SEO for startups

Introduction

Startup SEO is one of the most efficient marketing channels for startups to build sustainable online growth. While paid ads can deliver results quickly, an SEO strategy can help startups drive long-term organic traffic and build brand credibility without paying for each acquired user. As a result, SEO has one of the lowest customer acquisition costs (CAC) across marketing channels in the long term.

In this article, we will review the best practices for SEO for tech startups and provide some clear and actionable steps to get your SEO campaign up and running.

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Laying the Foundation: Defensive SEO

By proactively implementing defensive SEO, you can take control and protect your brand and website from potential pitfalls that could negatively impact your SEO performance in the early stages.

• Secure your domain name across relevant extensions (e.g. com, co.uk, uk).
• Reserve your social media handles and ensure they are consistent with the brand name.
• Set up Google Search Console and other tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs to track SEO performance and spot issues and areas for improvement early on.
• Fix critical errors such as broken links, no HTTPS or duplicate content.

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Choose a Scalable CMS

SEO is primarily about high-quality content. How your website is built can significantly impact how efficiently you manage and scale that content.

If your website is built with modern frameworks like Next.js or Nuxt.js, it’s excellent in terms of performance and technical flexibility. However, making changes like rolling out new page categories, expanding the site structure, or updating content can become resource-intensive. You’ll likely need ongoing support from the engineering team, which can slow you down and increase costs.

Nearly 30-40% of Y Combinator startups use Webflow for their website, not because they lack technical expertise but because it’s more efficient. It enables marketing and growth teams to manage content and launch landing pages without relying on the engineering team.

Choose a Platform Based on the Business Model

Your website platform choice should reflect the nature of your startup:

• Low-code tools might not be the best choice if you’re building a marketplace like eBay. Your SEO strategy likely depends on user-generated content (UGC) being indexed directly under your main domain (e.g. website.com/product-name) rather than being siloed behind a subdomain (e.g. app.website.com). This structure is essential for capturing organic traffic at scale.
• On the other hand, for most SaaS startups, it is perfectly fine to have the main marketing website on a low-code platform (e.g. Webflow) while the actual app lives on a subdomain like app.website.com. This setup allows efficient, low-resource content management while keeping the platform architecture clean.

The goal is to balance agility and quality. Avoid generic website buildings that limit your SEO flexibility, but also don’t over-engineer your marketing site when a more agile tool can be more efficient. Choose a setup that supports fast iteration, efficient content creation, and scalability without constant dev intervention.

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Minimise Your SEO Toolstack

Leveraging too many tools can overwhelm your team and distract you from execution. In most cases, the following tools will be enough to keep moving forward:

• Google Analytics or, better, Posthog for tracking website traffic and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Google Search Console to monitor indexability, diagnose website issues, and track search appearance.
• Keyword research tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to discover SEO opportunities and optimise content.

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Low Volume + a Problem You Solve = Winning

When planning your SEO strategy for startups, prioritise keywords with lower search volume but high intent. For example, if your website is an IT hiring marketplace, instead of targeting broad terms like “hire developer,” focus on more specific user queries such as “hire next.js developer in London.” These long-tail keywords attract users who are more likely to convert.

There is little point in competing for high-volume keywords in the early stages if you can’t rank in the top five. And if you don’t reach the top, you won’t see any traffic. Competing for more relevant keywords with less traffic is more rational since you have more chances to make it to the top 5, so you can gain some traction immediately. Plus, the traffic will be highly relevant and will likely convert.

Hint: The top result on Google gets about 30% of all clicks, while the second and third get around 15% and 11%, respectively. Rankings beyond the first page get less than 1%.

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Structure Your Website Around Search Intent

Once you identified the pain points your product addresses and used keyword research tools to find specific user queries, you can use this information to structure your website accordingly.

Your website structure will likely be divided into product or service pages and a blog addressing users’ informational queries. Depending on the nature of your startup, your products or services can be further organised into categories, subcategories, and individual offerings to match search intent and improve navigation.

Hint: Use commercial intent queries to structure your product or service pages and informational queries (e.g. “how to hire developers for my startup”) to create blog posts that answer these queries in depth. This drives traffic to your blog page, and visitors will likely explore your website further and convert.

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Google Is Simpler Than You Think

Search engines are powerful but not perfect. Google still needs help understanding your website:

• Use clear, descriptive titles and meta descriptions that include the keywords you want to rank for.
• Structure your content with proper headings (H1, H2, H3) and include target keywords naturally, avoiding keyword stuffing.
• Add alt text to images for accessibility.
• Maintain a logical structure and use internal links to ensure your site is crawlable. To help with this, you can submit your sitemap via Google Search Console so Google is aware of all your pages and updates to your site’s structure.

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Solve Your User’s Real Problems

The purpose of SEO for startups comes down to delivering value. You should research your target audience and understand:

• What are their main challenges?
• What solutions are they searching for online?
• What content formats do they prefer (guides, videos, case studies)?

Create high-quality content that addresses these needs. Use blog posts, tutorials, and case studies to showcase how your startup solves real problems users search for. Early engagement metrics matter a lot, and if users land on your page but leave quickly, search engines will consider your web resources non-valuable, which can lead to lost rankings.

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You Don’t Need Perfect Core Web Vitals

While technical SEO is essential, don’t obsess over perfect scores. Excellent Core Web Vitals do not have enough significance to justify spending your valuable time making them ideal. Instead, focus on basic metrics:

• Fast page load times (especially on mobile).
• Mobile-friendly design.
• Secure Sockets Layer - SSL (HTTPS).
• Fixing significant technical errors (404, no-index tags, duplicate content, etc.).

Aim for a solid user experience, but don’t let perfectionism delay your progress. Good enough is often enough to compete, especially in the early stages.

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Your “Great Content” Probably Isn’t That Great

Many startups believe their content is excellent but needs improvement if it’s not ranking or driving traffic. To make sure your content is high-quality for SEO rankings, consider the following:

• Benchmark against top-ranking competitors by analysing their content length & depth, use of visuals and media, readability and structure, and keyword strategy.
• Ensure your content is comprehensive, well-structured, and easy to read (search engines like content that is simple to understand and accessible to the average user).
• Use visuals, bullet points, and tables to break up text.
• Update and refresh old content regularly.
• Don’t get fooled by AI tools that can write content for you. Search engines can penalise you for using AI-generated content.

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Double Down After Product-Market Fit

Once your startup achieves product-market fit, scale your SEO efforts and start investing strategically in the following areas:

• Expand your keyword targeting to cover more topics and user intents.
• Expand your content library with guides, tutorials, and case studies to engage and retain users.
• Invest in link-building by guest posting, partnerships, and PR.
• Set up end-to-end analytics to see what contributes the most to your sales funnel and allocate capital accordingly.

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Backlinks and Domain Authority

Keep an Eye on Your Domain Rating and Backlink Profile

Domain rating directly affects your ranking potential. You should constantly monitor your domain rating and work to increase it by gathering high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.

While several industry benchmarks are available (e.g., Moz, SEMrush), Ahrefs’ Website Authority Checker is a reliable metric for tracking the growth of your website’s authority over time.

Hint: You can analyse your competitors’ domain ratings and see who ranks higher for a keyword phrase. You will notice that, in most cases, those at the top generally have higher domain ratings.

Build a Backlink Strategy from Day One

Building a backlink profile early on is challenging but achievable. Think of key industry-standard essential directories for registering your startup: Crunchbase, ProductHunt, and other industry-specific directories. These free backlinks can significantly boost your startup in the early stages. Just don’t forget to include a clear description of your startup containing relevant keywords and a hyperlink to your website.

Finally, leverage strategic partnerships to exchange backlinks through mutual mentions on your web pages or by contributing guest blog posts.

Hint: Many people wonder how to get mentioned in AI search results. The reality is that AI responses are shaped by existing search content. Suppose numerous credible sources mention key information about your business using relevant keywords. In that case, this will form a good sentiment so you can appear in AI search results.

Quick Checklist for Startup SEO

• Start with defensive SEO.
• Choose the right platform for your website.
• Conduct keyword research and define your strategy.
• Build your website structure around your strategy.
• Create and promote high-quality, relevant content.
• Build a strong backlink profile.
• Set up end-to-end analytics to monitor performance and refine your strategy.

SEO Mistakes Startups Should Avoid

• Keyword stuffing: Overusing keywords makes content difficult to read and can lead to penalties. Instead, use keywords naturally and in context.
• Duplicate content: Confuses search engines and may cause keyword cannibalisation. Ensure your content is original and differentiated.
• Broken links: These frustrate users and negatively impact your SEO. Audit your site and fix broken internal and external links.
• Spammy backlinks: You will get penalised for low-quality or paid backlinks. Instead, focus on organic growth. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to assess your backlink profile’s toxicity score and reject harmful links when necessary.

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Final Thoughts

SEO is one of the smartest long-term investments a startup can make. While it may not deliver instant results, a well-executed SEO strategy will build your brand’s credibility, attract high-quality traffic, and keep acquisition costs low, and these advantages compound over time. The key is to start with a solid foundation: secure your digital assets, choose the right platform for your business model, and focus on solving real user problems with valuable content.

Effective SEO doesn’t mean chasing shortcuts or obsessing over technical perfection. It means consistent execution, publishing and updating content, monitoring your site’s health, building quality backlinks, and refining your strategy as you learn what works. Even tiny, steady improvements can make a big difference in visibility and authority.

To understand why investing in SEO is essential, consider the example of Ahrefs below. Ahrefs has around 229k organic keywords that rank in search engines, bringing around 2.6 million monthly visitors. This organic traffic alone would be worth $2.4M/month if acquired through Google paid ads. This is how important it is to invest in SEO early on.

Start early, stay disciplined, and make SEO a core part of your startup’s growth strategy. Over time, your efforts will pay off, giving you a sustainable edge in a highly competitive digital landscape.