Startup founders may have big marketing ideas, but may not have the budget to match them.
So where should you focus your energy and budget in the early stages of your brand launch?
One of the key areas is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It takes time to rank a new website on Google for both brand terms as well as keywords that drive leads and sales, but once achieved, sustainable, “free” and profitable traffic to your website.
There are many factors in SEO and it is important for startups to know what to expect and how best to divide their time to create a sustainable and systematic organic search strategy. am.
How long does SEO take?
It’s a question thousands of SEO consultants from thousands of small businesses have been asking. How long does it take to start seeing results from my SEO activities?
The answer, somewhat frustratingly, is “it depends”. It depends on many factors, from sector competitiveness to time and investment.
But as a rule of thumb for any new website, it takes about a month to get your website ranking in branded searches (i.e. people searching for your business directly) and about a month to get rankings in important searches. It takes 2-3 months. It takes 6-12 months to reach the first page of the most important terms, unless they are the most competitive keywords related to housing, finance or gambling.
It is therefore important for startup founders to use SEO as part of a broader digital marketing mix that also includes more direct lead generation channels such as paid search, social and email marketing.
start with the basics
First and foremost for any new business is getting your website to rank in branded searches.
To do this, start by generating some “core backlinks” to your website. These include national directories as well as local citation lists and even social media links. will be
These help your site get noticed and indexed by search engines and start ranking for basic terms.
Optimize your website
To get a ranking for your new website, you need to make sure that your website’s pages are working as well as possible.
Here’s a simple 1, 2, 3 process for doing this:
1 – Keyword Research: Use a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find out what search terms your prospects and customers are typing into Google.
2 – Plan where to target these keywords on your website and make sure each page only targets a narrow range of relevant keywords
3 – Optimize your website to have at least 500 words of copy (preferably more!) on each important SEO page and target keywords in titles, subheadings, opening paragraphs, title tags, and meta descriptions is described.
look to competitors
Bigger competitors in your space are likely investing thousands of dollars in organic rankings and can leverage their investment in SEO research by copying the best backlinks.
Tools like SEMrush can be used to analyze the backlink portfolios of the top ranked brands in the industry and sort those backlinks to show the strongest links.
You can use this list to find as many duplicates as possible!
Writing for sector-related websites
The final step helps increase both brand awareness and keyword rankings.
Do some research in your niche to find the most popular news websites and online magazines. For example, the HR space can contain HR.com and HRzone.
Then create a personal profile on these websites with a link to your site.
Then start creating free content for these websites. Each piece of content includes links to important SEO pages.
Creating a profile allows you to publish content to some websites, while others require content to be approved or paid for.
However, these contextual links are one of the most powerful things you can generate to drive keyword ranking growth and increase organic traffic and sales.
DIY or expert support?
Success in SEO comes as a result of consistent, systematic hard work and always doing the right thing. It is one of the most time-consuming elements of digital marketing, requiring frequent research, outreach and content creation.
Many well-budgeted startups work with SEO consultants to manage this part of their online marketing on an ongoing basis. If you decide to DIY your SEO, be prepared to spend hours each month and remember that results don’t come overnight.
