Search hasn’t died; it’s diversified
Google remains the dominant discovery engine for most SaaS buyers, but it’s no longer the only place they find answers. AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini now surface brand mentions and citations directly in their responses, often without a click.
This isn’t the death of SEO. It’s the evolution of search. The winning play is to double down on SEO fundamentals while designing your content so LLMs can retrieve, reason and cite it. SEO + AI is the winning strategy for SaaS.
Why SaaS needs a dedicated framework
SaaS buying journeys are fragmented. A prospect may start with a Google search, continue the conversation in an AI chat, explore community threads, then return to your site before converting.
The SaaS SEO Framework treats AI as additive, not a replacement. SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) work hand in hand, delivering visibility and proof. It ensures you’re visible in these fragmented pathways while focusing your site on conversion. That means:
- Keeping site architecture shallow.
- Maintaining and refreshing your most valuable pages.
- Measuring progress against revenue events, not vanity metrics.
The eight pillars at a glance
SEO lays the groundwork; AI rewards structure, clarity, and proof. Multi-Platform Optimisation (MPO) enhances the entire brand ecosystem.
1. Strategy and alignment
Start with your ICPs. Talk to customer-facing teams about the pain points your product solves. Then decide which “money topics” move the needle—trials, demos, and Product Qualified Leads (PQLs).
Strategy isn’t a keyword list anymore. It’s about topical groups, authority gaps, and mapping to the right page types.
This changes how you publish:
- Fewer, better assets
- A focus on the 10–15 revenue-driving pages.
- Key page support from topical hubs and clusters.
- Owners and refresh cadences defined from day one.
2. Technical foundation and index hygiene
Technical SEO compounds because it removes friction for both crawlers and AI systems. If pages are slow, buried, or mis-indexed, even great content underperforms.
The essentials include reducing click depth (so key pages are no more than 3 clicks from home), consolidating thin content into stronger hubs, and fixing index bloat. Schema becomes critical—product, FAQ, video, person, and organisation markup provide LLMs with structured, retrievable facts.
3. Information architecture and internal linking
Think in clusters, hubs, and connections. Each hub should answer the primary query, while spokes cover the query fan-out—the follow-up questions LLMs generate to reason through a topic.
- Topical hubs: central, authoritative pages around key themes like integrations, industries, or use cases.
- Supporting content: detailed “chunks” that address sub-questions and link back to the hub.
- Entity consistency: use the same product names, features, and integration terms across pages so both search engines and AI assistants can resolve them correctly.
When assistants vectorise your content into embeddings, clear clusters and internal links make it easier for them to associate your brand with authoritative answers.
4. Human + AI content system
Humans control narrative, claims, and proof. AI accelerates scale—outlines, first drafts, repurposing, and schema scaffolding. The principle: semantic density for humans, semantic overlap for machines.
High-leverage SaaS content types include:
- Product and feature pages that show outcomes, integrations, and “works with” details.
- Use-case and industry hubs tied to compliance and integrations.
- Honest comparison and alternative pages.
- Transparent pricing pages that show “who this is for.”
- Case studies with before/after metrics and visuals.
5. Authority, trust, and social proof
EEAT—Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness is the bridge between SEO and AI visibility. SaaS buyers are risk-sensitive; they need proof.
How to show it:
- Real authors with real credentials.
- Logos, testimonials, certifications, and measurable outcomes.
- Multi-platform thought leadership on LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, GitHub, and community forums.
Without EEAT, rankings and AI citations both decline. With it, your content becomes the “safe” choice for both evaluators and LLMs.
6. Multi-Platform Optimisation (MPO) for AI search
AI assistants don’t just retrieve, they reason. To win, you must provide clean, consistent inputs across platforms.
- Publish canonical facts and keep them updated.
- Use FAQs, glossaries, and tables that match natural questions.
- Keep product and feature naming consistent.
- Make documentation indexable and readable without logins where possible.
- Structure presence on other platforms and websites if buyers use them.
If it’s not indexed, it’s invisible.
7. Measurement, AI visibility, and decision reporting
Measure what matters: revenue-driving events like trials, demos, and PQLs. Use GA4 for event mapping, Search Console for coverage, and logs/crawl data for diagnostics.
Layer on LLM visibility testing—tools and scripts that check if assistants cite your facts, definitions, and comparisons.
Progress is measured by:
- Trends in citations across AI platforms.
- Page-level visibility scores.
- Uplift in PQLs and conversions after specific changes.
8. Governance and content refresh
Content decay is the silent killer. SaaS pages lose visibility gradually until traffic and citations collapse. Set quarterly reviews for your top-revenue pages and update facts, screenshots, and integrations. Merge or cull weak pages into stronger hubs.
The rules:
- Don’t mass auto-publish without human editing.
- Don’t “set and forget” content—it’s a living system.
What a proper SaaS SEO audit looks like
An SEO audit isn’t a PDF trophy—it’s a build list that engineers, marketers, and writers can act on.
It covers:
- Crawlability & indexation: robots, canonicals, sitemaps, pagination.
- Performance & rendering: Core Web Vitals, JS execution, caching, CDN.
- Architecture & internal links: click-depth, orphan pages, hub/spoke balance.
- Content & entities: duplication, cannibalisation, entity coverage for products, integrations, certifications.
- Structured data: JSON-LD validation at template level.
- Trust & security: HTTPS, privacy, compliance.
- Measurement: GA4 event mapping, Search Console, logs.
Outputs include: sheets and instructions for development, priority mitigations, technical and content plans, schema and optimisation recommendations.
Why technical SEO still moves the needle
Technical SEO shortens the path to value. It reduces index waste, improves rendering and ensures assistants have clean facts to cite. When your site is fast, shallow, and unambiguous, every piece of content works harder.
Teams notice the shift: faster discovery of new pages, more stable rankings, higher conversion rates, and more frequent citations in AI responses.
What to build first
- Fix friction: index bloat, click depth, navigation clarity, Core Web Vitals.
- Ship the core 10 pages: product, pricing, comparisons, hubs, case studies, security/compliance.
- Add structure: schema for FAQ, product, how-to, breadcrumbs, video.
- Seed canonical facts: definitions, specs, integration matrices, quotable blurbs.
- Instrument everything: tie events to trials, demos, and PQLs; use dashboards that decision-makers actually use.
Page-type playbooks
Product & feature pages
Lead with outcomes and jobs-to-be-done. Show integrations, specs, and FAQs. Include comparison blocks to adjacent choices.
Comparison & alternatives pages
Be factual and current. Acknowledge competitors honestly. Add buyer-fit guidance, screenshots, and integration notes.
Use-case & industry hubs
Define success metrics, constraints, and compliance. Provide architectures and calculators. Link to relevant case studies.
Pricing pages
Be transparent. Explain who each plan is for and the upgrade paths. Provide clear next steps for both self-serve and sales-assist.
Case studies
Lead with the outcome. Show before/after metrics, tech stack, and the implementation timeline. Include “boring but critical” details that de-risk adoption.
Internal linking and click depth: small changes, big lift
Clicks are friction—for both users and crawlers. Many SaaS sites bury critical pages five or six levels deep. Flattening navigation, adding hubs, and using contextual link blocks improves both discoverability and conversion.
Consolidating weaker posts into strong hubs compounds the lift.
Content decay: set a refresh cadence
“Publish once” is dead. Watch for rankings that slide slowly, drops in CTR, or competitors leapfrogging with fresher answers. Refresh your top-revenue pages quarterly. Update visuals, steps, and integrations. Merge stragglers into topical hubs.
Tooling without the hype
AI-visibility tools are useful, but not perfect. The arms race means inflated claims are everywhere. Validate capabilities, track trends, and connect results to revenue.
Sanity checks:
- Does the tool measure what it claims?
- Are you tracking deltas, not snapshots?
- Did conversions actually move after changes?
What good looks like
- Findability: head terms, long-tail queries, AI citations.
- Proof density: outcomes, certifications, and logos on key pages.
- Retrieval-readiness: facts, definitions, and tables are current and crawlable.
- Revenue alignment: trials, demos, and PQLs move in step with SEO and AI changes.
Want this applied to your SaaS?
If you’re a team of 6–30 with ARR between $2M and $20M, this SaaS SEO framework was built for you. I offer a 20-minute diagnostic to surface quick wins across architecture, money pages, and AI visibility. If it’s a fit, we’ll map a 180-day plan and begin with a comprehensive discovery workshop.
We welcome you to join the forward-thinking SaaS brands and digital leaders we are proud to work alongside.
Reach out to me here.
