seo and digital marketing strategy for start-ups

SEO & Digital Marketing – a StrategySEO & Digital Marketing – a Strategy

Business Survival RateBusiness Survival Rate

Small Businesses•Per SBA.gov, 50% of all new established businesses survive 5 years or more and about 1/3rd survive 10 years or more

Venture Backed Business•A 2013 Harvard survey stated that 3 out 4 start-ups fail.

My observationsMy observations

•Most start-ups are engrossed in Product Development (which I agree is more fun)•Do not pay attention to or budget for significant Marketing push until they realize that they are running out of cash•Focus changes to fund raising•Investors don’t want to invest because there is no significant sales

Inbound MarketingInbound Marketing

Inbound (SEO, Blog, Social Publishing) •Potential clients coming knocking on our door

Outbound MarketingOutbound Marketing

Outbound•You go knocking on client’s door

What is SEO?What is SEO?

What is SEO & Digital Marketing?What is SEO & Digital Marketing?

SEO•SEO is the process of improving the visibility of the website organically (“naturally” or “unpaid”) on Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Digital Marketing•The promotion of products, brands or services via electronic media.

Various sources

Organic searchOrganic search

Rank based on PPC bidding

Rank based on Google’s 200+ parameters

**Paid advertising does not directly affect your SEO ranking

Why SEO?Why SEO?

How does Google search How does Google search work?work?

Google searchGoogle search

Google’s aim is to give searchers the most relevant and high quality search results•60 trillion individual web pages•Google navigates the web by crawling links from page to page•Sorts pages by content and other factors•Keep track of it all in the INDEX•Based on search it pulls relevant pages from the INDEX•Results are ranked in 1/8th of a second based on 200+ factors including

How does Google rank websites?How does Google rank websites?

Google Ranking of

Website

Backlinks

Social Networking

Search friendly graphics

Meta Description200+ parameters

Keyword density

Relevant, Fresh & Unique content

URL

Keyword phrase

How to SEO?How to SEO?

SEO strategies: On-siteSEO strategies: On-site

• Keywords• First step in successful SEO strategy• Use Google Adwords Keyword Planner/Moz to evaluate

competitiveness of words

SEO strategies: On-siteSEO strategies: On-site

•Meta data• Title Tag, Description Tag, H1 tag, H2/3/4 tags• Should be unique & relevant for each page• Focus on value for users and not on search engine as much

Meta DataMeta Data

Meta DataMeta Data

SEO Strategies: On-siteSEO Strategies: On-siteKeyword search

Description under 155 characters

Title under 60 characters

Keyword AnalysisKeyword Analysis

Keyword ListKeyword List

Google Search VolumeGoogle Search Volume

SEO strategies: On-siteSEO strategies: On-site

• URL• Incorporate keywords in your URL where possible

• Competitor analysis• Images

• Quality images for positive user experience• Image names (alt tags) should be relevant and descriptive (i.e. use

RedSofaSpingCollection.jpg instead of image1.jpg)• Mobile readiness• Searches on mobile devices not exceeds PCs• Site has to be responsive

Mobile friendly & search rankingMobile friendly & search ranking

TIP: Test your website’s mobile friendliness on https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

SEO strategies: On-siteSEO strategies: On-site

•Site Map• Lays out the inner structure of the websites content to the search

engines• Site map on home page as well as XML site map inside the code

•301 Redirect• Permanent redirect from one URL to another

•Missing page (404 errors) redirect

SEO strategies: On-siteSEO strategies: On-site

• Original Content• Content is KING – blogs, videos, case studies etc.• Focus on content that is useful, informative and unique

TIPS- Convert every project/product into a case-study and publish- Get client testimonial (video preferably), post on youtube/vimeo- Press Release any significant news- Speaking engagement- Have every member of the team contribute content

SEO strategies: Off-siteSEO strategies: Off-site

SEO strategies: Off-siteSEO strategies: Off-site

• Back-linking• Quality links pointing to your website• Build back links by submitting press releases, submit to popular blogs,

good quality product images or graphics that will influence bloggers and websites to link to that content

• Social Media• Strong social media presence – sends search engines signals of

influence and authority.

• Consumer Reviews (Yelp, Trip Advisor, City Search)

• Search engine submissions / directory listings (DMOZ)

Remember - your competition is doing this, you just have to do it better & more aggressively to win!!!

TIP: Maintain a monthly content and digital marketing calendar

How aggressive should I be you asked?How aggressive should I be you asked?

Digital Marketing investment calculatorDigital Marketing investment calculator

1. Where do you want to be next year (set a goal)1. Where do you want to be next year (set a goal)

2. What is your average revenue on each client?2. What is your average revenue on each client?

3. What are you willing to pay to acquire each client?

3. What are you willing to pay to acquire each client?

4. Divide your revenue by average revenue per customer. This will give you how many customer you need to achieve your goal

4. Divide your revenue by average revenue per customer. This will give you how many customer you need to achieve your goal

5. Multiply number of customer needed by cost you are willing to pay to acquire each customer.

5. Multiply number of customer needed by cost you are willing to pay to acquire each customer.

$500k revenue

$10k

$1k

50

$50,000Or $5k/month

Organic vs. paid searchOrganic vs. paid search

Organic Paid (PPC)

Pros:•Results are non-bias•Longer-term ROI - Natural results generate more traffic•Increase traffic without increasing budget

Cons:• Top placement can take a long

time (months or years)• Placement can fluctuate, so efforts

must be continuously maintained • No guaranteed results

Pros:•Instant traffic – will notice traffic within hours of activating your account•Split testing – can test several ad copies to see which ones convert better•Better trackingCons:•Can be expensive if not implemented properly•Requires regular monitoring of ad campaigns

Questions?Questions?

• For a copy of this presentation email me at krishna@websitejungle.com

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