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Are you a startup? And do you want to surpass your competitors in organic searches? Then you should definitely read our SEO guide for startups! In this article, we’re going to share some of the best practices to appear in top positions in Google and other search engines.
Although SEO may seem like an easy and quick technique to apply, it requires effort and dedication. As well as a series of practices both inside and outside of your website.
If you want your organic traffic to be the main gateway to your website it’s important that you know what you have to do to achieve this.
Understanding SEO is the first step to any web optimisation strategy. It’s about becoming aware of how Google and its algorithmic changes work since it’s the most popular search engine worldwide.
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SEO for Startups: The Tools to Improve your Rankings
When working on the SEO of your startup, there’s not one particular tool that allows you to achieve all your goals at once. You will need to combine several ones to improve your rankings.
In order to work on your positioning strategy, it’s necessary to get familiar with the tools that are used by SEO experts and to understand the function of each one of them.
SEO Audit Tools
SEMRush
It’s a fundamental tool in SEO for startups due to its functionalities and the ease of interpretation of the data. With SEMrush you can see the status of your website, as well as of your competitors. You can analyse the keywords you are ranking for, discover new ones to create more ranking opportunities, and detect broken links.
A good alternative to SEMrush would be Sistrix. Although both tools have different particularities, the main functions are quite similar.
Screaming Frog
Although some technical knowledge is required, the use of Screaming Frog allows you to crawl any website completely, as if it were an ‘SEO spider’.
With Screaming Frog you’ll get all kinds of data related to your links, your images, the CCS files; JavaScript, HTML, etc.
Search Console
Search Console a free tool that Google offers you to monitor and audit your website traffic.
The fact that Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools), is from Google makes the data they provide the most accurate possible. However, it’s also true that its limitations are greater with respect to other paid tools.
Another important feature that Search Console offers you to control SEO for startups is the verification of links, both external and internal ones. Besides, in case of having some kind of penalty, it warns you—something that no other tool does.
SEOquake
This is another free tool that you can enjoy by adding its Chrome extension to your browser.
SEOquake quickly scans websites and provides reports on the main factors that determine its SEO score.
Audit Tools for Backlinks
Ahrefs
Ahrefs analyses all the backlinks on a site and provides you with information about them such as the domain rating, URL rating, referring domains and the type of links (dofollow/nofollow).
Ahrefs doesn’t only allow you to discover the links that are pointing to your website. You can also analyse other websites, whether they are from your competitors or the media that you want to appear in
Backlink Watch
This is a free tool that analyses the backlinks of your website and collects them in a list, providing you with the anchor texts, if the links are dofollow or not, as well as if they’re spam.
The only big difference between the other tools is that this one is only available in English.
Tools for Analysing Keywords
Keyword research is fundamental, especially when you’re a startup and want to increase the organic traffic to your website. You must define the keywords you want to position for and work towards achieving that. Besides these specific keywords, you also want to rank for its synonyms and alternative words with the same or related meaning.
With the use of keyword tools, you will be able to find the search density of the keyword in question, as well as the competition you have when positioning for it.
Google Ads Keyword Planner
It’s the ideal SEO tool when searching for business keywords.
Although it’s not necessary to create an Adwords campaign to use it, you’ll be asked to introduce a credit card number.
With Ahrefs and SEMrush you can also look up keywords and obtain specific information such as its monthly search volume, the level of competition, keyword suggestions and more.
SEO for Startups: On-Page
On-page SEO refers to the optimisation of your own website. The goal is to perform certain actions that help you to improve your SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position). These changes imply adjustments in the different sections and structure of the site, as well as in the design.
Although on-page SEO is a very broad concept, there are some aspects that are fundamental for a startup and therefore important to take into account.
Keywords
When creating a new page, or new content, it’s important that the keyword in question appears. This is a basic SEO tip for startups. In order to create SEO-friendly URLs, it should be short and avoid prepositions and numbers.
URL’s
When creating a new page, or new content, it’s important that the keyword in question appears. This is a basic SEO tip for startups. In order to create SEO-friendly URLs, it should be short and avoid prepositions and numbers.
Page Titles
Page titles/H1s are an aspect to bear in mind as it’s the first thing that the robots will crawl when they enter a page.
That’s why it’s essential that the keyword is included and, if possible, mentioned at the beginning of the sentence.
An extra tip: include words such as ‘best practices’, ‘guides’, ‘tutorial’ etc. as they add value to the structure of the title.
Content optimisation
If the website of your startup is already launched, the optimisation of the pages is necessary to improve their positioning. Beyond entering a keyword in the title, it should also appear in the texts.
It’s recommended that the keyword appears among the first 100 words as it allows the search engines to understand the content and its intent.
However, they should also appear a few times in the rest of the text. But don’t overdo it, because keyword stuffing is not appreciated by the search engines.
Multimedia content
This type of content can extend the average time on page/ session duration.
Images and other multimedia content must weigh less than 100 KB and contain a title and a description that includes the keyword.
Responsive Web Design
Responsive design has the goal to build web pages that detect the visitor’s screen type and change the layout accordingly. This is indispensable for the user experience but also on SEO level.
If you want to know what your website looks like in different formats and sizes, press Ctrl + Shift + I.
Interlinking
Links pass strength and authority from one page to another. That’s why it’s important to try to connect some pages of your site with others to favour the user experience and also the SEO of your website.
Although interlinking can have a positive impact to improve the positioning of your website, you shouldn’t overdo it.
Loading speed
The loading speed of a website is something that Google takes very much into account, especially with the now existing AMP versions.
To find out how fast your site is and if it’s negatively affecting the SEO of your startup, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Tools. This free tool will tell you what your score is, as well as suggestions for improving the speed.
SEO for StartUps: Off-Page
Off-page SEO refers to the external actions that benefit your website. Many people associate this term with link building, so we’re going to explain how that works.
External links
Obtaining links from other domains that are pointing to your website increases your visibility and authority to search engines. These links can be dofollow or nofollow.
If the link pointing to your site is nofollow it means that it doesn’t transmit strength and authority (also called link juice).
However, a nofollow link can still have a positive impact on SEO level by maintaining the balance between nofollow and dofollow backlinks.
There are several ways to get backlinks:
- Through the guest author section of other pages/blogs.
- Through interesting (press) releases, in which the medium links to your website.
- Exchange of links (not recommended).
- Publication in forums (a less relevant option).
- Comments (which is less effective).
- Paid media (with high domain ratings).
When it comes to finding websites that link to the website of your startup, there are many techniques you could try. With Ahrefs, for example, you could analyse your competition and check which domains are linking to them.
Another option could be to analyse broken links from websites that no longer exist and ask them to add a link to your site.
By applying these strategies you will probably improve the ranking of your website. However, surrounding yourself with SEO professionals might have a bigger positive impact on your startup.
At AgenciaSEO, we’re experts in web positioning. If you want to improve your search engine ranking position, contact us to find out more!
