SEO strategies for the HR Software market
Organic Search for HR Software
There’s no “one size fits all” approach to Organic Search strategies. You must adapt depending on the sector and audience you’re trying to reach. We show you how.
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Cost-effective marketing
The current online landscape for HR SaaS companies overwhelmingly favours an organic approach.
Why?
Because the cost per click for HR related keywords is sky high, making organic visibility a far more sustainable approach to new business acquisition.
Decision makers in this sector are people who like to do their own research before engaging with businesses, further emphasising the need for an organic search strategy that looks to build trust through helpful content.
Early visibility by key decision makers is everything for HR SaaS brands. Hallam’s technical SEO and performance-focused content turns that visibility into proven growth.
Why SEO is critical in the HR software market
The demand for integrative HR software has skyrocketed since the pandemic altered how we work, with many expecting the market to be worth $69.6 billion (£52 billion) by 2033.
This has created a hyper-competitive, hyper-growth vertical with legacy businesses and new upstarts vying for their share.
Hyper competitiveness has meant that paid search is both expensive and finite. The cost per click for terms such as HR software is upwards of $92 (£69), whereas organic search is ‘free’ and proven to deliver compounding ROI.
Therefore, without optimised content, brands fail to build trust between vendor and decision maker, meaning products fall into obscurity.
The strategy should be to capture their attention and then increase their demand for your product. Hallam does this by focusing on intent-led content that ensures your brand appears in front of HR managers ready to invest.
Finding keyword opportunities in HR software
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking brands need to target broad HR related keywords to succeed.
However, even brands with huge budgets aren’t going to achieve sustainable organic growth by aiming to rank for “HR Software”, Sage and the other main players own the visibility for these terms.
The real wins lie in finding and then targeting the keywords which have:
- A high level of intent
- A low level of competition
Terms like “HR Software for Schools” or “HR Software for Retail” may have far lower search volumes, but they aren’t as highly sought after by competitors and tend to offer higher conversion rates because they more accurately reflect specific buying intent.
A sustainable way to meet this intent is to build out content hubs targeting these verticals, including blogs, guides, and comparison pages. Hallam finds these keyword gaps through keyword analysis, helping B2B HR SaaS brands dominate for those high-intent yet overlooked keywords.
Best-practice on-site SEO for HR software
Industry-specific landing pages
Create pages that speak the buyer’s language, such as “HR software for education” or “HR solutions for manufacturing”. Show them that you understand their industry-specific pain points to gradually increase relevance.
Decision-stage content
Decision makers are looking for someone to give them answers, so do exactly that through comparison pieces (“Bamboo HR vs Gusto”) or product reviews (“Best HR software for SMEs in 2025”).
Internal linking
Show search engines that you’re an authoritative source by intentionally linking relevant pages to one another. Doing so helps Google see that you have put real intent behind your work as it crawls your site.
Structured data
60% of Google searches now don’t result in a click, so it’s vital to include reviews, FAQs, and comparisons to improve your visibility in the results pages beyond just a typical position.
Performance and accessibility
Fast loading times and accessible web pages, be it on desktop or mobile, are non-negotiable for search engines and your audience. If a page doesn’t load or lead-gen forms can’t be filled out on a phone, decision makers will go elsewhere.
The importance of EEAT to your HR software business
Google now rewards expertise, experience, authority, and trust (acronymised to EEAT) more than ever because that’s what their users value. Audiences are indifferent to keyword placement or metatitles. They simply want answers to their queries.
This has seen search engines place greater emphasis on the usefulness of content and how authoritative the person creating it is.
Brands can build EEAT in several ways:
- Verified author bios that highlight HR credentials
- Data-led insights, such as compliance stats or onboarding benchmarks
- Achieving links to their site from relevant trusted sources such as CIPHR or People Managing People.
- In-depth case studies featuring quotes from real clients
Hallam recently worked with Eloomi, an LMS training platform, to improve their organic growth. After strengthening various EEAT signals, we helped offset falling generic traffic and drove more qualified leads by focusing instead on high-intent, lower search terms.
HR Software by specialism
Let’s take the first step. We’re ready.
Some of the technical SEO challenges in HR SaaS
Content needs to be useful, but it also needs to be hosted on a website which performs well.
HR SaaS websites evolve fast with new features and integrations being added and expansion to new territories happening as part of growth plans.
And, while positive, this creates common issues such as:
- Keyword cannibalisation where multiple pages compete for the same term.
- Internationalisation issues involving missing hreflangs as well as duplicate content in the UK and US, which fail to address different nuances in language and search behaviour.
- A website which scales quickly often forgets to optimise for site speed and crawls.
Our technical audits identify and resolve these issues to help turn tech SEO into a competitive advantage rather than an afterthought.
The power of a digital PR & backlink strategy
In spite of advancements in AI and no-click results, backlinks remain one of the strongest and hardest to achieve ranking signals.
HR software brand Deel grew from 0 to 7,000 backlinks in five years and is a key part of their success in this market.
Earning links begins by targeting the right ecosystems, be they HR and tech outlets like HR Zone or analyst sites such as Gartner. Then you need to provide assets worth linking to. Investing in original research, for instance, positions your brand as an authority that industry publications with high domain ratings actively seek out.
Securing mentions in software directories and listicles is another smart way of earning backlinks in the short to medium term, too.
Combine storytelling with disciplined outreach and you’ll earn coverage that drives awareness and rankings.
Content planning in line with seasonality
The demand for HR software follows predictable peaks, with many businesses looking for solutions in Q1 and Q3.
Brands should align their campaigns and content calendars with these demand increases, publishing cornerstone guides and landing pages at least one quarter ahead. This gives pages time to be indexed and crawled in time for surging intent.
We use always-on content frameworks at Hallam that keep clients visible as demand builds rather than chasing it after it’s peaked.
Why work with Hallam
Hallam delivers proven organic growth for HR software brands. Our work with Eloomi is proof that our strategy of blending back-end technical optimisation with useful content that targets decision makers helps drive qualified traffic.
Our knowledge of the SaaS buyer’s behaviour ensures that everything we do, from the largest landing pages to the smallest tweaks, all link back to revenue.
Hallam can help you own the organic HR software landscape. Head to our SEO page to learn more about our services.
