B2B SaaS
Integration, alternatives and use-case pages built from real product data, plus a pricing page assistants can quote.
Playbooks · 43 startup types
SEO and AI search playbooks by startup type
A B2B SaaS company, a Shopify app and a local plumber don’t win search the same way. Each playbook below is written for one kind of business: what its buyers search, which pages work, what breaks, how AI assistants answer in that category, and what to do in the next 90 days.
- The searches buyers make, as patterns and intent (no invented volumes)
- Page families that work for that business, and the ones that get pages deindexed
- Technical traps typical for that stack or category
- How AI assistants answer questions in the category, and what earns a citation
- Link sources that fit, including the directory lists worth your time
- A 90-day plan and the Search Console numbers to watch
B2B software
Buyers compare, shortlist and check integrations before they talk to sales.
HR tech
Templates and country-specific guides that HR teams actually search for, with the legal care they need.
Martech
Your buyers are marketers. Free tools and honest benchmarks beat another “ultimate guide”.
Sales tools
Templates reps search for mid-task, CRM integration pages, and a hard line on scraped people pages.
Data and analytics tools
Connector pages, metric definitions and real SQL examples, written for the people who'll actually run them.
Cybersecurity
Framework and compliance pages, responsible vulnerability content, and a trust page that answers procurement.
AI products
Crowded categories where the buyer often asks an assistant before they search.
AI startups
Task pages with real outputs, model and cost pages, and a publishing pace Google will actually index.
AI agents
Show real runs, explain permissions plainly, and make your own site readable by the agents that browse it.
Developer products
Docs, repos and package pages do more of the ranking than the marketing site.
Developer tools
Honest X vs Y pages, framework guides and error pages, for readers who try everything themselves.
API companies
Server-rendered reference docs, language quickstarts and per-request pricing that assistants can read.
Open-source companies
Self-hosted alternative pages, deployment guides and a clear line between the project and the cloud product.
Devtools with docs sites
Your docs site is the biggest page family you own. Fix its titles, versions and rendering first.
Regulated and high-stakes
Money, health and law: Google weighs trust signals more heavily here.
Fintech
Calculators, clear fee pages and reviewed guides, on a topic where Google weighs trust more heavily.
Healthtech
Clinically reviewed content, clear separation of patient and provider audiences, and no shortcuts.
Legaltech
Templates and jurisdiction guides reviewed by lawyers, written for either lawyers or the public, never both.
Web3
Docs, security and plain-language explainers. Skip price talk, airdrop pages and hype.
Commerce and marketplaces
Catalogs, listings and two sides of a market, each with its own crawl problems.
E-commerce brands
Category pages that rank, facets that don't eat your crawl, and product data Google can use everywhere.
Shopify apps
Win “how to do X on Shopify” searches, then send merchants to a listing that follows Shopify's rules.
Marketplaces
Category pages with real inventory, rules for empty and expired listings, and crawl control at scale.
Two-sided platforms
Profile pages that earn their index slot, and separate paths for the two sides you need.
Hardware startups
Spec, compatibility and support pages, pre-launch pages that keep their links, and real reviews.
Apps, extensions and tools
Where a store listing competes with your own site for the same searches.
Mobile apps
A website that earns searches your store listing can't, with install prompts Google won't penalise.
Chrome extensions
A Web Store listing that follows the rules, and a website that ranks for the job the extension does.
Browser-based tools
One tool per URL, a clear explanation around it, and only as many variants as really differ.
No-code tools
Templates, “build X without code” guides and a showcase, with care for what users publish on your domain.
Design tools
Template and asset galleries with real descriptions, image SEO, and tutorials that show the result.
Productivity apps
Method pages and templates that match how people search for better ways to work.
Creators and media
Content is the product, so the archive is the SEO strategy.
Creator tools
Platform guides and spec pages kept current, and audience pages built around real creator workflows.
Newsletters
Turn the archive into evergreen pages on your own domain, and handle paywalls and pop-ups correctly.
Online courses
Free lessons that rank on their own, landing pages that answer buyers' questions, and current markup.
Online communities
Make the best discussions public and structured, and keep spam and empty threads out of the index.
Services
People buy the person or the team, and search for proof before they call.
Agencies
Specialise in public, prove it with real case studies, and skip the tactics Google names as spam.
Consultants
Publish a point of view with your name on it, and make your expertise easy to verify.
Local service businesses
A correct Business Profile, honest service-area pages and real reviews do most of the work.
Industry startups
Vertical products with their own vocabulary, rules and link sources.
Edtech
Teacher resources with real content, privacy pages schools check, and an honest view of homework search.
Real estate tech
Your own market data, reviewed guides and calculators, instead of the same listings everyone syndicates.
Travel startups
First-hand detail and real data, because generic destination content is the easiest thing for AI to replace.
Climate tech
Show the method behind every number, and keep environmental claims specific and supportable.
Gaming
An official site with patch notes, guides and a press kit, alongside the stores and wikis players use.
Nonprofits
Clear program pages, sourced explainers and volunteer pages, plus Ad Grants for paid search.
By stage
The same playbook, sized to your team, budget and runway.
Indie hackers
A few hours a week, aimed at niche searches the big players ignore, with launches that leave something behind.
Bootstrapped SaaS
Pick pages by how close they are to revenue, and let a patient, compounding channel do its work.
Seed-stage startups
Lay the technical base now, write for the problem not the category, and don't lose it all in a pivot.
What applies to every startup
The playbooks skip these so they can stay specific. Get them right first.
AI features use the same index as Search
Google says a page only needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. There's no special schema or AI text file required (Google).
Let the AI search crawlers in
ChatGPT search results depend on OAI-SearchBot being allowed (OpenAI); Perplexity uses PerplexityBot (Perplexity); Anthropic documents Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic). Training crawlers are a separate decision.
Pages only you could write
Google's spam policies name scaled content abuse and doorway pages. Its guidance on AI content says generating many pages without adding value can violate them (Google). Build each page family from data you have.
Publish at a pace Google will index
On our own product, publishing about 2,500 posts in one month got indexing throttled. Around 20 a day was safe for that site. Newer domains should start lower.
Free tools for the basics: AI crawler checker, robots.txt generator, llms.txt generator.
Frequently asked questions
Which playbook should I start with?
The one closest to how your buyers search. If you're a stage-based fit (solo, bootstrapped, seed), read that one too: it changes how much of the plan to do and in what order.
Why don't these pages list search volumes?
Third-party volume estimates are often wrong for niche B2B and new categories, and we'd rather not publish numbers we can't stand behind. Your own Search Console data shows what you actually appear for.
Do I need llms.txt or special markup to be cited by AI?
Not for Google's AI features, which Google says need nothing beyond normal indexing. llms.txt is a proposal some tools read; it's cheap to add but not a requirement.
Can you run one of these playbooks for us?
Yes. Autopilot runs the content and Search Console loop, and Done for you runs the whole playbook, including page families and technical work.