How we've reached (almost) 2,500€ MRR with a new SEO SaaS in 45 days ⚡️

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

First of all, it is not €2,500 MRR, but it will probably be during the course of the day.

Here I am with an update, #BuildInPublic style, on the SaaS SEO I launched not too long ago with my friend and co-founder @Ricki_io.

2 months ago I published this article in the Indie Hackers community: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-we-plan-to-reach-500-mrr-in-1-month-with-our-about-to-be-launched-seo-saas-fde71ef3e6

In that article I shared what plans and strategies I had in mind to reach 500€ MRR in 1 month, approaching it as a challenge...

After 45 days since the official launch (not counting the pre-launch), the reality is that the business reached 500€ MRR in 12 days (challenge achieved!) and today it is already very close to 2,500€ MRR and growing each day. Maybe they are not super crazy numbers but they are, without a doubt, numbers that we are very proud of.

How have we achieved it? Let me explain what I shared we were going to do and what we have done until now.

Note: I am talking about INDEXED.pro, a simple but powerful (and SUPER EASY TO USE) tool that automates and speeds up website URL indexing for SEO.

From 0€ to 2,500€ MRR in 45 days 🚀

Launching

"It's not possible to grow the MRR of a SaaS that is not launched and publicly available 😂 So, we are launching VERY SOON 🚀 [This is the very first step]"

We launched the SaaS officially and publicly on November 9, 2023 and communicated it to users who had subscribed to receive information as soon as it was launched (about 500 people).

Using Our audiences + #BuildInPublic

"It would be a mistake not to use our audiences (Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletter, etc.) to raise awareness of INDEXED(dot)pro.

I sincerely believe that it is easier to start an online business having an audience than not having one.

On this point my advice is that you try to grow your audience or start to create it and grow it if you don't have it. How? Providing valuable, useful content, being funny, sharing, BEING KIND, helping others...

Fortunately, I have a relatively large audience on Twitter (I've been on it since 2009). Being "old" has its advantages 😂.

And about #BuildInPublic, we are going to publish everything on our channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, Newsletter): product, marketing, business, what works for us, what doesn't work for us, numbers, metrics, etc."

This is exactly what we did, both with the launch and on a day-to-day basis. For this we used my and Ricki's audiences, and the tool's new Twitter audience (500+ followers).

Launching on Product Hunt and related

"The usual ones when it comes to launching digital products. I won't say much more on this point.

The only thing to highlight here is that it is not enough just to "launch", you have to launch and (oh, surprise) do marketing to get your product to the highest possible positions and, therefore, get more visibility."

We did the launch on Product Hunt and it wasn't crazy traffic or business (...). BUT, the launch in PH served us to "make noise" and get some backlinks (SEO).

On top of that, we also submitted the tool to the 1000.tools and uneed.best directories.

Network / Contacts

"I've been in the SEO and digital marketing industry in general for many years and my network of contacts in that industry is large. And I'm not talking about a network of contacts at the LinkedIn connection level, I'm talking about people I trust and many of them are friends.

It would be another mistake not to use this network of contacts to introduce them to this new product, ask them (please) for outreach and more.

It is important to have your own audience, but it is just as important to have a network of FRIENDS."

This has helped us get votes from Product Hunt and customers.

Building Partnerships + Integrations

"In some projects, integrations with other tools can serve as a lever for marketing and business growth.

In the case of INDEXED(dot)pro we have several tech integrations already developed that may (until we launch and make "noise" we will not know 100%) help us to grow the MRR.

Earlier I was talking about networking and partnerships are very important: content partnerships, cross promotion partnerships, tech partnerships..."

Our tool integrates with the Ghost and beehiiv platforms to submit new URLs for indexing as soon as they are published and some customers use them. But neither Ghost nor beehiiv have been share anything about it... And we've tried! 😢

Anyway, new integrations are on the way 💪

Building Satellites

"In some cases (not always possible), it is possible to build "parallel products" (keep them simple please) to your main product and do marketing with them. Always with the idea of deriving traffic / users to the main product.

In this case (in which it is possible) we have some "satellite" products planned (did someone say Chrome extensions?), but we are keeping that ace up our sleeve to reveal them a bit later 🤫"

We haven't started doing anything related to satellites yet...

SEO

"I said it a bit above: indexing URLs is important for SEO, but it's far from being the only thing to do... If it were, the SEO industry wouldn't exist 😅

It is necessary to do market and keyword research, define the website architecture (+ internal linking), set up landing pages, get external links, take great care of the EEAT part, pamper the website performance... And more...

When we talk about SEO for SaaS, it is important to have a good homepage, pages for features, integrations, comparison pages with similar tools (versus), a blog with articles about the main topic of your product (and related ones)... Having very clear that the goal is to get customers and not only visits."

The reality is, apart from backlinks, we have not started doing SEO yet, but 8-10 pages of content are planned. And more backlinks.

As of today, the project website consists of 1 single landing page containing all relevant info, features, prices and buttons to (pay) and start using the software.

Guest star: PRODUCT + word of mouth 🤩

The most important thing in a software business is the product. The product must work, it must work well, it must fulfill its mission, and it must solve problems for customers. And, if possible, it must have an "AHA moment".

INDEXED.pro works, works well (and is very easy to use), and fulfills its mission: index website URLs quickly and automatically, and save customers headaches. And... it has an "AHA moment" (that can be easily seen on Google Search Console - Indexed pages report)! And the most curious thing is that the customers share on Twitter and other networks the results obtained using our software. And this helps to acquire new customers.

You can see all (REAL 100%) testimonials here: https://testimonial.to/indexed-pro/all

Final words

Now we have to keep on improving the product (and adding new cool features), marketing and doing things to make the project grow. NON-STOP.

Will we be able to reach 3,000€ MRR with INDEXED.pro by the end of the year? 🧐 What do you think?

Follow @Ricki_io and me in this adventure 🚀 and, please, feel free to ask us anything.

GO, GO, GO 🔥🔥🔥

PS: We are already planning and building new products!