SEO for Startups: Improving traffic and conversions
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of growing the number of visitors to a website by increasing visibility in Google’s SERP. When compared to digital advertising methods like pay-per-click (PPC), SEO is a cost-effective strategy for online success.
SEO is particularly important for startups, who can benefit from both low-cost marketing and increased traffic that provides conversions and more revenue.
Throughout my 10 years of working in SEO, I have helped several startups achieve their digital marketing goals.
In this case study, I write about how I have used SEO to help startup businesses from multiple industries to grow their brand, increase traffic, improve their conversions, and generate revenue.
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Results
1. SEO for Blockchain Startups: How I helped ConsenSys outrank IBM & Deloitte.
2. SEO for SaaS startups: How I helped a SaaS client increase their organic leads by 12x.
3. SEO for Decentralised Finance startups: How I helped a Decentralised Finance startup grow their organic traffic by 5x.
4. SEO for FinTech: How SEO helped increase the number of leads by 13x.
2. SEO for SaaS startups: How I helped a SaaS client increase their organic leads by 12x.
3. SEO for Decentralised Finance startups: How I helped a Decentralised Finance startup grow their organic traffic by 5x.
4. SEO for FinTech: How SEO helped increase the number of leads by 13x.
“Victoria is an SEO expert – smart, informed, hard-working, high-performing. She helped our organic traffic compete against large fortune 500 companies and increased traffic to strategic areas of our site. SEO can be a huge contributor to traffic, it’s free, and having an expert in house was a great move by our marketing team. Loved having her as a teammate too.”
Jeff Gillis
Co-Founder & CEO at Stockguard.
Results breakdown
1. SEO for Blockchain Startups: Improving Brand Visibility & Outranking IBM.
Whilst working at ConsenSys, I helped increase ConenSys’s visibility from 0% to 33% whilst simultaneously outranking more authoritative competitors such as IBM and Deloitte.
ConsenSys also had a number of other successes as a result of SEO:
- 167 keywords ranked in the top three positions, which was 4x the amount of IBM.
- Triggered 41 featured snippets in the Enterprise Ethereum section, which helped us rank in position 0 above more authoritative competitors.
- SEO helped grow organic traffic from 0 to 24k+ in less than a year as well as generating over 1.1 million impressions.
- Organic search traffic created by SEO was responsible for 50% of leads, this was 4.7x more than paid search.
You can read more about the tactics I used and the problems I faced by going to the SEO for blockchain and crypto page.
2. SEO for SaaS Startups: 12x uplift in organic leads in less than 6 months.
As a result of SEO, the SaaS client that I was working with saw a 12x uplift in “book a demo” conversions directly from organic traffic which was responsible for generating 55% of leads.
Implementing an SEO strategy also had the following results for my SaaS client:
- The average position of the DeFi client grew by 88%, which allowed the website to rank above all competitors.
- Within a year organic search traffic increased by 6.5x.
- Using a product-focused approach, my SaaS client’s non-branded traffic grew by 50x.
- Content optimisation for Featured Snippets helped the client rank in position 0 for their main keyword and all of their product-related keywords.
- By growing my client’s brand, we were able to receive a Knowledge panel which will help improve their brand recognition further in the future.
You can read more about the tactics I used and the challenges I faced (such as the main competitor receiving major investment) by going to the SEO for SaaS startups page.
3. SEO for Decentralised Finance Startups: From 0 to a 5x growth in organic traffic in less than a year.
When I started working with my decentralised finance startup the website had 0 traffic and one page. Within less than a year, using a combination of SEO and content marketing, the organic traffic of my DeFi client had grown by 538%.
SEO was also responsible for a number of other positive results for the decentralised finance client:
- The average ranking of the defi client improved by 67% which meant that we ranked above all of our major competitors.
- By undertaking a website migration, we were able to increase the search traffic of the website by 218%.
- Our visibility on Google SERPs grew from 0% – 18%, whilst our competitors’ visibility decreased substantially.
- At the end of the project, the client had 7 keywords ranking in position one on the SERPs, plus 11 other keywords ranking in the top 10 positions worldwide.
You can read more about the SEO strategy that helped us generate these results and the hurdles we had to jump by checking out the SEO for Decentralised Finance page.
4. SEO for FinTech Startups: How SEO was responsible for a 13x growth in leads.
Whilst working for SME Loans as Head of SEO, I implemented an organic search strategy which resulted in a 1,315% increase in the number of application forms completed and submitted to SME Loans in just under a year.
By implementing an effective organic SEO strategy, SME Loans was able to have the following results:
- There was a 790% increase in organic search traffic compared to the previous year.
- The Domain rating of the website increased by 57% thanks to a 404% increase in ‘DoFollow’ backlinks from renowned websites such as thenextweb.com, tide.com, and squareup.com.
- The implementation of FAQ structured data helped to generate over 39,000+ clicks in seven months.
You can read a more detailed breakdown of the SEO approaches we implemented by going to the SEO for FinTech page.
Why is SEO important for startups?
As with any business that is trying to establish itself, SEO efforts are crucial to building an online presence and attracting customers or clients to its products or services. Whilst optimising a website comes with costs, these are far more budget-friendly when compared to larger advertising expenses.
What are the benefits of SEO for startups?
SEO is about more than just gaining organic traffic. Investing in a solid strategy brings several advantages to businesses that are in their early stages. The benefits of SEO for startups include:
Customer behaviour data
Keyword research enables startups to find out what their target market is searching for in Google’s search engine page results (SERP). This research can be achieved using free or paid-for SEO tools that allow businesses to optimise their websites for common search terms.
Brand awareness
SEO helps to build trust in a website as a legitimate, authoritative expert in a specific industry. This is an important ranking factor for Google and will help a brand to appear in the top positions of the search results, which in turn will increase customers’ trust.
User experience (UX)
As well as appealing to Google, it’s important that a startup considers maximising its website’s user experience to allow for a smooth journey via mobile and desktop. If searchers are unable to easily navigate a website, its bounce rate increases.
How to implement SEO for startups
Startups are typically full of vision and innovation, so it’s important their websites reflect this. I can help provide startups and venture capital firms with all the tools necessary to create a successful SEO strategy that can be applied to any industry.
Content optimisation
Optimising a website’s content so that it meets the best practices of Google is key to ranking in the top positions of Google SERP. Typically, startups either have very little content because they’re new or they have lots of content which has not been optimised correctly.
In general, startups should try and focus on the following:
- Content length and quality: Try and hit the optimal length of content and ensure that it’s written to a good standard. If you don’t have SEO tools, compare your content to your competitors.
- Anchor links for user experience (UX):Anchor links can be a really simple and effective solution to improving how people navigate and experience your website.
- Targeting Questions from ‘People also Ask’:Lots of users search for their problems in questions. Try and develop content that works in a Q&A manner so users can understand the most important elements of your brand or product.
- Schema:Although a bit technical, schema can be a really good way of improving how your website appears on SERPs.
Website migrations
Migrating a website may appear as a complicated project to undertake, which can sometimes be the case. If not planned correctly, they have the potential to go very wrong which can negatively impact ranking on the SERP, the search traffic and conversion.
However, if a migration is undertaken properly it can result in an improvement in traffic and conversions. Furthermore, a properly migrated and organised website is much better for reporting KPIs and tracking how successfully a website is performing.
Featured snippets
Featured snippets are an important part of the overall content marketing strategy. They are particularly beneficial to startups, as startup businesses typically have fewer resources and working capital to execute costly advertising campaigns.
Startups can save money on PPC advertising using featured snippets. When a website earns a free featured snippet, it will appear at the top of page 1 in Google’s SERP, sitting directly next to paid advertisements.
Page speed
Technical SEO can seem daunting to startups, which is why page speed is often disregarded. Despite this, it forms an important part of the overall strategy.
For over 10 years now, the speed at which a web page loads has been an important ranking factor in Google’s algorithms, and this is true for both mobile and desktop.
5 SEO mistakes that all startups should avoid:
As mentioned, I have considerable experience working with startups in the Financial Services industry. Because of this, I have been able to recognise the main areas of SEO where startups commonly make mistakes. Whilst these mistakes are often quick to make, they can be costly and time-consuming to undo. Startups should be careful to avoid:
1. One page websites:
If a startup has multiple products or services, it is imperative to create a new web page for each new product/service. This will allow effective keyword optimisation for each landing page and indicate to Google exactly what the startup is trying to sell.
A business will not rank highly in Google’s SERP if the content is confusing and convoluted.
2. Not including keyword in page titles
Always remember that unless a company is a globally recognised brand, its brand name does not suffice as a page title, it should be a suffix of the overall title.
Keywords are important because they indicate popular search terms in relation to specific products or service offerings. They should be included in page titles, subtitles and the body of a website’s page content. No keywords, no rankings, no business.
3. Producing short content of low quality
In August 2018, Google released its E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness) into its algorithm, which focused on ensuring websites were providing users with expert, authoritative and trustworthy content. In order to achieve this, website content should be valuable and original, as Google penalises websites with duplicate content.
Each page of content should have a content length of between 1,500 – 2,000, however, this will depend on the specific keywords and industry a startup is in. Pages that are not optimised, do not provide value to the user, and have less than 500 words of content, will not stand a chance of ranking in the top pages of Google’s SERP.
4. No internal links
Internal links are important because they connect a website’s content and indicate the page structure of a website to Google. Effective internal linking establishes a website’s hierarchy, and the most important pages should have greater link value.
A good linking strategy can help Google view a website favourably, so it is important to ensure this is planned effectively and that a website is free of broken links.
5. No external links
Internal links are important because they connect a website’s content and indicate the page structure of a website to Google. Effective internal linking establishes a website’s hierarchy, and the most important pages should have greater link value.
A good linking strategy can help Google view a website favourably, so it is important to ensure this is planned effectively and that a website is free of broken links.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is SEO for startups & venture capital?
Startup SEO is using search engine optimisation tactics to sell product and services for companies with high growth potential but humble budgets.
As a startup, you don’t have the online “authority” yet to compete with other businesses in your space for your target keywords. Also, people aren’t searching for your brand, because you’re new.
Therefore, you can’t just follow the standard SEO practices of creating content and competing with the field.
What are the benefits of SEO for startups and venture capital?
Search engine optimisation is an integral part of marketing and growth strategy for B2B and B2C brands operating in the startups and venture capital sector. Benefits of a good SEO strategy include:
– SEO helps your users find what they’re looking for faster.
– Increase your business reach and opens up your products and services to more qualified customers.
– Cost-effective way to earn your place in the SERPs and generate new leads.
– More engagement: users spend more time interacting with your company’s website, increasing the chances of conversions, revenue and growth.
How can Victoria help a startup achieve its SEO goals?
Victoria has 10 years of proven results in SEO. Having executed strategies for multiple startups, she is best placed to navigate a business through the more complex areas of SEO:
-Understands client needs in the broader startup scene:Victoria is passionate about helping early venture businesses with digital marketing. Her results-driven approach is tailored to individual startup needs.
-A decade’s worth of managerial SEO experience: She applies her managerial skills to take the lead on projects, confidently executing tactics that are in line with a startup’s vision.
-Scalable approaches to organic search growth: Benefit from digital marketing strategies that are focused on boosting user experience, increasing organic traffic and generating more leads to transform a startup’s business.
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