--- title: "SEO consultant for SaaS software publishers · Kévin Papot" url: https://kevinpapot.fr/en/seo-editeur-de-logiciel author: Kévin Papot, SEO and GEO consultant language: en updated: 2026-10-15 --- > SEO and GEO consultant for more than fifteen years. I only recommend what I've made work on my own websites, on Google and in AI answers. [Home](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/) / [Industries](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/metiers) / Business software # SEO for software publishers: get demo requests from companies in your target market. You sell online software to businesses. Your buyers are few, they compare for weeks and they decide as a group. When they type the name of your category into Google, they first find software comparison sites, review sites and app marketplaces. I won't tell you you'll get ahead of them. I work on more precise searches, the ones where the buyer describes their trade or their problem. On those, a publisher that explains its product clearly has every chance. [Book a call](#contact)[See my method](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/methode) 1. Rattle your competitors. 2. Overtake them. 3. Protect you from their attacks. **15 years** in SEO **4 books** on SEO and GEO **200+ sites** tracked every day **1M / month** visits to my e-commerce site They trusted me with their visibility DartyEurofinsCegidEBPCNP AssurancesIngram Micro ## What is SEO for a software publisher? SEO for a software publisher is the work that makes its product visible on Google when a business looks for a tool for a specific trade, function or problem. It relies on pages by trade, by function and by problem solved, on honest comparisons with other solutions, and on documentation open to reading. It is judged by demo requests and trials started by companies in your target market, not by blog visits. The problem ## Where software publishers get stuck. Symptom 1 ### Software comparison sites own the name of your category On “software for” followed by a function, the first page is made up of comparison sites, rankings and review sites. Your product sometimes appears there, among ten others, with a description you didn't write. These sites then sell visibility or leads. Symptom 2 ### A website that talks about the product and never about the problem The home page announces an “all-in-one platform” and the following pages list modules. The buyer, meanwhile, types their problem: planning rounds, tracking sites, chasing invoices. No page uses those words. Symptom 3 ### A blog that brings readers, not buyers General articles on business transformation attract students and the curious. Visits go up, demo requests don't move. Useful content is what someone comparing tools reads. An audit, for real ## What I see in thirty seconds on a software publisher's website. The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number. Home | The all-in-one platform https://votre-logiciel.exemple **YOUR SOFTWARE**Product · Solutions · Resources · Log in Reinvent your everyday An innovative, intuitive and collaborative solution to boost your teams' performance. Request a demo **Pilot module**Discover **Flow module**Discover **Insight module**Discover **Fig. 2.** Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me. 1. *1***No function or audience in the title**“The all-in-one platform” doesn't say what the software does. “Scheduling and time tracking software for construction companies” says it in one line. 2. *2***No pricing page in the menu**Buyers look for the price on their very first visit. If they can't find it on your site, they'll read it on a comparison site. 3. *3***“Reinvent your everyday”**This sentence would suit a kitchen or a car. Write down the problem you solve and your clients' trade. 4. *4***An abstract drawing instead of the product**Show a real screen from the software, with sample data. Buyers want to see what their day will look like. 5. *5***Module names nobody types**“Flow module” means nothing to a visitor. Replace these blocks with problems: scheduling, clocking in, invoicing. What your customers type ## What a business looking for software types. Here are six plausible searches for a publisher selling to businesses. They are examples, written without product names. The real list comes out of the audit, with volumes that are often modest. *1*“software” followed by a function and a trade : “Scheduling software for cleaning companies”, for example. The buyer wants a tool designed for their activity. Comparison sites are less present on these searches. One page per trade, with that trade's vocabulary and cases, can appear there. *2*A question starting with “how” : “How to track your teams' hours across several sites”. The person hasn't yet decided to buy software. A page that answers the question, then shows how your tool does it, puts you in their path first. *3*“alternative to” followed by a competitor's name : The buyer already uses a tool and wants to change. They are close to a decision. A factual comparison page explains the differences, who your product suits and who it doesn't. *4*The name of your software followed by “reviews” or “price” : Several people in the company run this search before signing off. They must land on your pricing page and your testimonials, not just on a comparison site's listing. *5*The name of your software followed by that of another tool : The buyer checks that your product connects to their accounting, payroll or email. One page per integration says what flows between the two tools and how to switch it on. *6*“software” followed by a function and “hosted in France” or “secure” : The IT manager or the management team want to know where the data is and who has access to it. A clear security page, approved by your technical and legal teams, answers this stage of the decision. What works ## A software publisher's five levers. Lever 1 ### One page per trade served If your software is used by tradespeople, professional firms and manufacturers, each has its page. It uses their words, their constraints and an example of use. It is on these trade-specific searches that a publisher stands out from generalist comparison sites. Lever 2 ### One page per problem solved I start from what the user wants to do, not from the name of your modules. “Chase unpaid invoices” gets searched. “Recovery Plus module” doesn't. Each page describes the problem, the solution in your tool and the expected result. Lever 3 ### Comparisons you can stand behind Your buyers compare anyway. They might as well read your version, written with verifiable facts and no disparagement. I also plan a “Who this software isn't for” page, which avoids pointless demos. Lever 4 ### Pricing and documentation readable without an account A buyer who finds neither a price nor instructions moves on to the next one. A clear pricing page and open online help reassure the user and the IT manager alike. The documentation also answers many precise searches. Lever 5 ### Answers for every decision-maker The user looks at the features. The director looks at the cost and the time saved. The IT manager looks at security, integrations and data recovery. Each must find their page and be able to pass it on to the others. What costs dearly ## The mistakes I often see on software publishers' websites. Mistake 1 ### A home page that doesn't say what the software does “The platform that reinvents your everyday” doesn't let anyone know whether the tool concerns them. The first sentence must state the function and the audience. Mistake 2 ### The whole website behind a “Request a demo” button If visitors have to give their phone number to see a screen or a price, they leave. Show the product with screenshots, a short video and use cases. Mistake 3 ### Online help on a separate address and closed to Google These pages answer precise questions and prove the product is maintained. Hiding them deprives the website of a large part of its useful content. Mistake 4 ### Machine-translated pages for other countries An unchecked translation produces text that neither Google nor a foreign buyer takes seriously. Better to do one country well, then a second. The method ## What I put in place for a software publisher. Four steps. I start by listening to your sales team and your support team, who hear buyers' words every day. 1. **The clients' words.** I note the questions asked in demos and to support. They give the searches to target. 2. **The site structure.** I organise the pages by trade, by problem and by decision-maker, and I open the documentation to Google. 3. **The writing.** Your product teams provide the substance. Every comparison and every security page is approved in-house. 4. **The requests.** Every month, I count demos and trials, with the page that brought them in. One-minute test ## Is SEO right for you? Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you. Close to home ## Publishing software from Charente. A publisher based in Charente rarely sells only within the département. Its market is national. The area brings it something else: first clients close by, whom you can go and see, and specific trades to equip. I co-founded my agency, Newp, near Cognac, I live between Cognac and Paris, and we can meet in the département. ### Angoulême: building a name as an employer A publisher has to recruit developers and salespeople. Candidates type the company's name before applying. A page presenting the team, the offices in Angoulême and the way of working serves recruitment as much as client trust. ### Cognac: trades with specific needs Négoce, production and export of spirits have their own constraints for tracking, stock and documents. If your product meets one of these needs, a page written for this industry, in its vocabulary, can also be read in other wine regions. ### The département's manufacturers as first clients A neighbouring workshop using your software is a reference your salespeople can take prospects to visit. With its agreement, tell this story on a page: the initial problem, the roll-out, what changed. Buyers read these pages to the end. The rooftops of Angoulême. [Photo: JLPC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angoul%C3%AAme_16_Vue_toits%26Charente_depuis_bd_Pasteur_2014.jpg) The historic centre of Cognac. [Photo: Jacques DASSIÉ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cognac_Centre_historique.jpg) [SEO consultant in Charente](https://kevinpapot.fr/consultant-seo-charente)[Angoulême](https://kevinpapot.fr/consultant-seo-angouleme)[Cognac](https://kevinpapot.fr/consultant-seo-cognac) Beyond Google ## What AI changes for a software publisher. Software buyers are among the first to ask an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral before Google. They write, for example: “we're a forty-person construction company, we want to track hours by site and send them to payroll, which software should we look at?”. The AI draws up a short list and describes each tool in one line. That line comes from what it has read: your website, your documentation, comparison sites, user reviews. If your pages say which trades the tool is made for, what it does and what it connects to, its description will be accurate. If they talk about an “innovative solution”, the AI will reuse a comparison site's listing, or won't mention you. [Find out more about GEO](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/consultant-geo) Question asked to an AIWe're forty people in construction. Which software should we use to track hours by site and send them to payroll? Answer Three tools to look at for this need: 1. **Our client**— time tracking software for construction companies: clock-in by site on a phone, payroll export described in the documentation, price per user displayed, no-commitment trial. 2. — generalist time management software, all sectors, payroll integration as an option. 3. — full management suite, lengthy roll-out, price on request. Publisher's websiteDocumentationSoftware comparison site **Fig. 3.** Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description. Three typical cases ## Three software publishers, three situations. These three publishers don't exist. I describe them to show three different orders of priority. Yours will depend on the audit. ### A five-person publisher Its software has thirty clients, all of whom came through the founders' network. 1. Rewrite the home page to state the function and the audience from the first line. 2. Create a page for the trade that already has several clients. 3. Publish the pricing page and three use cases with screenshots. ### A publisher with a product for several trades Its website presents modules and gets enquiries outside its target market. 1. Create one page per trade served, with its words and an example. 2. Replace the module pages with pages per problem solved. 3. Add the “Who this software isn't for” page. ### A publisher up against a very well-known competitor Buyers always compare it to the same tool. 1. Write a factual comparison page, reviewed by management. 2. Open the documentation and integration pages to Google. 3. Collect user reviews on the sites buyers read. In practice ## What you get. - A site structure organised by trade, by problem and by decision-maker - One page per trade served and per problem solved that you choose - Factual comparison pages, approved by your management - Documentation and a pricing page Google can read - A monthly report of demo requests and trials, by page Pricing ## How much does an SEO consultant cost? The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation. - The size of the site: ten pages or ten thousand - The competition on your queries - What you can do in-house, and what needs producing for you - The pace you want [Request a quote](#contact) Who you're talking to ## Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO. My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month. **Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability.** When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up. [Read my story](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/kevin)[See my method](https://kevinpapot.fr/en/methode) FAQ ## SEO and software publishing: your questions. Can we rank above the software comparison sites? On the general name of your category, rarely, and I don't promise it. On searches by trade, by problem or comparing against a competitor, yes, a publisher can appear. These are the searches of buyers well advanced in their choice. Should we pay to be listed on comparison sites? Having an accurate, up-to-date listing there is useful, because buyers and AI read them. Paying for promotion is a different decision. I help you measure what these listings bring in before you put a budget into them. Few people search for our type of software. Is that a problem? No, if each client is worth a lot and stays a long time. Ten visits from companies in your target market are worth more than a thousand readers of a general article. I target rare, precise searches, and I show you this with your own figures. Should we show our prices? I advise it whenever possible. A starting price or a grid by company size is enough. With no price at all, buyers go and look for it on a comparison site, where the figure is sometimes wrong. The final decision is yours. Are we allowed to name our competitors in a comparison? That's a point to check with your legal adviser before publication. On my side, I prepare a text based on verifiable facts, dated, with no value judgements. You decide what is published. Our blog has traffic and no leads. Should we stop it? Not necessarily. I sort the articles: those that attract your target market are linked to the product pages, those that only attract the curious are merged or removed. The next topics come from questions asked in demos. What can you write about security and data? I structure the page and list the questions buyers ask. The answers come from your technical and legal teams. I write no statement about data protection without their written approval. Our website is a modern web app. Does Google read it properly? I check that as part of the audit. Some websites display their content in a way Google reads poorly or late. If so, I tell your developers what needs fixing. They stay in control of the code. How long before the first demo requests come in? Comparison and pricing pages can have an effect within a few weeks on an already known website. Trade pages tend to take several months. I set no timeframe in advance. You follow progress in the monthly report. Have you worked on this kind of website before? I have worked on more than 200 websites in fifteen years, and I run my own online shops, where every page has to bring in a sale. Your sales cycle is longer and involves several people. The method stays the same: start from what the buyer types. --- Source: https://kevinpapot.fr/en/seo-editeur-de-logiciel · Kévin Papot, SEO and GEO consultant, Charente (France).