readable manner.

When you start incorporating lists, you’ll see a boost in your content performance. It’ll be easier to interact with — and this applies across channels. Social media posts, landing pages, and blog posts can all reap the benefits. There are countless ways B2B SaaS companies could use lists, but here are a few favorites:

• Spotlight critical data: Don’t make readers slog through your content just to find the numbers they’re looking for.
• Provide instructions: Numbered lists are excellent when you need to include step-by-step instructions.
• Review takeaways: At the beginning or end of a post, a list is perfect for summarizing key learnings.

You’re fighting for your audience’s attention. Adding lists helps you win the battle. You’ll see improved view times, more engagement, and, ultimately, a better chance at capturing valuable traffic. 

Include a call to action that helps readers understand what to do next

Every one of your content ideas should have a call to action. When you provide users with next steps, they’re more likely to stay engaged with your content. A successful CTA does three things: 

1. Grabs reader attention
2. Describes what to do next
3. Guides readers to the next step

CTAs that don’t do all three are less likely to convert. If it doesn’t grab a reader’s attention, they might miss it entirely. If it doesn’t describe what you want them to do, they likely won’t follow through. And, lastly, if there isn’t an easy way to perform that action, you’ve lost them. People are busy. Don’t give them chores — make it easy.

Most commonly, CTAs are included in the conclusion. As you’re wrapping up your final thoughts, it’s natural to want to try to retain a reader’s interest by guiding them to something new or urging them to try your product. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that many readers will simply be skimming your articles. They might not scroll all the way to the conclusion. Instead of only including CTAs there, try adding them throughout your posts to maximize visibility. 

For instance, you could direct people to download a lead magnet after the introduction or an early section, incorporate pop-up or sidebar CTAs for uninterrupted reading, or point to additional resources throughout the text. 

8 Technical ways to optimize your content for SEO

So far, we’ve covered non-technical ways to boost your SEO. There is another side to this coin: technical SEO. Unlike on-page SEO where you’re adjusting the content itself, technical SEO works behind the scenes to make sure everything runs smoothly. 

Neither one is more important than the other. You need both types of SEO for your content to be truly optimized for search rankings. While on-page SEO makes your content rich with valuable information for readers, technical SEO helps search engines define what the content is, who it’s for, and whether or not the source is reliable. 

To improve your technical SEO, here are eight key things to tackle. 

1. Ensure you’re focusing on the right keywords

Every strong SEO strategy starts with keyword research. Ensuring you’re using the right target keywords is crucial for attracting the right audience. Without it, you won’t drive meaningful traffic to your site. You’ll end up with low-intent users or, worse, a complete lack of visibility from your key audience.

Using keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can help you identify relevant keywords, including their search volume and keyword difficulty. Performing competitive research using these tools can illuminate what your direct competitors are doing. That way, you can build your content strategy to: 

1. Target those same keywords in a new way that will speak to your audience, or 
2. Focus on different keywords your audience is also interested in

As always, don’t forget to consider search intent when developing a keyword list. This enables you to specifically target keywords that will drive traffic that will benefit from your content — and that aligned traffic leads to higher conversions. 

If you don’t nail this part of the process, all your content could end up misaligned. You’d end up with lower rankings, fewer conversions, and drained resources with little to no ROI.

But when you start your strategy with carefully curated keywords, you stand to see large returns on your investments. This foundational part of your SEO sets the stage for the rest of your process, so don’t underestimate it!

2. Strategically incorporate relevant keywords into the copy

Now that you’ve identified the right keywords for a post, it’s time to start adding them to your copywriting. What we want to avoid here is keyword stuffing. Much like the Thanksgiving favorite its name resembles, keyword stuffing is the act of cramming your content to the brim with keywords in an attempt to convince a search engine your content is valuable. 

While that may have worked in the early days of blog writing, modern search engines are not easily fooled. 

Keywords should be incorporated strategically but naturally. They should flow with the text as if it were written without regard for keywords and the keyword just happened to be used in the sentence. Additionally, incorporating keywords into your meta descriptions and alt tags is a helpful way to include them for search engines. 

Don’t forget to look into supporting long-tail keywords. These are often related to your primary keyword and offer additional context for what information will be found on the page. Long-tail keywords are descriptive and often, yes, longer versions of your primary keyword. 

For instance, if you offer a calendar app, a page where the primary keyword is “manage calendar” could include long-tail keywords like “best app to manage calendar,” “ways to manage calendar for remote teams,” or “tips to manage calendar meetings.” 

Luckily, you don’t have to figure it out all on your own. There are several beneficial tools to make integrating keywords easier than ever before. When you enter your primary into Clearscope, it creates a list of related terms to target and scores content as it's written. Semrush’s Keyword Magic tool quickly provides related keywords as well as their difficulty levels and search volume. 

However you do it, adding relevant keywords into your copywriting is a surefire way to boost your content’s visibility online. 

3. Include images and make sure to tag them

Content without visuals is boring. It’s that simple. And boring doesn’t get the job done. 

When you add images, infographics, and interactive displays, you’re upping your chances for user engagement and interest. Of course, you want to do this thoughtfully. There are a few best practices everyone should follow. 

• Choose the right file size. High-quality images are just as important as high-quality content. PNGs are a common choice as they’re a lossless image type, and they can be easily converted into Google’s proprietary compressed WebP format. You’ll get all the benefits of a high-quality image without the massive file size that will slow down your loading times.
• Ditch stock images. Sure, they’re simple, but everyone’s seen them. Unique images will make your content stand out.
• Optimize file names. Yes, what you name your images matters. Search engines will preen this data for details about what your content is, so an image labeled IMG 20283 (2).webp isn’t as valuable as one called keyword_research.webp. 

Image alt text is also crucial for the accessibility of your images. Using rich descriptions that include keywords in your meta tags and alt text benefits readers with visual impairments and search engine crawlers. 

4. Consider your internal linking strategy

All of your content should be interconnected. You’re creating a well-spun web of information that will guide readers across your site from one valuable piece of content to the next. Bonus: it works the same for web crawlers. 

When you use internal links, always add links on relevant anchor text so that humans and robots understand what to expect on the other side. (Linking the words “click here” isn’t descriptive enough. Worse is linking words that have nothing to do with the click-through content — it’s misleading at best and deceptive at worst.)

The right internal linking strategy provides authority to your posts. It tells readers and search engines that you’ve written more about these topics and you have more expertise to share. 

5. Make sure the title would inspire you to read the post

Search results are a lot like blind dates. A user inputs a search query, the results load, and everyone gets one chance to make a first impression. 

The posts that end up on Google’s first page have titles that sound like they’re worth reading. Bland or vague titles give casual browsers nothing to work with. 

Best practices for SEO advise titles to be between 50 and 70 characters long. This will appear easily readable in search results. It gives you just enough length to be descriptive without being too wordy. 

There are plenty of ways to develop click-worthy titles that aren’t clickbait. Descriptive, eye-catching titles don’t need to include the words “You’ll NEVER believe…” Be honest about what readers can expect, or your bounce rate will skyrocket. 

6. Add a meta description and alt tags

We’ve already mentioned meta description and alt tags a few times, so it’s no surprise that it’s one of our can’t-miss steps to crushing your technical SEO. 

Meta description is the short-and-sweet summary of your content that appears below the title in search results. It’s typically concise, advised generally under 160 characters, and utilizes the post’s primary keyword. In an ideal world, this description is also a hook to win traffic and bring readers to your site. 

Every page on your site should have a unique meta description. Duplicate content does not bode well with search engines, and you leave traffic on the table when you don’t devote a little effort to knocking this out of the park. 

Similarly, alt tags offer additional context for images in HTML. They provide descriptions that are beneficial to visually impaired readers as well as help search engines know what an image depicts. Descriptive alt texts may help your images appear in image searches, which is just another opportunity to snag someone’s attention. Generally, keep these only a few words long and directly convey the image — and sneak in a keyword when you can! 

7. Build a strong backlink profile

When you link to someone else’s site in your content, that is considered an outbound link. When someone else links to your content, it’s an inbound link or backlink. 

Backlinks are a powerful tool in your SEO toolbox. When you can win them from reputable sites, you gain priceless authority and credibility. Low-quality sites with low domain authority aren’t harmful, but they won’t bolster your SEO. 

The best way to acquire high-quality backlinks is to create high-quality content. This naturally produces backlinks because you’ve published original research, built a valuable resource, or created helpful visual assets. You can also request backlinks through guest blogging. 

8. Plan how you’ll handle content decay

Content decay occurs when a page on your site experiences decreasing traffic. It often occurs slowly over time — which is why it’s called content decay, and not content disappearance. Months after the initial posting, you’ll see your search engine rankings decrease. 

To combat this, employ a suite of tools to monitor key content metrics, like Google Search Console or Google Analytics. That way, you’ll know when it’s time for a content refresh. 

When refreshing content, spruce up the copywriting with new material, confirm it still aligns with search intent, and update the publishing date to the current date to reflect recent changes. 

How to optimize content to ensure you’re taking a product-led approach

For SaaS companies, a product-led approach is the perfect solution. It’s valuable content directed toward your target audience to alleviate their pain points and educate them about your product. When you’re building an inbound marketing funnel, this product-led approach is invaluable for developing brand trust and authority. 

Identify natural opportunities to highlight your product

Because you’re developing content specifically to reach your target audience, it’s important to look out for opportunities to showcase the benefits of your product. The key here is to avoid overselling your product in content where readers aren’t interested. 

Generally, you’ll want to keep your product spotlights to middle- and bottom-of-funnel blog posts. 

Illustrate the power of your product

Instead of blindly linking to your pricing page, it’s helpful to build content that showcases what your product can do. Incorporate features that demonstrate how your product solves your target audience’s pain points. Add videos and product screenshots so that they know what to expect from your product and can make an educated choice. 

Rather than keeping all the incredible perks of your product behind closed doors, this content enables potential customers to explore your product before they’re ready to book a demo. You’ll end up with higher-intent conversions who are informed about your product before they ever speak to your sales team.

Content optimization best practices are constantly changing

The truth is that there is no permanent fix for optimizing your content. The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Google regularly updates its search algorithms, and other search engines follow suit. 

Lately, AI overviews are the biggest impact to content optimization. Increasingly more searches are zero-click queries. Questions that can be answered by a quick AI overview are, and then the user jets back to whatever they were doing beforehand. It’s basically Google’s featured snippet feature amped up to 100. 

Now more than ever it’s time to make your content overtly useful. Don’t bury the lede, and don’t hide behind kitschy titles. Get straight to the point and provide deeply valuable content. 

We know how hard it can be to stay on top of the revolving door of algorithm updates. Newsletters from Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, and Moz Top 10 can help.  

Borrow content optimization expertise by hiring an agency that specializes in SEO content

Content optimization may sound like a big task, and that’s because it is. It’s no small undertaking. However, building and maintaining a content library is your most powerful acquisition engine. 

If you need a little help, B2B SaaS marketing agencies can take away the burden of managing and optimizing your content library. With dedicated marketers and devoted SEO experts, agencies can drive better results than trying to squeeze content marketing into your already stuffed to-do list. 

When you’re ready to see results through content optimization, reach out to us to get started.