SaaS SEO Audit Example
This is the actual audit that a SaaS client paid thousands for. It has technical, offpage, and onpage SEO analysis templates you can copy.
- CORE Page Audit (Onpage SEO + UX)
- Keyword Map
- SEO Content Audit
- Offpage SEO and Competition Analysis
How to Do an SEO Audit (SaaS Template)
This guide explains how to conduct a complete SEO audit for a SaaS company's website. This is an actual website audit I performed for a SaaS website.
For the privacy of the company, their name has been redacted and replaced with "SaaS Company Example" going forward.
CORE Page Audit (Onpage SEO and UX)
How many keywords should you use for maximum SEO?
Keyword Snapshot
| SaaS Company Example | SaaS G | SaaS H | SaaS K | |
| Traffic | 55.4K | 72.4K | 20.2M | 29.3K |
| Traffic Value | $230K | $47.3K | $30.5M | $30.7K |
| Domain Rating | 77 | 78 | 94 | 61 |
| SaaS M | SaaS O | SaaS Dot Com | SaaS MS | |
| Traffic | 20.2K | 47.K | 131K | 145K |
| Traffic Value | $35.6K | $102K | $292K | $379K |
| Domain Rating | 75 | 77 | 79 | 78 |
Key Inferences
- This is a competitive niche. Competing against players that score high for organic traffic and website authority, and usually have strong Onpage SEO tactics. Mammoths like SaaS H, G2, Zendesk, etc. also play in this space.
- Domain Rating (Offpage SEO) is not our limiting factor. SaaS Company Example is on par with most of our top competitors in DR, a proxy measure for Offpage SEO. Not dominant, but plenty competitive and specific enough to win on page 1 frequently.
- Many competitors also optimize for Onpage SEO. Combining effective Onpage tactics with strong messaging is key.
- We have several opportunities to get on page 1 quickly. Many of our Core pages could start ranking on page 1 for new keyword groups within weeks!
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Website has pages for a wide variety of features/use-cases. Gives us many inbound lead magnets to work with + small changes across several pages make bigger impacts.
- Major player in your space, already considered an authority by Search Engines.
Weaknesses
- Many of your dedicated pages don’t rank on page 1 for unbranded traffic.
- Most pages have a keyword target in mind, but don’t optimize for them in vital areas - H2s, H3s, first/last 100 words, img alt, etc.
Opportunities
- Many of your pages rank on page 2-3 for high-value keywords - SEO Sweet Spot - small changes can have a big impact.
- Found many opportunities to improve your pages for CRO and SEO.
- Optimize internal anchor text.
- Optimize schema markup.
- Core page optimizations can also apply to marketplace subdomain.
- Many keyword targets with dedicated pages are not being used in Google Ads yet.
Threats
Technical SEO issues:
- 186 URLs with 4xx issues
- 13K pages with canonical pointing to redirect
- 111 indexable pages with links to broken pages (928 non-indexable pages with broken links)
- 5K+ pages with links to redirect
Current page designs don’t take advantage of SEO content tactics
SEO Comparisons with Competitors
SaaS Page Example
Pick a product or service page to compare. Choose the most relevant terms for target keywords to the best of your ability.
| Target Keywords | Secondary Keywords + Notable Variations | Sweet Spot Keywords |
| Conversation intelligence
Conversation intelligence software Conversation analytics software |
Call intelligence
Real-time conversation intelligence Sales call analysis, conversation intelligence for sales Call recording AI, AI in call intelligence tool |
Conversation intelligence - 18.5
Conversation analytics software - 24.2 Call intelligence platform - 11.7
Sales call analysis software - 10.2 |
Organic competitors:
- SaaS H
- SaaS G
- Abstrakt
| SaaS Company Example | SaaS H | SaaS G | Abstrakt |
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SaaS Page 2
Sales Call Tracking Software - SaaS Company Example
| Target Keywords | Secondary Keywords + Notable Variations | Sweet Spot Keywords |
| Call tracking software
Sales call tracking Sales call monitoring |
Inbound / outbound call tracking
Call tracking for…
Call logging software Sales call management software
|
Sales call software - 10.5
Sales call analytics - 14.2
Sales call tracking - 8.6
Sales call reporting software - 4.7 Sales call monitoring - 10 Sales call management software - 8.2 Sales call log software - 10.3 |
Organic competitors:
| SaaS Company Example | SaaS H | Pipedrive | Salesmate | Infinity |
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| Massive number of variations optimized on this page. |
Keyword Targeting Review
Checked that Meta Titles and Descriptions include target keyword(s) and speak to both users and search engines
- Findings:
- Most pages use at least one target keyword or partial keywords in their Meta Title and Description, but a few do not.
- Even on pages with a target keyword in their Title & Description, there are several opportunities to include additional keywords or keyword variants.
- Action items:
- Suggested changes to Meta Titles and Descriptions for Platform pages have been included with your Keyword Map.
Checked that H1 header includes target keyword(s) and speaks to both users and search engines
- Findings:
- Most pages contain a partial keyword match in their H1 header, but don’t include a full match.
- No pages take advantage of multiple keyword variations in their H1 header. This is a useful tactic where feasible, but is not required.
- Action items:
- Suggested changes to H1 headers for Platform pages have been included with your Keyword Map.
Checked for keyword usage throughout content and H2 - H3 headers
- Findings:
- Most pages do not use target keywords or partial keywords in their H2 or H3 headers. When they do, it’s usually a partial keyword included in one header.
- Most pages contain only 1-2 mentions of target keywords or partial keyword matches throughout regular text content. Most pages do not use keywords in the first or last 100 words of the page.
- Action items:
- Suggested changes to H2 headers for Platform pages have been included with your Keyword Map.
- Recommend that Connor/stakeholder work on updated copy for first/last 100 words of each page and submit to stakeholder for approval.
Checked for keywords in Alt Text of images
- Findings:
- Most pages do not contain an image with keywords in the alt text. Some pages contain 1-2.
- In most cases, the image’s file name does not contain a target keyword.
- Action items:
- Any image that is not used on multiple pages should have their Alt Text updated to include a target keyword or secondary keyword variation.
- When we upload new images in the future, we should change their file name to match the keyword in the Alt Text.
Checked for keyword usage in URL structure
- Findings:
- Keyword usage in URLs is inconsistent. Several pages contain full match keywords in the URL, but there are many examples of partial match keywords.
- Action items:
- Leave URLs as they are for now. Updated URL suggestions will be included with a proposed sitemap update submitted by Connor (date TBD).
Checked for keyword usage in Anchor Text of links
- Findings:
- With rare exception, Core pages do not take advantage of keywords within anchor text links. (ex. Sales Call Tracking page has a keyword in the first CTA).
- Action items:
- Ignore until first page redesign There isn’t a clean fix for this without adding an additional row of content to each page.
- Connor/stakeholder should address this issue when we submit a more detailed page design updated in the near future. For now we are focusing on low hanging fruit that requires minimum effort to implement.
- Exception - some pages contain a related content row linking to our blog. If we can add this on all platform pages and choose blogs with partial match keywords in the title, we should do so.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Do Core Pages have CTAs above the fold? Does the CTA match UX?
- Findings:
- The first CTA on Core pages is a light green button that contrasts well with the dark green background.
- Action items:
- None.
Is the conversion form simple and asks for no more info than required? Does it have a thank you page?
- Findings:
- CTAs lead to dedicated form page. Required fields are simple and reasonable for a B2B software.
- Action items:
- None.
Additional Items
Optimize schema markup
- Findings:
- Core pages include webpage schema - these schemas appear to be thorough and accurate.
- No pages take advantage of a Rich Results schema, which makes our pages appear more prominently in Google and can dramatically increase click-through rates.
- Action items:
- Add product, service, or FAQ schema to our Core pages.
Next Steps
- Apply updates to Meta Title, Description, Image alt text, H1, and H2 headers on our Platform pages. These are included in the Keyword Map linked below. I can apply these if I’m given WordPress access, or work with an internal resource to implement. Note: this will have carryover benefits for Paid Search campaigns.
- Update copy on Core pages for SEO and UX benefits. I will include content tactics like FAQs and toggle content in my first page upgrade proposal. Who are the internal stakeholders for webpage copy / design? Note: this will have carryover benefits for Paid Search campaigns.
- Internal link updates. Once my Content Audit is complete, we can review potential updates to our internal link structure that will give these Core pages a boost in authority.
Technical SEO Audit
Analysis of technical SEO issues and solutions.
Technical SEO audit example goes here.
Put Your SEO Keywords Here
In case the language above is not clear, these are the most important places to put keywords for SEO, in order:
- URL
- Page and SERP title
- H1 tag
- H2 tags
- First 100 words
- Last 100 words
- H3 tags
- Image alt text
- meta description
- H4-H6 tags
- HTML tags (div)
- Special text tags (bold, underline, links, italics)
Examples
This blog's primary keyword is "how to use keywords for seo."
I used the full search term in my URL, page title, H1 tag, and at least one H2 tag.
I also included the keyword in several other areas listed in zones 1 and 2.
One of the secondary keywords is "where to put keywords for seo."
I used this secondary keyword in multiple areas listed in Zone 2 and 3, as well as one area listed in Zone 1. Every time I use a secondary keyword, I'm also getting partial credit for my primary keyword(s).
An extra keyword is "seo keyword types."
I put this term in an H3 tag in the section above. I don't expect to rank for this keyword alone, but using it still helps me rank for my primary and secondary keywords.
Offpage SEO Audit
Analysis of offpage SEO factors, specifically your competitors "online authority" compared to yours.
SEO Audit Frequently Asked Questions
An SEO should cost between $500 - $8,000 depending on the website, niche, and useful deliverables included in the audit.
The SaaS audit example in this guide was priced at $3,500 and was included as part of a $21,000 content campaign.
This SEO audit template is applicable to any non-local business, especially ecommerce and international websites.
The analysis tools used in this SEO audit included:
- Ahrefs
- Search Console
- Google Analytics
