Technical SEO for SaaS: 3 Big Issues (And How To Fix Them)
The race to dominate search rankings becomes more competitive every day, especially for SaaS companies. On-page SEO is important for improving search engine visibility, but keywords alone won't push your content to the top of search results. You also need to fine-tune the technical aspects of your website to help search engine crawlers understand your content. That's what technical SEO for SaaS is all about.
The Importance of Technical SEO for SaaS Companies
Search engines crawl websites to analyze and understand them. Bots are the programs search engines use for this task, and technical SEO is a strategy that shepherds bots through a website and gives them valuable context.
For SaaS companies, technical SEO optimization shows bots how your web pages, solutions pages, features pages, blog posts, and other content interconnect. Search bots also evaluate your website's core web vitals, like site speed, mobile friendliness, and XML sitemaps. Once they've gathered information, Google bots index your site and "report" to search engines with their findings.
Think of bots as the judges who preside over search rankings. If they find your site confusing or determine your core web vitals are less than optimal, you're unlikely to rise to the top of the SERP.
So, what exactly are bots looking for? And where should you focus your technical SEO efforts for maximum gains? We'll answer those questions and more in this post.
3 Technical Issues That Hurt SEO (and How to Fix Them)
Few websites are perfect, and isolated, minor technical issues won't destroy your visibility in search results. But the following technical problems are bad for SEO:
1. Competing pages
Given the competitive challenges of SaaS SEO, the last thing you want is to compete against yourself. Here's an example of what that looks like and how it happens:
In February, a SaaS company publishes a blog post for a priority keyword, "How to increase mobile page speed." That post gains ground quickly in search results, landing at position #6 within two months of publication (nice!).
In April, the same company publishes a post titled, "5 ways to improve mobile page speed." No one is actively monitoring search engine results pages; weeks later, a member of the marketing team notices the new post also ranks for "How to increase mobile page speed," and is in position #9.
On the surface, holding two of the top 10 positions may seem like a win. But if two pieces compete for the same keyword, you're diluting the SEO power of each piece.
Two ways to solve this problem:
- Reoptimize the lower-ranking April post for a different term.
- Update the page title and meta description to incorporate the new term.
- Remove any exact-matches from the post for the term "how to increase mobile page speed."
- Cross-link the two posts to help bots understand the relationship between the topics.
- Republish the post, then ask Google to re-crawl the URL.
- Merge the pages.
- Grab any unique content from the lower-ranking April post and incorporate it in the higher-ranking February post.
- Add a 301 redirect from the April post to the February post.
Case study: The removal of competing pages helped this client recover organic traffic and pipeline:
Robbie discusses in greater detail in this LinkedIn post.
2. Duplicate content
It's not uncommon for large websites to have duplicate content, and Google won't penalize you for internal duplicate pages. There are, however, X reasons duplicate content is bad for SEO:
Duplicate pages force search engine crawlers to make a choice.
Imagine a SaaS website at some point rebranded its site, built a "resources" section, and changed its URL structure. In this process, some of the old URLs were overlooked, and now the site has identical versions of an asset with two different URLs:
- https://www.company.io/case-study/something-awesome
- https://www.company.io/resources/case-study/something-awesome
In this situation, a bot must decide which page to index. Let's assume the bot chooses the old case study URL. That page doesn't reflect the company's new branding, and while the case study content is the same, the page footer and top-level navigation include links to service pages that no longer exist.
Two ways to solve this problem:
- Add a 301 redirect from the old case study to the new one.
- Add a canonical tag to the old post (canonical tags tell site crawlers: "Ignore this page").
3. Broken redirects and links
Broken internal links and redirects are bad for SEO because bots may interpret them as a sign of poor site maintenance -- and, by extension, a poor user experience. The dreaded "redirect loop" that traps bots in your site is the worst kind of broken redirect. Here's an example:
- This URL redirects to the one below: https://www.company.io/case-study/something-awesome
- And this URL redirects to the one below: https://www.company.io/resources/case-study/something-awesome
- And this URL redirects to the first URL for some reason: https://www.company.io/resources/case-study/something-way-more-awesome
Yikes!
To solve this problem:
- Use SEO tools like Screaming Frog or ahrefs to run a technical SEO audit that shows you any broken links or redirects on your site.
- Ask Virayo what to do with those broken links and redirects (because Screaming Frog and ahrefs won't tell you).
Technical SEO Tips
If you don't have internal SEO experts and aren't working with a SaaS SEO agency, here are some simple technical SEO tips that can improve visibility in search results:
Use internal links
A strong internal linking structure helps search engines understand the relationship between pages on your website and ensures all pages are easily discoverable. Internal links also help human readers dig deeper into your content.
This strategy, in addition to on-page SEO, helped a Virayo SaaS client generate a 50% increase in new trial sign ups from organic traffic in 60 days.
How to find good internal links:
This is another use case for Screaming Frog and ahrefs, because when you run a technical SEO audit, you can see all of your URLs in a single spreadsheet (after you export the CSV file).
So, let's say you have a new white paper about how to design stunning web pages:
- https://www.company.io/resources/white-paper/tips-for-web-page-design
And you want to use internal links to drive organic traffic (and search bots) to that page. You can scan your list of site URLs (or do a CTRL + F function) to find related content that would be a natural fit for internal links to your white paper, like:
- https://www.company.io/features/drag-and-drop-design
- https://www.company.io/resources/blog/web-design-trends
- https://www.company.io/product/cloud-based-web-design-tool
Then you can pop into those pages and add internal links. This is an easy technical SEO tactic that should be part of every SaaS company's SEO strategy. If you have the time and resources, you can also map out your internal linking structure in advance, noting how new content will link to existing content, and vice versa.
Optimize for featured snippets and the AI overview
Google's featured snippets are the most direct answers to search queries and appear at or near the top of the SERP, making them prime real estate for SaaS companies that want to boost search visibility.
To optimize your content for featured snippets, use bullet points, numbered lists, and tables to make your content easier for Google to understand and display as a rich snippet. The same guidance applies to optimizing for the AI overview (AIO), but before we get into how to optimize for that, here's a quick look at how these two features work within search results:
Featured snippet:
- What it is: A brief, verbatim excerpt from a single source that directly answers a query
- Media/interactivity: Usually static text but sometimes includes an image
- SEO impact: Improves search visibility, and may improve chances of appearing in the AI overview
- Click-through rate: Lower; answers user query without the need for more context
AI Overview:
- What it is: An AI-generated summary based on multiple sources
- Media/interactivity: May include images, videos, or expandable content
- SEO impact: Improves search visibility, especially when also capturing the featured snippet
- Click-through rate: Higher; results appeal to users who are looking for more than a simple answer
Google chooses what sources to include in the AIO, based on what it deems to be the most helpful information from various sources. So, if you want to appear in the AIO, the first step is creating original, helpful content. The AIO won’t include duplicate content, or pages that aren't useful for human readers.
Note: Our Marketing Director, Robbie Richards, recently published a post on LinkedIn that talks about several optimizations we used to help generate 93 AIO placements for one of our B2B SaaS clients:
Virayo has found that technical SEO works best with a foundation of thorough keyword research and creative content. As an example, here's a post we reworked for one of our clients that is now at the top of the AIO:
To improve your odds of appearing in the AIO, you can use a schema markup tool to structure your content in an easily digestible format for bots. This technical SEO tip is ideal for transforming any FAQ section into structured data for search crawlers:
Create XML sitemaps
While logical navigation and a good internal linking structure can help bots understand your site, you need an XML sitemap to clearly illustrate your site architecture. Don't worry - you don't need to be a developer to create this!
There are several technical SEO tools you can use to generate a sitemap. For example, if you have a WordPress site, you can use the Yoast SEO plugin to create a sitemap and accompanying URL. Then go to your Google Search Console, select your site from the drop-down, then "Sitemaps," and paste your sitemap URL into the "Add a new sitemap" field and click "Submit."
Technical SEO issues that might require expert help
We've shared a lot of tips for improving your site's performance, most of which aren't too challenging. However, technical issues that impact core web vitals might require the help of a developer, UX designer, or both.
These are two of the biggest technical problems that can impact your site's performance and your search rankings:
Poor mobile friendliness
You've probably encountered a mobile version of a site that was instantly infuriating. Ensure your site isn't offering the same experience for potential customers.
A mobile version of a site should be responsive, functional across different devices and browsers, and formatted for smaller screens. Mobile optimization often requires a development and design team to create, code, iterate, and test -- and troubleshoot any elements that aren't functioning as expected.
Sluggish site speed
Site speed is a significant ranking factor for search engines because it directly impacts user experience. Poor loading speed can often be resolved by compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and enabling browser caching to ensure faster load times. But you need a bit of technical know-how to execute those tasks.
Get Help With Your SEO Strategy
SaaS SEO is constantly evolving. While improving your site's technical foundation is essential, a successful SEO strategy goes far beyond that.
At Virayo, we specialize in driving discoverability for B2B SaaS companies. With expertise in competitor analysis, technical SEO, keyword research, content strategy and creation, link building, and generative search optimization, we execute strategies aligned with your short and long-term growth goals.
We don’t just chase keywords—we focus on holistic strategies that deliver pipeline impact. If you're ready to invest in SEO that drives real growth, we’re here to help you succeed.
Let's have a 15-minute chat about your goals.
