5 SEO tips for startups from the CEO of Volume Nine

Chuck Aikens is the CEO of Volume Nine which is a leading SEO and Social Media company here in Denver, CO.  Volume Nine was founded in 2006 and has been named to the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for the last 3 years.    When not working hard, Chuck is working towards his lifetime dreams of throwing catch with Peyton Manning in his backyard and playing golf with Rory McIrory at Cherry Hills Coutry Club.

 

 

1) What is the most important thing for a startup to remember when creating and executing an SEO strategy?

 

The first thing to remember is to be patient.  Google and all the other search engines in the world are smart. Like, really smart. There are many, many different factors they use in evaluating and ranking sites; many of these are dependent upon time. When the search engines evaluate a site, they look at things like longevity, how well built up your network is, whether or not you are established on the internet, etc.

 

Essentially, they want you to prove to them that you can be trusted to be put in their search results and this only grows with time. Less competitive industries will find it quicker to build up this trust, but is is crucial to understand that all SEO work take some degree of time and effort to see success.   Or, in other words, doing good SEO takes work. You can't cheat the system - Google will always win. 

 

However, that does not mean there is no hope. A start-up should work towards creating a solid SEO foundation for which all their future efforts can rely upon. Things like technical optimization, site speed, having great on-site content, doing light content optimization, etc. can go a long, long way towards seeing long term success. Following these basics, it is then time to start thinking about getting going with more time-intensive tactics such as content marketing, social, blogging, influencer outreach, etc. 

 

2) How do you optimize your site, if the most appropriate keywords are highly competitive? Alternative approaches?

 

If your target keywords are highly competitive, you may need to find keywords that are searched less but are not as competitive.  When starting out, we often recommend that you pick a few specific keyword themes that you can establish authority and relevancy.  Google will often rank a new website (or business) that focuses on 1 or 2 very specific concepts over a more trusted website that covers a wider set of topics.

 

When you optimize your website, or build in-bound links, be sure to not over-optimize as Google doesn't like websites that are deploying obvious SEO tactics.  Older and more established websites might get away with it, but Google algorithms are built to catch sloppy SEO.  We always like to tell people (and so does Google) that often times the best SEO 'technique' is to simply build an awesome, unique, and relevant website. If your site is good, a lot of the SEO gets taken care of on it's own through the distribution and interaction from your users. 

 

By the way, the Google algorithms updates over the last 2 years have been named after animals so we aren't pulling a prank on you when you start talking about the Panda, Penguin, and Pigeon updates.

 

3) What are some of the best strategies for building organic SEO?

 

Once you have optimized your site and finished the first round of promotions, the next step is to setup and commit to a long-term strategy.   Many exerts in our industry say that "Content is King" and you should definitely put some effort into developing great content that will attract your target audience to your website.  More importantly, you should use content marketing to win links, get social shares, and build up the authority and trust of your website.  Other ways of generating organic traffic is getting earned press mentions, guess blogging, conducting webinars, building infographics, or just asking your partners and vendors for a link.  Not only is this a good SEO strategy, but you might also get some great referral traffic as well.

 

4) At what point do you think it is appropriate for a company to buy search results?

 

If you have a viable offering and are ready to sell something or generate leads, buying traffic from the Search Engines should be something that you evaluate.  A good Paid Search program is a great complement to your Organic Search program.  In the beginning, it is a great way to see what the best converting keywords are and how much they cost. Furthermore, studies show that having both an organic listing in the search results along a paid advertisement works better together than have just organic or just paid advertisements.

 

Display advertising, social advertising, and re-targeting are also other great mediums for start-ups to get the word out and may bring positive ROI even though they can sometimes take quite a bit of work to get up and running efficiently. 

 

 

5) What else would you recommend to a startup that in not familiar with SEO techniques?

 

SEO is an important first step as you can build on a good framework for many years to come. But it doesn't stop at optimizing your website, you also need to produce great content, build a social community, and develop out your creative assets.  One you get someone to your website, you need to work on conversion rates, be mobile friendly, use rich media like video, and overall think about how marketing automation works with your organic and paid traffic.   

 

It sounds like a lot of work, but SEO is just one part of a solid Inbound Marketing program, and we find ourselves working with our clients on all of these different specialties in some capacity even if our main focus is SEO and that is where we started with almost all of our clients.

Courtesy of: builtincolorado.com