As a startup, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to SEO. With limited resources and a tight budget, measuring up to established businesses and their big-budget strategies can seem impossible.

However, with the right knowledge and tips, even startups can use SEO services for startups tactics that will help them increase their visibility in search engine results without having to break the bank.

The Foundation: Technical SEO

Technical SEO can be considered the foundation of any successful SaaS SEO campaign. Without a strong technical foundation, Google’s crawlers won’t be able to find your website pages or index them in its search engine. Technical SEO is also necessary for ensuring that your website operates properly and delivers a good user experience.

To build a strong technical SEO foundation, make sure to:

●      Set up robots.txt and XML sitemaps

●      Improve page load speed by compressing images & optimising code

●      Utilise canonical tags

●      Use SSL certificates for all pages

●      Fix redirects & broken links

While this may seem like a lot of work, the effort will be worth it in the long run. Not only will technical SEO make your website easier to crawl and index by Google, but it can also help improve user experience and page load speed, both of which are important ranking factors.

Building a Content Library

Building an initial library of (blog) content will widen the net of how many total keywords your website can possibly rank for. If you don’t publish a page dedicated to a keyword, it’s unlikely you’ll rank for it. Google recommends having at least 30 blogs on your site to be considered a topical authority. While 30 blogs may seem like a lot, it is a worthwhile investment if you want to take SEO seriously as a growth channel.

Topical authority is important to search engines because they want to show the most relevant content at the top of their results. If your website is seen as an authority on a certain subject (or topics related to it), you’re much more likely to rank for keywords related to that topic and gain organic traffic.

Focus on relevant, keyword-optimised content and create posts related to the topics that your target audience is searching for. This will not only help you rank in search engine results but also increase brand awareness and build trust with potential customers.

On-page SEO includes many elements, from optimising titles and meta descriptions to internal linking and image tags. Make sure to include the target keyword in your page title, headings, body copy, meta description, images and URLs. It’s best you get acquainted with on-page SEO terminology and elements before producing content so that you don’t have to go back for extra editing.

Backlink Building for Startups

Backlink building can be a massive resource drain, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s why we recommend starting with the basics: foundational links.

Foundational links are the long-hanging fruit backlinks that every reputable business claims, preferably at or around their launch. This includes business directories, Google My Business listings, review websites, and social media profiles.

The most important thing to note when building foundational links is that your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) are consistent across the board. This signals to Google that your business holds legitimacy and is to be trusted. For example, if your phone number is formatted like “(779) 268-0335”, then you should use the same formatting with parentheses on all your listings. It’s also common to make the mistake of formatting your address differently on different websites as well. Make sure to avoid this, as consistency is king.

Startup Directories

Startup directory sites often result in powerful, needle-moving backlinks that are stronger than anything else you can achieve as a fledgling startup. Some platforms even allow you to include multiple links (homepage, pricing, demo, etc) in their directory listings.

The most popular startup directories that give dofollow backlinks are CrunchBase and Angel.

Software Review Sites

Software review sites are great for gaining high-quality backlinks from established websites. If your product has a strong user base, you could also reach out to them and ask them to review it on one of these sites.

The most popular software review sites every startup should be on include:

●      Capterra

●      G2 Crowd

●      TrustRadius

●      TrustPilot

●      Software Advice

Google My Business

More commonly known as Google Maps listings, GMB (Google My Business) listings provide much-needed visibility in local searches. If your startup has a physical office, manufacturing facilities or anything with a physical address, it’s a good idea to claim your GMB listing and filling it out.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, SEO for startups is all about creating quality content that’s relevant to your target audience, optimising it with the right keywords and building backlinks from authoritative sources. It may take some time before you start seeing traffic from organic search but it will be worth the effort in the end. With a bit of patience and determination, any startup can get off to a great start by mastering basic SEO principles. Good luck!