Matt Gratt introduces the webinar on B2B software SEO, presenting panelists Mark Ferrer (Senior Director of SEO and PR at TrustRadius) and John Henry Shirk (SEO consultant who has worked with Heap, Front, and others).
John Henry distinguishes product-led SEO (driven by scalable, technical, user-generated content like reviews or job listings) from content-led SEO (mapping buyer journeys to keyword-optimized, educational pages like versus and alternative guides).
He details a prioritized content framework: start with brand coverage (via auto-suggest), then build bottom-of-funnel versus pages (e.g., 'Heap vs Google Analytics'), then mid-funnel alternative guides (e.g., 'Expensify alternatives'), and finally top-of-funnel category and definition pages (e.g., 'What is product analytics?').
Mark Ferrer explains 'barnacle SEO'—leveraging review sites like TrustRadius by driving reviews, claiming profiles, earning awards, and syndicating star ratings and reviews onto your own site to boost CTR, trust, and rankings, citing Century One’s jump from #7 to #1 for 'SQL deadlock'.
The panel answers audience questions, advising startups to begin with non-competitive versus/alternative pages (e.g., 'Happy Fox alternative' instead of 'Zendesk alternative'), prioritize international SEO where sales coverage exists, and treat SEO as an operational discipline—not a growth hack—that demands commitment and expert-level content.
Brief overview
Winning at B2B software SEO requires a dual strategy: building comprehensive, expert-led content on your own site (content-led SEO) while also leveraging third-party review sites like TrustRadius to gain visibility where you can’t rank orga
Start with brand coverage using auto-suggestPop your brand name into Google, press space, and build pages for every auto-suggested query—pricing, support, features—to prevent traffic leakage to third parties.
Build versus pages before alternativesVersus pages (e.g., 'Heap vs Google Analytics') rank easier because your brand name is in the query; they target buyers already in their consideration set and ready to compare features, pricing, and t
Leverage review sites as SEO partnersDrive reviews on TrustRadius to improve your placement on category and comparison pages, then syndicate star ratings and real-user quotes onto your own landing pages to boost CTR and conversion—Sonja
Questions this recording answers
8 questions, each answered where it is said
What are the two main types of SEO for B2B software companies?
The two main types are product-led SEO and content-led SEO. Product-led SEO is a function of the product, scalable, and involves technical SEO for large sites with high-volume pages—like Indeed or TrustRadius—where user-generated content (e.g., reviews, job listings) powers rankings. Content-led SEO is driven by content and product marketing, focusing on mapping the buyer journey to keywords and pages, used by Shopify, Zendesk, Atlassian, and HubSpot.
What should you do first to cover your brand in SEO?
Start by typing your brand name into Google and pressing space to see auto-suggest results—this reveals the most current, real-world ways people search for your product. Then ensure you have dedicated, well-optimized pages for all those suggestions: pricing, support, feature guides, and usage documentation. Failing to cover these gives third-party sites traffic you could otherwise capture.
How should you prioritize versus and alternative pages when starting out?
Begin with bottom-of-funnel 'versus' pages using auto-suggest (e.g., '[your brand] vs [competitor]')—these rank more easily because your brand is in the query. For alternatives, avoid targeting giants like 'Zendesk alternative' early on; instead, start with less competitive, down-market competitors like 'Happy Fox alternative' where ranking is more achievable and content gaps are larger.
What’s the best way to promote versus and alternative pages beyond organic ranking?
Use internal linking strategically: build a central hub page (e.g., '/compare') and link from it to individual versus/alternative pages. Also link from category buyer’s guides and competitor comparison sections. These pages are hard to earn external links for, so internal cross-linking is the most effective and controllable promotion method.
How can review sites like TrustRadius help your SEO if you can’t rank organically for competitive terms?
Review sites already rank highly for terms like 'Expensify alternatives'. You can leverage them by driving reviews (more reviews improve your placement on category and comparison pages), claiming and optimizing your profile, earning awards (e.g., Top Rated), and syndicating TrustRadius review widgets onto your own site to add fresh, keyword-rich content and star ratings—boosting CTR, trust, and rankings.
What tools does John Henry recommend for creating comprehensive, ranking-worthy content?
He recommends MarketMuse and ClearScope—tools that use natural language processing to analyze top-ranking content and assess comprehensiveness, helping you cover essential topics, avoid bias or omissions (e.g., omitting 'Steve Jobs' in an Apple history article), and speak in customer language—not just branded jargon—before introducing your unique viewpoint.
Should SEO live on the product team or the marketing team?
It depends on your company’s structure and SEO type: content-led SEO belongs with the content or marketing team, while product-led SEO (e.g., at Indeed or TrustRadius) fits better under product. In practice, many successful companies treat SEO as a center of excellence—collaborative across teams—or assign it to whichever department has the most authority and ability to deploy changes quickly.
What should you do if your SaaS brand name is a common word (e.g., 'Front', 'Gremlin')?
Start with a descriptive modifier—like 'Front App' or 'Gremlin Chaos Engineering'—to differentiate from non-software meanings. As brand awareness grows and you begin ranking organically for the unmodified term (e.g., Gremlin now ranks #1–2 for 'gremlin'), you can drop the modifier. But until then, prioritize clarity and search intent alignment over brevity.
Key Quote
“Product-led SEO is literally a function of the product... your users create content for you.”
— John Henry Shirk
Key Quote
“Versus pages... people have already made up their consideration set. They've narrowed it down and they're looking at a one-to-one product comparison.”
— John Henry Shirk
Key Quote
“This is an example that John Henry showed earlier, but this is Expensify Alternatives. As you can see, this is very crowded by all of the review sites.”