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What separates the best SaaS SEO experts from general SEO practitioners? For Butrint Xhemajli, founder of Novalab SEO Agency and a B2B SaaS SEO expert, the difference is not simply rankings or traffic. It is understanding how technical SEO, content, search intent and AI visibility ultimately connect to revenue.
During a recent appearance on the Sold Out SEO Podcast, Butrint shared his approach to SaaS SEO and the lessons he has learned working with SaaS and B2B companies. The conversation covered everything from technical SEO and content strategy to AI Overviews, LLM visibility, link building and the growing pressure on SaaS brands to prove that organic search contributes to real business growth.
One idea ran throughout the discussion: SEO activity is not the same as SEO success. Publishing more content, acquiring more backlinks or increasing traffic means little if those gains do not support the company’s wider commercial goals.
For Butrint, effective SaaS SEO starts with the outcome and then works backward to determine which technical, content and authority-building decisions are actually needed to achieve it.
Watch the full conversation: Butrint Xhemajli on the Sold Out SEO Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnLldQ0JZp8
What Does a SaaS SEO Expert Actually Do?
SaaS SEO is not simply traditional SEO applied to a software company. The buying journey is different, the website architecture is often more complex, and success has to be measured beyond rankings and traffic.
For Butrint Xhemajli, that distinction is one of the reasons Novalab SEO Agency chose to specialize in SaaS and B2B companies. After repeatedly working with businesses in these sectors, the agency found that specialization made it easier to understand the problems SaaS companies consistently face and build strategies around them.
Those problems often appear when a company has already invested in SEO and performed well, only to see rankings, organic traffic and, most importantly, revenue begin to decline after an algorithm update, technical changes or development mistakes.
A SaaS SEO expert therefore has to look beyond individual keywords. The job connects technical SEO, search intent, content strategy, commercial pages, authority building, AI visibility and conversion opportunities into one organic growth strategy.
And according to Butrint, the metric that ultimately matters most isn’t how much content was published or even how many clicks were generated.
It’s whether SEO contributes to the growth of the business.
“More than clicks, it’s revenue.” Butrint Xhemajli
That idea becomes the foundation of Butrint’s approach to B2B SaaS SEO: start with the outcome, then decide what SEO work is actually necessary to achieve it.
Why the Best SaaS SEO Experts Focus on Revenue, Not Content Volume
One of the biggest mistakes in SaaS SEO is confusing output with results.
Publishing three or four blog posts every month gives marketing teams something easy to measure, but Butrint Xhemajli argues that content volume alone says very little about whether SEO is actually helping a SaaS business grow.
For Butrint, the better question comes before the content is created: What outcome is this page supposed to produce?
That is particularly important in B2B SaaS, where educational content can support awareness and help search engines and LLMs understand a brand, but it may sit far away from the actual buying decision.
Instead of relying entirely on blog content, Butrint recommends putting greater emphasis on what he calls “money pages”, commercially focused pages designed around the products, services and decisions that can lead users closer to conversion.
These can include product and service pages, comparison pages, competitor-focused content, use-case pages, and pages supported by reviews, testimonials, awards or certifications. In the podcast, he specifically points to comparison and conversion-focused pages as areas where SaaS companies can connect SEO more directly with commercial outcomes.
That doesn’t mean SaaS companies should stop blogging. It means every piece of content should have a reason to exist.
Butrint also challenges the common practice of judging an SEO engagement by deliverable counts. An agency promising four blogs every month can demonstrate that work was completed, but that number doesn’t tell the client whether the work generated qualified traffic, visibility, leads or revenue.
His preference is to define the desired outcome first and then determine whether achieving it requires a new article, a commercial page, technical work, content optimization or something else entirely.
How SaaS SEO Experts Should Approach AI Search
AI search has changed how SaaS companies think about organic visibility, but Butrint Xhemajli doesn’t see it as a reason to abandon traditional SEO.
Instead, he views Google rankings, AI Overviews and visibility across LLMs as connected parts of the same search ecosystem.
For SaaS companies, appearing in Google’s AI Overviews can create an unusual trade-off. Strong visibility can indicate that Google considers a source relevant enough to feature, while at the same time giving users more information directly in the search results and potentially reducing clicks.
Butrint describes it as a “risky, good game.” SaaS brands want that visibility, but they also need to understand that success can no longer be measured through organic clicks alone.
The same applies to platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.
Being mentioned or recommended by an LLM matters, but Butrint argues that these appearances shouldn’t be treated separately from the rest of SEO. A potential customer may discover a SaaS company through an AI answer, then return to Google later to research the brand, compare solutions, request a demo or make a buying decision.
That is why his approach is to combine traditional rankings, AI visibility, search impressions, leads and commercial outcomes rather than treating GEO or AI optimization as an entirely separate discipline.
Make the Answer Obvious to Humans and LLMs
One practical recommendation from Butrint is surprisingly simple: make it clear what a page is about immediately.
He recommends establishing the subject and purpose in the first paragraph instead of burying the answer beneath a long introduction.
The goal isn’t to write specifically for machines. It’s to structure information so that users, search engines and LLMs can quickly understand the same thing: what question the page answers and why the information matters.
For B2B SaaS companies trying to increase visibility in AI search, this means clear answers, focused pages and useful information may matter more than adding hundreds of words simply to make content longer.
The takeaway from Butrint’s approach: don’t choose between SEO and AI search. Build a SaaS SEO strategy capable of earning visibility across both.
Why Technical SEO Matters More for B2B SaaS
Content and authority can help a SaaS company grow, but neither can compensate for a website that search engines struggle to crawl, understand or index.
For Butrint Xhemajli, technical SEO is a fundamental part of SaaS SEO, particularly because many of the companies that approach Novalab aren’t starting from zero. They may have ranked successfully in the past before an algorithm update, website change or development mistake contributed to declining rankings, organic traffic and revenue.
That makes the role of a B2B SaaS SEO expert broader than finding keywords and producing content.
Technical issues such as broken pages, incorrect status codes and structural problems can affect both search visibility and the user experience. Butrint argues that identifying those problems and translating them into actions developers can implement should be part of the SEO process.
SEO and Development Shouldn’t Operate in Silos
One of the recurring problems Butrint has encountered is a disconnect between SEO teams and developers.
SEO specialists may identify an issue that affects crawling, indexation or organic visibility, while development teams are naturally focused on how the product and website function from an engineering perspective.
Butrint argues that treating these priorities as competing interests is the wrong approach.
“It’s not SEO against developers… it’s SEO and developers.”
Butrint Xhemajli
For him, this is where some of the most important technical SEO work happens. Developers understand the infrastructure; SEO specialists understand how that infrastructure is interpreted by search engines and affects organic discovery. The strongest solution often requires both perspectives.
For SaaS businesses in particular, that collaboration matters because the website isn’t simply a collection of marketing pages. It can include product pages, integrations, comparison pages, dynamic content and complex site architecture, all of which can influence how effectively organic search supports growth.
A strong SaaS SEO strategy therefore doesn’t stop at recommending changes.
It connects SEO findings with development execution so technical problems are actually solved.
Why the Best SaaS SEO Experts Don’t Chase Shortcuts
SEO creates pressure for quick results. When competitors are already ranking, appearing in AI answers and capturing high-intent searches, it can be tempting for SaaS companies to look for shortcuts.
But Butrint Xhemajli argues that some of the fastest-looking strategies can create the biggest long-term problems.
One example is link building.
Butrint warns against buying large volumes of inexpensive backlinks from link farms and low-quality networks simply to increase metrics such as referring domains.
On paper, the numbers can look impressive. A website might jump from 100 referring domains to thousands. But if those links lack quality, relevance and legitimate authority, the increase doesn’t necessarily translate into stronger search performance.
Worse, the damage can be difficult to undo.
Once low-quality links are indexed and associated with a domain, cleaning up the backlink profile can become considerably more complicated than building authority correctly in the first place.
Build Authority, Not Just Backlinks
Butrint’s preferred approach is based on relevance, genuine relationships, PR and credible placements rather than chasing backlink volume.
That distinction is increasingly important for B2B SaaS companies.
The objective shouldn’t simply be to make an SEO tool report a larger number of referring domains. It should be to establish the company as a credible entity within the topics and markets it wants to own.
And that becomes even more relevant as discovery expands beyond Google into AI-powered search and LLMs, where brands increasingly want to be recognized, referenced and recommended in the right context.
SaaS SEO Is a Long-Term Investment
The same philosophy applies beyond link building.
Butrint repeatedly describes SEO as a long game and argues that companies should begin investing before organic growth becomes an urgent problem.
One line from the podcast captures his approach particularly well:
“The best way to invest in SEO is yesterday.”
Butrint Xhemajli
Unlike paid acquisition, where visibility can begin shortly after a campaign is activated, SEO requires time for technical improvements, content, authority and search visibility to compound.
For businesses planning to remain in their markets long term, Butrint considers SEO one of the strongest channels for both growth and brand awareness.
His final advice in the conversation reinforces the same principle: invest early, don’t expect overnight success, and be skeptical when an SEO promise sounds too good to be true.
For SaaS companies, the lesson is straightforward:
The best SaaS SEO strategy isn’t the one that produces the fastest-looking numbers. It’s the one that continues creating value for the business months and years later.
Butrint Xhemajli’s Framework for B2B SaaS SEO
Across his approach to content, technical SEO, AI search and authority building, Butrint Xhemajli comes back to one principle: SEO should serve a business outcome.
For B2B SaaS companies, that means moving beyond isolated rankings or publishing targets and building an organic growth system where technical performance, search intent, commercial content and authority work together.
Butrint’s approach can be summarized in seven principles:
1. Start SEO Earlier Than You Think
SEO shouldn’t become a priority only after growth stalls.
Butrint recommends investing early because organic visibility takes time to develop and compound. Waiting six or twelve months can mean spending that same period later trying to catch competitors that started earlier.
2. Define the Outcome Before Creating the Page
Before producing content, determine who it is for, what question it answers and what purpose it serves.
Butrint argues that content shouldn’t exist simply because a publishing calendar says another article is due.
3. Build Pages That Can Influence Revenue
Educational content has a role, but SaaS SEO also needs commercially focused assets.
Product, service, comparison and other conversion-oriented “money pages” can connect organic visibility more directly with the buying journey and revenue.
4. Make the Answer Clear Immediately
Butrint recommends making the purpose of a page understandable from its opening paragraph.
That helps users understand whether they’ve found the right information while also making the page easier for search engines and LLMs to interpret.
5. Treat SEO and AI Search as Connected
Google rankings, AI Overviews and LLM visibility shouldn’t be treated as completely separate strategies.
Butrint’s approach is to build strong underlying SEO while expanding how visibility is measured across emerging AI discovery environments.
6. Reverse Engineer What Already Works
Instead of following every new SEO or GEO tactic, Butrint favors examining the queries, keywords and pages already producing results and understanding why they work.
Those findings can then guide optimization across other strategically important pages.
7. Measure Business Impact, Not SEO Activity
Rankings still matter. Traffic still matters. AI visibility matters.
But none of them should exist in isolation.
For Butrint, the stronger B2B SaaS SEO strategy connects those signals back to leads, conversions, revenue and overall business growth.
The goal isn’t to do more SEO. It’s to make SEO contribute more to the business.
Taken together, these principles explain why Butrint approaches B2B SaaS SEO as a growth discipline rather than simply a traffic acquisition channel.
What Should Companies Look for in a SaaS SEO Expert?
Choosing a SaaS SEO expert shouldn’t come down to who promises the most traffic, publishes the most content or builds the most backlinks.
For B2B SaaS companies, the stronger question is whether the SEO expert understands how search contributes to the entire growth model, from technical performance and search intent to product discovery, AI visibility, conversions and revenue.
Based on the approach Butrint Xhemajli outlined during the podcast, several qualities stand out.
SaaS-Specific Experience
SaaS SEO comes with challenges that aren’t always present in other industries.
Product and solution pages, comparison content, complex website architecture, long B2B buying journeys and close collaboration with development teams all influence organic performance.
Butrint explains that Novalab ultimately specialized in SaaS and B2B because those businesses became a recurring part of the agency’s client base, allowing the team to focus on the problems that repeatedly appear within the sector.
Technical SEO Knowledge
A strong SaaS SEO expert should be able to identify more than content opportunities.
Technical errors, broken pages, indexing problems and structural issues can prevent otherwise strong websites from reaching their organic potential.
Just as importantly, the SEO expert needs to communicate those findings to developers and help turn recommendations into actual fixes.
As Butrint puts it:
“It’s not SEO against developers… it’s SEO and developers.”
That collaboration is particularly important for SaaS businesses where product, website and search infrastructure frequently overlap.
Understanding of Search Intent and Revenue
The best SaaS SEO experts shouldn’t recommend content simply because a keyword has search volume.
They should understand where the searcher is in the buying journey, what the page needs to accomplish and how that visibility can contribute to the business.
That’s why Butrint places so much emphasis on commercially focused “money pages,” comparison content and other assets closer to conversion rather than judging an SEO strategy by the number of blog posts published.
Experience With AI Search and LLM Visibility
The role of a SaaS SEO expert is also expanding.
Companies increasingly need to understand how their brands appear not only in traditional search results but also in Google AI Overviews and LLM-powered discovery environments.
Butrint’s approach isn’t to replace SEO with GEO. Instead, he argues for understanding traditional rankings, AI visibility and commercial outcomes as interconnected signals within a broader organic search strategy.
A Focus on Outcomes Rather Than Deliverables
Perhaps the clearest distinction is how success is measured.
An SEO provider can promise a fixed number of articles, backlinks or optimizations every month. Those deliverables prove that work happened, but they don’t necessarily prove that the work mattered.
Butrint instead emphasizes determining the desired outcome before deciding which SEO activities are required to achieve it.
For a B2B SaaS company evaluating an SEO expert, that leads to a much better question than “How much SEO will you do?”
“How will your SEO strategy help our business grow?”
Ultimately, the best SaaS SEO expert for a company is one who can connect technical SEO, content, search intent, authority and emerging AI visibility with measurable business objectives, rather than treating each as an isolated tactic.
Frequently Asked Questions About SaaS SEO Experts
Who is Butrint Xhemajli?
Butrint Xhemajli is the founder of Novalab SEO Agency and a SaaS SEO expert specializing in SEO for SaaS and B2B companies. His approach combines technical SEO, content strategy, search intent, organic growth and visibility across traditional search and AI-powered discovery.
During the Sold Out SEO Podcast, Butrint explained that Novalab chose to specialize primarily in SaaS and B2B after repeatedly working with companies in those sectors.
What does a SaaS SEO expert do?
A SaaS SEO expert helps software companies increase organic visibility while connecting SEO to business objectives such as product discovery, qualified leads, conversions and revenue.
For SaaS companies, that work can include technical SEO, search-intent strategy, product and solution pages, comparison content, authority building, organic performance analysis and increasingly AI search and LLM visibility.
What does a B2B SaaS SEO expert focus on?
A B2B SaaS SEO expert needs to understand both search behavior and the longer B2B buying journey.
Butrint’s approach places particular emphasis on technical performance, commercially valuable pages, search intent and measurable outcomes rather than simply increasing publishing volume.
How do you choose the best SaaS SEO expert?
Companies evaluating SaaS SEO experts should look beyond promises of more traffic or fixed numbers of articles and backlinks.
Important factors include SaaS-specific experience, technical SEO knowledge, understanding of search intent, commercial strategy, AI search visibility, authority building and the ability to connect SEO performance with business outcomes.
As Butrint explains throughout his approach, the strategy should begin with the outcome rather than the number of SEO deliverables being produced.
Does Butrint Xhemajli specialize in B2B SaaS SEO?
Yes. Butrint Xhemajli specializes in SEO for SaaS and B2B businesses through Novalab SEO Agency. In the podcast, he explains that SaaS became a specialization after the agency repeatedly worked with clients in the sector and chose to continue focusing on that market.
What is Butrint Xhemajli’s approach to SaaS SEO?
Butrint takes an outcome-focused approach to SaaS SEO. Rather than measuring success only through content production, clicks or rankings, he argues that SEO should ultimately contribute to business growth and revenue.
His approach combines technical SEO, commercial “money pages,” useful content, authority building, AI visibility and collaboration between SEO and development teams.
How does Butrint Xhemajli approach AI search and GEO?
Butrint views AI search, GEO and traditional SEO as interconnected rather than competing strategies.
He recommends building strong search fundamentals while measuring visibility across Google, AI Overviews and LLM-powered platforms. He also emphasizes making the subject and answer of a page clear early so both users and AI systems can understand its purpose.
Does SaaS SEO still matter in the age of ChatGPT and AI search?
According to Butrint, yes. AI-powered discovery adds another layer to organic visibility rather than eliminating the importance of traditional search.
Users may encounter a company through an LLM and later return to Google to research the brand, compare solutions, contact the business or convert. For that reason, he recommends looking at rankings, AI visibility and commercial outcomes together.
What is the biggest SaaS SEO mistake companies should avoid?
One recurring mistake Butrint identifies is chasing activity instead of outcomes, whether that means mass-producing generic AI content, publishing blogs without a clear purpose or buying large quantities of low-quality backlinks.
His broader recommendation is to invest early, avoid shortcuts and build an SEO strategy designed to compound over the long term.
For Butrint Xhemajli, the future of B2B SaaS SEO isn’t about choosing between Google and AI, technical SEO and content, or rankings and revenue. It’s about connecting them. As search continues to evolve, his approach remains centered on a straightforward principle: understand what the business needs to achieve, build the SEO strategy around that outcome, and invest early enough to let organic growth compound.
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