What Are SaaS Companies Doing With SEO in 2022? A Brief Overview

With the evolution of search engine algorithms, we have seen a shift from old SEO strategies to newer ones. Many SaaS companies had timely changed their strategies, and that is why the new Google algorithm updates didn’t hit them as hard as e-commerce, B2C, and YMYL sites.

Knowing this, let’s get into more detail on what SaaS companies are doing with SEO in 2022.

Incorporating Search Intent Into On-Page Content

We all know about the importance of on-page SEO and search intent. Similarly, most SEOs of SaaS companies think that search intent is the most important thing when creating content strategy. This is because search intent is the main driver behind any keyword. In other words, search intent is what drives everyone to the search engine.

We asked different marketers about search intent in this regard. The results showed that among companies with a blog, 78% agree that their results have improved since incorporating search intent within their content, and only 3% disagree.

But it sometimes is difficult to understand the search intent of keywords. Some marketers think that understanding search intent is more important than literal keywords. That is why 69% of marketers agree that search intent is more important than literal keywords.

Besides, we also asked about the difficulty of understanding search intent behind keywords, and 80% of marketers who receive infrequent (once annually or less) reports on organic traffic, keyword volume, and rankings agree that they find it difficult to understand search intent.

On the other hand, only 29% of marketers who get monthly reports on organic traffic, keyword volume, and rankings find it difficult to understand search intent.

Similarly, On-page SEO is another important thing after search intent. In this regard, we also asked SaaS marketers and the results showed that 72% of businesses with less than 200 employees agree that on-page content creation is the most effective SEO strategy in their marketing toolkits.

This is a sign that newer companies and marketers with less than 10 years of experience understand the increasing importance of On-page SEO.

Competitor Research

Competitor research is one of the most important things that SaaS companies rely on in their SEO strategies in 2022.
SEO is a complicated process, and it can be difficult to know what is working and what isn’t. There are lots of different factors to consider, including keyword research, content creation, link building, and more. Yet another most important aspect of SEO is competitor research.

If you want to succeed with SEO, you need to know your competition and how they generate demand with content. This will help you understand how your business can improve its performance. 63% of companies of all sizes and industries regularly conduct competitor research on the same topics they want to rank for.
This shows how much SaaS companies are giving importance to competitor research. Besides, it has been shown that SaaS companies in business for less than 5 years are more likely to rely on competitor research.

On one hand, 72% of these young companies conduct competitor research regularly on the same topic they want to rank for. On the other hand, only 52% of companies in business for more than 20 years do the same.

These statistics show the importance of competitor research, but they also show how SEO strategies and practices are changing – newer SaaS companies are starting to understand this more quickly than larger companies.
This is because search engines’ algorithms are changing rapidly, and SaaS companies are adopting updated SEO strategies.

SEO Agency vs. In-House

There are many pros and cons between SEO agencies and in-house SEO teams. But the biggest question is, what are SaaS companies doing in 2022? Are they relying on in-house SEO teams working as full-time employees, or have they hired external SEO agencies?

As per our research, 62% of respondents confirm they have an internal SEO expert working as a full-time employee. 58% of respondents have or have used the services of an SEO agency in the past.
This shows that a majority of SaaS companies have utilized the services of SEO agencies in the past. The reason behind this is that it may be more effective to hire an outside agency to handle SEO for you if you are a growing company with a decent marketing budget. They can provide fresh ideas, up-to-date knowledge, new techniques and best practices that might not come from within your company’s in-house team.

Here are some statistics of SEO agency utilization in relation to company size.

Small businesses with less than 50 employees are less likely to use SEO agencies than companies with more than 50 employees. Budget is the most likely reason. However, once companies reach sizes of more than 1,000 employees, their usage of SEO agencies decreases, likely due to a couple of factors:

• Having a sufficient budget to bring more SEO expertise in-house,
• Increased focus on paid ads over organic SEO as a source of revenue.

So, the size of the company is also one of many factors in utilizing in-house SEO experts or a or SEO agencies.
Some companies, however, rely on both internal SEO teams and external SEO agencies:

This shows that many SaaS companies are actually using both SEO agencies and internal SEO experts to get the best results possible.

Conclusion

SaaS companies are relying on 3 major things with SEO in 2022:

• Search intent,
• On-page SEO
• Competitor analysis.

These three things provide them with enough insight to beat their competitor while also giving true value to the visitor.

Search intent is key for SaaS companies to understand what their audience is looking for and how they want to interact. Besides, on-page SEO can help them ensure that they have all the right keywords in place so that visitors can easily find them.

Similarly, competitor analysis helps them understand what other companies are doing so they can compete with them and achieve their goals.