As a startup, it is important that you get your brand and your products or services found on search engines.
In this post we are going to show you some SEO strategies to help your startup get found on search engine results pages like Google.
Why SEO Is Important For Startups
Search engine optimisation should be an important consideration when planning a marketing strategy for your business. The main benefit of SEO is the return of investment over time and will help you achieve leads for your business.
SEO can achieve:
- Source of leads
- Brand awareness and recognition
- Higher customer loyalty
The above will all work towards more revenue and increased profit for your business.
Why SEO Needs To Start Now Not Later
SEO takes time to work, no matter what your budget is. If you have just launched a business with a new domain, Google will likely sandbox the domain for the first number of weeks to assess if your site is legitimate or not.
The sooner you get started with SEO on your website, the sooner you will see results.
Below are some of the main SEO for startups areas to focus on, starting with your website and on site SEO:
Onsite SEO
You website is key to growing your brand online. It is important that effort is put into making your work for your business from the get go. Here are website design mistakes to avoid.
Once your design is set up to reflect your brand you need to optimise the content.
Keywords
One of the core factors of SEO is the use of keywords. Keyword research is the first activity that you need to undertake to optimise your website. When optimising for Google, it is important that they use machine learning algorithms that match topical relevance of content to the meaning behind a users search. Therefore it is important that you undercover a list of relevant keywords for your website and related keywords to use in your content.
There are a number of free keyword tools that you can use for keyword research including:
- Google keyword planner
- Google trends
- Answer the public
Content
You will be rewarded by search engines and indeed convert visitors to your website if you put a lot of effort into your content
Good content converts visitors into leads and the more visitors you convert, the more traffic you will receive from search engines.
When you have your keyword research done, you can then optimise your content for those keywords that you have found that users like your customers use to find what you offer.
Your service / product pages should provide those browsing with a clear indication of what you offer and why your offering is right for them.
While the core pages on your website will rank for your main target keywords, having a blog on your site will also help your site to rank for long tail keywords.
Blog content
A common tactic for startups is to capitalise on long tail searches by creating specific articles that go into depth on helping readers with their problem. Blogging is an effective inbound marketing strategy that helps generate traffic and shareable content that helps brand recognition.
There are many advantages of blogging as an SEO for startups marketing strategy:
- Builds traffic
- Shareable content that works on social media channels
- Helps build authority
- Brand recognition and trust
Technical SEO
Once you are satisfied with your content, it is important that you carry out technical SEO on your website to ensure your pages load quickly, while also can be indexed.
Issues you need to look at include:
- Are your pages loading quickly?
- Are there any blocking factors on your website blocking crawlers from indexing?
- Do you have an XML sitemap for crawlers to easily assess your site?
- Have you got schema added to your pages?
Be sure to follow our SEO checklist when optimising your website for Google search.
Offsite SEO
Offsite SEO is important for getting high rankings on Google. Google treats links from other authoritative websites as votes. The more votes your content gets, the higher your rankings will become.
For a startup with a new domain and website, foundation link building is the first step.
Foundation links:
Social media profiles
Startups should join the main social media channels to have a presence on there with a link back to their website. While social media links alone will not get you top rankings, they will appear after your website on search engine results pages (SERPs)when users search for your brand name. This ensures that a competitor does not hijack your brand name on SERPs.
Google My Business
Add your startup to Google My Business if you have not already done so. It is hugely important to do so if you want to compete with competitors on Google.
With Google My Business you can also start collecting reviews and build your brand.
Local Directories
Local directories should also be a part of your foundation link strategy. While there are lots of directories to be found online, only add your website listing to local directories that you would regularly see on the first page of Google.
These local directories can also become a source of referral traffic to your website.
Because SEO takes time to see its results, it does provide ROI for any business, whether a startup or established business. It is important that search engine optimisation is part of your marketing plan for your startup from the start. Unlike paid advertising, it is a cost effective marketing solution that will provide your startup with the returns for continued growth.
