Startups always look for scalable growth tactics that can be done with little or no money. SEO is one of the tactics. SEO does not require a big budget; if done correctly, it brings in free traffic that grows on autopilot. SEO can also boost other marketing tactics and influence every marketing funnel phase.
Why Should Startups Invest in SEO?
If you need some data to support your SEO plan, here are three reasons to do SEO in a startup-
- The macro trend
In the year 2014, Google and Millward Brown Digital conducted a detailed study on the research and purchase habits among the B2B decision makers. This study revealed that 71% of the B2B researchers start their research with a quintessential generic search instead of a branded one. The customers are looking for a product first and not for the business.
- Because many people are searching for what you do
Even if the product you sell is a niche, people are searching for it in one way or another. For instance, animal-free dairy products could be a tangible demand for related searches like vegan, low lactose and lactose-free.
- Because one can get free organic traffic and scale it
SEO is never truly free, as one has to invest in content creation and optimization. However, unlike the ads, one does not need to pay for every user and visit.
1. How to do SEO for startups
If you want to start doing SEO in your startups, you should follow the below steps-
- Get buy-in
SEO is an investment that will give the yield. It takes some time to do the keyword research, create content and promote it. It even takes time for any search engine to crawl and index the content. SEO can pull off unlike anything else. The only thing that is needed is a marketing strategy that is built upon SEO. One can explain the benefits of SEO by illustrating various types of marketing tactics, and is serves the following purposes-
- Creates awareness and attracts potential customers.
- Helps one engage your audience and build credibility.
- Helps convert the customers.
- Helps you build loyalty and retention.
- Set goals and get resources
How to set SEO goals
The main goal of SEO is to reach prospective users through organic search and convert them into potential customers. It is a top-level goal and very hard to work with as it does not tell one how they will get there. The most efficient approach is to divide the grand, top-level goal into smaller bites that can get one closer to the outcome.
One can also envision the SEO goals as a pyramid. One can build a pyramid with the outcome at the top and smaller goals that lead there at lower levels. However, the idea is to start at the bottom and then work the way up.
- Resources that one will need
Startups need to be very careful about the costs. SEO does not require any ad budget or any expensive tools. It is a costless process.
SEO needs these things for the following-
- Research
- Optimised content
- Measurement tools
- Backlinks
If you are a team and have no budget, there is no other way besides learning everything and doing the work yourself. One can climb up the ladder if one gets the right advice and tools.
If your startup has SEO-related tools below are some of the options-
Hire someone skilled: If you come across people with various marketing operations, you should collaborate with them and decide on the budget.
Select a writer with writing expertise and a keen interest in SEO: If you come across someone who has a genuine interest in SEO, you can hire them. If someone is passionate about writing, you can also make the most of their talent.
Hire an SEO expert and give them access to outsourcing: You should be able to create a content strategy and outsource the parts of the process like content creation and link building.
Go with free tools: You can stumble across a lot of free tools and you can use these tools with different workflows.
Try different premium SEO tools: After using the free tools, you can upgrade to premium and get the premium features.
2. Get your technical SEO in order
Technical SEO is the quintessential process of optimising the website for helping search engines like Google understand and index the pages you have created.
3. Do keyword research
Keyword research is where one finds what target customers are searching for in the search engine. One can also compare the keywords or terms to prioritise the best opportunities. One should initially target low-competition keywords that they can rank for without many backlinks or high website authority.
One can also come across several potential keyword ideas as they need to consider a few more factors before selecting a keyword. Some of the few factors are search intent, traffic potential and competitors brand equity.
4. Create content
One should know which keywords to target and create high-quality optimised content that will attract organic traffic.
- Make sure that you understand your audience
Knowing what people search for online is very powerful. However, one should not rely solely on the SEO metrics. It can make one lose focus on the people reading your content. It is very important to broaden your research and tie your SEO findings to your market research.
The one element of your go-to-market strategy that has a critical importance to the selection of topics is the target audience. Hence, one should make sure that they have the buyer persona ready before creating the very first piece of SEO content.
- Design the content with search intent in mind
Search intent is the term that refers to what the searcher is looking for. Google wants to rank the content that is helpful and hence the content should align with the user intent.
Below are some important aspects of search intent-
Content type: The content in the SERPs should be the dominant type like blog posts, product pages, landing pages and video pages.
Content format: There should be a dominant content format in the SERPs such as guides, reviews and news articles.
Content angle: The content should be updated on a daily basis.
- Plan, publish and repurpose
The most common practice amongst the content creators is keeping a content calendar. It is the type of system that is used to organize, schedule and manage the content production.
There is no one way for creating the content calendar. A content calendar should be very usable for you and your organization. Most people make use of Google Calendar.
Below are some types of information worth keeping in a content calendar-
- Topic
- Author
- Status
- Due date
- Relevant Metadata
- Channel
- Format
When it comes to the act of recording, writing and creating content, it is a personal thing. Every person has a very different style of working and staying creative. In a small startup many tasks tend to have a fair degree of autonomy. When it comes to creating different types of content for business, it is very good to develop some kind of methodology and get feedback before publishing. If you start developing efficient practices from the very beginning, it will help you scale your content creation.
Given below are some tips that one can follow-
Always start with an outline: It is very important to plan what you are going to say. This will help you completely avoid writing about irrelevant things.
Look for some tips on writing/recording and editing: If you want to be productive, you can look for some tips on writing, recording and editing. These methods are tried and tested.
Create standard operating procedures along the way: One should always have some documents handy to know how to do specific tasks. Every additional person that is added to the content creation process puts more weight on the need to create SOPs.
5. Optimise existing content
The most effective way to get more organic traffic on board is to optimise the existing content you have. Your existing content may already be ranking or it may be the best way to match the search intent. Many people make use of SEO Melbourne which is a search query.
6. Build links
It is very important to link between different pages on the same website. You can help new pages get discovered by search engines and pass link authority between your pages.
7. Track and measure
One should follow metrics to measure the success in SEO.
8. Quality content is important
It is very important to provide quality content to the audience.
Wrapping Up
The ultimate SEO checklist for your new website is provided here. As you finish up your website, keep going back to it, but keep in mind that SEO is a never-ending endeavour. Keep track of all your efforts and tweak as needed along the road.
