SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a cost-effective marketing strategy designed to improve the visibility, credibility, awareness, and exposure of online businesses. Not so long ago, SEO was simply an optional marketing strategy you were able to consider as one of your assets. However, these days, SEO is becoming more and more mandatory.
The main reason is that the online market is becoming overcrowded and the only way to ensure your startup will stand out in such a crowd is to invest in SEO as early as possible.
But if everyone is using SEO, what’s the point of it then? Even though SEO is being widely used by numerous companies, it’s not all about who’s using it but more about how they are using it. Different techniques produce different results and it comes down to the strategy you implement that will make the best of SEO. With that in mind, here are a few SEO techniques for moving your startup forward.
Credits – www.seolium.com
#1 Keyword research
The very core of SEO is keywords. They help match your content with that of the user intent. In other words, whenever a consumer enters a search query into a search engine, such as Google, the results are based on relevant keywords. Therefore, if you want to move forward using SEO, you’ll have to do some keyword research first.
Any content on your startup’s website must be optimized in accordance with those keywords. The main reason is that such optimization helps both consumers and website crawlers understand both the context and the content of your pages.
The more you optimize, the better you’ll rank for a specific keyword. When it comes to keywords, you have several options ahead of you. For instance, you can opt for either short-tail or long-tail keywords. However, your keyword strategy should be dynamic, which means you should combine different tactics and do so often if you want the best results.
#2 Off-page SEO
When it comes to boosting your startup’s relevance, visibility and most importantly, awareness, off-page SEO is one of the most efficient techniques. Off-page SEO consists of content marketing, guest posting and link building, most importantly, the combination of all three.
According to Google, content and backlinks share the first place as the most important ranking factors. However, not just any content will do. As a matter of fact, the content you use must be highly relevant and be of top quality.
The same goes for backlinks. Your link building strategy must be relevant to the industry or niche your startup is operating in. For example, if your startup is fitness related, look for those types of websites. Guest posting on relevant and reputable sources improves your credibility and domain authority. Furthermore, quality backlinks boost your inbound website traffic. Content marketing, in general, helps you ensure consumer engagement while boosting your relevance and exposure.
#3 On-page optimization
Another efficient technique for moving your startup forward with SEO is on-page optimization. On-page SEO has everything to do with your website and the content on your pages. Simply put, you’re optimizing the pages for both consumers and search engines.
This is where keywords you’re ranking for have to match the content on your website so that search engine crawlers can properly index everything and match it to the user intent. Therefore, here are a few things you can do to optimize your pages accordingly.
- Title tag optimization – Title tags are also known as headlines for your pages. They’re the first thing consumers see once they get the search results. Title tags should also include the keywords you’re ranking for.
- Meta description optimization – Meta descriptions explain both the context and the content of your pages to search engines and consumers. They give a short but detailed description on your page contents and they should also include your keywords.
- URL optimization – SEO-friendly URLs are very important. They let both search engines and consumers know where the link will take them. As an example, an SEO-friendly URL would look something like: https://www.mywebsite.com/category/products/item as opposed to www.mywebsite.com/Jk09smB4.
#4 Technical SEO
Posting content and optimizing your pages is essential for moving your startup forward with the help of SEO. However, at the end of the day, your website’s performance is a crucial factor for your rankings. The main reason is that many factors regarding your website functionality are perceived as ranking factors due to the fact that they all contribute to one of the more important ranking signals, which is customer experience.
Technical SEO can, therefore, help you improve both website functionality and customer experience. As an example, some of the factors technical SEO can help you improve are website speed, navigation, security, user-friendliness, mobile-friendliness, mobile speed and so on. Search engines use website crawlers to asses and index your website as well as its performance. The better the functionality of your website the better your ranking will be.
SEO is one of the most efficient, as well as one of the most important marketing strategies today. For startups that are just starting to make a name for themselves in a crowded market, SEO can mean the difference between success and failure.
