Why startups should invest in SEO from day one

You’ve started your own business… congratulations! Having your own business is one of the most fulfilling, satisfying, and rewarding things you can do. It’s self sufficiency at best. But, it can be a nightmare to get off the ground. Anyone with their own business will tell you that it’s non-stop and will warn you to say goodbye to the 9-5. Aside from the actual day-to-day runnings of a business, some of the biggest hurdles with running a successful startup is visibility, engagement, and competition. Especially when you’re brand new and no one knows who you are…yet. You could have the best product or service in the world, but if no one knows how to find you or can’t find you, it’s going to be a real challenge to gain momentum. 

This is where investing in search engine optimisation from day one can really benefit your startup. As an early stage business owner, you want to promote your business as much as possible. Search engines, like Google, are the bridge that connects your business with potential customers. And SEO is such a massively important tool because it allows you to be more visible to your target audience on these search engines. 

How often do you click to the second page on Google? It probably won’t come as a surprise that the first five organic results count for 67.60% of ALL clicks. As a startup, you’re already at a visibility disadvantage to the bigger companies, so you want to make sure you dominate the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Other benefits in investing in SEO as a startup: 

• Improve your credibility
• Invaluable access to customer behavioural insights and data
• The results are long-term and consistent 

Where to start…

Do you want to engage your audience? Do you want to deliver solutions to prospective audiences? Do you want to subsequently have access to a whole load of leads? Then, you need a solid SEO strategy from the get go. 

Keywords

The keywords that you have in your website should align with what your target audience is searching. This is how potential customers will find you! This isn’t just on your homepage, either. A good bank of content (i.e. blogs) with optimised keywords will bring your audience to you. Your customers will find solutions to what they’re searching for, and you’ll be getting highly targeted leads. As you keep improving your SEO efforts, you’ll see your revenue skyrocket through such leads. 

Page speed

Time and time again, page speed consistently ranks high on SEO trends lists. Aside from the fact that a slow page is off-putting and interrupts the user experience, Google actually takes page speed into consideration for ranking. So, optimising your web speed is not only good for overall user experience, it also helps your potential to rank high in the search results. Find out a bit more about how poor user experience negatively impacts traffic.

Speak to the pros

SEO is a process, not a quick fix, so we encourage you to not delay the inevitable and to get a head start. You might choose to work with a digital marketing agency; SEO is quite technical stuff and you may not have the technical expertise (or the time!) to make sure you get the best out of your SEO efforts. Hiring a professional agency can help your early-stage enterprise improve all elements of your website that are fundamental to increase your visibility from day one. 

Need help with your SEO?

Our search engine optimisation strategies help place brands large and small on the digital map – right where their customers expect them. Whatever your level of  SEO knowledge, your agency should be talking your language and not hiding behind industry jargon. Harnessing a successful and harmonious client-agency relationship is a two-way street. Both sides need to work together as a team and be pulling in the same direction –  and that means actually understanding each other! So, if you need help with your websites SEO, be it help with a link building campaign, SEO content production, or a fully integrated search engine optimisation for a new website, don’t hesitate to reach out.