Keyword Research for SaaS: How to Find Topics that Actually Convert

We’ve found most SaaS keyword strategies do one of two things: chasing search volume without real intent, or focusing too narrowly on brand terms and bottom-of-funnel pages. But to create content that brings in the right kind of traffic, people who are more likely to convert, not just browse, you need a smarter approach.

One that starts with how your buyers actually think and search. 

One that listens closely to your sales calls and support chats. 

One that filters keywords not just by numbers on a dashboard, but by what they signal about readiness, relevance, and real-world context.

Because being in SaaS, you’re not just ranking for clicks. You’re building bridges for the researcher, the decision-maker, and the person who’s going to use the product every day. That’s the kind of keyword research that works, and the kind most teams are still missing.

Why SaaS Keyword Research Needs Its Own Approach

Keyword research for SaaS is more than just about finding what people search for. It’s about finding what your best-fit customers search for when they’re ready to solve a problem you can actually help with. And that requires more nuance than the typical volume-first approach.

First of all, you need to consider the SaaS sales cycles, which are longer and more sophisticated than other traditional industries. They often involve layered approval processes, and a decision-maker who might not even be the person using the product day to day. That alone changes how you think about keywords. You’re not just mapping to a single user; you’re aligning with the questions, needs, and hesitations of an entire buying team across different touchpoints.

That’s why keyword intent matters more than keyword volume. 

You could chase 10,000 monthly searches for a broad query like best productivity tools, or you could target 50 searches for project management software for remote engineering teams, and walk away with 10x better leads.

Good SaaS keyword research also accounts for your product’s unique position in the market. What features stand out (USP)? What’s your strongest use case (ICP)? What are they using your tool for? If those aren’t reflected in the topics you target, you’ll pull in the wrong kind of traffic, even if your rankings look impressive on paper.

So the goal here isn’t to go “viral” on Google – you ideally want to  build a library of content that brings in people with real potential to convert.

Aligning Keyword Research With the SaaS Funnel

When you’re doing keyword research for SaaS, each term needs to be mapped to what part of the customer journey it’s actually serving. Otherwise, you’re just writing content without knowing what job it’s supposed to do.

SaaS Funnel Stage 1 – TOFU

Let’s say someone searches “how to improve team collaboration.” That’s them at top-of-the-funnel.

They’re problem-aware, but not anywhere close to comparing tools yet. They’re just exploring ways to solve their problem, and your job at that stage is to meet them with something genuinely helpful. Like a credible guide (with no sneaky CTAs) that nudges them closer to realizing, “Okay, maybe I do need a dedicated solution.”

SaaS Funnel Stage 2 – MOFU

Now imagine they’re searching “Notion vs Trello.” That’s MOFU, which means they’ve done some homework, they’re comparing options, maybe even building a shortlist. 

This is where a good SEO play gives context (instead of straight-up dropping a feature table)by showing who each tool is really for, what the tradeoffs are, and where you fit in. If your product is the better fit, this is where you earn the chance to prove it.

SaaS Funnel Stage 3 – BOFU

And when they type “[your product] pricing” or “[your product] demo,” they’re at the BOFU stage, nearly there. At this point, they’re trying to de-risk their decision. They want to know what they’ll get, how onboarding works, if support is solid. That’s where you have to give them clarity fast and make the next step frictionless.

A Common Mistake You Need to Avoid

What we’ve found most SaaS companies doing is unintentionally bunching all their keywords at one level. 

Either they chase traffic with big TOFU plays and wonder why it doesn’t convert, or they go straight for bottom-funnel terms and find they’re not building any pipeline over time. 

You need ALL three layers working together. 

• A TOFU piece that brings the right person in, 
• A MOFU piece that helps them make sense of the market, 
• And a BOFU asset that seals the deal.

The easiest way to bring structure to this is just to label your keywords before you start building content. 

TOFU. MOFU. BOFU. Once you do that, it becomes clearer what the content needs to do at different points in their buying journey, what kind of CTA belongs there, and how to connect each piece to the next. 

It also helps your team stop judging every page by the same KPIs, because a TOFU blog post isn’t supposed to convert immediately. And the success of a BOFU post can’t be measured by the amount of traffic it pulls.

And if you do this right, you’ll end up with a content funnel that mirrors your sales funnel. Which means every time your content shows up in SERPs, it’s solving a problem for your audience. And that kind of content strategy doesn’t just attract people once; it helps pull them all the way through to the end. 

Prioritize Intent Over Volume

Search volume doesn’t always correlate with value. 

A keyword that gets searched 40 times a month by buyers who are ready to act can be way more valuable than one with 10,000 monthly searches and no real urgency behind it.

This is especially important for you, being in SaaS, because you’re not trying to win the internet, you’re trying to get in front of the right person at the right moment. 

Someone searching “[your tool] onboarding tutorial” or “best billing software for SaaS startups” is already in a different headspace than someone Googling a broad topic like “how to streamline operations.” One’s browsing and the other’s buying.

That’s where intent comes in. 

Look at what kind of intent their queries carry – informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional? And group them accordingly. You’ll quickly start seeing which ones are worth building content around now, and which ones might support the journey later.

It’s also why long-tail keywords and niche terms shouldn’t be ignored. Although these kinds of phrases don’t look impressive from a volume perspective, they tend to convert better, face less competition, and speak to very specific use cases, especially if your SaaS product serves a particular segment or workflow.

And then there’s AI search. It’s already changing how people find information, and from what we’ve seen to date, it’s only going to speed up. We’re moving toward a world where traditional keyword rankings won’t be the only source of visibility. People will search using natural language, ask full questions, and expect direct, personalized answers. So while keyword volume still matters, chasing it blindly isn’t going to hold up in the long run. BUT, leading with intent always will. 

So, look beyond what they typed into Google and figure out why they’re searching it. 

Are they trying to solve a problem? Compare options? Make a decision? 

Once you understand the why, you can judge whether that keyword is actually leading someone toward your SaaS, whether it’s part of the buyer’s journey or just random curiosity.

When you have clarity on the user’s goal and how it connects to your product, then you start looking for keywords that reflect it, especially the longer, more specific ones. For example:

If the core intent is “someone wants to switch from spreadsheets to a project management tool,” then:

• A high-volume keyword might be: project management software
• BUT a high-intent long-tail variation might be: alternative to excel for managing team tasks or replace spreadsheet with project management software

So you’re not starting with volume, you’re starting with intent, and then finding smart ways to express that intent as targetable keywords.

Build a Seed List With Cross-Departmental Input

Most of the time, when building out a keyword SaaS content strategy, we go deep in tools – and that makes sense, it gives us a jumpstart. But we’ve found that the best performing ones usually come from the people who talk to your customers every day..

Think about it – your sales, support, and product teams are constantly fielding real questions from users. They’re hearing what’s unclear, what’s exciting, and what’s frustrating. So when it comes to surfacing search-worthy topics, that insight is gold. 

This is why, before diving into any keyword tool, you should take a beat and ask around. What are customers struggling to understand during onboarding? What are they curious about on demos? What’s the one thing they always ask before committing?

These questions tell you so much about the kind of problems people are actually trying to solve, and the words they use to describe them. That’s the stuff that makes your keyword list not just technically relevant, but human and practical.

You can also look through support tickets, chat transcripts, and onboarding calls to catch even more of that language in its raw, unfiltered form. These are the phrases you won’t find in any SEO dashboard, but match how your users talk and search.

Then there are feature-specific keywords, compatibility queries, and integration-related phrases. 

If your product integrates with Slack, Notion, or Salesforce, there’s probably a whole set of search queries out there like:

• How to connect [your SaaS] with Slack
• [your SaaS] Notion integration
• Best project management tool for Salesforce users

These may not pull huge traffic, but they show up later in the funnel, and the people searching them are usually already halfway sold.

By starting your keyword research here, with the voices of your users and the people closest to them, you build a list that’s more aligned with search intent and also grounded in the reality of how your product gets used.

Segment Keywords by Persona and Use Case

Once you’ve got a strong seed list, the next step is to make sure it speaks to the actual people you’re trying to reach, not just a generic “user.” 

Different personas, even within the same company, search in different ways. A CTO might type “compliance-ready integrations,” while a Marketing Ops lead might be looking for “tools to connect CRM and ad platforms.” They’re looking for the same product, but using completely different phrasing.

This is why segmenting your keywords by role, industry, and use case helps you get way closer to the language people actually use when they’re exploring a problem or evaluating solutions. It’s not just about matching search terms; you need to be showing up in a way that feels immediately relevant to that person’s job.

You can also map keywords to pain points and tasks. 

For example, someone might not search “SaaS expense tracking solution,” but they WILL search “automate invoice approvals” or “cut down time spent on reimbursements.” That’s job-to-be-done language, and it has real buying intent behind it..

So when you’re refining your keyword list, ask yourself, who’s searching, what’s their role in the buying process, and what specific problem are they trying to solve? That extra layer of segmentation goes a long way in helping your content hit the right nerve at the right time.

Use Keyword Clusters to Build Topical Authority

Now you need to bring structure to the keywords so the blog posts on your site create an organized system that supports both discoverability and depth for search engines and users.

That’s where keyword clustering comes in.

Instead of targeting individual keywords one by one, group them into related themes and build content around those themes. Think of each cluster as a mini content ecosystem, with one core page (the pillar) and several supporting pages that go deeper into subtopics.

Let’s say you’re building around the topic of “remote onboarding”. Your pillar page might cover the full strategy, but your supporting pages could tackle:

• The best tools for remote onboarding
• How to build a checklist
• Common mistakes SaaS teams make while onboarding
• Integrations that make onboarding smoother

Each of these pieces can stand on its own, but together, they signal to search engines (and your audience) that you know this topic inside out. And when you interlink them properly, they help users navigate your content more intuitively, too.

Clusters also give you space to target different intents within the same topic. Some pieces might be TOFU, like “remote onboarding tips,” while others lean BOFU, like “best remote onboarding software for SaaS teams.”

If you want to go deeper into building these out, we’ve got a full guide here: How to Build Content Clusters for Your SaaS Website

Mistakes to Avoid in SaaS Keyword Research

• Chasing volume over value. Don’t default to targeting the highest-volume keywords just because they look impressive. In SaaS, those terms are usually super competitive and too broad to convert well. You’re better off owning a smaller, high-intent niche than getting buried in a giant one.
  
• Ignoring your competitors’ gaps. Don’t overlook what’s already ranking in your space. A good content gap analysis can show you what competitors have missed, or what they’re doing that you can do better. This kind of knowledge is especially helpful for mid and bottom-of-funnel content.
  
• Skipping audits before publishing new content. Don’t keep publishing around similar themes without checking what already exists on your site. Overlapping articles can end up cannibalizing each other, which weakens your overall rankings and makes your content less efficient.
  
• Forgetting to account for SERP changes. Don’t assume the search results stay the same. With AI Overviews, featured snippets, video carousels, and other rich results, the way your content shows up (or doesn’t) is changing fast. You have to adapt not just what you write, but how you structure and format it, too.

Tools and Tactics for Smarter Keyword Discovery

Start with what you already have.

If your site’s been live for a while, Google Search Console is your best friend. 

It shows you the queries you’re already ranking for, and sometimes, you’ll find keywords that are sitting on page two or three and just need a little push. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can help you expand on that by revealing keyword gaps, backlink profiles, and ranking difficulty – all of which are useful when building a content roadmap that balances opportunity with effort.

Look beyond keyword tools for voice-of-customer data.

Some of the best long-tail keywords won’t show up in any of the popular tools. 

They’ll show up in reviews on G2, in Reddit threads where users are troubleshooting, or in Quora questions people ask when comparing tools. These platforms are where your audience speaks in their own words, what they’re confused about, what they want, and what they’re trying to do. That phrasing is gold when you want to match your content to real search behavior.

Organize around purpose, not just data.

A keyword matrix can help you keep things strategic as you scale. 

Instead of just tracking volume and difficulty, map each keyword to a funnel stage (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU), a persona (founder, marketer, ops lead), and a content type (blog post, comparison page, feature explainer). That way, every term you go after has a clear reason for existing in your strategy, and you’re not just chasing traffic, you’re building paths to conversion.

How AI Can Supercharge Keyword Research and Execution

Start with clustering and briefs

Tools like Content Harmony and Surfer AI take your keyword list and group it into topical clusters automatically. They also generate structured content briefs based on SERP analysis, so instead of spending hours reviewing the top 10 results and identifying what to include, you get an instant snapshot of headings, questions, and word counts that are already working for the topic. 

Let LLMs do the ideation

Large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are a great help when you’re stuck on what direction to take a topic, or need variations that reflect different use cases or pain points. You can prompt them with your target persona and core features, and get back lists of FAQs, how-to angles, or even competitor-related (or commercial intent)keyword ideas that feel natural and focused. 

Example prompt: “List 10 keyword ideas a user might search when comparing [your SaaS] to [competitor], including pain-point phrases or use-case angles.”

Keep tabs on the SERP without the manual work.

AI-powered SERP monitoring tools can track subtle shifts, like changes to featured snippets, competitors gaining ground, or fluctuations in AI Overviews. You get to see not just where you’re ranking but HOW the search landscape around that term is evolving, so your team can respond faster.

Turn ideas into drafts without friction.

Once your keyword list is ready, you can use AI to generate first-draft content, write multiple versions of title tags or meta descriptions, or build out outlines aligned with your brand tone. BUT that doesn’t mean you can hit publish without editing, it just means your writers aren’t starting from scratch every time, which saves hours and keeps momentum steady.

Turning Keywords Into Content That Converts

Optimize for humans first:  It’s not enough to rank anymore. Your content needs to match the intent behind the search, not just the words in it. That means going deep where depth is needed, giving clear answers, and guiding users toward the next step they were hoping to take, even if they didn’t know it yet.

Make their journey smooth: Once someone lands on your page, guide them on what to do next. Use internal links to connect them with related content. Add visuals to explain concepts and place CTAs where they naturally belong. 

Track more than just traffic: Rankings and pageviews are great, but they’re not the end goal. What matters more is how your content supports the entire funnel. Track assisted conversions, demo signups, trial activations, or whatever tells you that content didn’t just attract people, it helped them move forward.

Final Thoughts

Keyword research for SaaS is all about understanding how your buyers think, what they’re searching for, and how close those searches get them to your product. The more intentional your research, the more aligned your content becomes, not just with SEO, but with your funnel, your positioning, and your customers’ actual needs.

That’s what makes the difference between content that pulls in traffic and content that pushes your pipeline forward.

If you’re ready to move from scattered keyword ideas to a system that supports real growth, let’s talk.

Book a 30-minute discovery call and let’s map what that might look like for your SaaS.