By Tameem Rahman (AKA The Saastronaut)

SaaS SEO Consultant | Helping 6-7 B2B software products scale organic revenue. Live in Toronto, 120+ happy clients, 5M+ traffic in 2023, 11 employees. Book a 1:1 with me 🧑‍🚀🚀

Wanna do profitable SaaS keyword research?

This is the ultimate guide.

I'll take you through a keyword research process that will help you grow revenue with your product, not just "vanity traffic" that gets no customers.

This post is designed for both a tech founder starting from 0 and a complete marketing department to execute a profitable SEO content strategy. The keyword research methods inside are the same ones we use for software products doing 10M+ ARR.

Here's what we'll cover:

The critical role of keyword search intent
The keyword research tools we recommend for a SAAS business
Mapping profitable keywords to every part of the SAAS marketing funnel
The revenue-focused keyword selection criteria revealed
4 of our best keyword research methods (+ walkthroughs and ChatGPT prompts)
Some pro tips from a 6-figure SEO agency owner

Tip - Pair this with our tactical SaaS SEO checklist that covers the critical tech optimizations, keyword research process, on-page SEO, link-building, and complete toolkit that a SaaS brand needs to dominate SEO as a marketing channel.

TL;DR: SaaS Keyword Research Guide

Search intent is critical Understand both macro (funnel stage) and micro (specific details like templates or strategies) aspects to ensure content aligns with what users are searching for.
Prioritize bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content first like product comparisons or transactional pages, then move to middle-of-funnel (MOFU) and top-of-funnel (TOFU) content to maximize revenue.
Utilize keyword research tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to analyze competitors and uncover high-potential keywords that lead to conversions.
Map keywords to funnel stages TOFU keywords target educational content, MOFU keywords focus on solutions, and BOFU keywords aim at users ready to convert with product or service comparisons.
Use feature-specific pages to rank for lower competition keywords. These pages can highlight individual product features, increasing the chance of ranking in top positions.
Keep keyword difficulty low Target keywords with a difficulty score of 0-29 to rank faster and focus on answering real customer problems.
Hijack competitor keywords through product comparisons (e.g., “X vs Y” or “X Alternatives”) to steal traffic from competitors and showcase why your solution is better.
Create listicle content around feature-specific use cases (e.g., “Best tools for X” or “Examples of X”) to position your product as a market leader.
Educational content is valuable Create guides around customer pain points (e.g., “How to fix [problem]” or “Sales automation best practices”) to attract users seeking solutions.
Leverage sales calls to discover customer pain points and use them as long-tail keywords to create hyper-relevant content that directly addresses those issues.
Review competitor ad campaigns to identify keywords they are paying for; these often indicate profitable, high-intent keywords that can be incorporated into your organic strategy.

P.S., Book a free 1:1 SEO workshop with Tameem Rahman, CEO of TalktheTalk, to develop a revenue-focused keyword strategy and rank in the top 3 within 100 days.

The Only Keyword Research Tools You Really Need

Look, I'm sure there are some amazing keyword research tools out there for a cheap price or even free. But personally, I've found the most success with the classics: SEMrush and Ahrefs.

SEMrush:

Plan you can get by with: $119.95/month
Pros:
- Comprehensive SEO toolkit
- Excellent competitor analysis
- Strong keyword tracking capabilities
Cons:
- Steep learning curve
- Can be pricey for small businesses

Or Ahrefs:

Plan you can get by with: Starts at $99/month
Pros:
- Robust backlink analysis
- Detailed keyword research
- User-friendly interface
Cons:
- Limited site audit features
- Can be expensive for beginners

I don't really care which one you use, they're both powerful tools that have been around for a long time. However, the tutorials in this post will be using SEMrush, so if you haven't already invested in any SEO software, that could be your determining factor, lol.

Either way, the core keyword research strategies remain the same, just on a slightly different UI.

Are there any free keyword research tools I can use?

My first answer would be don't be afraid to spend a little money on the best quality keyword databases and research capabilities, which SEMrush and Ahrefs have.

You'll be happy to know that by using the keyword research strategies in this post, you only need to pay for SEMrush/Ahrefs for one month, and you'll have a strategy that will last you the entire year. But the benefit of having the monthly subscription is you can see up-to-date data on keywords month-over-month and find new opportunities, too. That said, I will leave you with some free options below.

Ahrefs Keyword Generator:

This keyword tool generates up to 150 keyword ideas based on a broad topic.
Includes keyword difficulty scores for the first ten keywords.
Limited to 150 keywords per search.

Google Search Console:

Shows performance for top 1,000 keywords.
Identifies declining keywords needing attention.
Limited to data from your own website.

AnswerThePublic:

Finds questions people are searching for using autocomplete.
Visualizes keyword ideas in a unique format.
Doesn’t show exact search volumes.

The 3-point Criteria for Targeting a Keyword for SaaS

When you're doing keyword research, you'll quickly realize that sometimes you're dealing with tens of thousands of terms when you analyze competitor keywords. You and I both know neither of us is going to sit in our chair for days scanning through all of them.

It's a good thing that we don't have to.

When looking for keywords, here are the 3 mission-critical questions you NEED to ask:

1. Does this keyword solve a real customer problem?

2. Can I tie this topic back to at least one of our features?

3. Is this topic feasible for us? (I.e., is the keyword difficulty (KD) too high?) Or will it take too much resources and be too slow to rank?

If your answer is a resounding YES to all 3 (or 4) questions, that's a topic you should add to your content strategy. This is the criteria that adds the "revenue-focused" in our revenue-focused content strategy claim that we offer to clients.

Bonus tip: Check if there's a cost-per-click (CPC) value on the keyword.

This is important because if there's a CPC value, that indicates competitors are paying money to appear first for it - and they would NOT be doing that if there wasn’t any commercial interest.

For the next section: A very convenient way to get a permanent YES to question 3 is by setting the keyword difficulty (KD) to low. Specifically, "0 - 29" on SEMrush, which encompasses "very easy" and "easy". This way, no matter which topic you create, there's a good chance it'll rank. Then you just need to worry about the first 2 questions.

5 SaaS Keyword Research Methods

Keyword research is the foundation of any successful SaaS SEO strategy. By identifying the right keywords, you can attract targeted traffic that converts.

In this section, we'll dive into five proven keyword research methods tailored specifically for SaaS businesses, helping you uncover high-potential opportunities that drive results.

1. Target feature pages for your product

Your product has many different areas. You can capitalize on it by creating specific pages for those features. This is effective because your standalone features are typically lower competition keywords.

Say you're an up-and-coming social media software. You're going against giants like Buffer and Hootsuite. There's no way on God's green earth are you ranking top 3 for "social media software" any time soon. But while that can remain the focus of your homepage, you can create feature pages that highlight the capabilities of individual parts of your product.

These will have a much easier time ranking top 3 on the first page.

Example of lower competition feature keywords

How to identify feature pages to create

Jot down every single feature of your product.
Put that feature keyword into SEMrush's keyword magic tool
Vet the monthly search volume and keyword difficulty
Create a landing page for that feature page

Flick is a good example of this. They're an instagram hashtag and marketing management tool and they’ve organized their features in two ways:

General product areas: Similar to the example with GetFeedback, this groups the features in a “journey” format. The Journey: Instagram Hashtags (post creation) → Post Scheduling (publication) → Instagram Analytics (performance + refining). Like so:

2. Popular features: These are standalone features that a lot of people use, so they deserve their own landing page that talks about ALL the benefits that come from the one sub-tool. I go over the pages briefly in the video. You can visit their site and look for yourself.

Creating "Avatar Pages" involves understanding your customers' needs and goals, then designing content that speaks directly to them.

Using the same example as above, it's easier to rank of "social media software for influencers" or "social media software for doctors" than it is for social media software.

Identify Key Customer Segments: Define the different types of customers you serve.
Understand Their Goals: Determine what each customer segment is trying to achieve.
Map Out Their Pain Points: Identify the challenges and problems each segment faces.
Tailor Content: Create content that addresses these specific pain points and goals.

Example by Time Doctor: Each of their landing pages go in-depth on how SPECIFIC USER GROUPS can take advantage of their time-tracking software.

By focusing on Avatar Pages, you align your content strategy with your customers' needs, driving more targeted traffic and engagement.

2. Target comparison keywords between competing products

What this is: When people are ready to invest in a solution, they're curious about all their options and the pros and cons of each. Every industry has the brand names that everyone knows in the space. For CRMs it's Hubspot. For emails it's MailChimp.

So when people are googling, this materializes through queries like:

"X vs Y"
"X Alternatives"
"[My Product] vs X"

We want to "hijack" these competitor queries and show why our software is the best alternative solution compared to the others.

Goal: Steal traffic from competitor keywords through product comparisons and influence consideration for our own product

Free ChatGPT prompt to find comparison keywords

🚨 Use the following ChatGPT prompt to help you come up with a list of product comparison keyword ideas. A [] indicates a placeholder where you must input your information in the prompts.

This is my product: [Enter Short Description of Your Product and Ideal Customer]

I want you to brainstorm and list all the competitors to my product. Since I want to create comparision content on these competitors and position ourselves as the best alternative, I want you to list all the keyword variations of the competitor comparisons. That means targeting keywords like:

- "[Competitor 1] vs [Comeptitor 2]"
- "X [Competitor] Alternatives"
- "[Competitor] vs [You]"

Here are some competitors to start with:

[List some competitors you know]

Please confirm you understand everything before starting.

3. Target listicle keywords (i.e.,“X tools/examples”

What this is: Brainstorm every feature and use case for your product and jot them down. Then create content ideas around them.

Example queries:

"X best [use-case] tools"
"XX [use-case] examples"
"X [use-case] templates"

Goal: Position ourselves as market leaders

ClickUp does this really well with their software. They have dozens of pages, each ranking for different use-cases for their product.

Example of ClickUp using this SaaS keyword strategy

By starting with the "use-case", we ensure every keyword will somehow be related to our software solutions.

Put your top 5 competitors into SEMrush and examine their organic search performance and the keywords they're ranking for. Use the keyword search filter with these terms:

"Tools"
"Best"
"Examples"
"Samples"
"Template"
"Services"
"Use Cases"
"Methods"

ChatGPT prompt to find keywords for listicles

[Description of your product and its features]

Brainstorm every single use case and problem our product solves through our features and list them all down. Your job is to brainstorm keywords that people might be googling when they’re looking for tools to solve these specific problems.

Here are some example queries to help you understand:

- "X best [use-case] tools"
- "XX [use-case] examples"
- "X [use-case] templates"

**For TypeForm:**
- "best survey tools for customer feedback"
- "photography booking form template"
- "event registration methods"
- "sample quiz forms for online courses"
- "use cases for online registration tools"

**For Canva:**
- "best graphic design tools for small businesses"
- "wedding invitation template examples"
- "social media post template samples"
- "methods for creating eye-catching business cards"
- "use cases for Canva in corporate branding"

**For Mailchimp:**
- "best email marketing tools for startups"
- "newsletter design template examples"
- "e-commerce email campaign methods"
- "samples of promotional email designs"
- "use cases for automated email marketing services"

**For Airtable:**
- "best project management tools for teams"
- "content calendar template samples"
- "inventory tracking templates for e-commerce"
- "methods for organizing projects with Airtable"
- "use cases for Airtable in content management"

**For ListKit:**
- "21 must-have lead generation tools for your arsenal"
- "19 best sales prospecting tools (expert recommended)"
- "lead generation template examples"
- "use cases for ListKit in B2B sales automation"

By aiming for "use-case" keywords, we ensure it will somehow be related to our software solutions. And by creating these content assets, we have the opportunity to introduce ourselves to customers looking for a solution to a problem.

Take the output from ChatGPT and use the following prompt to prioritize keywords:

Sort this list of keywords by their relevance to [your product], and then KD, search volume, and CPC. By the end, the keywords should be listed by the ones we should target first for content creation and go from there.

4. Find educational keyword topics (i.e., "How to...")

What is this: Think about what life was like before your software existed. What pestering issues and problems were customers googling? There are people still googling those things. We need to answer them and let them know life doesn't have to be that way anymore.

Example queries:

"How to fix…"
"How to do…"
"Sales automation best practices"
"The ultimate guide on [topic]"

Goal: Find customers who have problems related to our software and supply them with the answer they're looking for while also introducing our tool as a valuable addition to their workflows.

In the keyword search filter, sort for terms like:

"How"
"Why"
"When"
"Guide"
"Best practices"
"Tips"
"Strategies"
“Ideas”

When customers are looking to solve a problem they usually use these keywords in their search.

Video walkthrough (free and paid method):

ChatGPT prompt to find educational topics for your product

Think about the most common problems [your product] solves. Consider what sales and customer success teams hear frequently from the end users they're speaking to in the [your niche] space. Reflect on what life is like without software like ours. What pestering issues and problems were customers googling? There are people still googling those things. Form keyword topic ideas around them.

Example queries:

- "How to fix [common problem]"
- "How to do [task related to your software's features]"
- "Sales automation best practices"
- "The ultimate guide on [topic]"

Give me a list of **50 keyword topic ideas** based on common customer issues and challenges. **Some keyword theme examples:**

- **"Tools"**: "Best CRM tools for small business"
- **"Best"**: "Best automation tools for sales teams"
- **"Examples"**: "Sales funnel examples for B2B companies"
- **"Samples"**: "Sample cold email sequences for lead generation"
- **"Template"**: "Customer success email template"
- **"Services"**: "Top lead generation services for startups"
- **"Use Cases"**: "Sales automation use cases for small businesses"
- **"Methods"**: "Proven methods to boost sales productivity"

Create content assets based on these keyword themes and examples to attract potential customers looking for solutions to their problems.

Take the output from ChatGPT and use the following prompt to prioritize keywords:

Sort this list of keywords by their relevance to [your product], and then KD, search volume, and CPC. By the end, the keywords should be listed by the ones we should target first for content creation and go from there.

5. Find the “Top 10” best performing pages on your competitor sites

What this is: This is looking at the top 10 pages that are generating the most traffic and conversions for your competitors and seeing if any of them apply to you.

Goal: Mimic the top-performing pages of competitors and create our own versions and make the better to compete with them.

Then use this ChatGPT prompt to sort keywords:

The following keywords are from the top-performing pages from our competitor. Please scan and cut out the ones that aren't directly relevant to [your product]. Sort this list of keywords by their relevance to [your product].

Once you’ve completed your SaaS keyword research, you’ll need to incorporate these keywords strategically into a click-worthy title.

Read our complete guide on headlines vs titles and their roles in SEO Success.

Some Keyword Research Tips I've Learned Over the Past 6 Years

I showed you how to execute the keyword-hijacking protocol with 5 video guides. But there are some others that will really help you out too. I'll share them as well.

1. You must consider keyword search intent

The search intent of a keyword is what a person is looking for when they're googling a keyword.

Search intent has a macro and micro aspect, though.

Macro - The style of content the user is looking for depending on where they are in the funnel. For example,
- If they’re top-of-funnel, these people are looking for information - so an informative, educational-style blog post.
- If they’re middle-of-funnel, these people are exploring solutions to problems they’re aware of – they do this with listicles or how-to guides.
- And if they’re bottom-funnel, they’re ready to complete an action. This may be a comparison page, service page, or product page.
Micro - The specific things a user is looking for inside the content (e.g., definitions, a step-by-step guide to something, template, success examples, pro tips, tool recommendations, statistics, strategies, frameworks, what have you).

Micro search intents are identified during content production where you have to study the top-ranking articles on the SERPs to gauge what readers are looking for, make a list, and make sure your blog hits all of them.

But there are 4 types macro intents. And each intent belongs to one of the three following stages of your saas marketing funnel: Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU), middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU), or bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU). Here is how they're distributed among the intents:

Informational Intent (TOFU)
Navigational Intent (MOFU)
Commercial Intent (BOFU)
Transactional Intent (BOFU)

We'll talk more about mapping keywords to your funnel in a later section, but for now I'll go over what kind of pages rank for each intent.

Pro tip: Typically, you may hear the general advice to go from TOFU to BOFU when creating marketing content. For a revenue-focused SEO strategy, you want to flip the script and prioritize content that caters to BOFU first, then MOFU, then TOFU. The next section describes the kind of content for each.

Don't go from TOFU to BOFU. Prioritize BOFU to TOFU - by The SaaStronaut

If you do not satisfy the search intent, you will not rank that page. Simple. For example, Backlinko is an award-winning SEO blog by Brian Dean because of the attention to detail, presentation, and information quality. But take the keyword "how to get free backlinks", and you'll see they have a post ranking #14.

This is because, despite the quality of their information and presentation, they are not catering to the specific search intent of this keyword, which is free backlinks. And to be fair, maybe that's not what they were going for.

But either way, the examples stand true of how important it is to cater to search intent.

2. Review Your Own or Competitor's Ad Campaigns

People don't spend money on keywords that don't make them money too.

So if you want a revenue-focused content strategy, it's worth looking at the money-making keywords.

Reviewing Google Ad campaigns and other paid campaigns can provide valuable insights into what's working on the paid side.

This data can often be translated into organic strategies during the keyword research phase. Marketing teams usually know their active paid campaigns. If not, Google Ads and Google Analytics can help.

In SEMrush, you can:

Enter a competitor’s domain name and click on “Advertising Research” to see their current keyword bids and actual ads.

Filter out branded keywords to focus on broader strategies.
Click on the corresponding URL to see the specific ad copy and design among other keyword-targeting data.

Understanding both the organic and paid efforts of competitors offers a wealth of knowledge for your own strategies.

3. Analyze Sales Calls

If there's anything that beats traditional keyword research tools, it's live conversations with your customer.

Sales calls can give you valuable insights for your keyword strategy because it's coming right from the source. These are what problems customers have (and are probably googling) right now. This is effective because they may not always be immediately obvious or appear in keyword databases like SEmrush or Ahrefs, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.

Record and Review Calls: Listen to your sales calls to identify common pain points and topics prospects bring up.
Identify Patterns: Look for recurring issues and use them to create relevant content.
Use Unique Phrases: Focus on specific long-tail phrases mentioned by prospects. These often have low competition but high relevance.
Categorize Prospects: Understand the concerns of different prospect types, such as MQLs and SQLs, to address their specific needs.

Questions you can ask Sales teams

What are the top objections or concerns potential customers raise during the sales process?
Which competitors do prospects frequently mention, and what pain points lead them to consider our solution instead?
What questions do leads often ask that indicate a lack of understanding of our product's benefits?
What are the most common reasons deals fall through, and how can content address these issues?
Are there specific industries or verticals where prospects show more interest, and what unique challenges do they face?

Here’s a ChatGPT prompt that turns their answers into content ideas:

Pretend you are an SEO strategist designed by OpenAI in competition with Google's AI on who can create the better content strategy. Here is information about our product and customer:

[INSERT INFORMATION ABOUT PRODUCT FEATURES AND CUSTOMER PROFILE]

We interviewed our customer success, sales, and support teams to gather key real-time insights about our customer that we want to use for highly relevant SEO content ideas that drive conversions.

Can you first please organize our notes for each team into common themes and lessons and suggest content titles and types (i.e., how-to guide, product listicle, or product comparison) along with the main keyword suggestion?

4. Leverage Customer Reviews

By looking at customer reviews, you'll gain a better understanding of your customers' pain points in their own words.

Assuming you're active on G2, Capterra, and other review platforms, start here.

Review your profile and competitors' profiles to identify common themes in customer pain points.

Once you find themes, write down these phrases and keywords. Use keyword research tools like SEMrush and Google to explore existing content and metrics. This helps create content that addresses these pain points, attracting new prospects seeking solutions.

We'll Create Your SaaS Keyword Strategy For You 💨💰

When it comes to keyword research for SAAS, we've used these exact revenue-focused keyword research methods for software companies doing $10M+/year.

I've personally added tends of thousands of qualified visitors per month that are MQLs to software sites using keyword research tools like SEMrush.

If you need help identifying the right keywords or building the right roadmap for your SEO content strategy for the next 12 months, then I would highly recommend you book a 1:1 workshop with me so we can plan out this blueprint over 40 minutes to an hour.

Read next:

FAQs

What are SaaS keywords?

SaaS keywords are search terms founders use to target potential customers for niche SaaS products. These keywords can relate to the software's specific functions, the industry it serves, and customer pain points.

By leveraging these keywords, founders can reach their target audience, solve specific issues, and enhance their marketing and SEO strategies. To understand how SaaS keywords can drive growth, exploring further is essential.

What is the difference between SaaS SEO and traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO requires a content strategy encompassing elements like blog posts, landing pages, product descriptions, etc. This helps target a range of keywords and topics.

On the other hand, SaaS SEO necessitates a tailored content strategy that aligns with the features and benefits of your product.

What does SaaS stand for in SEO?

SaaS stands for Software as a Service in SEO. It's all about optimizing web content so your cloud-based software solutions rank high on search engines.

What is the best keyword research tool?

The top choice varies by personal preference but some reliable options include SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google's own Keyword Planner.

The SaaS Keyword Research Guide: Tools, Process, & Hacks