Building an SEO foundation for a SaaS startup

The Challenge

A newly launched SaaS company wanted to grow brand awareness through organic search and turn that visibility into demo bookings. However, the website had no SEO foundation in place.

At the start of the project:

• The site was not indexed and had no keyword rankings
• Technical SEO issues prevented effective crawling and discovery
• Content was published without keyword research or strategic intent
• Organic search was not contributing to pipeline or conversions

As a result, SEO had no measurable impact on growth.

Our Strategic Approach

To address this, we implemented a solution-first SEO strategy focused on removing technical blockers before scaling content.

1. Fixing the Technical Root Causes

We began with a full technical SEO audit and worked closely with developers to establish a crawlable, indexable website.

Within the first two months, we:

• Created and configured robots.txt and XML sitemaps
• Updated CMS logic to automatically refresh the sitemap
• Migrated from client-side rendering to server-side rendering
• Fixed crawlability by replacing JavaScript click events with standard <a href> links
• Implemented structured data (schema markup)

These changes ensured search engines could properly crawl, index, and understand the site.

2. Search-Led Content Strategy

Although the company had a blog, content decisions were not guided by search demand. We conducted in-depth keyword research and deliberately focused on top-of-funnel (ToFu) keywords to increase brand visibility in a competitive SaaS space.

The strategy was designed to:

• Build topical authority
• Capture non-branded awareness-stage searches
• Target competitor-related keywords to associate the brand with established players

3. Content Execution & On-Page Optimisation

To support the strategy, we produced SEO-led articles with clear keyword targeting and structured outlines, and optimised existing landing, product, and pricing pages.

On-page optimisation included:

• Internal linking
• Improved page structure and hierarchy
• Meta title and heading tag optimisation
• Image alt text implementation
• UX updates to support engagement and conversions

The Results

Following the rollout of technical fixes and content improvements, organic performance improved rapidly.

Key outcomes included:

• +993.5% quarter-over-quarter increase in organic clicks
• Significant growth in the number of ranking keywords
• Clear upward momentum in organic visibility throughout the year

Key Takeaway

For early-stage SaaS companies, SEO success depends on fixing technical foundations before scaling content. When technical SEO, content strategy, and on-page optimisation work together, organic search becomes a reliable channel for awareness and demand generation.