Increasing Traffic and Brand Awareness: A Startup's Guide to Better SEO
Startups often have a lot of things on their plate. They are working hard to create a product or service people want while trying to get the word out there and build a customer base.
A significant hurdle that every startup has is being able to balance these two areas properly. If they spend too much time on product development, they may not have enough people using their product. But if they spend all their time marketing and trying to get people to buy their product, they may not have a strong enough product to keep people's attention.
Marketing a business effectively, however, doesn't have to be complicated or overly expensive. For example, a startup's most essential and cost-effective marketing strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). By understanding how SEO works and using it to their advantage, startups can reach a larger audience, boost brand awareness, and increase web traffic organically.
What To Know About SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing a website for Google's search algorithm. This means ensuring that your website is structured in a way that makes it easy for Google to determine what your website is about and index your content correctly. It also involves creating high-quality content that is relevant to the keywords you want to rank for.
There are two main types of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to all the optimizations you can make on your own websites, such as optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags. On the other hand, off-page SEO refers to all the things you can do outside of your website to improve your ranking, such as link building and social media engagement.
On-page and off-page SEO can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), drive more traffic to your website, and improve your overall online visibility.
Why Startups Should Care About SEO
There are several reasons why startups should care about SEO. For one, it's a highly cost-effective marketing strategy. When compared to other marketing channels like paid advertising or social media marketing, SEO doesn't require a lot of money to get started. All you really need is a website and some time to create high-quality content.
Another reason startups should invest in SEO is that it helps with brand awareness. When you rank for relevant keywords, people searching for those keywords will see your website and your brand. This can help you attract new visitors to your website and introduce them to your product or service.
SEO isn't something that necessarily has an endpoint. You can continuously improve your website and add new content to rank for more keywords. In fact, the more you invest in SEO, the more you'll see your traffic and brand awareness grow over time. This makes it an excellent long-term marketing strategy that will continue to benefit your startup as it grows.
A Startups Guide to SEO
Now that we've gone over what SEO is and why it's crucial for startups, let's take a look at how you can get started with SEO. Below, we'll cover 10 of the most effective SEO tips that startups can apply to give them a better chance at improving their brand awareness and web traffic:
1. Identify Your Target Market
The first step in any marketing strategy is to identify your target market. This is especially important with SEO since you'll need to know who you're trying to reach with your content. A big mistake many businesses make in trying to rank their website higher in search engines is not having an accurate understanding of how their target market uses the internet. Identifying your target market is an essential first step in any marketing strategy, but it's especially important when it comes to SEO since it will determine the keywords you want to rank for.
2. Do Your Keyword Research
Once you've identified your target market, the next step is to do your keyword research. This involves finding the right keywords that your target market is searching for. You'll want to find keywords that are relevant to your business and have a good amount of monthly searches. But you also don't want to choose keywords that are too difficult to rank for. The best way to find the right balance is to use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer.
3. Make Your Website Responsive and Mobile-Ready
In today's mobile-first world, it's important to make sure your website is responsive and mobile-ready. This means that your website should look good and function correctly on all devices, from desktop computers to smartphones. A responsive website will not only improve your user experience but also help you rank higher in the search engines. Google has stated that they are using mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, so it's important to make sure your website is optimized for all mobile devices.
4. Use Keyword-Rich Titles and Descriptions
When creating titles and descriptions for your website, be sure to use keyword-rich phrases. This will help you rank more highly search engines and attract more clicks from searchers. Remember to keep your titles and descriptions short so they're easy to read and digest. A good habit is to think about what someone would search for if they were looking for your website. Doing so will help you come up with keyword-rich titles and descriptions that will help you rank higher in the search engines.
5. Create High-Quality Content
One of the most crucial SEO tips for startups is to create high-quality content. This means creating articles, blog posts, and other types of content that are informative, well-written, and relevant to your target market. In addition to being high-quality, your content should also be keyword-rich so it can rank higher in the search engines. But beware of keyword stuffing, which is when you stuff too many keywords into your content in an attempt to rank higher. This will not only hurt your ranking but also turn off potential customers.
6. Optimize Images and Videos
In addition to text, you should also optimize your images and videos for the search engines. This can be done by including keywords in the file names and alt tags. Optimizing your images and videos will help them rank higher in the search engines and attract more views. Another way to optimize your images and videos is to make sure they're compressed so they load quickly on all devices. This will improve your user experience and help you rank higher in Google's page speed Insights.
7. Build Links
One of the most important ranking factors in Google is links. Links are basically votes from other websites telling Google that your website is relevant and authoritative. The more links you have, the higher chance you'll rank well in the search engines. But it's not just about quantity; it's also about quality. So be sure to focus on building high-quality links from reputable websites. Some ways to build links include guest blogging, creating infographics, and adding your website to directories.
8. Focus On Local SEO
If your startup is targeting a local market, then you'll want to focus on local SEO. This involves optimizing your website for the search engines, so it appears when people search for businesses like yours in their area. Some ways to optimize for local SEO include adding your business to Google My Business, creating location pages, and adding your address and phone number to your website.
9. Establish a Social Presence
Having a strong social media presence can also help you with your SEO efforts. This is because search engines are using social signals as a ranking factor. In addition, social media can be a great way to promote your content and build links. So be sure to set up profiles on the major social networks and start posting engaging content regularly.
10. Monitor Your Progress
The final SEO tip for startups is to monitor your progress. This can be done using Google Analytics, which is a free tool that allows you to track your website's traffic and see where it's coming from. By monitoring your progress, you can see what's working and what's not and make the necessary adjustments to improve your ranking.
Use SEO To Drive Your Business Growth
SEO is a powerful tool that can help startups to increase brand awareness and web traffic with little upfront investment. By following the tips in this article, you can start to see improvements in your ranking and more customers coming to your website. So what are you waiting for? Start implementing these SEO techniques today and watch your business grow.
About the Author
Jason
Jason started freelancing in SEO back in college, sold his first agency, and now is founder of Zupo, which is an Orange County based SEO consulting agency helping construct powerful long term SEO strategies for our clients. Jason also enjoys multiple cups of tea a day, hiding away on weekends, catching up on reading, and rewatching The Simpsons for the 20th time.
