For a company that has a website, they must have a good purpose for having one! Whether they want to attract potential clients or make direct transactions through their website, they will want to make sure that people can discover it. That is why having an efficient Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan that will bring the site in front of the proper audience via relevant search results is beneficial. However, with constantly changing search engine algorithms and increasing competition, this is easier said than done. Thus, many companies are prioritizing SEO to become a visible company. This also enables gaining attention when seeking startup funding.
SEO definitely serves as a compass in the wide ocean of the internet, guiding businesses to their digital destinations! This is not a static field; it is a continually evolving landscape that necessitates monitoring and flexibility.
As we approach 2024, recognizing the shifts in SEO methods becomes critical for anyone looking to establish a name for themselves in the digital world.
To begin with…
What is SEO Strategy?
An SEO strategy is a plan of action designed to improve a website’s rating and visibility in relevant search results. It may entail a variety of methods to optimize your content and improve the technical parts of your website in order to drive more organic traffic. This also enables creating visibility while attracting investors for startup investment.
The 5 Steps to Optimize Your SEO Strategy
Let us now break down the main phases of establishing an SEO strategy. While the particular processes may differ from one business to the next, the following are frequently conventional.
#1 Analyze the Company Position
To begin, understand the existing SEO performance so that you may later assess the impact of the plan. When benchmarking the performance at the start, you will be able to follow any changes that occur as a result of the approach you have implemented (Junia, 2023). The Google Analytics report should provide vital SEO performance data for the website. Third-party SEO tools can also be used to measure additional metrics.
At the most fundamental level, assess the performance in terms of organic traffic, keyword ranking, and backlinks. These would essentially tell how many visitors the website received at a given timeframe, how you now rank for various keywords, and how many links are currently going to your site.
#2 Analyze Competitors’ SEO Strategies
In order to gain startup funding you must always out pass your competitors! It is crucial to examine how the competitors are performing and what they are doing to succeed. A thorough competition study should reveal where the competitors now rank, which keywords they rank for, how many backlinks they have, and so on. Then, comparing these performance indicators to yours will be beneficial. There are several competition analysis software solutions available that will allow you to compare your competitors’ SEO performance to yours.
Beyond these essentials, examine their SEO strategy to discover what you can imitate, what they lack, and how you might leverage their flaws. For example, you should try to figure out what kinds of content they are producing for their most important keywords. This might inform you about the content that your target audience is seeking, allowing you to prioritize it for your own approach.
#3 Set the Right Goals
Begin by outlining the most critical goals!
Your startup goal should not be just gaining startup investment, it should be to gain them through visibility and performance. This would imply an improvement above the existing performance.
One such way is to set the right goals for the SEO plan. This makes it crucial to have realistic goals. For example, boost organic traffic by 20% in the following two months. Alternatively, you may wish to rank first for a specific keyword for the following 12 months.
You should also create targets for getting your numbers ahead of the competition. However, based on where you are now and the timescale you have in mind, these goals should be practical and attainable.
Furthermore, the goals should be defined and measurable so that the company can readily evaluate any progress. Make a point of precisely defining the essential measures that will assist the company in measuring its success, particularly in connection with your goal. This may contain measures such as backlinks, click-through rates, keyword rankings, and so on, in addition to organic traffic (Zote, 2023).
#4 Audit what’s there!
Finally, it is time to take a closer look at the company site’s existing content to determine if it may help your SEO efforts. The procedure entails going deep into the website’s various pages to examine their unique performance and find any flaws or potential changes.
Consider these questions…
Are there any pages that do not appear to get a lot of traffic? Do you see any pages that receive very few visits? Make a list of the pages that received the least amount of traffic and engagement.
You can sort your landing pages in Google Analytics by the fewest number of people and the fewest number of sessions. These are the pages you should concentrate on first! Presenting these audits may also help you in gaining the trust of investors to gain startup funding.
#5 Fine-Tune
As the final step, flesh out your SEO plan, with the early efforts focusing on the site’s low-performing pages. Once the difficulties with those pages are resolved, expand, and improve even the pages that are operating well.
The goal is to advance even further with those pages so that you may rank first for them and stay ahead of the competition.
If the page is no longer relevant (for example, services you no longer provide, old products, etc.), removing it totally is the best option. Obsolete and irrelevant material on the website to detract from the visitor experience is not required!
Consider consolidating multiple pages that discuss a similar or related topic but have very little content into one page. Because it contains more in-depth, high-value material, this page will perform better with both visitors and search engines.
Additionally, consider improving and updating content that is still relevant and important but contains obsolete information. Think about expanding it and reinforcing it with extra content that adds value.
Final Thoughts
Improving the on-page SEO and addressing technical SEO issues can have a significant impact on the company site’s rating. These strategies will make a company ready to develop an SEO plan in 2024. However, there is much more to it than that, with off-site SEO elements playing a significant impact. This is where backlinks from other websites come in, telling search engines that the company site is reliable and useful. Thus, many companies in platforms like EquityMatch (www.equitymatch.co) have started paying heed to these factors. Undoubtedly, they will help in gaining startup funding as well!
