Technical SEO Guide for SaaS 2024: Your Only Resource Needed
Are you a SaaS (Software as a Service) provider striving to rise above the digital noise and capture the attention of your target audience? Have you ever wondered how to optimize your online presence to ensure that your innovative solutions are discovered by those who need them most? Welcome to the realm of Technical SEO for SaaS – a dynamic landscape where the mastery of search engine optimization meets the intricacies of software delivery. In this article, we’ll delve into the essential strategies and tactics tailored specifically for SaaS companies, empowering you to navigate the digital ecosystem with precision and purpose. Get ready to unlock the secrets that will propel your SaaS platform to new heights in visibility, relevance, and success.
What does technical SEO for SaaS companies involve?
Technical SEO for SaaS companies involves optimizing various backend aspects of your website to enhance search engine visibility and user experience. This includes structuring your website logically for easy navigation, optimizing page loading speed, ensuring mobile responsiveness, implementing structured data markup, and managing indexing and crawling effectively. Additionally, securing your website with HTTPS encryption is crucial for protecting user data and improving trust signals. Conducting a technical SEO audit can help identify and address issues that may hinder your site’s performance on search engine results pages (SERPs), providing a roadmap for improvement. Outsourcing to a specialized SaaS SEO agency can streamline this process, allowing you to focus on implementing high-impact fixes and strategies for better rankings.
How important is technical SEO?
Indeed! Technical SEO is crucial for your website’s success. It’s like the foundation of a house – if it’s weak, everything else suffers. Even if your content is great, if your website is hard to navigate or loads slowly, you won’t rank well.
So, before you focus on other SEO tasks like keyword research or link building, make sure your technical SEO is solid. It could be the difference between being found online or not.
Effective SaaS Technical SEO Checklist
When it comes to Technical SEO for SaaS companies, having a comprehensive checklist is essential to ensure that your website is optimized for search engine visibility and user experience. Let’s dive into the key components of an effective SaaS technical SEO checklist:
Tracking
Keeping an eye on how your SaaS website is doing is crucial for knowing if your SEO efforts are paying off. Utilize alternative tools such as Serpstat or SEMrush to monitor key metrics such as organic traffic, click-through rates, and user engagement. Consider implementing event tracking to measure specific user interactions, such as form submissions, button clicks, and video views. It’s important to make sure everything is being tracked correctly, especially when you make changes to your website. By keeping tabs on your website’s performance, you can figure out what’s working and what needs improvement to make your SaaS site even better.
Indexation
Ensuring that search engines properly index your SaaS website’s content is essential for visibility in search results. Implement the following techniques to manage indexation effectively:
Canonical Tags:
- Use canonical tags to specify the preferred version of duplicate or similar content.
- Consolidate link equity and avoid potential indexing issues.
- Particularly useful for SaaS companies offering multiple subscription tiers or software variations.
Robots Meta Tags
Robots meta tags, placed within the <head> section of HTML pages, offer precise control over search engine indexing and page behavior. These tags dictate directives such as:
- index/noindex: Controls whether search engines should crawl and index a page. Use “noindex” for duplicate or irrelevant content.
- follow/nofollow: Determines if search engines should follow links on the page. Use “nofollow” for untrustworthy links.
- archive/noarchive: Specifies whether Google should save a cached copy of the page. Use “noarchive” for sensitive content.
Schema Markup:
Implement structured data markup using Schema.org vocabulary to provide search engines with additional context about your SaaS offerings. This enhances the visibility of rich snippets in search results, highlighting product information, customer reviews, pricing details, and more. Ensuring that search engine crawlers can efficiently navigate and index your SaaS website is essential for optimal visibility. Consider adding schema markups to your pages as part of your audit to organize your content and stand out on SERPs, encouraging clicks.
Crawlability
Ensuring that search engine crawlers can efficiently navigate and index your SaaS website is essential for optimal visibility. Pay attention to the following aspects of crawlability:
Sitemap:
- Create and submit an XML sitemap to search engines, providing a roadmap of your website’s content and ensuring that all relevant pages are indexed.
- Include primary navigation links, as well as links to important landing pages, blog posts, product pages, and other key content areas.
Robots.txt Files:
- Optimize your robots.txt file to control crawler access to specific areas of your website, excluding irrelevant or sensitive content from indexing.
- Disallow crawlers from accessing admin pages, user account information, or internal search results pages to prevent duplicate content issues and preserve crawl budget.
Site Structure:
Site structure involves organizing, linking, and presenting content to users, impacting how Googlebot crawls and ranks your content. A clear structure enhances user experience by facilitating easy information retrieval. To optimize your site structure, consider:
- Implementing a hub/spoke internal linking structure for seamless user experience.
- Addressing keyword cannibalism by ensuring pages don’t compete for the same keyword.
- Utilizing a category-based URL structure to enhance site navigation and optimize link equity.
Page Redirects:
- Implement 301 redirects to permanently redirect outdated or deleted pages to relevant, updated content, preserving link equity and preventing crawl errors.
- Use tools like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to identify and fix any broken or redirected URLs that may be impacting crawlability and indexing.
Source: ahrefs
Flash and JavaScript Navigation:
Flash and JavaScript navigation components pose challenges for search engine crawlers. These technologies can impede crawler accessibility, resulting in incomplete indexing of your website’s content. Websites heavily reliant on Flash or JavaScript navigation may be difficult for search engines to interpret and navigate. It’s advisable to use HTML-based navigation menus and links instead, as they are more easily understood and processed by search engine bots.
Broken Internal Links:
- Broken internal links can disrupt the user experience and negatively impact SEO.
- Regularly auditing your SaaS website for broken internal links is essential for maintaining a smooth browsing experience.
- Broken links can result in crawl errors, leading to incomplete indexing of your website’s content by search engines.
- Fix broken internal links promptly to prevent usability issues and ensure that all pages are accessible to both users and search engine crawlers.
Status Codes
Understanding and effectively managing HTTP status codes is essential for diagnosing and resolving technical issues on your SaaS website. Familiarize yourself with the following status codes:
- 200 Response Codes: Indicates that a requested page was successfully served to the user. Monitor your server logs or use tools like Screaming Frog to ensure that the majority of your pages return a 200 status code.
- 301 Redirect Codes: Indicates a permanent redirect to a new URL, passing link equity from the old URL to the new one. Implement 301 redirects whenever you change a URL or move content to a new location to avoid broken links and maintain SEO value.
- 404 Error Codes: Indicates that a requested page was not found on the server, often due to a broken or deleted link. Monitor your server logs or use tools like Google Search Console to identify and fix any 404 errors that may be impacting user experience and search engine visibility.
- 503 Service Unavailable Codes: Indicates that the server is temporarily unable to handle requests, typically due to maintenance or overload. Use server monitoring tools to proactively detect and resolve any issues that may cause your website to return a 503 status code, minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth user experience.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content refers to having identical or similar content on multiple URLs, which can confuse search engines and harm your ranking.
Check for Duplicate Content
Use tools like Google Search Console (GSC) to identify duplicate content issues on your SaaS website. Once identified, you can take the following actions:
- Add Canonical Tags: Specify the preferred URL version by adding canonical tags to the pages you want Google to index.
- Implement 301 Redirects: Redirect duplicate pages to the original page using 301 redirects, consolidating link equity and preventing indexing issues.
- Merge and Remove Variants: Identify the best-performing page, merge valuable content from duplicate pages onto it, and remove the redundant variants.
URL Duplication
Ensure search engines index only one version of your website by checking for URL duplication. Enter different versions of your website URL into tools like httpstatus.io:
- http://yourwebsite.com
- http://www.yourwebsite.com
- https://yourwebsite.com
- https://www.yourwebsite.com
Ensure that all variants redirect to your preferred domain (preferably one of the secure HTTPS versions) using 301 redirects. This helps avoid diluting your search visibility and ensures consistent indexing across search engines.
Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, and Header Tags
Optimizing meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags is crucial for conveying relevance and attracting clicks in search results. Here’s how:
Craft compelling meta descriptions that summarize each page’s content and encourage clicks. Develop descriptive and keyword-rich title tags to accurately represent each page’s topic. Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize content logically and emphasize important keywords.
Check for Issues
Source: Semrush
During your audit, check for the following issues related to meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags:
- Missing Tags or Descriptions: Ensure that each page has appropriate meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags to provide valuable information to users and search engines.
- Duplicate Tags or Descriptions: Avoid duplication of meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags, as this can confuse search engines and impact your website’s ranking.
- Tags or Descriptions Length: Make sure that your meta descriptions, title tags, and header tags are neither too long nor too short, as this can affect their effectiveness in search engine results pages.
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Core Web Vitals (CWV) are essential factors that Google considers when evaluating your pages’ user experience (UX). They measure page loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability:
Source: webpagetest.org
1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Evaluates the loading time of the largest element on a page, like an image or text block.
2. First Input Delay (FID) – Measures the delay before a visitor can interact with a page, such as clicking a link.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Gauges the visual stability of a page during loading.
To improve your CWV, you can:
- Compress rich media and script
- Use CSS Sprites (a collection of images in a single file)
- Deploy CDNs (content delivery networks)server speed
- Enable parallel downloads
- Combine and minify external resources
- Use caching
UX and UI
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) play a significant role in retaining visitors and driving conversions on your SaaS website. Pay attention to the following aspects of UX and UI:
Mobile-Friendliness
Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means Googlebot crawls the mobile version of your site. So, ensure your site is mobile-friendly, for instance using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Here are some ways to improve mobile-friendliness:
- Use a responsive design to accommodate different screen sizes
- Improve site speed with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
- Optimize your pop-ups to avoid disrupting the mobile user experience
Navigation
Design intuitive navigation menus and site structures that make it easy for users to find the information they need and navigate between pages. Use descriptive anchor text and logical hierarchy to guide users through your website and facilitate content discovery.
Page Loading Speed
Optimize page loading speed to minimize bounce rates and improve user satisfaction. Compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimize render-blocking resources to speed up load times. Monitor your website’s performance using tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse and prioritize optimizations based on their impact on user experience and SEO.
Pop-ups
Google has strict rules for pop-ups since intrusive pop-ups harm UX. Make sure your site doesn’t have any of the following:
- Pop-ups that cover 50% or more of the main content
- Pop-ups that users must close to access content
- Page layouts with sections that look like pop-ups
- Pop-ups that launch unexpectedly
- Overlays that redirect users if they accidentally click on them
Use pop-ups sparingly and strategically to avoid interrupting the user experience or negatively impacting SEO performance.
SSL Certificate
Secure your SaaS website with an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmission and enhance user trust and security. Ensure that all pages on your website are served over HTTPS to protect sensitive information and comply with Google’s security requirements.
Hreflang Tags
Hreflang tags indicate the relationship between pages in different languages or regions, preventing search engines from viewing them as duplicates. They can be implemented in your sitemap, HTTP response header, or HTML <head>.
During your audit, watch out for these common hreflang tag errors:
- Broken, redirecting, or disallowed hreflang tags
- Incorrect or inconsistent use of hreflang tags
- Using the wrong canonical tags with hreflang tags
By following this comprehensive SaaS technical SEO checklist, you can optimize your SaaS website for improved search engine visibility, user experience, and ultimately, business success. Remember to regularly audit and update your technical SEO efforts to stay ahead of algorithm changes and evolving industry best practices.
If we’re serving multiple languages and multiple countries, do we have our International SEO in check?
Expanding your SaaS business globally introduces unique challenges for International SEO. Here’s what you need to ensure:
Language and Country Targeting
- Hreflang Tags: Implement hreflang tags to specify language and regional variations of your content.
- Localized Content: Create high-quality, localized content tailored to the linguistic and cultural preferences of each target audience.
Technical Considerations
- Server Location: Host your website on servers located in the target countries for improved loading speed and user experience.
Local Citations and Backlinks
- Consistent Business Information: Ensure consistent business information across local directories and review sites.
- Localized Link Building: Build relationships with local influencers and industry organizations to earn backlinks from authoritative local websites.
Monitoring and Analysis
- International Keyword Research: Conduct keyword research specific to each target language and country to identify relevant search terms.
- Performance Tracking: Monitor KPIs such as organic traffic and conversions for each language and country version of your website.
By addressing these considerations, you can ensure that your SaaS business is well-equipped to succeed in global markets and effectively reach international audiences.
SaaS Technical SEO Audit Action Plan
A thorough technical SEO audit is pivotal for identifying and resolving issues that may impede your SaaS website’s performance in search engine results. This comprehensive action plan delineates the crucial steps to ensure a meticulous audit and effective resolution of technical SEO challenges:
1. Plan the Audit
Before embarking on the audit journey, meticulous planning is imperative to steer the process in the right direction:
- Define Clear Objectives: Articulate specific goals for the audit, whether it’s bolstering search engine visibility, augmenting organic traffic, or refining user experience.
- Scope Out Key Areas: Deliberate on the pivotal aspects of your website to inspect, encompassing site structure, indexation, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and more.
- Allocate Resources: Ensure adequate allocation of resources, including proficient team members, requisite tools, and ample time, to conduct a comprehensive audit without compromise.
2. Conduct the Audit
With a well-charted plan in place, proceed with a meticulous evaluation of your SaaS website’s technical SEO landscape:
- Thorough Website Crawling: Employ robust website crawler tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush to comprehensively crawl your website. Unearth technical glitches such as broken links, duplicate content, crawl errors, and other pertinent issues.
- Indexation Assessment: Scrutinize the indexation status of your website’s pages using Google Search Console. Ensure all pertinent pages are indexed, while addressing any exclusions or anomalies hindering optimal visibility.
- Performance Evaluation: Assess your website’s loading speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Pinpoint opportunities for optimization to enhance user experience and search engine ranking.
- Mobile-Friendliness Testing: Conduct rigorous testing of your website’s mobile-friendliness through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Guarantee seamless navigation and optimal display across diverse mobile devices for an enhanced user experience.
3. Prioritize Your Fixes
Now you know the issues with your site, you can prioritize your fixes based on their impact and the resources you’ll need to implement them. That way, your team can use their time effectively.
For example, for our checklist, you’ll want to focus on the issues in the following order:
- Tracking issues
- Crawling issues
- Indexing issues
- CWV issues
- UI and UX issues
- Status code issues
- Duplicate content issues
- Metadata and header tag issues
- Hreflang issues
- Review the results
4. Review the Results
Once you’ve implemented the fixes, it’s crucial to revisit your analysis to ensure everything has been addressed correctly and to catch any new issues that may have emerged.
After a few months, assess your site’s performance against previously established benchmarks. Remember that SEO is a gradual process, so it may take some time before you see significant improvements in your metrics. Monitoring your results on a monthly basis allows you to track progress effectively.
Additionally, schedule your next audit to maintain ongoing optimization. Typically, conducting a comprehensive audit once or twice a year is recommended, but if you’ve encountered numerous issues, quarterly audits may be more suitable. Consider conducting interim mini-audits for areas that continue to underperform. This proactive approach ensures continual improvement in your site’s SEO performance.
3 Best Tools for Technical SEO Optimization
Unlocking the full potential of your SaaS website’s technical SEO requires the right set of tools. Here are three top-notch tools renowned for their prowess in technical SEO optimization:
Google Search Console (GSC)
Why It Reigns Supreme?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a widely-used SEO tool packed with various features and reports to enhance your website’s performance. With GSC, you can analyze search traffic, resolve crawling and indexing issues, and much more.
Moreover, since GSC is a product of Google, it provides insights into how your site appears from Google’s viewpoint, aiding in boosting your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Key Features:
- Index Coverage Report: Unravel the mysteries of indexation with detailed insights into which pages are indexed, excluded, or encountering issues.
- Performance Analysis: Delve into search queries, clicks, impressions, and average position to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategies.
- URL Inspection Tool: Peek behind the curtain and troubleshoot indexing issues with a granular view of how Googlebot crawls and indexes specific URLs.
Screaming Frog
Why It Roars Loudest?
Screaming Frog is an extensive SEO crawler that offers abundant data on various technical issues, such as broken links and hreflang errors. If you’re a data enthusiast, Screaming Frog is your go-to tool!
With a free version, you can crawl up to 500 URLs. Alternatively, opt for a subscription to unlock advanced features and integrations with tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights.
Key Features:
- Find broken links, redirects, and errors
- Analyze page titles and meta descriptions
- Check meta robots and directives
- Review hreflang tags
- Identify duplicate pages
- Visualize site structure
- Generate XML sitemaps
- Paid features include robots.txt, spelling and grammar checks, AMP crawling, and more.
Lumar
Lumar, previously known as DeepCrawl, provides a plethora of pre-built reports to monitor your website’s well-being.
With crawl speeds reaching up to 450 URLs per second, Lumar is perfectly suited for enterprise-level technical SEO needs. Additionally, it offers real-time alerts to notify you of any new issues promptly, guaranteeing your site maintains optimal performance at all times.
Key Features:
- Analyze structured data and schema markups
- Measure CWV and performance metrics
- Identify duplicate pages
- Detect JavaScript issues
- Add, generate, and monitor XML sitemaps
- Crawl AMP pages
- View backlink data
- Identify error codes
- Check canonical tags And more!
Final Thoughts
Could technical SEO be the secret sauce that propels your SaaS platform to the forefront of the digital realm? As we wrap up our exploration of technical SEO for SaaS, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the strategic optimization of your website’s backend is not just a choice but a necessity in today’s competitive landscape. By leveraging the power of technical SEO to enhance website architecture, improve user experience, and maximize search engine visibility, SaaS companies can chart a course toward sustainable growth and success. So, as you navigate the dynamic landscape of digital marketing, ask yourself: Are you ready to seize the full potential of technical SEO and propel your SaaS platform to new heights of visibility and relevance?