Why Tech Startups Should Care About SEO
SEO is dead.
Or at least that’s what a lot of people think.
But they are mistaken.
Many entrepreneurs don’t even consider implementing an SEO strategy for their tech startup. They take organic search traffic for granted, and this can easily backfire on them.
SEO isn’t a magic wand that you can wave around and make profit magically appear. However, it is a marketing tactic that any business can leverage to gain awareness, create traction, and build trust.
Today, we’ll go over how SEO can help your tech startup grow and why you want to consider it in your growth strategy from day one.
So, first of all…
What Exactly is SEO?
Let’s take a look at the SEO definition:
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing your website’s content to attract a large volume of qualified, organic traffic. This practice aims to rank high in a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Alright, but this sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. What does it really mean?
Simply put, SEO is tweaking your content to make it easy for search engines (such as Google) to understand what your content is about so they can make it accessible for people searching for that keyword around the world.
How Does SEO Work?
SEO works by showing search engines that your blog post has the most relevant information about the given topic. Each search engine has an algorithm that uses different ranking factors to determine the order the pages appear.
For tech startups, knowing your audience and the words they use is key to optimizing your content.
For example, a small business owner is more likely to look up how to create a website rather than factors that affect website performance, which a more experienced buyer might lookup.
Raking factors are continuously evolving, so staying up-to-date on how SEO changes each year is crucial to continue ranking in search engines.
The Role of SEO in Tech Startup Growth
SEO is often neglected by startup founders because it’s a long-term strategy.
But even if SEO can take up to 3–6 months to bring in results, organic search accounts for 53% of all the trackable traffic of a website. In contrast, paid ads have a 4.5% click-through rate, bringing about 15% of the site’s traffic.
Paid channels are very costly for startups, especially if they make mistakes. They’re also not sustainable in the long term, and as soon as you stop investing in them, leads will stop coming.
It’s also a hard game to play.
Big tech companies don’t feel the impact of spending on ads, while for startups, it can quickly drain their budget.
On the other hand, creating an inbound marketing strategy is inexpensive, helps you establish an online presence, and has a higher ROI.
SEO also helps people to get familiar with your startup’s brand and your product. It builds trust and creates a long-term relationship with your audience.
Most importantly, SEO brings free traffic that can be transformed into leads and profit.
As you can imagine, implementing an SEO strategy for your tech startup won’t empty your pockets and will keep bringing you high-volume, targeted traffic for months or even years.
5 Reasons Why SEO Matters for Tech Startup
Building a strong digital presence is crucial for any business. Here’s why having a search optimization strategy needs to be a priority for tech startups.
You can’t skip Google from your tech startup:
The best way to gain awareness without spending your whole company’s budget on advertising is through SEO.
As of 2020, 93% of all internet activity starts with a search engine. And out of the search engine world, Google still dominates with 70% of the searches. You get the picture. Optimizing your website for Google’s algorithm is your best bet.
It gives you enough insights about your audience:
In the beginning, it’s likely that you won’t have many (if any) insights about your audience.
The tools used to optimize for search gather information over time about the people that visit your website. You can use this information to get a better understanding of who’s interested in your product and how you can target your marketing efforts better.
It’s free:
Many of the basic tools that help you optimize your site, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, are free.
While Google Analytics helps you see how the people that visit your website behave, Google Search Console helps you optimize the more technical side of your site. These are great to start when you’re launching your tech startup.
It’s one of the long-lasting sources of website traffic:
SEO will help you build an audience that loves your content and keeps coming back for more. This steady flow of traffic creates a stronger digital presence.
While paid advertisements can boost your traffic income for a while, without an SEO strategy in place, the traffic will sink as soon as the money runs out.
It helps to increase ROI:
One of the greatest virtues of SEO is driving more revenue while cutting down costs. SEO not only brings in a larger volume of traffic, but most of this traffic is also qualified.
When qualified visitors enjoy navigating your site, you’ll see fewer clicks on the back button and more clicks on the buy pages.
Your Tech Startup Can Also Benefit From SEO
As you can see, SEO is still very much alive.
Making SEO part of your digital marketing strategy will help you gain awareness and traction. SEO is inexpensive and brings a greater ROI than paid traffic in the long run.
It also helps you to gather insights about your audience and understand your customers better.
Don’t forget that SEO is completely free and a long-lasting source of website traffic.
How could your tech startup benefit from SEO? Let me know in the comments!
