From Gearyoda by Marie Barnes
A newly minted business has a lot of problems to face all at once: product development, production adjustment, team building, marketing activities and much more. But even a novice knows that in order for a product or service to be sold, it is necessary for the potential customer to know about it. And here SEO enters the arena.
A few numbers: SEO leads have almost 15% close rate compared to 1.5% result of direct mail or print ads. Not to mention the fact that you need optimization in order to make friends with search engines and convince them to work for you.
They say that SEO is too complicated, that it does not give instant brand acceleration, or even that you can do it later. Our answer is: the sooner the better. Besides, we are not going to consider complex strategies and discourage you from any desire for further action. We will give you win-win and simple tips that have formed a solid marketing foundation for more than one startup. Here goes!
Tip #1. Understanding Goals
It sounds simple, but why then do many startups ignore this point? The result of a negligent attitude to the definition of goals is chaotic optimization actions that are not interconnected and do not give any result.
Make it clear to yourself what you want to achieve in the coming months or year. Increase the average time spent on the site or the number of orders? Boost brand awareness? Optimize pages for specific keywords? Having answers, you transform your goals from abstract to real and achievable.
It is important to indicate specific numbers. Not just “increase your position in the search results for the N keyword”, but “take a place in the top 5”. Not “increase sales”, but “increase sales by 20%.” Hence, the goals become measurable and you can definitely understand whether you have achieved them or not.
No need to set unrealistic goals. Remember that SEO needs time to build up, and any miracles are just the result of persistent, coordinated, and intelligent work.
Tip #2. Defining Keywords
You have probably heard about businesses that undertake optimization of their sites for specific keywords only a few years after the launching. There is no logic in this: the sooner you start optimizing, the more authoritative and reliable your site will be in the eyes of search engines.
Yes, working with keywords may seem boring, but it is absolutely necessary. In addition to optimizing the site, you get valuable information about live search queries from your potential customers and collect ideas for future publications.
Do not fall into the trap of targeting all keywords in a row: this makes no sense and will not be useful. Focus on commercial long-tail ones that clearly reflect a person’s desire to find your product or service.
It is also important for you to make sure that the pages of your site that appear in the search results when you enter a specific keyword meet the intentions of the potential client. Simply put, if a request contains a question, then your landing page must have an answer, not just a call to buy your product. This will reduce the likelihood of an increase in the bounce rate due to people who have not found on your site what they meant by their request.
Tip #3. Making Off-site Content Work for You
Here, first of all, we are talking about link building and this is not at all as scary as it might seem. Getting backlinks to your site, you increase its credibility and the likelihood of improved positions.
The easiest way is to link to useful content on your website from your social networks. A more advanced way is guest posting on relevant platforms. You write an article, include a link to your site in it, and find a blog where you can post this article.
To avoid the dangers of improper selection of publishers and significantly speed up this process, it is better to seek help from a link building agency, for example, LinksManagement. It optimizes the guest blogging process, helps to select the ideal platforms for placement, and provides a fairly quick result.
Tip #4. Benefiting From Every Detail
This part of the work can be called technical, but there is no need to get startled over this. Even if you do not understand SEO at all, this should not stop you from dealing with individual optimization improvements. Just pay attention to the following things:
1. Title. This part must necessarily contain your main keyword and be appealing enough for users to want to go to your site. Make it no longer than 60 characters.
2. Description. This is what is placed under the title in the search results. Try to keep within 150 characters and describe the benefits that visitors will get by clicking the link.
3. Formatting. Headings and subheadings, lists and tables will provide a smoother crawling, as well as improve the reader’s perception of content.
4. Internal and external linking. By linking the relevant pages of your site, you provide a longer visitor engagement. External links to reputable sources also positively affect your search ranking.
5. Image optimization. Do not repeat the mistakes of others and be sure to add relevant keywords to the description of images and alt text. They must be associated with the image so that Google does not consider this another attempt of keyword stuffing.
6. The natural inclusion of keywords. Do not go too far and do not turn your content into a mere keyword fair. This will not be appreciated by either Google or visitors. Add keywords only when it seems appropriate and be sure to make your content useful and aimed at solving a specific question.
In The End
As you can see, none of these techniques is rocket science. They do not require special efforts and huge investments, which is especially important for a startup. Try to apply them and you will be surprised that SEO can be so simple and effective at the same time.
English 
Spanish 
Korean