Startups face a variety of challenges when getting their business off the ground. From securing funding to hiring a strong team to building a brand, founders are pulled in a lot of different directions. While each of these components are important to running a successful startup, it can be argued that SEO is one of the most impactful things any business can do early on.
In this blog post, we will analyze startups in industries including cybersecurity, compliance, IT services and more who are leveraging the power of search engine optimization (SEO) to rapidly grow their business.
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website for a search engine like Google. The goal of SEO is to make your content easily searchable and valuable to the end user so it will rank in search results and potential customers can find you.
If your content and website are not optimized for SEO, your business will likely not show up in search results, thus it will be difficult for users or prospective clients to find you online.
SEO has been around for more than 20 years and has become a vital part of online marketing and business.
SEO can be broken down into three main types: on-page, off-page and technical. Here is a detailed guide on SEO that goes deeper into the basics and best practices. In this article, we are going to focus on the importance of SEO for startups and online businesses and how to get started.
Why is Search Engine Optimization important for startups?
Search engine optimization is a necessity to succeed online. SEO will put your startup on the map and help you get in front of the right audience.
Not only will this approach help you establish credibility as an expert in your field, but it will also build long-term benefits. SEO has a snowball effect that brings greater results over time which makes it well worth your investment.
If you want to grow your organic traffic, drive new business, and share impressive results with investors, you need to start working on your SEO strategy asap.
Not all startups leverage SEO early on, so this is a way that you can outrank your competitors and build a strong website that will continue to drive results for your new company.
6 successful startups with good SEO
Let’s take a look at 6 startups that are winning SEO and discover why you should focus on improving your brand’s SEO sooner rather than later.
Below, we list a few examples of what each startup is doing well when analyzing their website through the lens of SEO.
Vanta
Vanta is an automated security monitoring platform that helps companies get SOC 2, HIPAA, or ISO 27001 certified quickly. Vanta’s solutions enable companies to automate compliance, streamline security reviews and mitigate risk.
With Vanta, businesses can access higher visibility and continuous monitoring of risks alongside easy ways to track fixes. Vanta helps its customers establish, maintain, and deepen trust with a stronger security program.
What Vanta does well:
- User-friendly top navigation structure
- Strong, effective branding and user experience
- Good domain authority and backlinks
- Descriptive title tags and meta descriptions
- Clear CTA buttons
- Lazy loading features to improve site speed
- Unique content on each page
- Detailed articles and consistent blog posting
- Accessibility best practices
- Credibility and trust through case studies and awards
- Passing core web vitals for desktop
Middleware
Middleware is a real-time cloud native observability platform that condenses data into a uniform chronology to fix issues more rapidly. With Middleware, businesses can identify, understand and fix issues across their cloud infrastructure. Middleware helps companies get complete visibility into their cloud with a full-stack observability platform.
What Middleware does well:
- User-friendly top navigation structure
- Strong, effective branding and user experience
- Good domain authority and backlinks
- Descriptive title tags and meta descriptions
- Clear CTA buttons
- Unique content on each page
- Detailed articles and consistent blog posting
- Credibility and trust through testimonials and awards
- Proper use of heading tags
- About page for E-A-T
Positional
Positional is a toolset for content teams to scale their content channels faster and drive more traffic from organic search. Positional uses a data-driven approach to create fantastic content that actually ranks.
What Positional does well:
- User-friendly top navigation structure
- Clear CTA buttons
- Unique content on each page
- Detailed articles and consistent blog posting
- Accessibility best practices
- Passing core web vitals for mobile and desktop
- Proper use of heading tags
- About and Podcast page for E-A-T
Hammr
Hammr is a platform for the construction industry that provides time tracking, payroll, benefits, and compliance. Top contractors use Hammr for time tracking, payroll, benefits and compliance all in one place.
What Hammr does well:
- Strong, effective branding and user experience
- Good domain authority
- Descriptive title tags and meta descriptions
- Clear CTA buttons
- Detailed articles and consistent blog posting
- Accessibility best practices
- Proper use of heading tags
JustPaid
JustPaid is a financial platform that helps startups control their spending and gives them financial oversight. With JustPaid, founders stay in control of their business with payments, AI powered automations, benchmarking, contract tracking, opportunity alerts and more, all in one platform.
What Justpaid does well:
- User-friendly top navigation structure
- Clear CTA buttons
- Accessibility best practices
- Passing core web vitals for mobile and desktop
- Proper use of heading tags
- About page for E-A-T
Fastgen
Fastgen is a low-code API and workflow builder with a drag-and-drop interface to create backends and automations. Fastgen helps businesses create APIs in lightning speed and makes it easier for builders to ship products.
What Fastgen does well:
- Clear CTA buttons
- Accessibility best practices
- Credibility and trust through testimonials
- Passing core web vitals for mobile and desktop
- Proper use of heading tags
How these companies are growing fast
Instead of solely relying on social media, word of mouth, press releases or paid ads to drive traffic, these startups are harnessing the power of search engine optimization to grow their business.
Did you know that most websites drive less than 5-10% of total traffic from social media? This article references several statistics that confirm a very small percentage of overall website traffic in Google Analytics comes from social platforms.
On the other hand, 93% of global traffic is driven by Google. Google is also the most visited website. Since Google is the biggest driver of web traffic, SEO tactics typically focus on what works best for Google’s algorithm.
In terms of paid advertising, if you’re running a successful campaign, that’s great. However, it is easy to become reliant on paid acquisition for all new business and this can become a weakness in your company, especially if you’re not getting paying customers through any other channels.
It’s a better idea to compliment your paid efforts with organic SEO so you can get the best of both worlds and drive new customers to your website without draining your funds while trying to win bidding wars with your competitors.
It is clear that SEO is a reliable and effective option when it comes to attracting new audiences, getting engaged users on your website and driving conversions over time.
When should startups focus on SEO?
It’s never too early to start focusing on SEO.
A good SEO strategy is key to growing your overall business, organic traffic, brand awareness and sales.
Do you have an app, but no marketing website? Drive organic traffic to your website and get more app downloads with a focused SEO strategy. It’s time to get that website up and running, like right now!
Have a website, but get most of your traffic from paid channels? Beat your competition with a winning organic SEO strategy and stop solely relying on PPC campaigns. It’s time to start ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Already know a thing or two about SEO? We got you! There are always ways you can continue to improve your SEO and working with industry experts who understand your goals can help you grow even faster. Learn best practices and get the support you might not know you needed by reaching out to RankScience, a leading SEO agency.
How an SEO agency can help you grow your business
A skilled SEO agency like RankScience can help you optimize your current website to grow your visibility online. An expert SEO professional will conduct thorough audits of your website, keyword research, competitive research and other SEO techniques to identify new areas of business and opportunities for growth.
SEO involves both technical and creative strategies to improve your website and content. As algorithms continue to evolve, it is helpful to have the support and insight of an SEO professional on your side.
Here are a few of the ways working with an agency can help you succeed in SEO:
Get Your Posts Ranking on Google
Several factors impact ranking on Google and other search engines. However, keyword research is the foundation of a top-notch content strategy. Keyword research and optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and headings is a great place to start to improve your rankings.
Without following SEO best practices, it is unlikely that your content will rank on Google. That’s why it is important for you to have a grasp of how SEO works or to partner with someone who does.
Increase Organic Traffic To Your New Site
When launching a new business or website, your main goal is to drive traffic to your product or service. This means getting more eyeballs on your site. Search engine optimization does just that.
Organic SEO traffic is cost-effective since you don’t have to spend a huge portion of your budget on paid advertising. Other benefits include increased credibility and trust with users, higher visibility in search results, and better click-through rates.
Build Your Domain Authority (DA)
Domain authority is something that grows over time and is a byproduct of good SEO. Your domain authority will start to increase gradually after publishing high-quality content and getting new rankings and backlinks to your site. Remember, growing your DA score is a long game and is something you need to have patience with.
Drive More Sales, App Downloads, and Revenue
An increase in traffic usually also means an increase in conversions. As long as you have a good user experience with an effective signup or download flow, you will see an increase in conversions. Conversions can be signups, app downloads, purchases, or any action a user takes on your site.
It’s pretty simple when you break it down. Good SEO = More traffic = More conversions = More sales.
About RankScience, a Leading SEO Agency
RankScience works with startups and enterprise companies to develop a customized approach to SEO that grows traffic, rankings, and overall business. Their team of SEO experts focuses on SEO activities that drive big results. From on-page optimization to link building to content strategy and more, their team of professionals will supercharge your SEO and give you the upper hand over your competitors.
With 12+ years of experience in the SEO industry, RankScience has developed a unique approach to SEO that combines AI-powered technology with proven strategies to deliver results that are both effective and measurable.
Learn how to supercharge your SEO and contact us today to get started!
