SEO is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available for startup businesses. Search engines are naturally one of the best ways for customers to find new services, which means using SEO is key for businesses needing to boost their brand awareness. Investing time and resources into nailing your SEO strategy from the outset, should definitely be a priority for new startups.
However, SEO mistakes – especially for startup businesses – can be incredibly costly, and it often takes a lot of time to recover. We’ve pulled together some of the most common mistakes that startups make when it comes to their SEO strategy so that you can avoid them in the future.
Why is SEO so important to Startups?
While there are numerous digital marketing channels available, you need to build SEO into your marketing strategy right from the start. SEO will affect the way you build and manage your website, and will also dictate your content efforts and strategies across other digital marketing channels.
Organic search is the most common way for users to find businesses that offer the services they’re looking for. Ranking highly on Google, for example, also lends a sense of credibility to your brand; if you’re appearing on the first page of search results, it shows that Google thinks your site is relevant to the search terms being used, and that your site is trustworthy.
Making a mistake with your SEO strategy can see you plummet in the rankings; so you run the risk of being almost hidden from your target audience. Avoiding the following mistakes will save you time, effort, and resources further down the line if you have to fix them:
- Not Staying on Top of Keyword Research
- Forgetting Link Building
- Underestimating SEO Timelines
- Duplication
- Ignoring Long-Tail Keywords
- Not Analysing Your Conversions
- Forgetting Other Channels
Not Staying on Top of Your Keyword Research
Keyword research is an incredibly important part of any SEO strategy, but one of the biggest mistakes a startup can make is to treat this as a one-and-done exercise. Most startups will run initial keyword research so they know what to target during the start of their endeavours, but miss the chance to expand on these keywords to unlock new opportunities to rank in the search results.
You might introduce new services or change the scope of your business slightly. You might learn something new about how your audience is searching for your services or offerings. Acting on this information is crucial in growing your SEO strategy, so don’t forget to regularly review your keywords and track them on software like RankCaddy.
Forgetting Link Building
Link building is a misunderstood SEO practice, as many see it as another form of spam – of course, it can be if it’s not done right! However, there are ways of building links that can be extremely beneficial, especially for startups. By engaging with your community, finding opportunities for guest posting, and generally finding ways to join the conversation, you can start to create a positive link building strategy that won’t cause damage to your site.
Underestimating SEO Timelines
Sometimes we expect to see immediate results following our digital marketing efforts – startups in particular tend to underestimate just how long it takes for SEO strategies to take effect. Think of just how many competitors you have in your space; how many niche terms your audience is searching for; how much quality content is out there. You won’t be able to outrank long-standing competitors in a day or two.
Understanding that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint will be important when it comes to providing more context on your performance. Don’t be disheartened if it takes a few months before you see significant improvements.
Duplication
We understand that getting your website up and running can be a time-consuming task, and that you might be tempted to cut some corners by duplicating content or using the same page titles, but be warned – this can be a very costly mistake. You run the risk of ruining your rankings and losing any progress you might have made. Avoid making this SEO mistake by reviewing your content for duplicate paragraphs, H1 tags, and descriptions so that you don’t end up being penalised by search engines.
Ignoring Long-Tail Keywords
The appeal of high-volume search terms is clear, you have the chance to be viewed by a significant audience and they’re the keywords that are the most obviously linked to your business. However, it’s a huge SEO mistake to only target these keywords and ignore more niche, long-tail keywords. Yes, these words tend to have much lower traffic, but the competition is much much lower too, so you’re more likely to appear. This doesn’t mean you should ignore high-volume keywords; they’re an incredible opportunity that you can work towards, but they shouldn’t be your sole focus.
Not Analysing Your Conversions
As you’re analysing the performance of your SEO strategy, many startups will make the mistake of just focussing on which keywords are bringing in traffic. However, this is not the only action that a keyword can drive. When you’re properly analysing your keywords, you may notice that there are keywords that drive lower traffic but have a higher conversion rate. These terms are incredibly beneficial and are not to be ignored.
Forgetting Other Channels
When considering SEO, it’s common that businesses will ignore the impact of other channels. There are huge benefits that come from a holistic digital marketing strategy that can help to influence your SEO strategy. From audience insights that can be gained from PPC advertising to boosting your SEO through social media, you can’t afford to ignore your other marketing channels.
These 7 SEO mistakes are some of the most common we see in startups, so new businesses will want to make sure they’re clued up on how to avoid them. Working with a digital marketing agency specialising in SEO is a surefire way to steer clear of these mistakes, as experts will be able to guide you towards the most sustainable practices for SEO as well as other powerful channels specific to your business.
About the Author: James Speyer is the Head of SEO at The Brains, an award-winning digital marketing agency in London. James has worked with hundreds of clients over the years to increase leads, gain visibility and get businesses to page one of Google.
