SEO is a way to find potential customers by optimizing your website for Google search results. Startup SEO is an important and useful strategy for small companies and startups with limited operating budgets.
Through SEO, startups can achieve significant growth because it is a relatively inexpensive marketing method that delivers substantial impact.
Of course, SEO differs from paid advertising. While paid advertising can produce quick and significant results, if startup owners think long-term, this method tends to be expensive and may take a long time to generate a return on investment (ROI).
SEO, as an organic optimization strategy, is the best option for startups seeking growth, brand building, and customer acquisition. In the long run, this strategy will be very profitable, especially for startups.
Currently, the SEO profession in Indonesia is quite promising. Not many people truly focus on startup SEO, making it a challenge for companies and startups to find professionals who specialize in this field.
So, when it comes to SEO in the professional world, the levels are quite diverse. Generally, these positions are divided into Junior SEO, Senior SEO, and SEO Specialist.
This means that positions in the SEO field vary widely in terminology, but essentially, if you want someone who truly focuses on SEO, you should look for an SEO Specialist.
The journey doesn’t stop there. When considering SEO, a startup owner or marketing team must first understand the true purpose of SEO. As mentioned earlier, SEO is one of the best investments for building brand awareness and driving growth in a more cost-effective way.
Although SEO is often considered free, there are still costs involved. The difference is that SEO is relatively cheaper than paid advertising methods.
So, for entrepreneurs or website owners who are curious about the steps to take when implementing SEO, here are some key points to understand how SEO works and what guidelines apply to startups.
1. SEO Foundation
The first thing you must build is the SEO foundation. You must start by defining your goals. For example, your company’s goal may be to increase revenue.
Okay, but what kind of revenue? Is it through increased traffic? Through conversions? Or are there other contributing factors? These considerations must be clearly defined from the start.
2. Competitor Analysis
Next is conducting a competitor analysis. This initial stage focuses more on market identification. So, you are not yet discussing the technical aspects of startup SEO, but rather gaining a comprehensive understanding of marketing analysis.
Here, you will examine how competitors structure their websites to rank well in search engines.
The main points you can observe from competitors are how they create content, their website structure, their UI/UX, and how they target keywords.
3. Keyword Research
Next is the strategy for finding the right keywords. This is closely related to how your brand is positioned within the community. So, you really need to determine which keywords you want to target. In the world of SEO, there are several types of keywords, such as short-tail keywords, medium-tail keywords, and long-tail keywords.
Short keywords generally consist of one or two words. These types of keywords are often directly related to your brand.
It is important to understand that targeting one- or two-word keywords is very challenging due to the high level of competition. So, if you are just starting out and building a website, it is best to focus on long-tail keywords first. From there, you can capture broader traffic opportunities compared to established competitors.
4. Content Creation
The next step is content creation. This is crucial because your website is essentially built for human needs. So, you need to start thinking about how to create content that is relevant, useful, and aligned with your audience’s search intent.
5. Technical SEO
Fourth is the technical aspect. The most important thing here is ensuring your website is friendly to Google bots so it can be crawled and indexed properly.
You should also pay attention to Core Web Vitals. A website should not be too heavy, should load smoothly on mobile devices, have a responsive design, and maintain a clean URL structure. We will cover more in-depth technical details in another article.
Here, you or your startup’s marketing team must be proficient in analytical tools. For SEO, understanding how Google Search Console works is crucial. It is the primary tool an SEO specialist must master.
You might be thinking of Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager, but for SEO, Google Search Console is essential.
Google Search Console is at the core of search engine optimization. There, you can monitor indexing, crawling, keyword performance, queries appearing in search results, and various other important data.
