SEO for Startups: 5 Ways to Grow Organically

Starting a business means countless tasks competing for your attention. Marketing often sits near the top of that list, but with limited funds and resources, many startup founders wonder where they should focus their efforts.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)—the process of getting your website to appear highly in search engine results for key terms—can help you build sustainable growth without the constant cost of paid advertising.

In this guide, we dive into SEO for startups and teach you five strategies to try in 2025.

Key Takeaways

• SEO offers startups a cost-effective way to build sustainable growth, with results that can compound over time.
• A focused SEO strategy combining technical basics, smart keyword targeting, and high-quality content drives the best results.
• Start with the foundation—getting your technical SEO right makes everything else more effective.
• Track key metrics like organic traffic and conversion rates to optimise your SEO efforts and achieve a solid return on investment (ROI).

Why SEO for Startups?

SEO has a simple goal: making your startup visible when potential customers search for the solutions you provide. While paid ads stop the moment you pause spending, SEO keeps working—bringing new potential customers to your website month after month. With 63.4% of web traffic coming from Google searches, you simply must connect with qualified leads searching for solutions through a search engine.

Let’s look at how to get started with SEO as a startup.

5 SEO Strategies for Startups

1. Create Your SEO Foundation

Starting SEO might feel overwhelming, but breaking it down into manageable pieces makes it achievable. You can also hire an SEO company to do the work for you.

Your foundation needs three key elements: technical setup, smart keyword choices, and a solid plan for growth.

Get the technical essentials right

Technical SEO boils down to ensuring your website runs smoothly for users and search engines alike. This may seem obvious, but over 95% of sites have at least one technical issue that could hamper their SEO efforts. You can avoid these common pitfalls with some basic steps.

Start with these core technical requirements:

• Mobile optimisation. Since more than 58% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices, your website must work flawlessly on smartphones and tablets. An easy way to do this is to check your site’s mobile performance using Google’s Lighthouse tool and fix any issues it identifies.
• Speed optimisation. A fast-loading website improves both user experience and search engine rankings. Start by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to identify specific issues slowing down your site. Common fixes include compressing image files using tools like Compressor, removing plugins you don’t actively use, and enabling browser caching (which stores common files on visitors’ devices so they load faster on repeat visits). Your goal is pages that load in under three seconds. Talk to your web developer about implementing these optimisations if you’re not technically inclined.
• Clean URL structure. Keep your URLs simple and descriptive. Rather than using random numbers or codes, structure them logically. For example:
  Good: yourstartup.com/blog/seo-guide-startups
  Bad: yourstartup.com/p=123?id=456

2. Build a Keyword Strategy

Keyword research helps you understand how your target customers search and what information they need. For startups, the key lies in finding specific terms you can realistically rank for.

More than 94% of keywords get 10 or fewer searches each month. While that might sound discouraging, the right long-tail keywords (phrases that are longer and more specific than general keywords, typically consisting of three or more words) often signal high intent and face less competition, making them perfect targets for startups.

Start your keyword research by answering these questions:

• What specific problems does your startup solve?
• How do potential customers describe these problems?
• What questions might they ask before they know your solution exists?

For example, if your startup sells productivity software, you might target obvious terms like “productivity app” or “task management software.” But you’ll face steep competition. Instead, targeting long-tail keywords like “best productivity app for remote teams” or “task management for creative agencies” might yield better results.

You shouldn’t avoid short-tail keywords altogether, though. Your keyword strategy should balance between:

• Short-tail keywords (1-2 words) for long-term goals
• Long-tail keywords (3+ words) for quicker wins
• Question-based keywords (e.g., “What are the benefits of productivity software?”) for informational content

Use free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Answer the Public to find relevant search terms. Then, track the performance of your target keywords through Google Search Console and adjust your strategy based on what works.

3. Write Content That Drives Growth

Creating high-quality content is a powerful tool for organic growth. SEO leads are more likely to turn into customers, but only if your content fully answers your audience’s search query. Here’s how to nail your content:

Plan your content strategy

Start by mapping content to the three stages of the customer journey:

• Awareness stage. Create content that addresses common problems in your industry. For example, you might create a blog post titled “10 Productivity Challenges Remote Teams Face and How to Solve Them.”
• Consideration stage. Focus on educating rather than selling. Create comparison guides and articles that explain certain features or benefits of your product(s) and service(s). For instance, you could create a comparison guide called “Top 5 Productivity Tools for Startups: Features, Pros, and Cons” or an article titled “How to Choose the Right Productivity Software” where you highlight what your company offers.
• Decision stage. Develop case studies, testimonials, and detailed product information to help convert interested readers into customers. This content can be more sales-oriented. For example, you could build a case study titled “How Our Productivity Software Helped ABC Company Save 20 Hours Per Week” (if the data supports it, of course).

Create effective search-engine-optimised content

Optimising content requires more than just inserting keywords into your blog articles. Follow these principles:

• Match search intent. Every search has a purpose—this is what we call search intent. When someone searches “what is a MIDI keyboard,” they want to learn and understand the product, not buy one immediately. Articles that focus on explaining are best for this keyword. On the other hand, someone searching “best MIDI keyboard prices” is closer to making a purchase. A comparison guide would suit this keyword.
  Extra tip: Study the first page of Google results for your target keywords to understand what content format and style are working for your competitors.
• Cover topics thoroughly. The average top-ranking page also ranks in the top 10 for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords. Achieve this by covering topics comprehensively—address related questions, include examples, and provide actionable advice in each piece of content you produce.

Structure for readability. Easy-to-digest content keeps readers engaged and helps search engines understand your content better, boosting your SEO rankings. So, break content into easily scannable sections with clear headers. Be sure to include:

• A compelling introduction that states what readers will learn in the article
• Subheadings that make navigation easy
• Short paragraphs and bullet points for better readability
• Relevant images or diagrams that explain concepts

Make your content work harder

Startups need to maximise the value of every piece of content they create. A good strategy for this is content repurposing, which involves adapting core content for different formats and channels.

Start with your core content—often a well-researched blog post or detailed guide—which will become the foundation for multiple pieces of content. For example, you can transform key insights from that content into engaging social media updates. If your budget allows, you could also condense information into digestible newsletter segments or convert written explanations into video scripts or podcast episodes.

Each new format reaches different audience segments while reinforcing your expertise.

Build a web of internal links

Strategic internal linking (links between pages on your website) helps both search engines and users navigate your content effectively. Link to content that adds genuine value relevant to the current page’s content. For instance, linking to a detailed industry guide makes sense if you’re covering industry news.

Also, use descriptive anchor text for links. This means linking over text that describes the true nature of the page you’re linking to and gives readers (and search engines) a clear idea of where the link will take them. For example, instead of saying ‘click here,’ use anchor text like ‘learn more about SEO best practices’ if the link directs users to a guide on SEO best practices.

Finally, keep a content inventory – a simple spreadsheet listing all your articles and their main topics. When writing new content, scan this list for relevant pieces to link to. Add links where they genuinely help readers learn more.

Keep content fresh and valuable

Regular content updates keep your site fresh and valuable. Rather than letting posts grow stale, set a quarterly schedule to review and refresh your content. Look for:

• Outdated statistics or trends
• New industry developments to incorporate
• Gaps in information based on user feedback
• Opportunities to add real-world examples
• Ways to improve clarity based on analytics data

Updating your site helps showcase your company’s expertise and authority and provides high value to your readers. It also signals to search engines that your site is actively being refreshed, which can boost search engine rankings.

4. Build Authority Through Backlinks

One of the main things search engines look at when deciding which sites to rank highly is their ‘authority.’ A big part of determining a site’s authority is how many other high-authority sites are linking to it. These are known as backlinks, and you want lots of them.

For startups, building backlinks presents a chicken-and-egg problem: You need authority to attract links, but you need links to build authority.

Starting with strong foundations

Your first quality backlinks often come from your existing network. Reach out to partners, suppliers, or industry contacts you already work with and ask them to link to your site when mentioning your business online. These initial links carry extra weight because they come from relevant industry websites.

Creating link-worthy content

In addition to asking for links directly, create content that naturally attracts them. Publishing original research, industry surveys, or unique data analysis gives other sites a reason to link to you.

Here’s how you can create link-worthy content that stands out:

1. Find a topic that interests your industry but lacks good data. Start by reading industry reports, forums, and social media discussions. Look for questions that keep coming up without clear answers. Also, check your competitors’ content and note which topics lack solid data or stats. You can even poll your customers about what industry insights they wish they had.
2. Conduct original research using surveys, your own data, or public data sets. What unique patterns or trends can you spot in this data?
3. Present your findings with clear visuals and actionable insights. Lead with your most compelling discovery and break complex findings into digestible chunks. Choose simple visuals over flashy graphics. Be sure to include high-level takeaways, specific details, and insights that readers can act on.
4. Package it professionally with downloadable assets others can use. Create practical tools that help others apply your findings. These might include templates, checklists, or calculation spreadsheets. Make sharing and attribution easy—the simpler it is to link to your work, the more backlinks you might earn.

5. Measure What Matters

Tracking SEO performance helps you understand what works and where to focus your limited resources. Here are the steps to follow:

Track essential metrics

Your SEO metrics should tie directly to your business goals. Focus on monitoring these key indicators:

• The number of visitors that come to your product or service pages from a search engine
• The percentage of search visitors who take a desired action, like making a purchase
• The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page (bounce rate)
• Where your pages appear in search results for key terms
• How long visitors stay on your website
• How often search visitors return to your site

Set up proper tracking

Start with Google Analytics for comprehensive traffic insights. Setting this up is straightforward: Create a Google Analytics account, add the tracking code to your website (your website platform likely has a specific spot for this in its settings), and verify it’s working by checking the real-time reports.

Next, set up goals to track specific user actions that matter to your business. For example, to track newsletter signups, create a goal that triggers when someone reaches your “Thank you for subscribing!” page. Similar goals can track demo requests or product purchases by monitoring visits to success pages or thank you messages.

Google Search Console provides additional insights into your search performance. This free tool shows which search queries bring visitors to your site, your average position for different searches, and technical issues that need attention.

Use the data to your advantage

Numbers tell stories—you just need to know how to read them. For instance, a high bounce rate (where people immediately “bounce” back to the search engine rather than continuing on your site) might indicate a mismatch between search intent and your content. Low time on site could suggest your content isn’t engaging enough. Use these insights to guide your optimisation efforts.

Pay special attention to conversion patterns from organic search. Which pages convert best? What topics engage visitors the longest? This data helps you identify your most effective content types and topics.

Be wary of misleading metrics, though. A spike in organic traffic looks great, but if it comes from irrelevant keywords, it won’t drive business growth. Similarly, ranking first for an uncompetitive keyword might seem exciting but will bring little value if nobody searches for that term.

Focus instead on sustainable growth patterns:

• Steady increases in organic traffic from your target audience
• Growing conversions from search visitors
• Improving positions for valuable keywords
• Increasing engagement metrics on key pages

Review your SEO performance monthly, but don’t make hasty decisions. Search algorithms need time to process changes, and ranking shifts often take weeks or months to stabilise. Look for trends rather than reacting to daily fluctuations.