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[wakeupcoffee]

SEO Tips for startups

I have been working on fixing SEO for my own website. This is what I have learnt in the past few months. What the Internet says about SEO is mostly bullshit. Some of them are still in the pre-panda era, others expect content to do everything for you. Here are few example sites I would like to talk about, that you should learn from.

1. eHow.com & wikihow.com

The most important learning from these two websites is keyword research. Keyword Research is more important than the content itself. Content on these pages can be at best rated 'average'. Yes, on few occasions, they are the only site that show up in search. But, mostly it leaves you as confused as you were, before visiting the site.

Coming back to keyword research - This is going to either make or break your SEO rankings. 

2. distancesbetween.com

This is a site that almost always shows up in the first page of google when someone searches for distance between 2 cities. They almost completely own any term that has the keywords "distance between" query.

So what do is the learning?

Keyword Research - Find out the supporting keywords for your service. You will never rank high for words like "new york", "apple", "iphone". These keywords are owned by the brands themselves. You have to research on what supporting terms are associated with you keyword. Here are a few examples

"buy iphone 4s"

travel to new york

tourist attractions in new york.

apple iphone charger

Once you have the keywords listed. You need to focus on internal linking and build a hierarchy inside your website. Create content for all the keywords that you have identified. Try to dedicate one page for one keyword with - good content will help ;). Now start linking pages in a hierarchical structure. The page with the top level keyword (that encompasses all the pages) should link to all lower level pages. This allows Google to understand your website better and pass link juice to each page.

You are up and running now. Keep track of pages being indexed in "Google Webmasters". See how Google is indexing your pages. Is google able to reach every page in your website, without you having to submit the sitemap.xml file? This is a sign that your site architecture is fine.

[wakeupcoffee]

Have a Good Product or a Bad one, but never get stuck with an Average Product!

To succeed you need to either build a Good Product or Bad Product. If your product is Good, you can continue improving it. If your product is bad, you can choose to dump it and move forward.

But, if your product is average, you are stuck. Your decision to pivot or dump or invest becomes tougher. You cannot convince yourself that the product will fail. And neither can you go all out, and market it, because you are not confident enough to invest resources into it.

An Average product attracts only indifference from its customers. This is a kiss of death for any product. You should be either praised for solving a problem, or beaten down to the ground for not having a critical feature. The Average Product, is a scenario every start-up should avoid.

Customers are not overjoyed by your product and neither are they disappointed with you. They simply don't care. 

The primary reason for indifference is bad targeting. You are selling combs to a bald person. He does not even want to listen to you. So get the targeting right and ensure you have the right customers with the problems that you are trying to solve. This can also mean, that the problem you are trying to solve is non-existant even for your target audience. Your product is just a fools errand.

Next possible scenario is no one knows about you. You are the super smart guy sitting all by himself at the corner. No one will even notice you unless they know what you have to offer. Be part of the target segment, engage with them and let them know you exist.

The previous problem can be solved by investing some time and money. But, there is a chance that you have a bigger problem. You are not willing to engage. Yes!! everyone says that they want to engage with customers, but are they really willing to make it their sole focus. Make customers feel that they belong, and create a sense of ownership? To truly engage and get feedback to improve the product, rather than throwing it out there and hoping it works?