My startups get 750K/month organic traffic and SEO has been a major reason for our growth to $3 million+ revenue.
I honestly can't imagine a startup marketing plan that doesn't have SEO focus.
So here's my 30-step SEO strategy for startups based on 4 years of learnings 🧵
This framework has 6 sections: 1) The Right Mindset (1-5) 2) Correct Setup (6-10) 3) Website Authority (11-14) 4) Keyword Research (15-22) 5) Content Creation (23-26) 6) Optimisations (27-30)
Let's dive in!
Meanwhile, if you'd like to check my startup 👇 flexiple.com
1/ Focus on SEO from day 1
SEO takes time to show results, at least 3-6 months or even more. So you must plan & start working on SEO early.
[Right mindset]
2/ Define your SEO goals
Be clear on what exactly you want — overall website traffic, brand awareness, purchases or something else. All your SEO efforts must be aligned to the goals you set.
[Right mindset]
3/ Be realistic about the outcomes
It's true that SEO traffic is consistent & grows exponentially. But it takes time to show initial results & conversion rates are low compared to paid ads.
So it's important that you align correctly on success/failure scenario.
[Right mindset]
4/ Allocate time & money for SEO
SEO is a long-term strategy. So budget time & money for SEO upfront.
This will also help decide if you will be using paid or free tools, do content in-house or hire content writers etc.
[Right mindset]
5/ Don't rely entirely on SEO
Diversify your traffic sources through distribution & launches.
Channels include social media, Product Hunt, Reddit, HackerNews etc.
[Right mindset]
6/ Define metrics & create a measurement system
- Set up Google Analytics & Search Console
- Decide the metrics you want to track (ex. pageviews, # of pages in top 100 etc.)
- Create a routine to regularly update & monitor the data
[Correct Setup]
7/ Get the basics of on-page SEO right
- Add relevant tags to your page - title, meta, h1s, h2s.
- Optimise these tags & your content.
[Correct Setup]
8/ If you can, pick your domain name wisely.
For ex. our domain is remote.tools and ranks #1 for the competitive keyword "remote tools".
[Correct Setup]
9/ Never use sub-domains.
Google treats them almost like separate websites.
Always use sub-folders.
[Correct Setup]
10/ Optimise your website's page speed.
Go a step further & optimise your core web vitals too.
[Correct Setup]
11/ Put efforts to increase your website's authority from day 1
Higher your website authority, more the chance of Google ranking you higher.
[Website Authority]
12/ Writing guest posts is the best way to increase your website's authority
Set up a process to:
- Research opportunities
- Automate outreach
- Create outlines
- Write content
[Website Authority]
13/ Everyone loves linking to data & analysis
Create such pages on your website to get links organically.
[Website Authority]
14/ People will link to you only if you have quality content.
Publish guides & in-depth content on your website and reach out to others asking to link to your content.
[Website Authority]
15/ Keyword research is key to ranking on Google.
If you find the right keywords, half your job is done.
[Keyword Research]
16/ Come up with seed keywords
These are keywords, topics or even broad themes you already know or have read about.
Just jog your memory and list down all keywords you can remember.
[Keyword Research]
17/ Expand your seed keywords list using Wikipedia, Quora & Google
- Wikipedia - Table of contents
- Quora - Questions & related questions
- Google - Autocomplete & People also ask for
[Keyword Research]
18/ Use a keyword research tool to get a more extensive list