Top tips on growing your startup business with SEO
More than any other type of business, startups are looking to make a strong online impact as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. SEO for startups is a budget-friendly and effective way to grow online visibility when it counts the most.
With small budgets and small teams, startups need accessible growth tactics that can be implemented before funding runs dry. Many effective marketing strategies, such as PPC, are simply too expensive and out of reach. Search engine optimisation, also known as SEO, is a powerful, cost-effective tool that any startup can use to boost their visibility, grow their business, and support any other marketing tactics that may already be in place.
Below, we’ll discuss our top tips on growing your startup business with SEO. We would ultimately suggest hiring an Sho agency or consultant to guide your strategy as this can make a strong impact on the future success of your business, but following these in-house SEO efforts will get you on the right track.
No SEO shortcuts
This is possibly the most important nugget of knowledge to understand, especially for eager startups looking to hit the ground running and gain traction as soon as possible: SEO takes time. It will be incredibly tempting to cut corners in SEO, but this will lead to a massive loss in value and hinder your growth instead of fostering it.
Cutting corners in SEO may look like this:
Low-quality backlinks
Automating tools
Poor quality or duplicate content
Poor UX (user experience) throughout the website
Although these shortcuts may cut down on time and effort for your team, Google can easily tell if content and links are genuine and high quality. Keep in mind that Google is always looking to present its users with the best results, reliable resources, and trusted pages. In order to gain this trust, you will need to commit to a strategy that includes consistent well-written content and a strong SEO strategy. A perfectly designed and executed strategy may take from four to six months before any significant traffic is noticeable. Although this may seem not as speedy as you would like, sustainable SEO will help your business grow organically without burning through the budget.
Set SEO Goals
The ultimate goal of any SEO strategy should be to organically reach users on search engines and convert them into clients or customers. In order to achieve this larger goal, your startup business will need to focus on more specific goals that you can achieve in a matter of months or yearly. These goals will go hand in hand with your business goals and objectives, which will be even more vital for startups to define and clarify right off the bat. You can create clear targets by considering your business today and where you would like for it to be in 12 months 24 months, and five years' time.
When setting SEO goals, be sure to include a clear timeline and measurable steps you can take to achieve these goals. Make sure to consider the process, the kind of performance you’re looking for, and the desired outcome. Use resources and SEO tools to measure your success and keep tabs on your progress. You can track emails and use free tools and premium tools, such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMrush.
Use your competitors as a guideline
Once you've established your goals, turn your attention to your competitors. Especially for startups, SEO and online visibility can be murky and difficult to navigate on your own. If you don’t have the budget for an expert consultant to come alongside your business and direct it along the path of SEO strategy, checking out your competitors is the next best bet.
Use them as a guideline! Look around their website and compare it to your own. Is it easier to navigate than yours? Are there any stand-out features that your site lacks? See how frequently they post on their blog and the type of content they publish. Take note if you pick up on any remarkable use of infographics, downloadable content, or videos. Most importantly, discover how they add value to your target audience. In your SEO strategy, make sure that you plan not only to add the same value but also to improve on it and go above and beyond.
Prioritise your SEO needs
Time is incredibly valuable for startups, and you won’t be able to dedicate every available moment to your SEO strategy. If you don’t determine what is most needed, you could waste a lot of time and money focusing on a scattering of issues without creating much impact.
We would suggest that startups focus on these three SEO necessities:
Links
Tech
Content
As stated above, cutting corners on these three issues will only hinder your growth. Dedicate yourself to finding links that will act as a vote of confidence to Google, and prove that your website provides real value to demonstrate your business is legitimate. Likewise, focus on the health of your website and remedy any technical issues. Google’s algorithm requires a robust technical footing, and your SEO will suffer if you don’t have a reliable foundation.
Aside from tech and links, content should be one of the biggest priorities to boost the health of your website. Content, especially evergreen content, can be the main propellant of your SEO and digital marketing strategy. Make sure that your content provides valuable information, is well written, and is easy to read.
We would recommend that every startup prioritises the following web pages:
An ‘About us’ page
A team page
Recent testimonials and/ or case studies
Customer reviews
A blog with company updates, industry news and optimised content
Coming up with an SEO strategy to grow your startup will take a good amount of initial effort, but it will pay off in the long run and make all of the difference to the future success of your business. You may need to experiment with it first and play around with different tactics and approaches before finding the perfect combination. While it may take some time to get the SEO for your startup going, good SEO will continue the work for you and generate online visibility, interest, and good business for years to come.
