What is SaaS Keyword Mapping?
Are you looking to rank a SaaS-based website to get more traffic, and in turn generate more leads? Then it’s essential to carry out SaaS keyword mapping.
SaaS or Software as a Service is a solution that delivers applications over the internet. So, you can access this service through the net instead of installing and managing software. This approach frees you from complex software and hardware management. Examples of SaaS are Zoom, Google applications, HubSpot, Shopify, Canva, Netflix, and so on.
Furthermore, you may have a rough or specific idea of how you want the content on your website to flow. However, there’s one crucial step you need to take, which involves SaaS keyword research.
Keywords drive traffic for your SaaS. These keywords are search terms potential buyers use in search engines to explain their intent. 93% of online searches are done via keyword search. This further reaffirms the need for a robust keyword ranking strategy. Also, B2B consumers do 70% of their research before reaching out to a specific brand. This reason makes SEO an inevitable part of your core strategy for SaaS.
Therefore, it’s crucial to understand why SaaS keyword mapping plays a significant part in your SaaS. We’ll take you through why keyword mapping is essential for SaaS SEO and its benefits.
What is SaaS Keyword Mapping in SEO?
Keyword mapping refers to researching and planning a set of keywords and long-tail phrases that go on a website. It is a crucial part of the content creation process. Keyword mapping can help identify the best places to segment semantic keywords.
Why is Keyword Mapping crucial for SaaS SEO?
Keyword mapping is crucial to SEO activities. Let’s understand the ‘Why’ of this process for any SEO expert.
- You’ll need a keyword mapping tool to connect popular and specific queries. This process is essential to target the audience with a page that communicates and delivers the user’s intent. The intention is to use the keyword to target the buyer’s journey of the user. For instance, SaaS keywords are crucial to research before buying. They help to directly make a purchase decision or get support after buying.
- Keyword mapping in SEO is required to identify potential keyword cannibalization issues. Keyword Cannibalization is an issue that occurs when two or more pages on your website compete for the same keyword. As a result, search engines would struggle to rank one among the two pages. Ultimately, neither of the pages is ranked.
For instance, if a SaaS website has pages with the same keywords, it gives rise to keyword cannibalization. Page one talks about ‘automatic CV updation’ whereas the second page talks about ‘creating your resume online’. Now, Google is not sure which one to rank, and will finally decide not to rank either, which is how ranking is affected.
Therefore, these issues are possibly present on different pages of the same type. They could be mapped with the same queries, allowing you to consolidate, filter out and better align the website structure. This helps to offer a consistent experience with improved chances of higher ranking.
- Your keyword mapping SEO activities will help identify gaps within the website’s layout and content. There may be pages that are not relevant or of the right nature about certain types of queries. Identifying this gap allows you to establish opportunities to create new pages to better support the user journey and experience on the site.
- You can identify the gaps that exist within your SaaS keyword research. Some of the gaps include:
- Missing out on existing keywords that are gaining impressions and clicks.
- Not researching the keywords used by competitors can be an opportunity for you.
- Assuming high search volume keywords are good enough but are highly competitive and do not rank easily.
- Ignoring keywords with low search volume, thereby missing out on relevant leads.
You can gain valuable insights from customer support and sales teams through SaaS keyword research. This process can further help with identifying pain points and questions that customers have. Additional steps involve using keyword tools to assess keywords to pick and choose based on strategic planning.
- With the keyword mapping tool, you can establish the key pages needed to prioritise within the SEO process execution. This refers to the content, internal linking, and technical perspective.
What are the benefits of keyword mapping?
Now that you understand the significance of keyword mapping, it’s time to get to know the associated advantages.
- An organised set of keywords mapped as per the page required
You will know where to place and position these SaaS keywords. You will also make sure not to cross over too many times with the other sections of your website.
That said, while posting content on your website, the last thing you want is to create missing links to topics. You may have created way more than you should, or missed out on core topics that your target audience is trying to locate. With a keyword mapping tool, you can find the right SaaS keywords that make the creation of content on your website easier and smarter.
- Your content writing team will thank you
Whether you are outsourcing a content writer or have an internal team, giving them specific requirements makes their job easier. A keyword map will help you easily communicate what you want the content writer to write. For instance, understanding the main topic, and the primary and secondary keywords. These can help the content write and produce content just the way your audience intended.
How to do keyword mapping for a SaaS company?
There are four steps involved in the process of mapping keywords for a SaaS company.
Step 1: Open and set up a Spreadsheet in Excel or Google Docs
Once you open a spreadsheet, you can add the following headings to each column.
- Page ID
- URL
- Page Title
- H1 Tag
- Primary Keyword
- Secondary Keyword
- Page Summary
Step 2: Research using a keyword mapping tool
Use a keyword mapping tool to conduct proper SaaS keyword research. While doing so, you must consider the overall search volume and keyword difficulty. Arrange these keywords and decide which keywords are similar enough to segment them on the same web page.
You might find similar search terms having the same questions, including those that complement the same topic. Make sure to group them to conclude this step.
Some of the top keyword mapping tools include tools like Ahrefs, AudienceKey, Moz, SEMRush, SE Ranking, and SpyFu.
Step 3: Map your keywords
You have reached the stage where you need to map out your keywords. Here is the step where you decide which SaaS keywords go on what page and add them to the initial keyword mapping.
Choose a primary keyword to make your page title, meta description, H1 tag, and other elements. Fill out the fields for each page, and make sure that each one is different from the other keyword. If required, you can also note down the related pages for interlinking and segregation of specific content.
Step 4: Produce and publish the content on the website
Once you are ready with your keyword URL mapping structure, load the content and publish it on your website. This completes the process of keyword mapping.
Yet, this is not your final step, which means that you must regularly update your keyword map. Track its performance from time to time as keywords and their trends are likely to change over time.
These four steps are where your efforts as an SEO professional count. Once you do this, you will reap the benefits of your keyword-mapping SEO efforts.
FAQs
Q1. How do you do Keyword Research for SaaS?
Apart from using a keyword mapping tool, there are several to conduct keyword research for SaaS. You can type the keywords you wish to target based on your intent. For instance, you can target keywords with informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional intentions.
Also, keep into account your research for keyword data. Thus, consider the following metrics: CPC, PPC, and CTR. Here, you can create a list of keywords that fall under these less competitive metrics and potentially convert faster.
Q2. Which is the best tool for SAAS SEO keyword research?
There are several keyword research tools out there, which have their pros and cons. You can pick one that delivers what you require. For instance, Ahrefs gives you both the keyword explorer and a rank tracker. It is fast, comprehensive, and easy to use, delivering accurate data.
The Google Keyword Planner is another keyword research tool that has evolved. It produces accurate data with efficient speed. It requires a decent ad spend and doesn’t include other relevant information for your research purposes.
