Startup SEO

Byline: Your startup SEO guide: Nail lean strategies, outrank bigger players, and score fast wins for sustainable long- and short-term growth.

A Step-by-Step Startup SEO Guide

Understaffed marketing team? Bigger brands with bigger budgets seem leagues ahead? Not to worry. Our startup SEO guide shows you how to nail rankings, optimize lean websites, and pull in leads that prove traction to investors and pull customers fast, all without breaking the bank.

In this guide, you will learn:

Chapter 1 – Introduction to SEO for Startups

In Chapter 1, we’re stripping down startup SEO basics: how it differs from traditional SEO, why niche tactics matter, and how search engines tick.

What is SEO for Startups?

Startup SEO is traditional SEO but with a slight twist: it accounts for low site authority and limited resources. Because of these challenges, the focus is primarily on building backlinks, diversifying traffic sources (aka, leaning on off-page SEO like social media marketing), and generally, achieving SEO wins with limited resources.

Trimming the fat, the key differences are:

• Traditional SEO often works with established sites, so the priority is to maintain previously obtained rankings and continue the trend of upward organic growth.
• Startup SEO hustles for small, low-authority sites where patience, smarts, and conversions win the day.

That’s the basics, here’s some more nuance:

• Scale: Large sites often contain thousands of pages, whereas startup sites are usually relatively small. We’re talking 10-500 pages, so every page must count.
• Team: Large teams deal with bureaucracy. You likely won’t have this headache. This is both a blessing and a curse. No red tape or legacy processes in your way, but you’ll need to be a jack of all trades.
• Competition: Large competitors flex big budgets and SEO influencer-level teams. Your relatively small crew will need to move fast and have their wits about them.
• Budget: High chance you’re working with a shoestring budget, but even if you’re not, every tactic has to pull its weight, otherwise it’s the chopping block.

Why Is Startup SEO Important?

Here’s why startup SEO is make-or-break:

1. Organic search drives 53% of all site traffic (add paid search in there, and we’re talking 70%+ of site traffic coming from search engines).
2. Ranking for primary and niche keywords screams you’re a legit resource to your community and target audience, which builds trust fast.
3. PPC and social ads can burn cash real quick! Organic rankings can save thousands per month.
4. Small sites bleed clicks from slow loads, bad UX, or misaligned content; tight SEO keeps both users and search engines happy.

Don’t forget!

Startup SEO thrives on hustle. Move quickly, align your small team, and prioritize quick wins to secure investor interest or customer sales without overspending.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Before jumping headfirst into startup SEO strategies, let’s break down how search engines do their thing (got this part covered? Feel free to skip ahead):

1. Crawling

Search engine bots, crawlers, spiders, whatever you’d like to call them, follow hyperlinks, moving from page to page, site to site. As they go about this, crawlers collect metadata. This data is used by search engines, creating a clear understanding of what information is contained on each page and how it relates to the pages it links to.

2. Indexing

Once a page is crawled and the metadata collected, a search engine records the information in its index. An index is basically a large database that uses the information the crawlers have found to link each page to a search term, known as a keyword.

3. Ranking

When a user runs a search, the search engine has everything stored in its index ready to return search results that are relevant and helpful to a keyword. It orders the search engine results pages (or SERPs) using a suite of search algorithms that assess a whole bunch of ranking signals. If a page fits the bill, it’ll be displayed as a blue link that the user can click to visit the website.

A search engine’s algorithms consider thousands of ranking signals, including:

• Relevance: How closely a page’s content aligns with a user’s query and search intent.
• Authority: The quality and quantity of backlinks, the site’s age, and its perceived trustworthiness.
• Engagement metrics: Like how long previous users have stayed on a page, how they interacted with the page (and other pages on a site), and whether or not a user shares the page on socials, just to name a few.
• Content quality: Content “helpfulness,” freshness, and originality.
• User experience (UX): Website structure, ease of navigation, and content accessibility.
• Technical SEO: Mobile-friendliness, site speed, structured data, and security.
• Off-page signals: Backlinks, brand mentions, and social signals.

Chapter 2 – Keyword Research for Startups

Okay, that’s the basics out of the way. Let’s move on to keyword research:

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is nailing the exact words and phrases a startup audience punches into Google, like “budget task app” or “carbon offset shopify.”

Good keyword research goes beyond just words, though. Ideally, it should crack the “why” being a user’s search, aka search intent.

What I mean by this is, when you’re hunting down the keywords to add to your content strategy, ask yourself: Why is someone coming to Google and searching these particular words in this order? Are they looking for information on something we specialize in? Are they looking to come to our website directly? Or are they looking to buy something we offer?

Cracking the “why” guides your content creation, meets their needs, and hopefully, drives organic traffic towards a conversion.

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

Search intent is important; we’ve covered that. Anything else? Of course:

1. It’s your launchpad for rankings and organic traffic. No keyword plan? You’re crafting content blind, missing what your audience needs.  
2. Not all keywords are equal. Some are too competitive or won’t pull enough clicks to justify the grind.

So, what’s the payoff for nailing keywords that match your audience’s intent?  

3. You’ll build content that solves their pain points.
4. You’ll pop up in Google when folks search for the problem that a startup solves.
5. You’ll reel in traffic that’s ready to buy, aka high-intent traffic.

Keyword Research Challenges Unique to Startups

I ain’t gonna lie, keyword research for startups (just like it is for any budding business) isn’t a walk in the park. Here are some challenges to keep in mind:

1. Low authority means a startup site isn’t trusted by search engines, other sites, or users just yet. This can make it tough to rank and establish a site as a legitimate player in a given niche.
2. Skint budgets limit access to premium keyword research tools like Ahrefs, and the free ones are rarely up to the task.
3. Search intent in the startup space can be tricky. You’re often on the brink of something new, like a brand new product to the market, something that’s not widely searched for. This can make keyword research a real headache as users can’t search for what they don’t understand.
4. The competition can be brutal. Fat-cat brands dominate keywords with endless budgets.
5. Proving ROI to investors or yourself means linking keywords to trials or sales, not just clicks.

Keep these hurdles in your sights as we explore the following steps. They’ll shape your startup’s keyword strategies.

How to Do Keyword Research for Startups

Okay, enough theory. Let’s get into the meat of this thing: keyword research for startup websites.

In four steps, here’s how:

Step1. Seed and Expand Keyword Clusters

The first step is to uncover the exact language your audience is using. How? With a tool like Ahrefs’s Keyword Explorer or Semrush’s Keyword Overview. I’ll be using Ahrefs:

First, you’ll need to generate seed keywords that tackle the pain points or information a site’s audience is seeking to solve or answer. A good place to start is to work from a site’s core offerings. For a startup, this could be something along the lines of, say, “AI video editing tool” or “carbon offset marketplace.”

You’ll know your niche or your client’s niche best.

Once you have a few ideas, I like to turn to ChatGPT or Gemini. Ask them to brainstorm 10+ seed keywords on whatever the site’s niche is.

Take your freshly generated seed keywords and paste them into Ahrefs’s Keyword Explorer. Hit the search button, and once the report is ready, select Matching terms from the left-hand side navigation menu.

In this example, Ahrefs has returned 10 K+ keywords I could target with content. That’s a lot, so be sure to filter out the hyper-competitive and low search volume terms. Do this by using the KD and Volume filter options at the top of the report.

Step 2. Analyze Search Intent to Guide Your Content Creation

Your startup keywords are ready. But are potential visitors using these keywords looking to learn, compare, or buy? Let’s find out:

Head back to your Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer report, check the Intents column (I for informative intent, N for navigational intent, C for commercial intent, T for transactional intent), and hit the SERP button to see what’s ranking: guides, comparisons, or product pages.

For a question like “What’s a CRM?” it has an informational intent, so write a guide. If people are searching for, say, “[your startup name] vs. [competitor’s name],” that’s commercial intent, so create a comparison page.

If a user searches for the startup’s name, that’s navigational intent, and they should land on the site’s home page. For a keyword like “affordable AI editing tool,” that’s transactional intent, so put together a landing page that links out to a product page.

This approach keeps your content in line with what search engine users are searching for. Match that intent and watch as Google ranks the startup site.

Step 3. Benchmark Competitors for Gaps

Not all keyword research will uncover every single itty-bitty keyword that you may want to target. Thankfully, there’s another super simple way to come up with high-value keywords: take a cheeky look at what a site’s competitors are ranking for that your startup site isn’t.

To do this, open up Ahrefs’ Competitive Analysis or Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool.

Again, I’ll use Ahrefs:

Simply plug in your startup site’s homepage URL, allow Ahrefs to generate your closest competitors, and run the report. Once Ahrefs has done its thing, you’ll have a full list of keywords your competitors rank for, but your startup site does not.

Use the filtering tools again to block out the noise, and you’re good to go!

Chapter 3 – On-Page SEO for Startups

This chapter is all about on-page SEO. Let’s start from the top:

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s content and structure to improve its rankings on the SERPs. The optimizations you make on a website, not off of it. Meaning: optimizing the words on a web page, its internal links, its meta description, the title tags, images, that type of thing.

Why Is On-Page SEO Important?

It’s important for five key reasons:

1. Visibility and Rankings

Google’s crawlers hunt for on-page signals—keywords, title tags, meta descriptions—to decide if a page matches what search engine users are searching for. Optimized correctly and they’ll significantly increase your shot at landing a spot on page one, meaning more impressions, more clicks, and more conversions.

2. User Experience (UX)

The term “search engine optimization” leads many to believe that we’re just here to please Google, but that’s only half the truth. The other half? SEO also aims to meet a visitor’s needs and wants.

For instance, a fast-loading website, an easily navigable site structure, and intent-oriented content are all qualities of a site that affect UX. On-page SEO focuses on these optimizations, signaling to Google that a site is meeting a visitor’s expectations and is worth ranking.

3. Trust and Credibility

Startups are in the business of building trust. Trust in the product, trust in their customer service, and trust in their ability to establish market fit and differentiate themselves from the many other startups that are nipping at their heels.

A great place to establish this trust is on a website. How? With On-page SEO. Best practices like well-written about pages, HTTPS security, and customer review sections signal to both users and search engines that you’re a company that takes the safety and best interests of your site visitors and customers seriously, which Google will reward you for.

4. Engagement and Conversions

Messy pages or ineffective CTAs kill conversions, bleeding trials or sales. Scannable content, punchy CTAs, and keyword-rich copy keep founders or shoppers hooked. These are the types of things that keep visitors on a site longer, which is good for your engagement metrics and great for rankings.

5. Supports Off-Page SEO

Content, navigability, trust building, there’s no off-page without on-page. Think about it: you put together a series of outreach emails, you get a few bites, the recipient clicks through to the startup’s website, and… the content sucks, the UX is terrible, and there’s broken internal links left, right, and center.

This is a terrible first impression and is unlikely to be something another website owner, social media manager, or journalist would promote. That means: no backlinks, no social shares, and a whole lotta wasted marketing budget.

On-Page SEO Checklist

Here are four on-page optimizations for a startup site to crush rankings and conversions:

1. Speak the Language: Keyword Optimization for Startup Content

Keywords are the foundation of startup SEO. They connect a site’s target audience to its content.

Here are some quick tips on nailing keywords:

1. Write page titles that include the primary target keyword.
2. In headings and subheadings, include secondary keywords to broaden a page’s reach.
3. Blend keywords naturally into the body text.
4. Add keywords to image alt text so they appear in image searches.
5. Include the target keyword in the URL slug, using a structure like, say, “startupsite.com/blog/organic-skincare-for-men”.

Show, Don’t Just Tell: Visuals and Video for Engagement

Images help break walls of text and can make more complex ideas a cinch to understand.

Here are some tips for you:

1. Drop infographics to explain big ideas clearly.  
2. Add bold images or videos to make pages pop and scannable.  
3. Use branded demo clips to hook trials or sales.  
4. Optimize visuals for mobile and social to rank higher, no excuses.

2. Answer the Call: Aligning Startup Content with Search Intent

Search intent is why fellow founders or shoppers hit Google. Are they probing “what’s a budget CRM” to learn, weighing “your SaaS vs. rivals” to choose, or chasing “buy eco-gear” to purchase?

Match it to your target audience’s goals, and you’re closing trials or sales.

Here’s how to nail search intent:

1. Check SERPs for keywords to spot what ranks, perhaps guides, comparisons, or product pages.
2. Use modifiers like “how to,” “best,” “deals,” or “reviews” to target intent.
3. Split content into headings, subheads, and bullets for quick scans.
4. Answer the query right away. No fluffiness and minimal scrolling.
5. Add CTAs like “try free” for founders or “shop now” for buyers.

3. On the Go: Mobile Optimization

Slow loads or bad UX kill conversions, with 70% of mobile users bailing on sluggish pages. A startup site needs to be mobile-friendly to keep leads.

Here’s how to crush it:  

1. Use responsive designs that fit any device, no matter the screen size.
2. Cut load times under 2.5 seconds for Google’s Core Web Vitals.
3. Pick fonts that fit, clear headings, and spacing for easy reading.
4. Simplify menus so that navigation is a breeze on a mobile device.
5. Test on phones and browsers to fix bugs before they tank sales.

Chapter 4 – Off-Page SEO and Link-Building for Startups

From on-page to off-page, let’s go do this!

What Is Off-Page SEO?

On-page is everything on a website, right? So, naturally, off-page SEO is the opposite: the optimization you do off a website that supports a site’s performance on the SERPs. What does this look like in practice? There are endless off-page efforts, but to name some examples: building backlinks, promoting a site on social media, or earning brand mentions.

Why Is Off-Page SEO Important?

Building trust is important for every business, especially for startups. Off-page SEO focuses on just that: cultivating an air of credibility and good reputation around a brand, something Google has, in recent times, been heavily suggesting site owners do.

Think of it this way: if you saw a household brand like, say, Intel name drop a brand, you’d take notice, right? You’d think, “Oh, shoot, that startup must be legit if Intel bothered to mention them.”

That’s the power of off-page SEO. It creates trust with users, something that search engines like Google take notice of.

Off-Page SEO Checklist

Here’s an off-page checklist to guide your efforts:

1. Build a Diverse Backlink Portfolio

In SEO, backlinks are insanely important. There’s no understating that fact. But as the now overused adage goes: “backlinks aren’t created equal.” And it’s true, some backlinks are rank-increasing, authority-building monsters. Others are total crap and aren’t worth your time or your money.

Let me give you two examples to demonstrate what I mean:

1. A backlink from a highly respected website like TechCrunch will do wonders for a budding site’s rankings and authority.
2. A thousand backlinks from spammy link farms won’t do a thing. In fact, if you’re unlucky or your link-building tactics are viewed as egregious enough, it could even get you penalized by Google.

So, what about backlink diversity? How does that play into rankings?

If you want a site to stay on the good side of Google and avoid any unwelcome GSC notifications from their spam team, you’ll want to build a backlink portfolio that appears natural.

What do I mean by that? A natural backlink portfolio mixes high-quality do-follow links from niche blogs and local sites with no-follow links from social platforms, making it look natural and organic to Google.

2. Build Authority Through Off-Page

I ain’t gonna sugar coat it, building authority is tough, particularly for budding websites. The good news: it’s far from impossible, particularly if you know what you’re doing.

Here are some tips:

• Land do-follow links from relevant niche blogs or local sites; they’re authority gold.
• Partner with B2B influencers (e.g., SaaS experts) or B2C voices (e.g., retail bloggers) to increase credibility and word of mouth.
• Creating helpful content and repurposing for social media and email marketing campaigns.
• Establishing a site’s authority in a niche by targeting niche-relevant keywords and building content clusters that target relevant topics.
• Adding a site to trusted directories like G2 or TrustPilot and allowing customers to post reviews and feedback.

3. Leverage Brand Mentions: Turn Mentions into Backlinks

Even without a link, brand mentions build authority with search engines like Google. Why? They signal to Google that a site is worth talking about and, given the right context, is legit.

A small win. An even bigger win? You can use brand mentions to build backlinks.

How? Track mentions with tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or BuzzSumo, and then reach out to the sites. If they’re mentioning a startup unprompted, they’re likely already a fan of its work, and, with a little persuasion, it shouldn’t take much to squeeze a backlink out of them.

Chapter 5 – Marketing Best Practices for Startup SEO

Okay, next up, let’s tackle some general marketing best practices that you should keep in mind along the way.

Startup SEO Best Practices

Three startup SEO strategies you’ll want to know:

1. Target the Right Audience

Let’s start with the 101s: defining a startup’s target audience. Understand that each demographic, fellow founders, developers, shoppers, whoever, searches differently. So, get clear on who you’re targeting.

Here’s how:

1. Look at the startup’s core offerings. What do they specialize in, what are their strengths, and what sets them apart from competitors? Answer this to get a feel for what their ideal customer would be.
2. I feel like a broken record, but keep in mind their search intent. Then, consider what kind of content would meet their expectations, solve their problems, and resonate with them most?
3. From here, create content that fixes their biggest headaches. That might look like how-to videos for founders on “scaling a solo SaaS with automation,” cheat sheets for coders on “debugging payment APIs,” or gift guides for shoppers on “carbon-free checkout.”

2. Adapt to Market Dynamics

Startups are incredibly sensitive to shifting market dynamics. They don’t have the economic moat that more established brands have. The consequence? Your approach also has to be sensitive, or, a better way to put it, adaptable.

Why? Markets flip, trends come and go, and competitors outcompete or die off, taking or leaving gaps in the market.

In this cutthroat game, a rigid SEO approach is a death sentence.

A startup needs to be able to pivot, and this is to your strength. Where big brands are locked in their ways and bureaucracy rules, an adaptable, quick-thinking approach to SEO will deliver real results.

3. Balancing Evergreen With On-Trend Content

Like any website, startup SEO should balance quick wins with long-term successes. How should you go about this?

Let’s start with the quick wins: You’ll need to keep your finger on the pulse and suss out any upcoming trends that you can target with content and attract curious searchers your way. There are many ways to do this: for instance, keep an eye on social platforms like X, which are well-known for being first to provide insights and expose new trends.

You could also set up Feedly, pick resources that you know are all over the industry’s latest moments, and take what they’re talking about and create content that explores their ideas further.

And long-term successes? Lean on evergreen content: topics that don’t go away, that searchers consistently search for over a long period of time, and that, if you can reach the top of the SERPs with a well-constructed piece of content, will continue to deliver traffic for months and sometimes years to come.

Chapter 6 – FAQs & Resources for Startup SEO

Kudos for making it this far! If you’ve got any lingering questions, I might just have answered them below:

Should We Invest in SEO as an Early-Stage Startup?

Naturally, I’m a little biased here, but my answer would be yes, early-stage startups should absolutely invest in SEO. There is a but, though.

Yes, invest in SEO, BUT don’t take the slow, corporate kind of approach. Instead, focus on a lean, scrappy strategy that delivers quick wins while planting seeds for long-term gains.

The balance you’ll need to strike is immediate impact with future-proofing, using budget-friendly tactics to target niche audiences and land what matters most to startups: sales.

How Long Does Startup SEO Take?

I’m going to use every SEO’s favorite line, “it depends.” Allow me to explain: there are a ton of variables that make answering this question hard: domain age, site authority, social media presence, previous marketing tactics, all this and more play a hand in how quickly you’ll see wins for a startup website.

But if you held a gun to my head, I’d say it’s not uncommon to see small wins within 2-3 months. Although for freshly launched sites, it could take 6+ months to see any type of significant improvements in impressions, clicks, and organic traffic.

How Much Does SEO for Startups Cost?

Another tough question! The cost of startup SEO can vary widely. For in-house teams that know what they’re doing, you could get away with a small team that would cost you no more than maybe $2,000-5,000 a month.

Some agencies will cost around the same, depending on their level of involvement, output, and the scale of the project.

For a full suite of services, though, including link-building, content, social media management, etc., you could expect to spend upwards of $10,000.

My suggestion? Shop around and find an agency that hits a balance between price and results. Or you could even blend both in-house and outsourced. Use your in-house team for projects that lie within their wheelhouse and outsource anything they’re unable to tackle themselves.

How Do You Stay Up to Date With the Latest Startup SEO Trends?

There are a ton of resources out there for you to keep an eye on. I’d start by jumping onto X and LinkedIn and following some SEOs that are in the know.

Barry Schwartz will keep you up to date with the latest movements in the SEO industry. Lily Ray is another good follow. She’s constantly attending the latest SEO conventions and posting about the latest industry insights. Cyrus Shephard, Mark Williams-Cook, and Aleyda Solís are all good follows, too.

I’d also subscribe to a handful of email newsletters, including Ahrefs, Search Engine Roundtable, and Search Engine Journal. We also have an email newsletter, where we update you on the latest SEO news. Subscribe to it here.

And if you really want to get into the weird and wonderful of SEO, try the subreddits r/BigSEO, r/SEO, or the forum BlackHatWorld. Friendly heads up that BHW is an online forum, so expect degeneracy.