Startups are the newest, hottest thing on the block. The age of digitization that has dawned with the advance of the pandemic has given rise to unicorns. This unprecedented growth has shown the real potential of the market with no signs of stopping any time soon.

Startups struggle for many things and that is a fact. Some estimates put at least two years in negative profits before they are able to earn a thing. Many startups by that time fall into the abyss of oblivion.

Marketing is one of the things that is the hardest for startups. They are putting a fight against big dogs with more money and name in the market. Still, the sheer success and growth of startups have shown that the playing field can be leveled.

In this post, we are going to show an SEO road map for startups to even the odds in their favor.

To do this, your business must invest in or implement search engine optimization (SEO). SEO has progressed from a benefit to a must in internet marketing over the last several years. There are two ways.

  • Outsourcing SEO Loads
  • In-House SEO Grind

Let’s dive deep into each of them, one by one.

Outsourcing SEO Loads

Professional SEO services—agencies and consultants—can assist your startup with its SEO strategy by providing established experience and industry understanding. 

A comprehensive SEO strategy necessitates a significant amount of time and money, as well as a technical understanding of a website’s design – back end. Even if your organization has high-level technical ability, the time it would take to set up and maintain a favorable technological structure for SEO might not be worth it. 

Startups can employ an SEO agency or consultant if they lack understanding, wish to establish a structurally solid approach, or don’t want to invest the time/resources.

In-House SEO Grind

Almost every startup has a DIY attitude at its foundation. With in-house SEO initiatives, this approach extends to SEO. There are several essential, fundamental SEO services that may be applied in-house to assist your firm get a search presence. Two SEO services in particular aid in the development and implementation of a strategy: 

  • Blog posts and content marketing are examples of content initiatives 
  • Keyword Research and Optimization are two important aspects of keyword strategy

The core of every SEO campaign is keywords. To begin your SEO efforts, conduct keyword research and optimize your site for the terms that your target audiences are most likely to use.

Keyword Research

Every SEO plan should begin with keyword research. SEO is useless and unproductive if you don’t know which keywords to target to engage your customers. 

There are a variety of free and paid tools that entrepreneurs may utilize to investigate their keyword objectives. If you’re serious about SEO, I recommend investing in a solution from a company like Moz or AWR Cloud or using Google Adwords directly. The results of your keyword research should serve as a guide for developing an SEO strategy.

Keyword Optimization

Following the selection of keyword goals, entrepreneurs may direct their internal teams to optimize their websites to include these phrases when appropriate, allowing Google to correlate your website with your target keyword. The inclusion of core terms or phrases on visible components of your site increases the likelihood of your firm being among the top results for those searches. 

Optimizing your site to include relevant keywords, on the other hand, necessitates balance and management. Do not haphazardly place essential phrases in every feasible location. This is known as “keyword stuffing,” and it can really harm your search ranking. As a result, incorporate target keywords in the content on your website where they are appropriate.

Endeavors Through Content

The focus of your SEO approach should be on content. Producing content allows your business to express its knowledge via writing, which helps search engines index your site as relevant to your key phrases. 

Your site’s blog and content marketing are the major venues for your content assets. 

Blog of the Company

A blog is required for every website. Use your blog to show off your industry knowledge and provide visitors with a more complete experience on your site. The more time visitors spend on your site, particularly from organic search traffic, the more Google believes your site should be placed higher in the search results as a destination that consumers appreciate.

Content Marketing

Another way for your business to develop thought leadership and demonstrate knowledge on a certain issue is through content marketing. Content marketing is precisely as it sounds: you create content and then market it to other websites for publication. 

Your company’s content marketing activities also allow you to connect back to your website through the material you provide. Links are extremely important in search results since they both act as Google recommendations that your site is relevant to a target term and also bring visitors to your site, which is another SEO benefit.

Business directories and listing websites are the best venues for startups to “get the word” out there. These online business directory sites have a high density of keywords and are visited by millions of unique visitors each month. Another benefit of profiling your startup on these sites is that the engagement is real. People visit with the real intent to hire services or buy products.

Here are some great options when it comes to link building and citations:

  • Yelp
  • Yellow Pages
  • Google My Business
  • CityLocal Pro
  • Four Square

Through effective link building, you can direct links from these high-authority pages to your official website. This will give out positive signals to search engines that your site is legit, ultimately your business is legit.

Marketing, especially SEO, for startups can be hard as it takes time to get organic traffic. But, when you nail the basics, it is only a matter of time before your brand starts getting recognition. This guide will definitely help you in setting up the grid, eventually building upon it.