What’s Next for SEO in B2B SaaS? Insights and Strategies for 2025

Search is changing fast—and if you’re in B2B SaaS, you’re not just keeping up with algorithms, you’re navigating long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and now... AI-driven search results.

We brought together three leading voices in SEO—Viola Eva, Helene Jelenc, and Surfer’s Michał Suski—to unpack what really matters in 2025.

From high-intent keywords that actually convert to getting your brand cited by AI, this is your no-fluff B2B SEO playbook for dominating search.

1. Addressing multiple stakeholders in the decision chain

B2B SEOs are finding success with content for multiple stakeholders in the decision process.

A common misconception is that B2B involves selling to businesses, not people. Viola clarifies that even in B2B scenarios, the ultimate buyers are still individuals within companies.

"There's no B2B Google, there's no B2B algorithm. We're still doing SEO, whether in B2B or B2C contexts. We're still selling to people."

‍— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

So what truly differentiates B2B? The complexity of buying decisions.

B2B transactions typically involve multiple stakeholders, longer sales cycles, and multiple decision-makers.

"You’re not just writing for one buyer, but all people involved—from IT to end-users to decision-makers."

— Helene Jelenc, Director of SEO @ Flow Agency.

To adjust your strategy, craft targeted content for diverse stakeholders:

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IT teams: Integration, compliance, complexity
End-users: Usability, onboarding, training
Decision-makers: ROI, case studies, testimonials

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Talk to different stakeholders to find out their content needs.

Also, you can rely on some good ol’ keyword research. This takes us to the next point.

2. Prioritizing high-intent keywords over search volume

It’s time to shift away from content that solely attracts traffic without business impact.

Focus on high-intent keywords, also known as bottom-of-funnel keywords. While these keywords might not have high volume, they often have a higher conversion potential and are easier to rank for.

"For bottom-of-funnel transactional keywords, I would definitely ignore search volume. This is about high intent, about hand raisers, about people who are ready to buy."

— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

Bottom-of-funnel isn't a search volume game; it's about conversion and getting the right people to your website.

Also, you might struggle to rank for a highly competitive keyword like “project management software”. But by targeting more specific, high-intent keywords such as “buy construction project management software,” you improve your chances of ranking and converting valuable visitors.

Here are some examples of high-intent keywords:

When evaluating where to invest your content efforts:

Question traffic quality: Is that traffic "full of calories" in terms of conversion potential?
Focus on convertible queries: Prioritize content that attracts visitors with high purchase intent.
Consider topical authority: Some content may not drive direct traffic but strengthens your site's authority.

You can find and evaluate high-intent keywords inside Surfer’s Topical Map.

Pro tip: Filter for terms like “vs”, “tools”, “software”,“[your product] for”.

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You can also find these keywords in the 🔥Recommendations tab and visual Map.

3. Creating strategic content types that drive conversions

Pages like product, industry, and versus comparisons are the money pages.

"Product pages, versus pages, and industry pages are three key content types for SaaS SEO."

— Helene Jelenc, Director of SEO @ Flow Agency

Product pages are your foundation. Make sure they clearly communicate your features, benefits, and use cases. Users should be able to get this information without having to scroll.

Industry pages address the specific needs and pain points of different segments. They show prospects you understand their unique challenges and how your solution addresses them.

"Break down your audience by industry or role. In Surfer's case, it could be "on-page SEO tool for agencies" or on-page SEO tool for freelancers".

— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

While these could be created programmatically, quality matters when you're targeting high-value B2B prospects:

"You're probably working off the same page template, but I don't know how many industries people are serving. My assumption is maybe two or three, so you could probably just write these manually. "

— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

The same applies to versus pages.

Versus pages or comparison articles compare your solution to competitors. These are highly valuable for buyers in the decision stage who are evaluating options.

When you show up at the top of searches, you get to set the narrative and push people towards choosing you.

Use Content Editor to write and optimize these pages so they show at the top of SERPs.

Don’t aim for a 100 Content Score, but make sure it is higher than the competitor average.

Inside Content Editor you will find a set of guidelines and features to help you create top-ranking content. Here’s what to focus on:

Include relevant Terms in your headings and body content
Properly Structure your content to boost readability and engagement
Insert internal links to improve navigation and signal topical authority

4. Using new optimization techniques to outrank competitors

Comprehensive, semantically rich content is ranking better.

When it comes to on-page content optimization, things are not quite as they used to be. To stay competitive in B2B SaaS SEO, you need to adapt your optimization approach.

"Optimizing only for entities as keywords used to work. You could even put them in display:none and rank higher, but those days are gone."

— Michał Suski, Co-founder & Head of Innovation @ Surfer

Modern content optimization requires providing valuable information:

"Why add only entities if we can provide a useful fact that will tell that mobile friendliness is an aspect of technical SEO? It's so much better than putting all these entities with commas at the very end."

— Michał Suski, Co-founder & Head of Innovation @ Surfer

We recently ran a study here at Surfer on our own blog content coverage and found that comprehensive content ranks better.

Articles that thoroughly address a topic are more likely to appear in a variety of search queries.

Inside Surfer’s Content Editor, there is a tool to help with this new topic-focused optimization approach: Surfer’s Coverage Booster.

Under the Topics tab, you will find a list of important topics and facts to cover in your content.

“Content must be mobile-friendly and fast-loading to rank well” is a fact. An important fact to include in an article on “content optimization tips”.

Do it manually, or use Boost Coverage to include important facts in your content.

5. Adjusting to AI’s impact on search visibility and traffic patterns

AI has changed how customers find you and how businesses need to think about their organic visibility.

A Flow Agency data analysis revealed significant changes in how AI is affecting B2B SaaS search results:

"Top-of-funnel is getting decimated by AI overviews. You're going to see a drop in your traffic from those blog posts."

— Helene Jelenc, Director of SEO @ Flow Agency

The traffic impact varies by query type:

"The traffic loss is mostly on the informational keywords. You're going to see a bit of a drop in your traffic from those blog posts. While transactional and commercial keywords are not affected as much."

— Helene Jelenc, Director of SEO @ Flow Agency

This observation aligns with the buyer journey:

"When people are ready to buy, they need to come to your website. The higher the price point, the more complicated the buying decision, the more they will eventually have to come to your website."

‍— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

We go back to the importance of targeting high-intent keywords and creating strategic content types.

On the other hand, many brands are noticing a spike in LLM referral traffic, Surfer included.

Monitor these trends and adjust your strategy accordingly so you can influence AI training sources and appear in them.

6. Influencing the sources AI systems rely on

Appearing in trusted sources like listicles, LinkedIn, and YouTube increases your chance of being cited in AI results.

The most straightforward way to show up in AI overviews and LLMs like ChatGPT is by writing content that ranks well.

52% of sources mentioned by Google AI overviews rank in the top 10 results.

However, there are other ways you can improve your chances of being cited, such as by being mentioned in authoritative sites.

There are some interesting patterns to what type of sources appear in AI overviews:

YouTube is surprisingly prevalent: Video content is being heavily cited in AI overviews.
LinkedIn has strong domain authority: Professional content is trusted by AI systems.
Wikipedia citations are common: This is another AI-trusted source.
Reddit and Quora are rising: User-generated content appears more frequently in results.
SEO powerhouses dominate: Sites like Zapier and ClickUp appear frequently because they have comprehensive content on various SaaS tools.

Tool listicles work particularly well for SaaS brands.

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But as Michał points out:

"It's not only about getting a backlink from a listicle. You need to pay for the top spot. That's how you'll be cited as the best because that's the easiest for large language models and Google to assess what are the top tools—those that are on the top of these lists."

— Michał Suski, Co-founder & Head of Innovation @ Surfer

Here’s how you can influence a spot at the top of LLMs.

Target placement at the top of listicles: Being first in "13 Best SEO Tools" articles can translate to being first in AI recommendations.
Use transcripts strategically: Leverage the content from high-ranking YouTube videos by converting transcripts into well-structured articles.
Establish a social media presence: Ensure your brand positioning is clear and consistent across all platforms.

Once you’ve finished writing and optimizing, you can use Repurpose inside the Content Editor to turn your article into a social media post.

Surfer gives you three variants to choose from. All are written in line with your tone of voice.

7. Managing your reputation across the web to support SEO

Keeping your brand footprint accurate and up-to-date strengthens trust and visibility across channels.

The B2B SEO game is increasingly becoming about managing your digital footprint across the web.

"When I talk about modern link building, I talk about alignment across the entire web."

‍— Viola Eva, Founder @ Flow Agency

This is especially true for SaaS companies whose offerings evolve over time. Who Surfer was five years ago is not who Surfer is today.

The challenge for SaaS brands is significant:

"Imagine you have 1,000 affiliates and everybody has a review of your product. Almost no one is updating either the pricing or the feature set. If we Google properly, we'll still find mentions from 2019 or earlier."

— Michał Suski, Co-founder & Head of Innovation @ Surfer

What can you do?

Clean up your digital footprint: Start with properties you control—your website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Crunchbase.
Update product descriptions: Especially on platforms that frequently appear as sources in AI overviews.
Monitor and respond to UGC: Set up notifications for Reddit and Quora mentions of your brand.

Final thoughts

AI overviews and large language models are reshaping how we approach content creation and optimization.

To succeed in 2025, focus on:

Creating content for multiple stakeholders in the B2B buying committee
Prioritizing high-intent keywords over raw search volume
Developing strategic content types (product, versus, and industry pages)
Leveraging modern content optimization techniques that go beyond entity optimization
Monitoring how AI impacts your traffic and sales
Influencing the sources that train AI systems
Managing your brand's digital reputation across the web

The goal is to create content that's optimized not just for search engines but also for large language models while still providing genuine value to readers.

As Viola aptly put it: