Startup SEO: How to Build a Defensive MOAT As a Startup

When it comes to startup SEO, you have to think differently than traditional, big-company SEO. This is especially true for bootstrapped startup founders, SEO is one of the most powerful growth channels you can invest in early on. And the earlier you start, the better.

First off, organic search is incredibly measurable compared to other marketing tactics. You can predict growth based on your keyword rankings and see exactly how much organic traffic and leads different SEO strategies are driving. That predictability is huge for a startup.

Beyond just measurability, SEO strategies actually compound over time in a way that paid advertising simply doesn’t. We stopped publishing new content on our first startup website back in 2021. Yet, we are still getting organic traffic years later without lifting a finger! Imagine how much that residual traffic would have cost in paid ads.

Depending on the topic and the search intent, the leads from organic search also tend to be more convertible. When your startup shows up on the first page of Google alongside competitors and unicorns, it builds instant credibility and trust with your target audience. These are motivated buyers actively searching for solutions like yours.

Most importantly though, if you do SEO right from the start, you can build a powerful defensive MOAT. Once you’ve earned those first-page keyword rankings, it becomes extremely difficult for competitors to displace you. At least for a long while. You’re cementing your startup’s place in the market. Getting high search engine rankings takes a lot of time and effort so urge you to start early. But it’s so worth it.

Key takeaways

Prioritize search intent over product messaging

Don’t just create content marketing around what your product offers. Focus on understanding the problems, questions, and topics your target audience is already searching on search engines and platforms like Reddit and Quora. Match that user intent.

Nail the E-E-A-T factors for search engines

To build a defensible SEO MOAT, create content that demonstrates real-world Experience, deep Expertise, robust Authoritativeness, and strong Trustworthiness signals per Google’s E-E-A-T framework.

Monitor search engine rankings and organic traffic

Set up a Google Search Console account and use SEO tools to track critical metrics. This data should guide your content strategy and link-building efforts.

Fix technical SEO issues

Even brilliant SEO strategies get derailed by website indexing errors, site structure problems, duplicate landing pages, slow page speeds, and other technical bugs. Do technical SEO audits regularly.

Implement on-page SEO best practices

Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, image alt text, and use relevant keywords to help search engines understand your content. Update old content at least once a year.

Build authority with quality backlinks

A strong backlink profile with inbound links from authoritative, trusted other sites should be a major priority through partnerships, PR, influencer marketing, and content collaborations.

Start early and stay consistent

SEO efforts compound over time, so prioritize SEO from day one. Consistently maintain and iterate your SEO strategy. Stay up-to-date with best SEO practices.

How we used SEO to get organic traffic and outrank competitors

You’re probably thinking “This sounds great in theory, but can a bootstrapped startup really outrank major competitors just through SEO?” The answer is absolutely yes – I have first-hand proof.

At our first startup BriefBid, we were a tiny team with virtually no content marketing budget. Yet through smart SEO practices, we managed to outperform massive target keyword incumbents like Hootsuite and HubSpot on some of the most competitive target keywords. We were showing up above them on the first page of Google! We did this not by trying to beat them at their own game, but by reframing the entire game.

The same approach allowed us to get on the first page rapidly for terms like “how to use Chat GPT for sales” at DeckLinks – despite having no affiliation with Chat GPT! We simply tapped into the surrounding interests of our sales rep audience.

We even ranked for incredibly niche terms like “SIPOC diagram” just because some of our clients were creating those diagrams in PDF format and sharing them using DeckLinks. Wild, right?

But here’s maybe the most amazing part: despite not publishing any new content on BriefBid since 2021, we still got over 14,000 organic visits to that old content last year alone. The SEO MOAT we built years ago is still working its magic.

SEO is not about what your startup offers

The biggest mindset shift you need to make for successful startup SEO is realizing it’s not about you and your product – it’s about your customers and what they’re searching for. SEO has nothing to do with your startup’s offering. It’s 100% focused on tapping into the search intent of your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Obviously, you’ll have your “money” or “conversion” pages but you need to focus on creating a high-quality content foundation for an effective SEO strategy. This content will consist of relevant content to your ICP, ideally tied directly or indirectly to your product.

So instead of creating content around what your product does, you need to deeply understand the problems, questions, and topics your ICP is already Googling. There are tons of free tools and ways to get insight into this:

For our media planning startup BriefBid, we noticed junior media buyers were constantly searching for definitions of acronyms like “TRP” and “GRP”. So we created a whole glossary of definition articles to rank for those relevant keywords.

With DeckLinks, salespeople in our ICP were asking “how to use ChatGPT for sales” even though our product has nothing to do with AI. But we made a guide for that very search query (target keyword) to capture that search volume.

Reddit communities for your industry, the “People Also Ask” section on Google, and keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Google AdWords are all goldmines for seeing what your ICP actually cares about. The goal is to create dense content clusters around those topics and relevant keywords to build topical authority.

The beauty is that once you nail this audience-first approach, you can attract your ICP through the top of the funnel when they’re just doing research. From there, you can nurture them towards becoming customers organically.

Think about it, when you search for something online, you’re not looking to be bombarded with promotional fluff in the search results. You want to find trustworthy resources that provide the answers, insights, or solutions you need to satisfy your search intent. As a bootstrapped startup, your SEO content marketing goal should be to become that credible, authoritative resource.

A human-first, educational partner approach to SEO

A human-first, educational partner approach to SEO allows you to allows you to:

1. Build rapport and trust

Constantly pushing promotional content written for search engine rankings is a great way to turn potential customers off. But creating robust relevant content and thought leadership content shows your startup deeply understands the problems your audience faces.

2. Foster two-way conversations

Old-school SEO strategies and tactics aimed at keyword optimization or technical SEO. Today’s effective SEO strategies reward engaging content that facilitates two-way dialogue.

3. Solidify brand affinity and loyalty

When your startup becomes a go-to source for valuable knowledge and insight, you strengthen brand affinity and loyalty with your target audience. Potential customers feel like you have their best interests in mind, rather than just trying to make a quick sale. This human connection cultivates supporters who speak highly of your startup.

4. Stay top-of-mind for relevant needs

By helpfully inserting yourself into relevant search queries, you remain top-of-mind for your target customers. They begin to proactively think of your startup when related needs or opportunities arise.

For bootstrapped startups, this is an especially powerful long-term SEO strategy to build a defensible MOAT. You likely can’t outspend big-budget players on paid advertising campaigns. But you can outmaneuver them through thoughtful content creation that keeps earning respect and most importantly, business from your target audience.

How SEO efforts can help you build a startup MOAT

As a bootstrapped startup founder, it is hard for me to overemphasize the importance of implementing SEO strategies early on. Search Engine Optimization may seem like just another marketing tactic, but for bootstrapped startups, it creates an incredibly effective MOAT against competitors.

SEO is ESPECIALLY strong against newcomers. JUST DO IT! Here are the top reasons why I strongly believe startups should invest in SEO from day one:

1. SEO helps you dominate a niche

From my experience, when executed thoughtfully with a long-term vision, SEO can help you utterly dominate a specific niche or target keyword category in search engine results. I’ve seen how optimizing for search engines (specifically Google) early allowed startups to get ahead while their competitors were still finding their feet.

This first-mover advantage in SEO lays the groundwork for long-term search visibility and brand recognition that even well-funded latecomers will struggle to replicate. At the very least it will take them a while to catch up if you’re doing SEO right and following best SEO practices. By strategically creating content clusters and building authority around specific topics, you effectively “own” that niche and potential that can block out any future upstart competitors. It’s the ultimate defensive MOAT.

2. Search rankings compound over time

Unlike paid advertising, the SEO efforts you put in today will keep driving organic traffic to your website far into the future. With the right technical SEO, quality content creation tailored to search intent, your target audience, and strategic link building, you can secure top positions in search results over the long run. Even industry incumbents will find it extremely challenging to displace your startup’s strong search rankings.

Every new blog post, technical optimization, and high-authority backlink contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of improved search visibility and organic traffic growth. AND the more high-quality content you produce around a certain topic, the stronger your topical authority becomes. Strong topical authority makes it easier to rank more specific keywords without worrying much about keyword difficulty. We stopped producing content for BriefBid a long time ago and it’s still getting organic traffic.

3. SEO amplifies marketing channels

Paid advertising drives quick wins (assuming you nailed your messaging, cost, targeting, and creatives) that stop once you cut spending. The reason I advocate for startup SEO so much is that search engine visibility amplifies the impact of all your other marketing channels like content marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, etc. for more cost-effective growth.

4. SEO attracts high-intent leads

The beauty of capturing organic search traffic is that potential customers come to you prequalified with a specific intent in mind. They’re not just browsing aimlessly, but actively looking to solve a pain point your startup can address. This high buying intent makes a startup SEO strategy an incredibly efficient and cost-effective lead gen engine.

5. SEO helps maximize marketing ROI

Let’s be real, as a bootstrapped founder, you can’t simply outspend your big competitors and well-funded Bay Area startups on paid advertising. But you can absolutely out-hustle and out-optimize them with an effective SEO strategy.

6. SEO boosts online brand visibility early

For today’s potential customers, most buying journeys start with a search query. By optimizing your startup website to rank well for relevant keywords, you get to prominently showcase your brand narrative and solutions when people are actively searching.

7. SEO is measurable and data-driven

Unlike many marketing tactics that rely on gut instinct, SEO is driven by cold, hard data. With SEO tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google AdWords (Yes, Google AdWords! It provides a lot of SEO data absolutely free.), Bing Webmaster SEO Tools, etc. you get highly actionable data on what content attracts quality organic traffic that actually converts OR what content makes potential customers come back to your website and eventually convert. This data-driven feedback loop will help you continually optimize your SEO efforts toward higher ROI rather than guesswork.

Unless your startup targets a very niche B2B audience, in my opinion, SEO should be one of the core growth strategies to invest in early on. The compounding effects of SEO make it one of the most sustainable MOATs a startup can build from the ground up. It takes patience and persistence though. It’s David’s slingshot against Goliath’s war chest!

The most common startup SEO misconceptions and myths

There’s a lot of misinformation and straight-up BS out there when it comes to SEO for startups. Allow me to debunk some of the most common myths and misconceptions around SEO for startups:

Myth #1: You need to spend a lot of money on SEO content marketing.

This is probably one of the biggest myths perpetuated by a typical shady SEO agency. The truth is organic SEO is one of the most affordable, high-ROI marketing channels for bootstrapped startups. This is especially true these days with AI tools.

At BriefBid, we were outranking VC-funded unicorns with a tiny, part-time SEO team consisting of a fresh grad copywriter and a freelance SEO specialist. No big money is required when you nail audience search intent. Mind this was way back. Pre-AI revolution that made SEO more accessible and cost-effective.

Myth #2: It takes years of SEO efforts to see results

We were ranking on the first page for ultra-competitive keywords at BriefBid within months through smart keyword research and an E-E-A-T focused content strategy. It wasn’t called E-E-A-T back then but that was exactly what we were focusing on when creating high-quality content for our ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).

With DeckLinks for example, we got our founder-led sales guide on the #1 page of Google AND in Google snippet in under two weeks just by collaborating with an industry expert to inject real-world experience. Results can come quickly with the right SEO strategy.

Myth #3: You need a lot of backlinks to rank high in search engines

Backlinks aren’t going anywhere but the key isn’t just pursuing random backlinks in your link-building efforts. Yes, having a lot of backlinks and a high DR (domain authority rating) helps a lot. However, by building authority and topical clusters around the specific keywords and subjects your ideal customers search you can rank very competitive keywords while having lower DR. You can get way higher search engine visibility writing about niche use cases because of your tight focus.

You can rank above other websites with way more backlinks if you have good topical authority and properly set up internal links. Link building is just one small piece of the SEO puzzle.

Myth #4: SEO for startups is a set-it-and-forget-it channel

Organic search traffic is amazing for its compounding, self-perpetuating nature. But you can’t just kick up your feet. Google’s algorithm updates, evolving standards, and search results mean you need to constantly refresh old content, publish new pieces, monitor SEO performance, and adapt your SEO strategy.  

This is an active, living, breathing content marketing channel that requires nurturing. Any so-called SEO expert promising to “set it and forget it” after they do technical SEO or whatever is straight-up lying.

The bottom line is, that startup SEO should absolutely be a top priority from day one of your bootstrap journey. It offers insane ROI and an unbeatable acquisition MOAT when done right. Just don’t fall for these common misleading SEO myths proliferated by shady SEO agencies and bad actors.

AI-made SEO for startups is incredibly cost-effective if you do it right

In the past, you had to hire dedicated content writers and SEO specialists to create content and do on-page optimization. It could get pricey. But now, a small team or even a solo founder can leverage AI to dramatically increase their content output.

AI can help you get your first blog post drafts done for a fraction of the cost of human copywriters. You can then edit this content, add your own perspective with real examples, and then do on-page SEO before publishing. This will allow your startup to move much faster and produce more content consistently.

However, the double-edged sword is that this accessibility also increases competition. Every startup under the sun can now pump out A TON of AI-generated content. This increased competition a lot. It also increased the noise in search engines.

Before publishing a new piece of content, always ask yourself “Would I personally read this content? Is it helpful? Does my content have a unique angle? Is it regurgitating what’s already in the search results? Is it engaging and interesting to read?”.

Don’t just dump AI-generated content as is! You will risk getting penalized by the search engines, potentially getting a manual strike by Google, and even ruining your domain authority for a long time. Besides, the main point of content marketing is to build relationships with your target audience. Respect your potential customers. Respect the brand that you’re building. Have long-term SEO goals and vision. AI tools are here to help you create content, NOT create content for you!

You can learn more about Google’s helpful content guidelines here. Here’s what Gary Illyes – analyst on the Google Search team – recently stated at SERP Conf. “Google doesn’t have an issue with AI-generated content/websites. If we have a problem, it’s with low-quality content.” So focus on creating genuinely helpful content that satisfies the search intent, has a unique angle, and is easy to read.

Also, keep in mind that search engines are constantly updating their ranking algorithms. They see the AI content flood. That’s why for example Google introduced a new framework called E-E-A-T that puts a premium on content with high levels of real-world experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness signals.

To build a defensible SEO MOAT, you’ll need to prioritize creating high-quality content that checks those important E-E-A-T boxes. E-E-A-T is the foundation of your SEO strategy.

Google’s E-E-A-T framework

Okay, so Google knows there’s going to be a huge wave of AI content hitting the Internet. They can see this AI writing tidal wave coming from a mile away. Not only that, they’re also adding AI to their search engine called SGE (Search Generative Experience), but that’s a whole nother can of worms. If you’re interested, you can learn more about it here.

That’s why they’ve updated their search engine rankings algorithms to prioritize content that has strong Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals. They call it the E-E-A-T framework, and it’s their defense against AI content flooding the organic search results, with low-quality garbage written and SEO optimized for search engines and not for people.

Experience

Experience is huge for them now. Google wants to see content written from real first-hand experience. Not just generic regurgitations. When we collaborated with Duane Dufault on our founder-led sales guide, he shared a ton of insights from his decades as an actual sales rep. Google immediately recognized and rewarded that first-hand experience by rocketing us to the #1 position in just two weeks!

Expertise

But your own experience isn’t enough. Google also loves it when you tap into the expertise of credible industry experts and thought leaders. That’s why at DeckLinks, we partner with respected consultants and authorities for co-creating content. It adds layers of true expertise that AI can’t replicate.

Authoritativeness

Then you need to build authoritativeness into your content through data-driven research, proprietary studies and surveys, visualizations, and other unique assets. Stuff that establishes you as the authoritative source that others have to reference and link to. When we write an article, we always pack in our own original data points and research stats.

Trustworthiness

Finally, there’s the trust factor. Google wants to see you citing highly reputable, trusted sources. We’re talking universities, government websites, Wikipedia – not just random blogs and junk sites. We make sure to link out to those authoritative .edus and .govs whenever including statistics or claims to show we did our homework.

So yeah, the E-E-A-T framework is Google’s way of filtering out the AI content flood to surface the most rigorously researched, first-hand, expertly crafted pieces. As bootstrappers, we need to create content that checks all those boxes to build an unshakeable SEO MOAT. Learn more about Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines here.

Also, one thing to keep in mind, you can publish a “perfect” piece that checks all the SEO boxes, HOWEVER, the real game begins when people actually start interacting with your content. This is when Google will test your content against competitors to understand whether or not your content satisfies the search intent and where to put it in the search results.

Do people go back to Google and click on the next page in the search results? How much time do they spend on your website pages? Do they come back to your website? Things like that. Search engines use a lot of content engagement data to determine the content quality.

Our E-E-A-T content strategy

We’ve put a lot of thought into how we can create content that checks all the boxes of Google’s E-E-A-T framework. It’s a multi-pronged strategy:

Experience

For the Experience component, we lean heavily on our customers’ own first-hand experience. Instead of just generic “how-to” guides, we co-create detailed almost like case studies/tutorials directly with customers.

Their unique stories use cases, and lessons learned help us position our content as coming from a place of real-world experience and application. Not just theoretical regurgitated fluff that AI content is famous for. If you’ve worked with AI tools like Chat GPT even for a short period, you probably can smell the content written by AI from a mile away.

Expertise

On the Expertise side, we make it a point to collaborate with industry experts, thought leaders, and respected authorities for co-authored pieces. Their expertise adds layers of credibility.

For example, our guide on using SIPOC diagrams involved partnering with experienced consultants who literally teach how to use SIPOC diagrams to clients.

Authoritativeness

Building authoritativeness is all about including unique proprietary research, data studies, and other assets that position us as authoritative sources worth referencing and linking to. This can help you create backlink magnets that will help you boost your domain authority and boost your search engine rankings.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness comes down to diligent research and linking to reputable, respected sources whenever including external data points or claims. Prioritize linking to high-domain Authority sites like .edu websites from universities or .gov resources from official authorities. Don’t link to sites like Wikipedia. Always look for the original trustworthy source.

Linking out to sketchy, lower-quality blogs and websites is an absolute no-go for building trustworthy signals.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you’re going after a specific target keyword DO NOT under no circumstance link to website pages that are also targeting those same specific keywords. You’ll be giving “SEO juice” to your competitors making it harder for you to compete with them in the search results. If for whatever reason, you absolutely have to do it, you can give them a ‘nofollow’ backlink. Here’s an example of a ‘nofollow’ link <a href=”http://www.example.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link text</a>. A ‘nofollow’ tag will significantly diminish the strength of that backlink in the eyes of search engines.

The biggest SEO mistakes startups make

I’m about to save you a ton of headaches and wasted effort by calling out the biggest SEO mistakes I see startups making over and over again:

SEO mistake #1: Prioritizing their own messaging over search intent.

This is probably the deadliest sin in startup SEO. You can’t just create content around what your product does or how you position your messaging. That’s putting the cart before the horse.

The very first step is deeply understanding the actual problems, questions, and topics your potential customers are already googling. What are their burning pains and needs? That’s what you optimize your SEO content marketing strategy around first through keyword research.

At BriefBid, we wouldn’t have stood a chance ranking for media planning software. But we crushed it for terms junior media buyers were searching like “What is GRP?” and “TRP definition.” Match that search intent! Target less competitive long-tail keywords if your domain authority is low.

SEO mistake #2: Overlooking technical SEO

Even the most brilliant content strategies won’t move a needle for startup websites that are riddled with technical SEO issues slowing down or confusing for Googlebot. A Googlebot is an automated software program used by Google to crawl and index web pages on the Internet.

Site structure problems, duplicate content, slow page speeds, poor mobile UX – these seemingly small issues can tank your rankings in search results quickly. Do technical SEO audits frequently to identify and fix any on-site bugs!

SEO mistake #3: Neglecting brand authoritativeness and expertise

With the rise of AI-generated content, Google has doubled down on prioritizing content with robust expertise, authority, and trust signals. Go beyond generic content to capture first-hand experiences through customer or influencer content collaborations. Drive topical authority from unique data studies and research. And link out to respected trusted websites.

If your content lacks those E-E-A-T signals, you’re getting filtered out.

SEO mistake #4: Not measuring or adjusting SEO strategy

Simply publishing a bunch of content and hoping for the best is a surefire way to waste time and resources. SEO has to be an iterative, measured approach.

Set up your Google Search Console account and Bing Webmaster Tools immediately to monitor critical metrics. That data should steer your ongoing content and link-building efforts based on what’s working.

Search engine algorithms also constantly evolve. If you’re not tuning into industry sources for major updates and pivoting your SEO strategy accordingly, you’ll get left behind.

The bottom line is this: As a bootstrapped startup founder, you simply cannot afford to make avoidable SEO mistakes that sabotage your growth engine and defensibility.

Content collaboration tips for startup founders

Collaboration is essential for creating E-E-A-T content that builds a defensible SEO MOAT for a startup. We simply don’t have the resources or budget to do it alone.

That’s why we live by the mantra of “collaborate or die” with our SEO strategy. We know we can’t possibly have all the first-hand experience and expertise in-house across every use case, industry, and topic our potential customers care about.

So we get scrappy about partnering up with different parties who bring those E-E-A-T ingredients to the table. Here are some of the ways we do it:

1. Co-creating with customers

Your customers are a goldmine for first-hand, battle-tested experience. We frequently loop in customers to co-author detailed articles, guides, and use case examples.

Not only does this allow us to capture first-hand experience signals for Google, but it’s also an awesome way to generate social proof, referral leads, and strengthen customer relationships!

2. Collaborating with industry experts

Finding and partnering with respected thought leaders and subject matter experts is key for injecting true expertise into your content. Whether it’s co-hosting a webinar, guest posts, or quotes in a piece – their credibility automatically elevates the content’s E-E-A-T value.

For us, this has meant collaborating with consultants, sales reps, and other practitioners who add relevant, credible expertise.

3. Co-marketing content collaborations

Partnering with complementary companies and brands on co-marketing content collaborations is a win-win. You combine your respective audiences, assets, and budgets into a single, higher-quality piece of content that checks all the E-E-A-T boxes and gives you another content distribution channel.

The key with all of these collaborations is to use collaborative linking and author BIOs to highlight the first-hand experience and subject matter expertise.

As a resource-strapped bootstrapper, you simply can’t build a defensible SEO MOAT without leveraging the force-multiplying power of strategic content collaborations.

How to Implement SEO and Build a Defensive MOAT

Okay, so you’re probably thinking “This all sounds great, but how do I actually build an SEO MOAT around my startup?”

Start early

The first key is to start early and be relentlessly consistent with your SEO efforts. Don’t make the mistake we made at BriefBid by deprioritizing SEO early on.

We had this incredible SEO engine just humming along, outranking giants like Hootsuite with just a tiny team of contractors. All because we optimized for search intent over shiny vanity metrics from day one.

You need to get that SEO momentum before your competitors gobble up all the prime real estate on the first page.

Having a defensible MOAT

Once you’ve earned high keyword rankings, you’ll have a defensible MOAT because dislodging you from the first page becomes very difficult and costly for other websites. Especially if you’ve nailed the E-E-A-T factors, you’ll become embedded into search engine algorithms as the definitive resource.

It will take a massive, and I mean MASSIVE coordinated effort for any competitor to out-invest and out-optimize you for the same keywords. If you implement SEO right. Even if they somehow pull it off, it will be incredibly costly for them while your startup will still benefit from organic traffic.

How to create an impenetrable SEO MOAT?

And if you really want to make it an impenetrable SEO MOAT? Bury the competition by keeping your content library updated. I recommend you do a content refresh at least once a year. For certain keywords, you may have to do it more frequently. Make sure your content always satisfies the search intent and evolves with fresh examples, data, expert quotes, visuals, and more.

Track your target keywords’ performance. If you see your target keyword is performing really well, you’re on the first page of search engines but not yet in positions 1-3, try improving your article. Give them a couple of weeks and see if your search rankings improve. Going from position 5 to 1-3 in many cases can literally 10x your organic traffic coming from that article. Hunt for those low-hanging fruits. Search engines already trust you with those keywords. Your articles just need a little push!

SEO startup checklist

If you want to build an unbreachable SEO MOAT around your startup, you’ve got to nail these SEO checklist items. No cutting corners.

1. Define your SEO goals

First things first, get crystal clear on your objectives. Actual SEO Goals, no messing around with vanity SEO metrics that many shady SEO agencies like to focus on to distract their clients. Are you looking to increase overall organic traffic? Rank for those juicy “money” keywords? Or would you rather start by building the “informational” keywords foundation first? Drive more conversions from organic search? Spell it out.

2. Do keyword research and match search intent

This is the core of any good startup SEO strategy. You’ve got to deeply understand what your ideal customers are already searching for and then build your whole content strategy around matching that intent. 

I’m talking about using every tool under the sun – Ahrefs, SEMRush, Reddit communities, and even the “People Also Ask” section on Google to identify the keywords, topics, and specific search queries your audience cares about most.

If you’re not sure what the search intent is, just go to Google and Bing, search for your target keyword, and see what pages appear in the search results. Do search engines display product pages or information content? Do they show video content over written content? Is it a branded keyword and search engines give priority to a specific website?

Search engines process billions and billions of search queries daily. Engagement data helps them understand search intent. Use the first page of Google to your advantage. It literally spells out what the search intent is i.e. what people are expecting to see when they search for a specific keyword.

3. Run a technical SEO audit and fix issues

Even the most brilliant, E-E-A-T optimized SEO efforts get derailed by dumb technical SEO issues. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or Lumar (formerly Deepcrawl) to identify any indexing errors, site structure problems, duplicate landing pages, slow page speeds, and other gremlins bogging your website pages down. Fix that immediately! If you’re using WordPress, I highly recommend Yoast SEO Premium plugin to fix many technical SEO issues.

4. Make your website user and mobile devices friendly

Google, and search engines in general, is all about that user experience! Fast load times, easy navigation, zero friction, and optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. If your website pages are slow and don’t provide a great experience on mobile devices, you can kiss those first-page search rankings goodbye. Mobile organic traffic these days drives nearly 70% of organic traffic according to SimilarWeb.

5. Perform on-page optimization

Technical SEO or on-page optimization is foundational. Optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, image alt text, and using relevant keywords or LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords help search engine crawlers better understand what your content is all about. Make it easy for search engines to crawl and rank your content in search results.

6. Create quality content that offers value to your potential customers

At the end of the day, search engines’ #1 priority is identifying content that provides the best possible answer and experience for searchers. That means you have to create robust, thorough, high-quality content directly answering user’s search queries.

For simple search queries, give the answer right away. Don’t make your website visitors waste their time scrolling through walls of text. People have short attention spans. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they will bounce back to the search results and click on other websites. This will send a signal to the search engine that your content may not satisfy the search intent. This can result in your page losing its ranks in the search engine results pages.

That’s not to say avoid long-format articles. Just make sure you structure them properly and add table of contents so they’re easy for your website visitors to navigate

7. Do off-page SEO by building high-quality backlinks

A kick-ass backlink profile loaded with authoritative, highly relevant inbound links from other trusted sites? That’s the dream for bootstrapped startups. Should be a top priority through partnerships, PR, influencer marketing, and content collaborations. High DA (Domain Authority) or DR (Domain Rating) will make it much easier to rank those juicy high-difficulty keywords with massive search volume.

One thing to keep in mind, do not fall for cheap DA or DR boost services. You’ll find a lot of them on places like UpWork and Fiverr. It’s a waste of your hard-earned money. Backlinks that you’ll get will artificially boost your DR or DA but in the eyes of search engines, they are 100% meaningless.

8. Track SEO performance with Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools

Consistent measurement and iteration is everything in SEO. Get your Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools accounts set up ASAP to monitor critical metrics like rankings, traffic, impressions, indexing issues, and more.

9. Stay up-to-date with SEO best practices

SEO is a constantly evolving game as algorithms and guidelines of major search engines get updated. Stay glued to industry news sources, blogs, and forums. If you have any questions about SEO, you can always reach out to me on LinkedIn or BYVI.

Hit all these SEO check boxes and you’ll have laid the strongest possible off-page and on-page SEO foundation. An unbreachable SEO MOAT.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, SEO for startups is about prioritizing SEO from the very start. It is one of the highest-leverage activities a startup can invest in. While paid advertising puts you on a marketing treadmill, an effective organic search strategy provides predictable, and compounding growth.

More importantly, you can fortify an incredibly defensible, hard-to-displace competitive MOAT by aligning your content marketing strategy to match audience search intent, building topical authority, and optimizing for Google’s E-E-A-T signals.

Once you earn those first-page keyword rankings and cement your startup website as the definitive resource on those topics, it will become exponentially more difficult for deep-pocketed competitors to outrank you. The ROI curve will keep compounding in your favor.

FAQs