Let’s do a quick recap on how SaaS SEO works.
This is the process of SaaS SEO in a nutshell:
- You find out what problems are keeping your customers up at night.
- You dig into the specific keywords they’re searching to solve said problems.
- You write SEO-friendly content that explains how your software solves the problems.
Voila.
The best SaaS SEO strategies follow this gameplan to at least some extent.
But there’s a difference between doing SEO for an enterprise SaaS companies and small-scale SaaS companies.
I’ll round up some of the differences between enterprise SaaS websites and smaller SaaS websites:
1. Scale: Most of the top enterprise websites are massive.
We’re talking thousands of pages, packed tighter than Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
So as you can expect, enterprise SaaS companies typically manage a much larger volume of content.
2. Complexity: Enterprise SaaS sites tend to have a more complicated structure.
So you can expect multiple subdomains, languages, and teams managing different parts of the site.
In the bigger companies you’ll find different SEO departments dedicated to different parts of SEO – outreach, technical SEO, content, etc.
3. Competition: enterprise SaaS markets can be competitive.
Many top companies are tussling for market share.
The stakes are a lot higher.
So topical authority plays a bigger role (I’ll explain this in the next section).
Enterprise SaaS content strategies
1. Build topical authority with topic clusters
Topical authority is about being the go-to website in your niche orr industry.
And that helps you to bump up your level of credibility.
Let’s break it down:
When a website consistently publishes “quality”, in-depth content on a particular topic, it sends a clear message to search engines:
the message is that you’re an expert in that area.
Most people who want to learn advanced SEO know that the Ahrefs blog is the place to go.
SaaS founders who want to build a buzz about their product always rush over to ProductHunt.
Newbies who want to launch an e-commerce store know Shopify has the solution.
There’s a reason why these brands carry the reputation they do.
One word: authority.
Not all authority is built through SEO, but a big part of it can be.
For enterprises, which often face intense competition and need strong brand images, being seen as an authority will help build more trust, drive conversions and retain clients.
But I’m meandering. Let’s cut to the chase.
How do you actually build topical authority?
I’ll explain with an example.
Let’s say you’re targeting the keyword crm software:
That’s a lot of competition.
If you want to rank for crm software, you can’t simply write one article about crm software and call it a day.
Why? Because CRM is a massive topic, and you can’t cover everything about it in one article.
So to build topical authority, you need to write a series of high-quality articles that cover every aspect of CRM, like:
- What is CRM?
- What do CRM software do?
- CRM for e-commerce
- How to choose the best CRM software?
All that CRM content will show search engines like Google that you’re a reliable resource on the topic of CRM.
And that will make it easier for you to rank for keywords related to CRM software
The easiest way to build topical authority is with topic clusters.
A topic cluster is a group of webpages that cover the same topic.
Each topic cluster has pillar pages and cluster pages.
Pillar page:
- Think of the pillar page as the main page. It’s detailed, packed with info and covers every angle of a broad topic.
Cluster content:
- Once you have your pillar pages, you create cluster pages. Cluster pages are smaller, more focused pieces that dive into subtopics.
Great.
Now that you’re up to scratch on what pillar pages and cluster pages are, we can talk about how you can use them for your enterprise SaaS website.
This is how to build topical authority with clusters:
Step 1: Research and planning.
Start by picking the main target keyword you want to rank for.
And by “main” target keyword, I mean your ideal keyword. A keyword that sums up your SaaS product.
The broader the keyword, the better.
If I’m selling CRM software, my obvious pick would be crm software.
If you’re in the business of HR software, hr software would be the golden choice.
Once you’ve got your main keyword, we want to find variations of it.
So we’ll do some good old keyword research.
You know the drill.
Use whatever tools you have at your disposal – Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find related keywords.
You’ll need proprietary enterprise SEO tools to perform keyword research on a large scale and I’ll discuss these tools later in the guide.
But for now, a quick way to find keyword suggestions is to just use the Ahrefs free Keyword Generator.
Just tap your seed keyword into the search bar and watch the suggestions fall at your feet:
For my CRM software, some keyword ideas I have are best crm software; crm software for small businesses and crm software features.
Once you have yours, slide on to the next step.
Step 2: Select topics for your pillar content.
Your pillar content should cover the topic extensively, addressing most of the key questions and subtopics.
How do you find key questions and subtopics to write about in your pillar content?
Keyword research. Plain and simple.
Use the keywords you found from your earlier research to find topics for your pillar content.
Based on the keywords I found from the last step, I could include these sections in my Introduction to CRM Software guide:
- What is a CRM software? A simple explanation
- What types of CRM software are there?
- What core features are essential in a CRM?
Step 3: Build cluster pages using subtopics from pillar page.
Once we finish the pillar page, the work’s not done yet. We still need to build the cluster pages.
If the pillar page is the trunk of the tree, the cluster pages are the branches that spring out of the tree.
Cluster pages break your pillar topics into smaller, related topics.
I’ll explain with an example.
Let’s go back to the CRM software scenario.
Let’s say my Introduction to CRM software guide included one section that covers CRM software best practices.
We could expand that one section into a separate article.
Like so:
You can’t fit everything about CRM software best practices in one section of an Introduction to CRM Software article.
But if you write a whole article dedicated to that subtopic? Then maybe.
Step 4: Internally link between cluster pages and pillar page.
Last but not least, is internal linking.
You need to internally link between your cluster pages and pillar pages.
Here’s a quick guide on how to do that:
- Link from cluster pages to the pillar page: Make sure every cluster page includes an internal link back to the pillar page.
- Link from pillar to clusters: This is the easiest to do. Within the pillar page, include links to each cluster page. Organise these links using lists, bullet points, or in-context mentions.
- Cross-link between clusters: Where relevant, create links between cluster pages. This helps build a web of content that reinforces the connections between related topics.
