Digital marketing fuels success in the modern business world, and even though investing money in marketing might be the last thing on your mind right now, the reality is that you need to allocate financial resources towards branding and online marketing if you are to elevate your startup’s visibility, reach, and authority in the competitive industry. Now, there are numerous marketing tactics you should explore, but until your business starts making money, you should focus on the methods that will give you the biggest bang for your buck.
Of course, one of these methods is search engine optimization. This marketing tactic aims to boost your brand’s visibility and recognition in the saturated online market by helping you climb to the top of all relevant SERPs, which will ultimately help you become an authority in your niche. The best part, though, is that it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Here’s how you can build yourself an effective SEO strategy in 2020 as a startup with limited financial resources.
Step #1. Start by setting your goals for 2020
Every marketing campaign, and every good business decision for that matter, needs to have a set of clear and achievable goals. At first glance, it might seem like SEO has a pretty clear goal – to drive traffic to your site – but in reality, there are many goals you can assign to this marketing tactic that can help you grow your business on numerous fronts. With that in mind, your first order of business should be to set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. This is your foundation, and it will allow you to tailor your SEO strategy according to your primary business objectives.
Your goals can be varied and serve a multitude of purposes, such as doubling the number of quality leads that reach your website within the first half of 2020 (not just more traffic), or to increase your blog traffic by a certain amount, or to get people to sign up for your newsletter, or even to help increase sales by the end of the year. Keep in mind that SEO should serve a set of concrete goals, and you will have no problem optimizing your strategy to achieve them.
Step #2. Optimize your images and other content
Now that you have your primary and secondary objectives; you can start optimizing the content on your website. The first step is to research all relevant keywords that pertain to your brand, industry, and niche, so that you can weave them into the content on your website and use them to create appealing and relevant content in the future. After all, SEO brings numerous benefits to the table, one of which is to serve as inspiration for a stellar content strategy.
Once you have your keywords, you can start integrating them into your existing blog posts and other content types. Be sure to integrate them seamlessly and avoid keyword stuffing at all costs. Optimize your images with the appropriate alt-text and formatting, and make sure to sprinkle your keywords in headlines, subheadings, meta descriptions, and title tags.
Step #3. Always act on relevant data
Search engine optimization is always changing and evolving with the consumer trends and the algorithms that search engines like Google employ to bring relevant results to the online audience. That is why you can’t hope to just “set it and forget it”, as SEO requires continuous implementation and tweaking if you are to stay relevant in the competitive market. You can outsource this task to an experienced marketing agency that is always monitoring the latest SEO trends.
If you do, though, make sure that they are using contemporary SEO reporting tools for agencies that give them a comprehensive overview of all relevant metrics, and allow them to create actionable and tailored reports that fit the needs of your company. If you choose to keep your SEO team in house, be sure to integrate the reporting tool yourself so that you can always stay on top of the latest developments and optimize your strategy at a moment’s notice.
Step #4. Build a backlink strategy
Successful SEO is not just about publishing optimized content on your own website – it’s also about posting amazing content on other authority websites in your industry. This is called backlinking, and it’s one of the time-tested SEO tactics that worked in 2019, and is going to work in 2020 and beyond.
Your goal should be to generate organic backlinks on websites that rank high in the SERPs, in order to transfer some of that link juice back to your site. You will only be able to earn a do-follow link if you create stellar content that brings value to the customers and the website where you’re guest posting, so be sure to hire experienced content creators before pitching your articles.
Step #5. Emphasize mobile optimization
And finally, keep in mind that Google loves mobile-friendly websites, and so does the online audience. People are increasingly consuming online content on the go, which is why it’s imperative for a startup to optimize its online presence with accelerated mobile pages and make mobile browsing as seamless and responsive as possible.
This will allow Google to rank you higher, but perhaps more importantly, this will allow your potential customers to check out your site no matter where they are. Your website should be able to load quickly and your content should be legible on all handheld devices and screen sizes.
Wrapping Up
Search engine optimization might require constant work and implementation, but it’s still a cost-effective way to build an online presence and get your brand noticed. Be sure to follow these tips in order to create an SEO strategy that will put your startup on the map without putting a dent in your budget.
About the Author!
Jacob Wilson is a business consultant, and an organizational psychologist, based in Brisbane. Passionate about marketing, social networks, and business in general. In his spare time, he writes a lot about new business strategies and digital marketing for Bizzmark blog.
Comments are closed.