Why Your Startup is Failing At SEO, And How to Fix It

by Jay | Updated on March 31st, 2020

Let’s face this together. No one plan to fail, but due to some reasons, failing happens to be a stage most have to go through. Well, although failures help us learn along the way, not all the time you have to fail to raise. You can learn from mistakes made by others and plan your smooth path far before you start your journey.

Many startups fail at SEO either because they don’t know what to do, have little knowledge about SEO or because not prepared for SEO. There may be other reasons why startups struggle to leverage SEO.

The good is that most of the challenges giving startups sleepless nights have a solution. If everything is done in the right manner, these businesses can recover irrespective of the number of times failed. So, how can a startup recover? This post takes you through startups failures and how best to steer away from them. So, keep reading to learn more.

Low-quality content 

There is no shortcut if you want to leverage content marketing. You have to create quality content. Most startups make a mistake of creating content without focusing on the brand. The best idea is to make sure every piece of content prepared is in line with your brand. Anything outside that will only lead to poor results.

Having a sound content strategy can make sure the content you create works for your business. Besides, with a plan, it is much easier to track your performance, build a reliable content marketing team, and improve where necessary.

Slow-loading website

Google uses different metrics to rank websites. Load speed happens to be one of the key metrics used by Google to rank websites. How fast a website load depends on many factors such as its architecture, hosting, content, and so on.

Technical SEO plays a significant role in determining your website load speed. A slight delay when loading has the potential of decreasing your conversion rate by a big margin. Keep in mind most people are not patient enough to wait for a website to load. Optimizing your website speed is, therefore, necessary to boost in on-site conversion. Remember, sites loading fast are appealing to both users and search engines.

Consulting a good UX designer is a good idea if your site load speed is the main pain point. UX designers look at different things such as URL structure, architecture, and content size to make sites appealing to both search engines and users. For the best experience, make sure to check your website load speed often. If you treat this as a one-off exercise, you are in for more SEO hiccups. 

Selling to the wrong customers

Not knowing who your customers are is the worst mistake a business can make when contemplating SEO. Consider when entering examination room without clear knowledge about the paper scheduled for that day, automatically you will fail. The same thing happens if you start your SEO journey without finer details about your customers. 

Profiling them is a good idea and something you need to consider very seriously. Take your time and gather as much information as possible about your customers or prospects before preparing any content. For some startups, generalizing their customers and putting them in the same basket is what results in SEO failure.

Trying to gather reliable information about your prospects even though not always that simple is the only way to win in this. Spending enough time with your customers, asking them the leave reviews, following them on different platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is an excellent way to succeed in SEO.

Poor content investment 

Have you been businesses pay expensive content writers to prepare small posts? There is a value in doing this and does not mean such companies have enough to hire the most expensive writers on the planet. They just realize how valuable it is to invest in quality content.

Having the wrong team create content for you is the beginning of your troubles. The best idea is to be smart. Know the kind of content you need and budget for it. Also, remember to plan for content marketing to amplify your brand. Don’t just relax and wait for a miracle to happen. There is nothing like miracles in SEO. 

Wrong choice of SEO consultants

Not everyone you meet out there with a tag SEO consultant is worth your time. Cheap SEO consultants can get you in a mess that can take longer to get out. The best idea is to consider what a consultant can offer and not the cost. If you focus too much on the money to spend, you may end regretting later. Many businesses have had a rough moment trying to clean up the mess left by wrong SEO experts. You don’t have to be a victim to make the right decision.

Knowing what to look for when choosing an SEO consultant is a big plus when hiring. Try to learn a few basics and doing your homework well before reaching a decision. Ideally, you can know a good SEO consultant by going through reviews, portfolio, asking questions, and by analyzing payment options. Make sure to consider anything you think will give you an edge when choosing.

Treating SEO as a one-off project

SEO is not a one-time thing. Unlike most projects which are done and dusted, it is different when it comes to SEO. Keep in mind SEO is a long-term project. So, to support your project and get positive ROI, consider setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely objectives. It is only by doing that you be in a position to grow your audience and improve your ranking.

Having a solid SEO strategy is very helpful at this time. A good plan should guide you when to carry out audits, choosing reliable tools, and when to publish your content. If you come up with a reliable content strategy and continuously reviews your project, you can rest assured nothing will come to haunt you later.

Impractical timeframe and budget

One thing that will sink your SEO investment is getting started without setting a realistic timeframe and budget. It even said only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. Before you implement your SEO strategy, make sure you have done your homework well. It does not hurt to have finer details about a project even when it takes longer to gather all the pieces.

Getting started without a budget in mind, in most cases will result in wastage of resources. On the other hand, without a timeframe, you cannot tell when is the right time to get started. The two are intertwined, and it a wise to consider them when implementing an SEO strategy for your startup.

To avoid all the confusion, consider budgeting for your project as well as setting specific dates when you plan to implement your strategy. Consider even making your launch day more special by promoting it on platforms like ProductHunt.

Not using digital marketing tools

It is not easier to measure your performance today without the right digital marketing tools. You need them to remain ahead of your competitors. Sadly, despite the presence of many digital marketing tools in the market, startups are still not using them result in SEO fail.

Using the right SEO tools is the only way out for startups to leverage SEO. Tools like Google Analytics have proven to be very helpful in SEO content marketing. You can even start by finding out what experts are using as well as reviewing top marketing tools in the market before reaching a decision.

Unethical SEO techniques

Some techniques will automatically get you into trouble. Consider techniques like keyword stuffing and black hat SEO. These techniques may pay off at the initial stages, but soon you will have yourself to blame. You may play safe for the first few months, but remember there is nowhere to hide if you are serious about SEO. Eventually, every shortcut will damage your website.

Sticking to ethical SEO techniques is the only way for startups to leverage SEO opportunities. Carrying out regular reviews, on the other hand, is an excellent way to clean up unethical practices possibly used without your knowledge. Feel free even to hire an expert if you think unacceptable techniques may have been used to boost your website ranking.

Overconfidence in your SEO knowledge

Overconfidence is one thing killing the dreams of many startups. Some startups think they know everything about SEO. You may think you have the finest details about SEO only to find you know only a small fraction. Keep in mind that even experts consult among themselves. So, why think you know everything and don’t need a hand? 

It is often said if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Remember, SEO is a long-term project. So, consider collaborating with various SEO experts in your industry. You can even listen or watch expert suggestions.

Poor choice of keywords

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors in SEO, you must be ready to research the keywords to use. The idea of using any keyword that ring in your mind will not have an impact. You have to narrow down and find those specific keywords that will improve your ranking. Using keyword search tools at this time will make your work easy. Best keyword tools give suggestions that you can use for every piece of content you create.

The fact most startups tend to ignore the importance of researching keywords, implementing an SEO content strategy becomes a challenging task, and most end up not leveraging SEO. A keyword Planner is another great tool startups can use to avoid using misleading keywords.

Over-optimizing anchor texts

Without diving deeper, over-optimizing anchor texts may seem a good idea, but actually, it is not. Over-optimizing can trigger a flag. It is considered unnatural if you have more than 40% of commercial anchor texts. Making sure every anchor text fit naturally is the best way to get your website rank higher. For example, according to Microsite Masters, websites that had money keyword for anchor text in 65% or more of their inbound links were penalized by Google.

Reviewing your anchor text before using them and using them naturally, is the only way startups can rank their website higher without breaking a rule.

Inability to adjust and evolve your SEO strategy

As the online environment keeps changing, so does Google adapt to new changes. This means businesses must also adjust their SEO strategies to leverage the latest changes. In other words, it is crucial to know what is happening around you and making necessary adjustments. The inability for startups to adjust and evolve is what results to SEO hiccups. 

The best thing about keeping a keen eye on trends is leveraging new opportunities. Keep in mind using old techniques while the rest of the world has moved can result in consequences which you can dodge.

Retiring your old SEO strategies is a good idea and a better way to avoid penalties. The other thing you can do is subscribing to newsletters from Google or sites that offer newsworthy information about the industry. Additionally, feel free to follow experts on various social media platforms. Remember also to follow those experts who share reliable information about the industry.

Failing to measure results

It is surprising to witness startups focused on SEO, yet there pay little or no attention to their performance. You cannot tell how you are doing in the market if a reliable way to measure your performance does not exist. You must come up with a way to evaluate your performance. Luckily, there are many ways to assess business performance.

The best thing about evaluating yourself is the opportunity to learn. It is easier to make adjustments when you have accurate information about your past and where you are today. Dividing your SEO activities into milestones is a brilliant idea as this help monitor each activity individually.

For the best experience, consider having a clear road map and a reliable team handling different tasks. Spicing up the effort of your team with tools like CognitiveSEO, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics makes it possible to measure performance and make positive progress. 

Wrapping up!

SEO startups failures are there. Don’t allow yourself to be fooled there are no startups SEO failures. The best thing is to learn from mistakes made by others and make the necessary adjustments. You don’t have to start from scratch. Why start from scratch while you can spy your competitors and other businesses?

Thinking outside the box will help you dodge most, if not all the SEO startups failures. Even when you have no idea where to start and what is going to work for you, take your time to learn from the experience of others before implanting your SEO strategy. 

Having a good team is also a big bonus. It is just like when appointed to lead others. If those reporting to you are not willing to work with you, no matter how good and smart you are, making an impact will not be possible. With that, make sure the team you have is not likely to screw up your startup and increase your failure.

Jay

I've worked for WooRank, SEOptimer, and working on a cool SEO audit tool called SiteGuru.co. Now I have build Linkilo and SEO RANK SERP WordPress theme. I've been in the SEO industry for more than 5 years, learning from the ground up. I've worked on many startups, but also have my own affiliate sites.

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