SAAS (Web Technologies) Case Study
How a SaaS based on web technologies grew traffic from 900 to 39,000/mo in 10 months through an SEO content strategy that focused on capturing long-tail keywords from Google Support pages and offering actionable techniques to end users.
COMPANY PROFILE
Summary
Client’s offering was a Google Extension aimed at augmenting the functionality of one of Google’s products. Their SaaS product was based on web technologies and aimed at making workflow and communication-related improvements for their customers.
The client was also looking for a turnkey SEO solution where everything from strategy development and content production to on-page optimization and deployments would be handled independently.
The primary challenge with this project was that the target audience for the client’s offering was both enterprises and individual consumers. Another challenge was that the client website’s traction on Google was severely limited (<900/mo organic & <3500/mo overall).
Since the SaaS offering was an add-on to an existing but popular Google product, Ranq’s strategy was to capture long-tail KWs pertaining to the Google product. Our strategy allowed the client domain to attract traffic that would otherwise go to Google’s support pages.
By focusing on super-relevant and incredibly specific keywords during content development and on-page optimizations, we grew the client’s site visits from mere 3,500/mo to +71,000/mo in only 10 months.
Goals
Since the client’s SaaS product was an extension for one of Google’s core products, they needed to capture organic traffic for keywords that Google itself prioritizes for its specific products.
They also needed to convince potential customers of the value of their SaaS product above and beyond Google’s core offering, so as to boost new subscriptions.
CHALLENGES
Challenge #1: Very limited organic traction as foundation
It’s always easier to grow traffic for a domain that is already performing well on search engines. However, in this case, the client’s online presence was minimal. As a result, we had to focus on developing a captive audience from scratch.
Challenge #2: High publishing frequency
To build the client’s online presence from the ground up, we had to lean heavily into content development. This included both visual content as well as text. The monthly schedule required Ranq to produce close to 10,000-words worth of highly targeted content along with 30 visuals to support that content.
Challenge #3: Negligible to zero SEO strategy or direction
The existing marketing strategy lacked any specific focus on SEO since they didn’t have any SEO expertise. The nearly DIY SEO attempts needed to be replaced with a custom-created, highly evolved SEO strategy focusing on everything from technical SEO to content production.
Strategy
1. Strong emphasis on keyword research
When competing against a giant like Google for audience, the SEO strategy has to depend heavily on keyword research to pinpoint gaps and identify low-hanging opportunities. Ranq’s keyword research focused on finding extremely long-tail keywords that were not only high on search intent but also boasted inherent potential to capture traffic.
2. A content strategy focusing on actionable techniques
To build traction from scratch, you need your content strategy to prioritize search intent. Ranq’s content strategy for the client revolved around answering target audience questions and sharing actionable solutions that can be used to resolve their problems. This boosted engagement which, in turn, created better SERP ranks and conversions.
3. High frequency publishing to push faster indexation
Backing our content strategy, we created a breakneck publishing schedule to ensure faster indexation from search engines. Regular updates on the domain resulted in an instant recognition from search bots and indexation while content relevance produced soaring impressions and CTRs.
4. Doubling down on winning content trends
When we started to generate traction, we identified content types Google seemed to like to rank us for, and we doubled down on those trends, which helped compound our wins.
5. Content gap analysis for winning content
To leverage high-performing content, Ranq created an on-page optimization schedule with in-depth analyses, recommendations, and deployments. Our strategy not only leaned heavily into keywords that the pages were already ranking for but also content that competing pages were presenting that our pages were not. That combination allowed Ranq to improve our existing performance while also eating into competitor’s advantages.
6. Pivoting content strategy to newer directions
As Ranq’s initial SEO and content strategy matured, we could leverage the same to initiate strategies in completely new directions. Effectively, while our earlier strategy continued to yield results, we incorporated another layer onto it to take the client’s domain to peaks never seen before.
Results
Rise in organic traffic
total keywords ranking in Google
Keywords on page 1
Pages Optimized
Actionable images
Words of content
Articles published