Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Startups: Tips for Getting Found Online

"Today it's not about 'get the traffic' - it's about 'get the targeted and relevant traffic.' "- Adam Audette

Couldn’t be more true.

With so much content, good and bad, and so many different types of niches, categories, and classifications…

Getting the right traffic is MORE important than simply getting traffic.

It’s even more important if you’re just starting.

(Okay, hold on. If you’re not a startup, don’t go.

Even though this is generally for startups, the things I discuss apply to you as well when it comes to your website…

Regardless of who you are or what you do - business, agency, or service provider. So stick around. Thanks.)

If you’re a startup that aims to do any of the following things:

Rank in the big leagues.

Get to ‘Unicorn’ status.

Get acquired.

Make it big.

Or even just become sustainable, with net positive cash flow and growth as a whole…

You could start with something as simple as setting up your website and working on your SEO.

And, before you think about it, no.

SEO is not all about just technical things and stuff like? HTML tag editing, keyword stuffing, building backlinks, targeting the right words, etc.

(Although it technically IS part of SEO.)

It goes WAY WAY beyond that. And, it’s not boring.

(Because frankly, why would I put out something I wouldn’t read, right?

I run a digital marketing agency, so I should know that shouldn’t I? )

Let’s get into it.

First, let’s understand what SEO is, and what everyone else is doing WRONG.

SEO is just what it sounds like - search engine optimization.

Is your content good? Awesome.

Does the search engine know? No?

Then how will people find you?

The thing is, when we have a problem, a query, or just something general, we type it into Google.

Mostly.

When we google something, Google responds by showing us the pages and websites it thinks are most relevant and are the most likely to satisfy our search query.

Sure, you’ve got some ads on the top, but they’re followed by organic results.

Those websites and pages rank high just because the search engine KNOWS that they’re the most relevant source of the answer to your query.

Now, there are things that you do, from technical optimizations (such as website speed) to authority building and content creation, to get there.

All three of these come together to put together a website or set of pages to tell the search engine “This is good content, relevant to be ranked on various queries.” which the search engine then ranks accordingly.

However…?

What many might resort to doing is buying lots of backlinks, whipping up content in large amounts, and stuffing keywords where they can.

“Uh, Yeah? Want to get noticed by the search engine, right Matt?”

Yeah, but you don’t want the wrong attention, do you?

If you’ve got quality content, backlinks from relevant and reputable websites, relevant use of keywords, and various terms and relevant types of content, that is different from simply trying to get attention.

One will help you rank better whereas the other one will potentially hurt your overall ranking.

Sure, you’ll get a temporary boost, but it’s just that.

Temporary.

In the long run, it’s no good. It’s a waste of time. A waste of money. A waste of effort.

There are no quick tricks or ‘hacks’ that work when it comes to SEO.

The search engine wants to deliver quality to the person searching.

If you try to trick it…yeah, things won’t exactly be good.

Now that that’s cleared, let’s focus on what you SHOULD do (and how to do it.)

So, SEO has three main pillars, as I mentioned.

Technical refers to the technical aspects of your website that affect its ability to be crawled and indexed by search engines. Eg website speed, site architecture, etc.

The content is exactly what it sounds like.

Relevant, good quality, well-structured, proper content, created for answering questions, educating and informing the reader, and providing value.

It also includes things like keyword research, title tag optimization, using header tags, etc.

It could be over various topics if you’re targeting a general category or niche.

It could be specific if you're focusing on something in particular.

Whatever it is, it’s all about good quality content that’s relevantly structured.

And then you have authority building.

In SEO, authority refers to the importance or weight given to a page relative to a given search query.

Just like the previous two pillars, there are various things here as well, such as guest blogging, social media marketing, link building, etc.

Here, link building is one of the important things. That’s because it refers to the process of building backlinks.?

(Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website.)

And backlinks are one of the main factors that determine your domain authority in SEO.

Think about backlinks like votes.

Putting a link on your site could cause someone to leave it. So, there’s little incentive for the website to have a link to a third-party site unless there’s a great value provided to the readers.

Hence, getting backlinks from websites with already good authority and overall standing is an “I vouch for this site. It’s got good content.” type of thing.

However, don’t just go around buying backlinks, as I mentioned.

If you do it to just get backlinks, and those backlinks are from websites that are not exactly relevant, spammy, or really bad sites, you might just end up being penalized for that, in the form of your ranking and indexing.

Anyways, now that you understand that, let’s go pillar by pillar. Content first.

Think about what the search engine wants. Good quality content, right? Produce that.

Relevant, good, appropriate, readable content that provides value.

Interesting content.

Good content.

Content that people would want to read.

You don’t have to focus mainly on things like meta descriptions and keywords.?

Instead, just go for good content.

Unique, relevant, and interesting. All the good stuff.

It’s that simple.

Next: Technical

Okay. You’ve got good content. Now, make it easy for the search engine and the visitor to access.

Are there any things stopping the search engine from effectively crawling and processing the content?

Any crawling errors such as duplicate pages or a missing 301 direct?

Does the website have a good speed? Does it load quickly and properly?

If not, what problems need fixing? Does your site need code optimization? File size minimization maybe?

There are other things such as mobile responsiveness, site architecture, alt tags for images, an XML sitemap, a robots.txt file, and more.

Basically, make it as easy as possible to access, for both the search engine as well as any visitor to the site. That’s the technical aspect.

And Finally: Authority

There are so many sites out there. Why you? What credibility do you have?

A good way to gain authority is to get good, high-quality backlinks.

Try creating content such as posts, blogs, and articles which would be relevant on other sites. Then, if you’re able to get them to publish that on their site, and include a link over to your site, that would be a good way to gather good-quality backlinks.

This is one of the more important things that you would focus on.?

However, make sure you don’t end up simply focusing on volume. Instead, focus on quality as well.

Get backlinks from websites with good domain authority, that are already well established and that have an overall good ranking.

You’re getting a vote. Best to get it from someone the search engine considers to have value.

If you were looking for a quick fix as well, let me let you in on something:

In SEO, there is none. Focus on the long-term game.

Your content.

Your backlinks.

Your technical optimizations.

Your guest posting on other sites.

Your well-structured site with optimization from credibility.

Your optimized loading speeds, content layout, and presentation.

All of this will go a long way in helping you drive relevant good quality traffic to your site as well as rank higher in search engine results.

After all, if you’re trying your best to make it easy for the search engine to figure out if you have content that is credible, worthwhile, and good quality, as well as valuable, why WON’T you rank?

After doing all of that…

You can then maybe shift your focus on things like using tools like SEMrush, AHREFs, and Screaming Frog as well as the tools by Google (Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Autocomplete, and Google Trends).

You could search for your competitors. See what they’re doing.

Do a site: your website on Google and see if you’re indexed.

Maybe talk about your competition as well on your website, so that you have the chance to show up if someone searches for them.

Focus on driving traffic as well as design and overall layout.

Focus on topic clustering and topic silos.?

Maybe optimize your URLs by properly categorizing your topics.

There is so much to this. However, the main thing is to focus on working from the three main pillars and then going from there.

It’s not complicated. It’s really simple.

The key is to not get overwhelmed but to get started.

Remember, a simple website could be the thing that puts you in front of institutional and private investors, looking for something different.

And one way to get your website in front of them? SEO.

Anyways, this should be more than enough to get you well on your way.

As usual, if you have any issues with your website’s SEO or anything else in general, feel free to reach out to me.

Keep Building.