If you want to get warm* during a cold winter day at a cabin, you can start a fire. Or drink hot tea.
* Yes, this article is about SaaS SEO tools.
An axe is very useful if you need to cut some firewood, but it’s not much help if you want to drink that tea. In that case, you’d need a cup.
It’s the same with SaaS SEO tools.
Some are best for on-page SEO, while others are best for the research stage. This article discusses nine of the best software solutions to improve your SaaS company’s SEO.
We’ll analyze all these tools based on your needs, offering plenty of pro tips and some insider examples. Keep reading below.
TL;DR
- Google Analytics: Best for user analytics, provides valuable insights into website performance and user behavior.
- Google Search Console: A free tool for tracking website performance in search results, analyzing keywords, and ensuring correct indexing.
- Ahrefs: Offers comprehensive SEO capabilities, including site audits, backlink analysis, and keyword research.
- SEMrush: Ideal for complex marketing campaigns, covers SEO, content marketing, social media, and paid advertising.
- MOZ: Suitable for beginners, offers website tracking, link-building tracking, keyword analysis, and competitor analysis.
- Screaming Frog: Excellent for technical SEO, helps with deep crawling, website architecture, and on-site SEO.
- Clearscope: Best for content optimization, assists in creating highly relevant content based on search intent.
- UberSuggest: A keyword tool for finding relevant keywords, understanding search intent, and generating content ideas.
- SEOmonitor: Designed for technical SEO agencies, provides in-depth analytics, rank tracking, keyword discovery, and SEO forecasting.
- Recommendation: For beginners, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are recommended. As you gain experience, consider upgrading to more specialized tools based on your needs and budget. Each tool mentioned in this article can help improve your B2B SaaS SEO efforts and online visibility.
What Are SaaS SEO Tools?
SaaS SEO tools are pieces of software created to help your SEO efforts. They assist you on different levels:
- Research: Analyze your company, audience, and competitors to build effective SEO campaigns.
- Content creation: Find individual keywords and content topics based on your audience’s search intent and competitors’ efforts. This helps with content production and optimization.
- Technical SEO: Sleuth out technical issues that decrease your rankings and search engine performance, such as broken links, duplicate content, or slow pages.
- Off-page SEO: Understand your backlink profile and domain authority. See how you stack up against your competitors.
- Performance monitoring: Understand where your SEO efforts are succeeding and where they need improvement.
Of course, you need to use the best tools for your goals. Here are some factors to consider as a SaaS company:
- Your budget
- The features you need most
- Learning curve
- User-friendliness
- Integrations
- Customer support
Let’s see what your best options are:
1. Google Analytics: Best for User Analytics
Google Analytics is part of many SaaS companies tech stack, helping you achieve all your SEO goals easily. That’s because this Google SEO tool offers a treasure trove of insights into your:
- Website conversions
- Downloads
- Search traffic
- Engagement metrics
- Advertising ROI
- Social media performance
How?
Easy. Google Analytics uses technology developed by the analytics company Urchin, embedding JavaScript page tags inside each page’s code.
So when someone opens your website, this tag runs in their browser and gets their data.
Besides, Google Analytics is a powerful SEO audit tool thanks to its machine learning capabilities.
So, you can count on the accuracy of the data provided, understanding your website performance and user behavior.
Next up:
You get all these user behavior and acquisition insights delivered in straightforward reports. That makes it easier to tap into this information to get more qualified traffic, increase online visibility, and improve conversion rates.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
Your SaaS audience differs from other target audiences, particularly if you’re doing B2B SaaS. Your prospects take more time for research and are more qualified when they reach your webpage. That’s why you need better insights into their behaviors and purchasing patterns.
With GA:
- You can monitor your website to understand which pages bring in the most organic traffic: Create more similar pieces of content to improve your on-page SEO. This will get you more referral traffic and conversions (if your content is convincing).
- You get a comprehensive report of essential SaaS metrics: Understand your website visitors’ behaviors through metrics like bounce rate, pageview, and purchases. You can also see new and active visitors. This will help you track top-ranking pages, so you can improve your on-page and technical SEO for the ones that aren’t performing.
Price
Google Analytics 360 (GA 360) costs $12,500/month or $150,000/year.
Is there a free GA version?
Yes, there is a free Google Analytics version. And it’s comprehensive enough, so most companies don’t need to upgrade to GA 360.
2. Google Search Console: Best Free SEO Tool
This Google SEO tool is a must-have. In fact, if there’s any tool we recommend to beginner SEO teams – it’s this one.
Google Search Console is an amazing resource because:
- You can track your website’s performance in the Search Result Pages (SERPs).
- You understand what queries led people to specific web pages on your website. That means you can use the right keywords from an SEO perspective, creating topic clusters for all of them.
- You see the monthly search volume and click-through rate.
- It’s easy to determine if your website is indexed correctly.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
SaaS purchases aren’t impulsive. That means you must be persuasive and get ahead of your competition. While great content can help you, you also need content for SEO to dominate SERPs.
Google Search Console is an excellent tool to increase search engine rankings because:
- You have keyword research tools, tracking, and analysis options: Therefore, you can choose the best short and long-tail keywords to rank higher in search results, optimizing your content strategy.
- You understand where your organic traffic comes from: You can see the queries each web page ranks for, adjusting your content based on target keywords. This helps you make data-driven decisions to increase subscription rates.
- You can see how your website is indexed: Google reports indexing issues so that you can fix them or pursue re-indexing. That will increase your search ranking considerably, provided you do everything else right.
- You get backlink analysis: A solid backlink profile is crucial for off-page SEO. Building backlinks from authoritative sources increases your reputation. That will help you stand out from the hectic SaaS market competition, reach your target audience and improve conversion rates.
Price
GSC doesn't cost anything.
Is there a free GSC version?
Yes, this marketing tool is free.
3. Ahrefs: Comprehensive SEO Capabilities
Ahrefs is another must-have SaaS SEO tool because it boasts a wide range of functions. This powerful SEO tool also has an impressive website crawler, outranked only by Google.
Search engine optimization experts across the board use Ahrefs to make informed decisions. Whether you need to improve your technical SEO or conduct a backlink check on your competition to strengthen your off-page SEO, Ahrefs has you covered.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
- Ahrefs Site Audit helps you conduct internal research: Some SaaS websites don’t rank high in search results because their technical SEO needs improvements. For example, you may need to work on your header tags, load speed, or meta descriptions. The detailed analysis tool from Ahrefs helps solve those issues and improve your domain score.
- Ahrefs Backlink Checker shows your backlink profile: This tool executes a detailed analysis of link type (dofollow vs. nofollow), platform, domain rating (DR), URL rating, and referring domains. Use this data to find new authoritative sources to get quality backlinks. Or study your competitors to mimic their effective SEO strategies to boost your search engine rankings.
- Ahrefs Broken Link Checker shows broken links on your website: A solid internal links structure improves your on-page SEO. First, search engines understand what your website is about better. That means they can make it more visible on SERPs, which is a sign of authority. Your potential customers are also likelier to click those links for research purposes. So fixing broken internal and external links increases your dwell time.
- Ahrefs keyword tools render profitable keywords: Using popular keywords allows you to optimize your content better for crawlers and people. That means you can rank higher for specific queries depending on where your prospects are currently on the customer funnel.
- The Rank Tracker helps you see how your website ranks for specific keywords. Based on those keywords, create high-quality content that persuades potential customers. As a result, you can increase organic search traffic and conversion rates considerably.
- Ahrefs Webmaster tool shows SEO mistakes: Having these technical errors outlined helps you take action. Once your website health improves, you can enhance your visibility in search results.
Price
The yearly fees vary between $990 and $9,990. You can also pick a monthly subscription between $99 and $999.
Here’s how these stack up.
Ahrefs monthly pricing plan
Ahrefs annual pricing plan
Is there a free Ahrefs version?
Ahrefs offers free versions of some of its tools, such as the Backlink, Broken Link, and Domain Authority Checker.
4. SEMRush: Best for Complex Marketing Campaigns
SEMRush is an essential tool for SEO professionals because it includes almost all the tools you need to reach your SEO goals.
Most importantly, SEMrush offers accurate data, whether you need to audit your SaaS website or track your competitors.
Why does that matter?
To convince your potential customers, you need to create top-ranking content. That means your content has to be relevant and valuable for your audience, but it must also follow SEO principles.
At Blue Things, we also use the awesome organic keyword finder from SEMrush, along with Ahrefs and the Google Search Console.
Insider tip: We used these tools to optimize inBeat’s SEO strategy, getting this company from 500 to 70,000 visitors per month.
Best of all, SEMrush doesn’t just help you with organic search engine optimization. It can also improve your:
- Content marketing strategy
- Social media marketing
- Paid advertising campaigns
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
- The site audit tool checks technical SEO problems: As a result, you can improve your website’s search engine ranking based on factual recommendations.
- There’s a content outline builder: To rule search results, you need to SEO-optimized content, and that starts with a solid outline. Organizing your content correctly increases time spent on site and helps your posts become more persuasive.
- You can analyze your paid advertising efforts: Paid ads enhance your SaaS SEO campaign, so you might use this strategy too. SEMrush helps you track all your marketing efforts from one place, thus making it easier for your marketing team.
- The competitor analysis tool is comprehensive: You can see the keywords, backlinks, and ads your competitors are using. Then, you can reverse-engineer their strategy for your own needs or find opportunities they missed.
- You can improve on-site SEO: SEMrush offers an in-depth site audit and keyword research tool to optimize your pages. This helps you rank higher based on customer search intent, while also allowing crawlers to index your website easier.
Price
SEMrush offers three pricing plans:
- Pro: This basic plan is best for small companies and beginners.
- Guru: This option suits agencies and mid-sized companies.
- Business: Choose this pricing plan if you have a large firm.
Here are the monthly prices:
The annual subscriptions help you save 17% of these costs:
Is there a free SEMrush version?
There’s a free SEMrush account to test, but it has limited features. You can also watch the demo to better understand what SEMrush can do for you.
5. MOZ: Best for Beginners
MOZ is another comprehensive SaaS SEO tool offering:
- Website tracking
- Link-building tracking
- Keyword searches
- Keyword analysis
- Competitor analysis
As you can see, MOZ can help optimize your website SEO on different levels simultaneously. And that will help your website perform better.
The metrics and insights that MOZ shows you in its insightful reports don’t just focus on your problems. They highlight excellent solutions as well.
Let’s see how Yahoo is doing:
Insider tip: If you’re a beginner, use MOZ On-Page Grader Tool to get a complete checklist of SEO issues you can improve.
It’s easy; you just need to sign-up for the free trial and type in a URL and keyword. MOZ will render your page score and recommended fixes in no time.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
MOZ is a popular SEO tool for SaaS SEO because:
- It shows you search engine rankings for different keywords: This will help you create topic clusters and optimize your content based on relevant keywords. As a result, you can produce compelling content based on your audience’s interests. And that’s essential for the more educated, research-oriented SaaS audience.
- MOZ shows you technical SEO problems: If you have broken links or duplicate SEO content that decreases your website rankings, MOZ will sleuth them. Fixing these issues makes your website look more professional and easier to index.
- It helps you hone off-page SEO: SaaS companies need to build authority and expertise – that’s why you need an off-page SEO strategy. MOZ enables you to optimize that strategy by reviewing your backlink profile, Domain Authority (DA), and Page Authority (PA).
Price
Moz Pro pricing offers four plans between $99/month for beginners and $599/month for Enterprises:
Pro tip: The annual subscription helps you save 20%:
Is there a free MOZ version?
You have a 30-day free trial for MOZ, but you need to type in your credit card details. MOZ free tools include:
- Competitive research
- Link Explorer
- Keyword Explorer
- Domain analysis
- And more
6. Screaming Frog: Best for Technical SEO
Screaming Frog offers a powerful SEO software called SEO Spider Tool. This software helps you:
- Deep crawl your website
- See and improve your website architecture
- Integrate other SEO tools, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console
However, Screaming Frog is best for technical SEO. Use it to:
- Sleuth broken links
- Generate a sitemap
- Schedule audits
- Check for duplicate content
You can also use Screaming Frog for on-site SEO to review on-page SEO elements, such as:
- Images
- Meta title tags
- Header tags
- Meta descriptions
- Blocked URLs
- Tag directives
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
- It allows search engines to index your website better: Screaming Frog helps you hone page titles, descriptions, and images so that crawlers can understand your website and index it correctly. Fixing these issues increases your online visibility considerably.
- It improves the user experience: Fixing broken links and duplicate content helps users find what they need from you faster. Fixing visual content (e.g., image dimensions) increases loading speed, thus decreasing bounce rates. Improving meta descriptions also reduces bounce rates because people know what your website is about before opening it.
- It increases your authority: If you fix the above-mentioned problems, you increase your search result ranking. The higher you appear in SERPs, the more credibility you have, so prospects will consider you a trustworthy software provider.
Price
Screaming Frog is one of the most affordable SaaS SEO tools, priced at just $259 annually.
Is there a free Screaming Frog version?
Yes, there is a free Screaming Frog version that limits you to 500 URLs. This tool helps you:
- Find broken links
- See technical errors and redirects
- Analyse page titles, meta robots, directives, and metadata
- Audit hreflang attributes
- See duplicate content
- Generate XML sitemaps
7. Clearscope: Best for Content Optimization
Clearscope helps you fill your content calendar with optimized SEO content. The friendly interface resembles Google docs; you can write all your content here.
Afterward, Clearscope will show you the correct word count, keywords, and highest-performing H2 headers. That way, you produce highly relevant content for your audience’s search intent.
This AI-powered SEO tool also offers:
- Google Docs add-on
- WordPress plugin
These additions help your team collaborate and publish more efficiently, streamlining their workflow.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
Clearscope works best for on-page SEO, specifically content optimization. A solid content marketing strategy helps you rank higher on Google, regardless of what you’re selling.
It’s no secret that Google promotes relevant websites.
High-quality content arguably matters more for SaaS because your audience does in-depth research, using long-tail keywords. That’s why you need to create content for SEO. That means:
- The relevant keywords according to your prospects’ stage in the sales funnel.
- SEO-optimized content using an intuitive structure and outline.
- Compelling images.
- Relevant internal and external links.
Clearscope helps you:
- Get more qualified traffic because you’re solving people’s needs.
- Acquire more referral traffic because your potential customers will share this valuable content.
- Obtain organic, high-quality backlinks from top-ranking pages that link to your posts.
- Rank higher on search engines and increase online visibility because your SEO-friendly content is easier to index.
Price
Clearscope offers three pricing plans.
- Essentials: $170/month. This is the most affordable plan and is best for beginners.
- Business: Custom plan. Best for mid-sized agencies and companies
- Enterprise: Custom plan. Best for larger firms.
Is there a free Clearscope version?
There is no free Clearscope version. However, you can message them and ask for a free trial.
8. UberSuggest: Best Keyword Tool
UberSuggest is Neil Patel’s baby, so you can count on its performance. This keyword tool helps you:
- Find relevant keywords, both short and long-tail
- Understand the search intent and top-ranking SERPs for these keywords
- Get content ideas
First, UberSuggest creates detailed reports using all the SaaS metrics you need to paint a comprehensive picture:
- Search volume
- Cost per click
- Keyword difficulty
- Readability
- And more
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
Your software tools and content can be stellar across articles and product pages. But you still need to ensure your website checks all the right SEO boxes.
UberSuggest helps you start from the basics – aka the words you use on your website.
UberSuggest helps you with:
- Keyword research
- Blog post ideas based on these profitable keywords
- Backlink and organic search traffic analyses
- Website performance measurements
- Tips to improve website performance
Pro tip: You can use UberSuggest both for your current SEO marketing efforts and paid advertising campaigns.
Let’s say you have a hiring app and want to write relevant content about it. If you choose the popular keyword “hiring app,” UberSuggest renders these results along with Neil Patel’s smiling face:
You also get organic keyword ideas based on this seed keyword:
And content ideas:
You even have an AI generating titles and meta-descriptions to assist with content creation:
Price
UberSuggest is one of the most affordable SaaS SEO tools. The three pricing plans below vary between $12 and $40/month, depending on how many websites you want to search:
You can also choose a lifetime pricing plan to save more money in the long run:
Is there a free UberSuggest version?
You have a 7-day free trial available for all three pricing plans above.
9. SEOmonitor: Best for Agencies
SEOmonitor presents itself as a “data-quality first SEO platform.” Although this SEO tool is designed for agencies, companies can use it too.
Here are some of its best features:
- Rank Tracker to understand your page rankings
- Keyword discovery
- Organic traffic measurements
- SEO forecast reports
The intuitive agency dashboard helps you organize every campaign, having an eagle’s eye view of all essential client data. And you can use the slew of APIs & integrations to build insightful reports each time you have a client meeting around the corner.
Why use it for SaaS SEO:
A detailed analysis is the cornerstone of any effective SEO campaign. That’s even truer for SaaS companies, which need to stand out from their competitors.
You can do that with relevant software and content, but you must also find opportunities to reach your target market. SEOmonitor helps you do that through a slew of analytics.
Here’s the SEO perspective for the Book Depository website:
Notice that you have a Rank Tracker where you can see all keywords. If you click on the Strategy Tab, the tool offers you:
- SERP data
- Search data based on volume and YOY trend
- Visibility score
- Opportunity score
The Analysis tab shows you data for keywords and landing pages. You can see ranking and traffic data, including revenue.
You can even see seasonal and misspelled keywords.
You can also see how you stack up against your competition both for desktop and mobile:
Which SaaS SEO Tool Is Best?
If you are a beginner with a limited budget, we recommend using Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Top that with free tools from Ahrefs and SEMrush that can assist your link-building efforts. UberSuggest can help you get started with relevant content for your target market.
Once you get more experience, you can upgrade to a paid subscription.
Most tools in this review are affordable enough. Even the more expensive ones are a good deal compared to the results they’ll help you get.
Want to streamline your SEO process even more?
Blue Things can help you get started.
Our performance-driven, data-first agency has an average of DR60+ across clients.
Just like we added $4,000,000+ in pipeline value for inBeat.co, we can help you with a successful long-term SEO strategy to dominate SERPs.
Let’s schedule a call, and we’ll tell you exactly how.