SEO Strategies for Software Companies

Virtually all software companies invest in digital marketing. Google Ads, in particular, is highly popular. However, the competition here is ruinous. Click prices have been rising for years – and with them, the acquisition costs per lead.

A central component that is often missing: a sound SEO strategy.

For more organic website traffic. For lower CPAs. For improved content performance of every single article.

Here we describe the challenges many of our software clients face – and what potential SEO strategies entail.

Topics on this Page

Digital Marketing: Many Ads, Little SEO
Example of an SEO Strategy in the Software Sector
SEO: In-house or Outsource?
Expert Interviews and Studies

Digital Marketing: many Ads, Little SEO

Regardless of the software company we work with, we consistently observe: highly dedicated digital marketing teams. The typical structure involves one manager responsible for performance (Ads, Analytics), another for social media, and a third person for content. Freelancers often contribute articles as well.

While many teams utilize Google Search Console and Google Analytics, they work significantly less often with SEO suites such as Sistrix, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.

However, these very tools help to develop sound SEO strategies. This is because most teams are unaware of how many keywords they actually do not rank for.

Furthermore, an SEO competitive analysis is not conducted. While one subjectively observes that competitors rank highly for many search terms, the exact terms and the underlying strategy remain unknown.

Moreover, there is a strong reliance on performance channels such as Google Ads. Virtually all leads are generated through the advertising system. This often leads to this channel being perceived as extremely effective – albeit at a considerable cost.

However, performance channels are becoming increasingly less effective. Not only have they grown more expensive over the years, but in economically uncertain times, they generally generate fewer leads.

From our perspective, what is missing is an overarching strategy for increased organic traffic. This applies specifically to SEO, but also to channels such as newsletters and LinkedIn. We advocate for developing content centrally and then adapting it for each respective channel.

Content optimized for SEO can simultaneously be utilized for all other organic channels. This enhances content performance.

Example of an SEO Strategy in the Software Sector

At its core, SEO means creating central content for relevant search terms to achieve higher Google rankings. We illustrate this in the graphic using the example of “CRM Software”.

With an SEO strategy, the devil is in the details:

Which keywords warrant their own page?
Should we create a landing page or a blog article?
Where should we integrate these new pages?
How should we create the content in detail?
What opportunities do we actually have on which keywords?

All these questions must be clarified. An action plan is then developed based on extensive keyword research.

Incidentally, not every page needs to have an SEO focus. The homepage, for instance, is often not well suited for SEO. Instead, pure product communication should be prioritized here.

Approaching SEO In-house – or Outsourcing?

Arguments for In-house

Software companies offer complex solutions. The product must be understood in depth, especially as the market is constantly evolving. SEO is largely based on content, which must be of exceptionally high quality and factually accurate. Our experience indicates that content production should therefore be handled internally – at least for core topics and pages. When the in-house team has a better grasp of SEO, they can also significantly better identify market opportunities and gaps. Topic planning also proceeds quite differently because keywords and rankings are clarified beforehand.

Arguments for Outsourcing

For SEO, depending on the topic area, significantly more content is sometimes required. This is especially true when delving into Helpful Content and discussing industry-relevant topics “around the product”. From our perspective, it makes a lot of sense to collaborate with freelancers here. Service providers specializing in ideation and content regularly attend our workshops. While we are external service providers ourselves, we advocate the approach that SEO should eventually be managed in-house. Therefore, in our consulting and workshops, we always share our methodology for using the tools.

We Advise Marketing Teams on SEO

We are Fabian Jaeckert (right) and Benjamin O’Daniel. For many years, we have worked as consultants for marketing teams. We combine two worlds: Fabian is the technical expert, and Benjamin handles all topics related to content development.

For our marketing team, we specifically sought a sparring partner for SEO and content. Our goal was to gain new external insights to better leverage our ranking potential as a well-known brand in our market segment. Fabian and Benjamin delved deeply into our needs, and thanks to their comprehensive, data-driven analysis, they were able to provide us with concrete optimization suggestions for our SEO strategy. We particularly appreciated that we could achieve our goal with existing resources and focused testing.

Bernd Günther

Team Manager Marketing Shared Service, Sage Germany

For many years, we have been working with software companies. These are highly specialized companies operating in very specific industries and handling particular processes within them.

Often, marketing teams are working on their website structure, a relaunch, or generally aiming to increase their website traffic when they contact us.

For these teams, we develop an SEO strategy and a roadmap. Subsequently, we guide the teams through the implementation.

We would be happy to arrange an introductory SEO meeting via video conference (30 min.).

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Your Name

Your Email

Your Message

Captcha

Deepen your SEO Knowledge: Every Monday via Email

Expert Interviews and Studies of Successful Software Companies

No results found.