If you want to sell online, you need search engine optimization.
That’s especially true in B2B SaaS — 9 in 10 buyers research multiple websites before making a purchase decision.
And SEO is a zero-sum game. If you aren’t raking in organic traffic from top-ranking content, your competitor is.
Whether or not you have an in-house marketing team, offloading some or all of your SEO strategy to an agency is the best way to get faster results while controlling costs.
SaaS SEO is inherently tricky…
The biggest challenge is creating (and ranking) content for every stage of the purchase funnel. The typical SaaS sales cycle lasts 84 days and requires dozens of different marketing touchpoints.
Enterprise SaaS purchases take even longer — expect to work a deal for at least 6 months to a year before your buyer signs the dotted line.
Beyond the fact that prospects need far more to convert, there are a few major differences between B2B SaaS SEO and traditional SEO:
- Competition is more fierce (i.e., expensive). Software companies bill customers on a recurring basis, meaning each customer is worth a lot more in revenue. So, in terms of CPC, SaaS keywords are a lot more expensive to advertise for. And the SERPs for the main keywords describing your product are probably dominated by large companies with huge budgets.
- Your audience might not know a solution like yours exists. For instance, nobody was searching for “ridesharing apps” before Uber and Lyft. As a result, the search volume for more niche SaaS keywords can be (frustratingly) low.
- Each buying group has several different members. And they each have different priorities. In addition to creating content targeted at the awareness, consideration, and decision stages of the sales funnel, you need to create content specifically for execs, technical buyers, team leaders, and even end users.
To top it all off, most things in SaaS move quickly. Product dev, GTM, marketing, and even sales all operate on aggressive timelines.
SEO is the opposite — you need to give it at least six months to see tangible results. At the organizational level, everyone up to your executive leadership team needs a mentality shift before investing in SEO.
How we made this list (and why it’s so short):
To land on our list of top SaaS SEO agencies, there are a few strict criteria to meet that no other article on the subject has:
- They offer full-service capabilities. If they can’t create a SaaS SEO strategy, build backlinks, and have all the SEO bases covered, they’re out.
- They’re specialized. A “digital marketing agency” that offers SaaS SEO services doesn’t cut it. We only recommend agencies that are SaaS-focused.
- They have a good SEO presence themselves. Tons of SEO companies have terrible websites, content, and organic search performance. If they can’t even get it right for themselves, it’s doubtful they truly can for their clients.
- They have case studies to prove their worth. If they can’t back up their claims with real results for SaaS companies, they’re not worth considering.
We reviewed ~20 different “SaaS SEO agencies” and eliminated all but 4 of them for not meeting the above criteria.
The best SEO agencies out there for SaaS companies
Without further ado, here are the 4 best SaaS SEO agencies out there, all of which meet our criteria and have earned the stamp of approval from industry experts:
1. Linkflow
If it’s anyone who knows how to rank a SaaS website, it’s our team. Plain and simple.
From start to finish, we do SaaS SEO exactly how it should be done:
- Our work together starts with a comprehensive SEO audit. From there, we deliver a customized SEO roadmap that addresses exactly what your site needs to perform better on search engines.
- We prioritize leads generated and revenue earned, not just website traffic and search rankings. So when we recommend something, you can trust it’s focused on driving bottom-line results.
- The first pages we rank are your money-making pages (pricing, demo requests, and comparisons) so you’ll start closing deals from organic search ASAP.
- We cover all the surrounding activities an SEO strategy needs to pay off — conversion rate optimization, UX and technical SEO, data analysis, and full-funnel coverage for SEO content.
- You’re working with an in-house senior SEO with a B2B marketing background 100% of the time. There’s no such thing as low-quality outsourcing with us.
- We offer additional expertise through SEO consulting. If you need help with B2B lead generation, SaaS content marketing, or even something as simple as keyword research or sales/marketing alignment, we’ve got you.
We’ve got plenty of results to prove it. Through a link building campaign, we tripled one HR tech company’s organic web leads in just one quarter. And an ERP software client saw a 100% increase in traffic and conversions after working with us.
And we do pretty well for ourselves on the SEO front. After publishing 18 new content pieces, we increased our own organic traffic by 243%.
To learn more about our framework, check out my comprehensive guide to SaaS SEO. For more on what it’s like to work with us, head to our SaaS SEO page, read our client reviews, and book a call.
2. Skale
Skale is a SaaS marketing agency that specializes in SEO management, content creation, website migrations, and link building for SaaS businesses. They have a proven track record of helping SaaS companies increase their organic traffic, leads, and conversions.
A few major green flags that make Skale stand out in the SaaS SEO space:
- They have an in-house team of experienced digital marketers and SEO experts, with an exclusive focus on SaaS clients.
- They build an “SEO model” that outlines how each client should prioritize link building, where the real potential is for leads/signups, and what to expect from 12-month ROI.
- In their blog content, they talk about SaaS in a thoughtful way. If you’re running a SaaS business, Skale blog is one of the best digital marketing resources out there.
- They dominate search engine results pages. When searching for anything from “how to create a SaaS marketing plan” to “how to do a SaaS website migration,” Skale consistently ranks on the first page. They also perform well for bottom-of-funnel keywords.
- In addition to working for their SaaS SEO agency, Skale’s approach to content clustering works well for their clients.
- They feature tons of SEO success stories on their website, and they prioritize driving business KPIs for their clients.
The one downside to Skale is the size of its team. With such a large and diversified offering, there’s a good chance you’re getting a mixed bag in terms of experience and expertise.
3. Grow and Convert
Grow and Convert is a SaaS SEO agency focused primarily on content marketing. While they also offer PPC and search engine marketing services, they still meet our criteria by:
- Focusing strictly on leads, signups, and revenue over vanity metrics
- Refusing to fluff up your numbers with top-of-funnel content that won’t get you leads
- Being transparent with their pricing
- Providing case studies that showcase proven success in the SaaS space
- Publishing remarkably thoughtful and insightful blog and newsletter content
- Working exclusively with clients they know they can help (they have strict criteria to make sure you’re a good fit)
They’ve worked with several kinds of companies all across the SaaS industry — B2B SaaS companies like Clearscope, Leadfeeder, ProductLed, and Yelp, as well as B2C SaaS businesses like Patreon.
They also sell an SEO course, the info from which your team can use to implement a SaaS SEO growth strategy on their own.
The major downside to Grow and Convert is they’re really expensive on a per-deliverable basis. For $10,000 per month, you get 2 pieces of SEO content.
4. SimpleTiger
SimpleTiger is one of the best-known SaaS SEO companies for good reason. They meet our capabilities, SaaS specialization, and SEO performance criteria. Plus, they’ve been around for almost two decades, meaning you won’t be the first, second, or hundredth SaaS company they’ve worked with.
A few differentiating factors:
- They consider your business stage (startup, SMB, mid-market, enterprise, pre-IPO, public company) when planning your digital marketing strategy.
- They’re extremely good at ranking their SEO agency website, which proves they know what they’re doing.
- They use competitor analysis to reverse-engineer what works and replicate it with your unique SEO roadmap.
- They optimize content for both higher search engine rankings and minimal CPC/CAC through paid ads.
The biggest differentiator is that everything SimpleTiger does is backed by the agency’s proprietary AI & data intelligence platform. They’ll always know what content to produce, which pages to optimize, and where you can make the most impact in the least amount of time.
One drawback of working with SimpleTiger is they use account managers instead of having an SEO yead your account. This means that, while they do plenty of good work for you, your SaaS SEO efforts will be spread between multiple parties, not all of whom have the expertise or understanding of your business that a dedicated SEO strategist would.
They also don’t specialize in SEO (even though they say they do). They offer web design, paid search, and paid social services, which could detract from the dedicated attention they’re able to give to an SEO campaign.
Tips for interviewing a SaaS SEO agency
In the SEO industry, there are tons of sketchy agencies that overpromise and underdeliver.
Before signing a contract with any agency, there are a few essential things you should look for when talking with them:
- What makes them different from other agencies? SaaS SEO requires a custom roadmap. They should be able to speak to their differentiators and how those will benefit your SaaS business specifically, based on your industry, growth stage, and SEO goals.
- How do they build a strategy? Listen for strategies, not tactics. If they don’t dive into competitor analysis and learn about your target audience before keyword research and content creation, run. If they don’t mention user intent, SEO conversions, or anything about tailoring your web content to complex SaaS sales cycles, run faster.
- Who makes up their team? The best SaaS SEO agency will use an in-house team. And you’ll work directly with an SEO specialist, not an intermediary party who relays the message. Ask about the team makeup and who you’ll actually work with.
- How do they measure success? Listen for the essential SaaS KPIs like MRR, conversion rates per channel, MQLs, SQLs, CPL, CAC, and engagement metrics. Also ask about how they prove SEO value through forecasting, competitors, and attribution.
- When will you see results? Though they might know what they typical client sees, any SaaS SEO agency that overpromises on results or guarantees a specific ranking should raise a red flag. SEO is a long-term strategy with zero guarantees. The best SaaS SEO agencies take an agile and iterative approach, while leaving enough time to show results.
If you’re on a call with a reputable SaaS SEO agency and they tick all these boxes, they’re almost certainly a good fit.
Speaking of which, we’ve just described ourselves. Book a call to learn how you can outsource SaaS SEO to the best in the business.
