Most SaaS companies chase high-volume keywords and wonder why their blog traffic doesn’t convert. The fix isn’t better content — it’s a completely different approach to keyword selection.
By Matthis Duarte — Senior SEO professional, 12 years experience
There’s a trap almost every SaaS startup falls into when they start with SEO. They open Ahrefs or Semrush, find keywords with 10,000+ monthly searches, and build their content calendar around them. Six months later, they have traffic. They have almost no signups.
The problem isn’t the content. It’s that high-volume keywords are almost always searched by people who are nowhere near ready to buy. You wrote the perfect article about “what is project management” — and your readers are students, not CTOs evaluating tools.
SaaS keyword research works on a different logic than traditional SEO. The goal is not to maximise traffic. It’s to attract visitors who have a problem your product solves — and to catch them at the moment they’re ready to solve it.
Why SaaS keyword research is different
A media site wants volume. More traffic, more ad revenue. A SaaS startup wants conversion — trial signups, demo requests, paid subscriptions.
This changes everything about which keywords you should target. A keyword with 200 monthly searches and clear buying intent is worth more to a SaaS business than a keyword with 50,000 searches from students doing homework.
The key variable is search intent: what is the person actually trying to do when they type this query? Is it to learn, to compare, to find, or to buy?
“In SaaS SEO, keyword difficulty and search volume are secondary signals. Intent is the primary filter. If the intent doesn’t match your funnel, the keyword isn’t worth targeting — no matter the volume.”
Understanding intent in SaaS maps directly to the buyer’s journey. This is why the TOFU / MOFU / BOFU funnel framework is the most practical lens for SaaS keyword research.
The funnel framework — TOFU, MOFU, BOFU
| Stage | Acronym | Intent | Examples | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top of funnel | TOFU | Informational | “how to reduce churn”, “what is LTV” | Awareness, brand building |
| Middle of funnel | MOFU | Commercial | “best project management tools”, “Asana alternatives” | Consideration, list-building |
| Bottom of funnel | BOFU | Transactional | “[Your product] pricing”, “[Your product] vs Competitor” | Conversion, signups |
Most early-stage SaaS companies make the mistake of publishing exclusively TOFU content — informational articles that build awareness but generate almost zero direct revenue.
The counterintuitive truth: start with BOFU. The keyword pool is smaller, the competition is lower, and each page drives visitors who are actively evaluating tools in your category. Build the foundation that converts first, then invest in TOFU for long-term compounding growth.
The 5 most important SaaS keyword categories
1. Competitor alternative and comparison pages (BOFU)
Searches like “[Competitor] alternatives” and “[Your product] vs [Competitor]” have near-perfect commercial intent. The person typing this query already knows they have a problem and is in the final stages of evaluating solutions.
These pages are among the highest-converting content assets in SaaS. Every major competitor you have is a keyword opportunity. “[Competitor] pricing” and “[Competitor] reviews” also fall into this category.
Tactical note: You don’t have to wait for competitors to write these about you. Publish “[Competitor] alternatives” pages now, rank for their brand searches, and capture their dissatisfied users before they even visit your site.
2. Category and best-of listicles (MOFU)
“Best [category] software”, “top [tool type] tools for [use case]”, “[category] software for startups” — these MOFU keywords attract buyers who know what type of solution they need but haven’t chosen a vendor yet.
Getting your product mentioned in these roundups (either by ranking for them yourself or by earning a mention on sites that do) is one of the fastest ways to build conversion-ready traffic.
3. Jobs-to-be-done pain point keywords (TOFU-MOFU)
The Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework asks: what problem is your customer trying to solve? Not “what is your product” — but what specific, painful task are they trying to accomplish before they even know your product exists?
For a project management tool, JTBD keywords look like: “how to stop missing deadlines”, “how to manage remote team tasks”, “why are my projects always late.”
These keywords have lower competition than category terms and attract visitors at the precise moment they’re experiencing the pain your product solves. The best source for JTBD keywords isn’t a keyword tool — it’s your sales calls, support tickets, and product reviews. The exact words your customers use to describe their problem are your keyword brief.
4. Feature-specific keywords
Every feature your product has is a keyword cluster. If you have a feature called “automated reporting,” the keyword universe includes: “automate weekly reports,” “automatic client reporting tool,” “how to automate marketing reports,” and so on.
Feature pages work particularly well when your product solves a niche use case that generic tools don’t serve well. A prospect searching “automate SEO reporting for agencies” has a very specific need — and if you have that feature, you should own that query.
5. Integrations and ecosystem keywords
If your product integrates with other tools, “[Your product] + [Partner tool] integration” pages are among the easiest keywords to rank for and among the highest-intent visitors you’ll ever get.
This is the Zapier playbook at small scale. Visitors searching “[Your tool] + Slack integration” already use both products. They’re one step away from becoming a customer.
The practical research process
Step 1 — Start with competitors in Ahrefs. Enter your top 3 competitors in the Competing Domains report. Find keywords they rank for that you don’t. Filter for commercial and transactional intent. This is your fastest path to high-value keyword opportunities.
Step 2 — Mine your sales calls and support tickets. Every question a prospect asks on a sales call is a keyword brief. If three people asked “does your tool work with Salesforce?”, that’s a page to build. This source produces keywords no competitor analysis will ever surface.
Step 3 — Build your BOFU list first. Map every competitor you have. Create “[Competitor] alternatives” and “[Your product] vs [Competitor]” page targets. These are your highest-priority pages.
Step 4 — Filter ruthlessly by intent, not volume. In Semrush or Ahrefs, use the intent filter to separate informational from commercial and transactional queries. For early-stage startups, commercial and transactional keywords should make up at least 40% of your first 20 target pages.
Step 5 — Map keywords to the funnel. Organise your keyword list into TOFU, MOFU, BOFU buckets. Publish BOFU pages first. Then MOFU. Then build out TOFU content to scale awareness once the conversion-oriented pages are live.
💡 Not sure which keywords are the right priorities for your SaaS?
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Key takeaways
- ✓ SaaS keyword research is intent-first, not volume-first — a 200-search BOFU keyword is worth more than a 10,000-search TOFU keyword if it converts
- ✓ Start with BOFU: competitor alternative pages and comparison pages are the highest-converting content assets and have the lowest competition
- ✓ JTBD keywords (pain-point queries from sales calls, support tickets, product reviews) surface high-intent, low-competition targets that no tool will show you
- ✓ Every integration and competitor is a keyword cluster — map them all before writing a single article
- ✓ Filter by intent in Ahrefs or Semrush — commercial and transactional keywords should dominate your first 20 pages
Matthis Duarte is a senior SEO professional with 12 years of experience. HackingStory.com reverse-engineers how the fastest-growing startups actually grew — with real data, not press releases.
