SEO Basics every Entrepreneur should know before Launching their Startup

Developing a business plan, staying on top of finances, finding the right talent, building your network, or setting up a marketing strategy – are just some of the essentials that new entrepreneurs must learn how to master. As someone who has just entered the world of entrepreneurship and doesn’t know much about running a business in the digital realm, there are many tasks you have to handle and a multitude of things you need to understand in order to get your startup off the ground. With so much information to take in and then put into practice, it’s completely normal and understandable to feel overwhelmed at times.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to building a successful business. You have to put in the effort, expand your skill set and gain the necessary knowledge if you want to turn your vision into a reality. But there are ways to make the journey a bit smoother, and that involves getting your priorities in order and identifying the areas that you should focus on the most. That brings us to one of the essential aspects of launching a startup in today’s digital age: learning SEO.

These three little letters that have become so popular in recent times continue to confuse many entrepreneurs and sometimes send a shiver of fear down their spine, mostly because SEO has gotten a bad reputation in the world of business due to the complexity and the relative novelty of the field. The truth is SEO is far from being rocket science, although it’s not something you can afford to ignore either.

If you’re still having a hard time understanding what SEO is all about, we’re going to break down the basics for you so you can start your business off on the right foot and increase your chances of success, regardless of your industry or niche. So, here are some of the most important aspects that you should include in your SEO repertoire.

What is SEO?

Let’s start off with the most basic item on the list: understanding what SEO is. Despite SEO’s widespread popularity, not everyone is familiar with the practice, so it’s important to set things straight from the very beginning. In simple terms, SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, encompasses all the processes and techniques designed to help pages rank higher on Google and other search engines, increasing their visibility and driving more traffic to the site.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing use bots to collect information about web pages and index them. They also rely on algorithms that take into account a multitude of factors to determine the order in which these pages appear in SERP. SEO looks at all these aspects and creates adequate strategies to achieve higher organic search rankings, so you can get your products/services in front of your target audience.

On-page SEO vs off-page SEO

There are many SEO methods and strategies that can yield great results, and they can be separated into two main categories: on-page and off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to those strategies that target optimising parts of your site to make it more appealing for search engines, while off-page SEO refers to those strategies that focus on aspects outside your site that can influence your rankings.

For example, on-page SEO includes keyword optimisation, meta descriptions, internal linking, title tags, quality content, mobile-friendliness, or user experience. All the factors that are within your control pertain to on-page SEO. Off-page SEO on the other hand focuses on link building, domain authority, social promotions, and all the other elements outside your site that impact rankings. Obviously, a well-rounded SEO strategy should comprise both on-site and off-site techniques, as SEO functions like a machine with many interconnected parts that work together to drive the best results.

SEO is a long-term strategy

What a lot of entrepreneurs fail to understand is that SEO is not a one-time thing. It’s not a strategy that you develop once and then you can forget about, but a long-term process that requires constant effort. So, if you don’t have the time or resources to focus on your SEO strategy the way you should, working with an SEO company in London can provide the solution and make things a lot easier for you.

Keep in mind that if you want your SEO strategy to work, you have to keep up with the market, the competition, and the search engines that constantly change the rules of the game.

Creating high-quality content is key

Back in the day, SEO used to revolve mostly around keywords. Now, if you randomly throw around keywords on your pages, it won’t really make a difference. Also, if you overdo it and use too many keywords on a page, which is known as keyword stuffing, you can get penalised by Google. Knowing your keywords is still an important part of developing a successful SEO strategy, but things have gotten more complex over the years.

Therefore, you should start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify the search terms and topics in your niche that people are interested in, and then integrate them into your content. Creating and publishing quality content that is relevant, informative, compelling, original, and answers customers’ questions represents the recipe for success. So, if you’re not a skilled content writer, it’s best to delegate this task to a digital marketing agency that specializes in providing content writing services.

Interpret analytics

Building a solid SEO strategy can make a huge difference for your business. However, this is not the end of your SEO journey. After you’ve implemented the necessary techniques and strategies and put things into motion, you have to figure out if they delivered the results that you were expecting and the only way to do that is by interpreting analytics.

Analytics provide valuable insights into how your site is performing, helping you understand which strategies work for you and which don’t, so you can make the needed tweaks and changes and improve your SEO strategy for the future.