B2B SaaS SEO Case Study: How we helped a SaaS company gain 40 new sign-ups

Here is how we assisted a B2B SaaS Business client in optimizing their traffic, resulting in 40 extra paid sign-ups per month and a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) increase of 10k.

About the company

First and foremost, let’s be clear that this was not our website – it belonged to a B2B SaaS client of ours.

As such, we were only responsible for the link building campaign aspect of B2B SaaS SEO– all other SEO strategies such as keyword research, content writing were handled by the client.

To protect the privacy and security of all parties involved, we won’t be showing any identifying information about the site other than the basic information in this  case study.

The creators of this company have sound technical SaaS expertise. However, they aren’t fully acquainted with the varied aspects of B2B SaaS SEO. They were looking to get B2B SaaS SEO and reached out to us at the end of July 2022 and asked for our advice. They weren’t certain about the entire process of SEO investment for their SaaS company. We advised them on what the ideal product-market fit will look like and encouraged them to have a reasonable amount of MRR for investment.

It is our standard practice to recommend that companies first place a strong emphasis on the product market fit before they get started with their marketing endeavours, as it requires great patience to see results. The clients we’ve worked with typically start seeing results around the 4th month.

The client had a specific budget within which they needed to operate. Hence, as per their budgetary considerations, we created the effective B2B SaaS SEO strategy that focuses on building links.

Site Background

The main keyword for the client was stated as “Hard” by Ahrefs, and it estimates about 160  referring Domains to rank on the first page.

Here’s a snapshot of the performance indicators for the sites on the first page for this keyword.

We delved into an assessment of its current status and prior SEO initiatives, mirroring what we would do with any domain or website newly acquired. Our findings revealed that it was a small yet specialized website. Its on-page SEO was in order.

The existing keywords and traffic were both heading in an upward direction, indicating the site’s great health and the site was building trust with Google.

The backlinks the site already had were quite orderly for the most part. The backlink profile was largely comprised of white hat links. Additionally, they had some guest posts and PBN links.

Relevancy-wise, the links were all on-point. However, the anchor text usedwasn’t the best. Although the website was beginning to be noticed for many of its target keywords, it had not yet managed to climb up any pages. In particular, its main key keywordswere merely hovering around page five.

Advantages of doing SEO for B2B SaaS:

• When you employ focused B2B SaaS SEO, you reach the summit of search engine results pages, enhancing visibility and ranking and allowing more individuals to uncover and recommend your brand.
• Gaining your customers’ trust and credibility is a breeze with your SaaS website at the top of search engine results. When potential customers notice your website at the top of SERPs, they will recognize you as a reliable and authoritative figure – which in turn makes them more likely to purchase from you.
• B2B SaaS SEO is the key to scaling and sustaining growth for SaaS companies; and it’s the surest way to attract more organic traffic from potential customers to your website.

Backlinks

Backlinks are essential to help your web pages rank for competitive queries in Google’s search results. They are also known as incoming links, inbound links, incoming links, and inlinks. They are important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because search engines like Google use them to determine the quality and relevance of a website.

Having high-quality backlinks can help improve your website’s ranking in search engine results.

As you navigate the budget size and timeline of your SaaS company, consider more cost-effective strategies such as organic link building or social media outreach. See what is working for your competitors and adjust your strategy to best suit your needs.

To really get an idea of what resonates with your target audience, don’t forget to experiment with different types of content and build links accordingly. Flexibility and agility are key to success when it comes to staying within a changing budget.

The image describes how Google ranks websites based on the total number of backlinks.

SERPNinja’s Link Building Strategy

As you would have read under the site’s background sub-topic, we wanted to analyze our client’s link profile and conducted a full technical SEO auditof any existing links to ensure the website was in compliance with Google’s linking best practices.

We looked into any suspicious backlinks, as well as anchor text, link placement, and other factors. Any links that were deemed unnatural or spammy were removed to ensure the website was not at risk for any penalties or negative ranking effects. We also checked if the site had any broken links since the damage to your website caused by broken links can be a real conversion killer! It’s not just about the decreased user experience either; broken links also have a negative impact on SEO, including lower bounce rates, less time spent on the site, and less link juice being passed on. Plus, broken links can directly influence your SEO rankings by signalling to search engines that your website is out of date.

Finally, we implemented a detailed B2B SaaS SEO strategy for our client’s website that focused on building quality backlinks from reputable sources.

We researched potential sites and platforms to create link-building opportunities and worked hard to build relationships with editors, bloggers, and other quality content creators who could help spread the word about our client’s website. We also used social media as an effective tool to increase visibility and attract more organic links.

In the following screenshot, you can see some of the top backlinks acquired for our client with our B2B SaaS SEO campaign.

Keyword Research:

Competing for popular keywords in your niche can be challenging, especially at the start of your SaaS website’s journey. You might find it almost impossible to outrank well-established companies for your target audience’s attention.

For example, if a business specializes in a CRM tool focused on email campaigns, the marketing team would most likely be aiming to target top-of-the-funnel keywords such as

• Email marketing
• What is email marketing
• Email marketing examples
• Marketing CRM
• What is CRM marketing

Gaining a spot on the first page of Google for the keyword phrase “What is email marketing” is no easy task – according to Ahrefs, you’ll need at least 374 backlinks to reach that goal, with a keyword difficulty of 81 out of 100.

As a small SaaS business owner or a startup, you can use  strategy to target keywords with minimal keyword difficulty to make your ranking easier and feature high purchase intent for searchers ready to purchase your product!

Does this mean that you should take your eyes off high-volume keywords completely?

Absolutely not! You can move to high search volume keywords once you exhaust all bottom-of-funnel keywords.

After some discussions with our client about keyword research, they were able to get a hold of the concept, and they were able to come up with unique keywords that their competitors weren’t using. They were also closely able to analyse their interactions with their customer base and were able to provide us with a list of keywords for which they want to build backlinks.

Types of backlinks used:

Given that the client’s website was an exact match domain, we decided to capitalize on this benefit by also creating URL and branded anchors to the homepage – similar to money anchors but without any of the associated risks.

To build backlinks, we used guest posts, niche edits, pillow links and social signals. We’d vary the trustworthiness of our links, whilst still utilizing those of the highest authority, to make a powerful impact. All the links would, of course, be highly relevant.

Over time, we’d be increasingly more aggressive with anchor and target selection, meaning we’d target deeper inner pages. Periodically we’d re-evaluate the site to ensure our link building practices were fitting with the site’s current reactions.

SERPninja’s Monthly Backlink Packages:

In order to accommodate the client’s budget, we adjusted the SaaSSEOstrategy accordingly. Our client had a budget of $4k over a four-month period and our teams constructed the backlinks packages used in this case study – and they are available on our website.

The following package was customized specifically for our B2B SaaS client, and the links were drip fed over a 4-month period.

Package 1:

To begin the seo campaign, our plan was to start by cushioning and enhancing the naturalness of the site. Then, we’d increase relevance and authority with naturally sourced anchors.

Since the client’s website was still in the early stages, all links were focused on the homepage with the goal of ranking for their keywords.

Pillow links:

Pillow links pack, which has 25+ handmade diversity links, 2000+ words of expertly written content and platforms like video, audio, QnA, web 2.0s, and NAP consistent citations – perfect for buffering niche links!

Social Signals:

Social signals help you gain a huge boost in your online visibility with 225+ premium social signals from Facebook, Pinterest and Reddit, plus a snapshot of the results when you’re done!

Niche Edits and Guest posting:

The niche edits and guest post did the lion’s share of work, building authority and relevance. Niche edits exerted more authority, while the guest post had tighter control over the content, supplying more precise relevance.

At the start of our back link campaign in August 2022, the organic traffic graph of our B2B SaaS client as tracked by ahrefs showed a starting point of 230.

Package 2:

For the Package 2, we had a mix of Niche edits and Guest posts that helped in maintaining a great balance of authority and relevance. To further boost their rankings for the primary keyword, we utilized lots of branded and URL anchors.

Package 1 was drip fed over the course of 30 days and the client moved on to buy Package 2 which was of higher caliber than the previous one. Package 2 consisted of a 10 Pro Links pack (RD 60-199 Links and RD 200+ Links) and Elite Pack ( RD 1000+)

Package 2 was started at the beginning of September and the organic traffic of the B2B SaaS client was about 332.

Package 3:

Package 3 is a powerhouse combo of Niche edits and Guest Posts, designed to deliver the maximum punch. We’ve included a DR 50-75 links package and the 10 links pack, while the guest posts come with a DR 60+ links with 1,000+ traffic.

Package 2 links were drip fed over the course of 40 days.  If you take a look at the screenshot below you will be able to see that the organic traffic has almost double and has become 572.

By now, we were able to gain trust with google and wanted to continue building more links.

Package 3 links were drip fed for over the course of 50 days, and you can see below the screenshot the organic traffic is about 829 by the end of November.

The number of keywords the site was ranking for had also almost doubled from where we began and it looks like our link building efforts have not gone in vain.

Before:

 After:

We had an incredible surge of traffic on Ahrefs as the main keywords settled on page 1 of the google search console. The organic traffic nearly doubled, and the client’s top keywords were capturing top positions in organic search results.

After nearly a month of building the final set of links for this client the primary keywords are still on the top rankings with no signs of dropping. We have also been diligently creating links to help other important keywords rank higher, to bring more targeted traffic to the site.

Content Research:

In order to maximize the reach of the website even more, we suggest the site owner reactivate the blog by providing fresh, new content for search engines to index.

Our client had a set of content writers who had the experience and expertise with writing on various topics and to be on the safer side we had an interaction with the writers to let them know the site’s requirements.

We also provided them with a checklist that is updated as per the latest Google search engine trends.

Our focus was on two key aspects:

1. Recognizing the search intent of users via Google’s on-page behaviour signals.
2. Creating fresh content around topics found in successful articles.

The above is a screenshot of the page theme and the supporting keywords that we generated using Keyword Cupid which is a keyword research tool that allows you to find relevant keywords and phrases to use in your website’s content.

Using the page theme and supporting keywords we provided, the client was able to come up with relevant articles for their website.

Conclusion:

Have you been wondering what all this means? Well, let’s just say that link building is still as important as ever. Links have always been significant, but their power and relevance continue to be undeniable.

So, if you’re looking for a way to get ahead of the game, a link building campaignshould definitely be part of your strategy. Properly implemented, link building is a remarkably effective tool and when executed correctly, link building can still be a hugely influential asset, enabling you to outrank sites with far more links than you possess.

If you possess the necessary know-how, the time, and a reliable team, you can craft your own backlinks. On the other hand, if that’s not your cup of tea, you can always buy high-quality backlinks from trustworthy link builders or reach out to us, and we’ll create a personalized plan just for you.

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