New startups are always worried about how they should start their SEO. ItÔÇÖs important for any business to get top of search engine result pages for terms users are using to search them or their competitors. When you get a new website for your start up ÔÇô definitely you are behind from your competitors taking advantage of search engine result pages ranks. So itÔÇÖs going to be a tough job to crack the nut!

Recently, one of our clients started a new lead generation site for real estate agents. ItÔÇÖs a pretty new concept with huge market potentials. But it is very important for them to get top results for keywords such as ÔÇ£Real estate Agents leadsÔÇØ or ÔÇ£Real estate leadsÔÇØ to get a flow of huge traffic (TARGETED TRAFFIC WHO CAN BE QUALIFIED BUYER OR SELLER).

Some may believe, I am writing huge amount of contents, my site has more indexed pages than my competitors. The truth is ÔÇô content alone cannot help you. You are competing with hundreds and thousands of competitors who are generating great contents. Search engines use various algorithmic signals to identify where sites should appear on search listings.

No doubt, there are no alternatives of testing, testing and testing. But below are five tips can help you to start ranking your site. Keep searching for new opportunities to increase your sites search result visibility but below are the tactics you canÔÇÖt ignore.

Ensure your site is open to indexing

The first thing you need to do is check if search bots/spiders who index pages and save it in database of search engines can read your site and can index them. If they fail to index your site, there is no scope of appearing in search results as Search engines take listings from their database where all indexed pages remain.

The easiest way to check your sites status is ÔÇô

• Google Webmaster Tool Verification. Once you get it verified, you would be able to see crawl errors from Webmaster tool dashboard.

Rethink about Industry and Non Branded Keywords

First of all, you must understand, Old book SEO donÔÇÖt work anymore and you are going to do blunder if you start building tons of links using your SEO keywords. The practice of SEO heavily depends on identification of individual keywords for showing up in natural search results.

Starting optimization will start from your website. You must need to take care of your website title, description and contents to make it relevant to your target search query. You must know one of the signals to search bots will go from your site!

However, itÔÇÖs important to diversify your keywords to make it natural instead of creating a link profile which will shout like ÔÇô I am not real and created by webmaster!

Check out the following statement

ÔÇ£As a startup, youÔÇÖll want to split your time between two types of keyword phrases:┬áindustry and branded keywords. Imagine, for a second, that youÔÇÖre a startup accounting software firm to see how this principle plays out in real lifeÔǪ

• ÔÇ£IndustryÔÇØ phrases include broad, generic search queries, like ÔÇ£accounting softwareÔÇØ and ÔÇ£bookkeeping program.ÔÇØ Getting your site to appear in the search results for one of these phrases will put your new brand in front of people who are already looking for the type of product you offer, even if they donÔÇÖt yet know your companyÔÇÖs name.
• ÔÇ£BrandedÔÇØ keywords include phrases based around your companyÔÇÖs name, tagline and URL. As a startup, people might not be entering these queries into the search engines yet, but by optimizing your website for these terms, youÔÇÖll be well-positioned to receive additional traffic as soon as your startup gains brand recognition.ÔÇØ

Select keywords based on search intent and other parameters

Select keywords based on various characteristics in mind. ItÔÇÖs not something you can chose randomly. You have to spend time and work on a list before finalizing.

• Search volume.┬áFind out search volume of keywords you are thinking to use. The more traffic a keyword get, itÔÇÖs more profitable. There is several keyword research tools including Google Adwords could do this for you.
• ┬áCompetition.┬áWhile doing research through keyword research tools, they show competition of each keyword. Unless your site is well established, you should avoid high competition keywords.
• Search intent.┬áYou must consider your websiteÔÇÖs intent before selecting a keyword. Te keyword needed to be relevant to your siteÔÇÖs goal, information and intention.

Once you finalize your keywords, make a short list of 5-10 keywords, implement SEO best practices on site.

DonÔÇÖt ignore link building ÔÇô Prioritize

ItÔÇÖs very important to start building reputation online and get quality inbound links. DonÔÇÖt ignore link building; you should start this from very beginning.

There are several styles you can choose

• Contact webmasters and ask them if you could provide guest posts to their websites.
• Contact product review sites to review your product or services.
• Start sending press release on major happenings inside your startup to major news outlets.
• Leverage social media
• Get listed on relevant business directories.

Write and publish killer contents

The best thing to do is writing and publishing awesome, sharable contents. Below are some reasons why-

• When you publish awesome content, others in your industry will link back to it naturally, minimizing the amount of manual link building you need to do.
• The more content you have on your website, the more opportunities youÔÇÖll have to get ranked for different keywords in the natural search results. This can lead to substantially more traffic than your original target keyword list can account for.
• If your content is good enough, readers will share it amongst one another in a viral fashion, quickly improving your young companyÔÇÖs brand recognition.

Finally, when you are new in SEO and intend to get something from SEO then you should start with above rules. These should be your top priority, the more you dig into, the more you will learn and able to apply.

Original Author : Sujan Patel

Credits and sources : SEO for Startups : 5 Rules to Apply Now