With the rapid evolution of the marketing function driven by Generative AI, hyper-personalization, and video-first social media, staying ahead in the game has never been more challenging for businesses—regardless of size or industry.

Every marketing dollar counts for fast-growing startups, so all digital efforts must deliver maximum value. While blogs and social media are great starting points, they should be supported with a robust SEO framework.

As we approach 2025, it’s surprising that only 33% of small-to-midsize businesses have optimized websites and an even more startling 58% haven’t implemented local SEO strategies.

SEO is a long-term strategy that builds the groundwork for boosting organic traffic. While initial optimizations can be set up quickly, meaningful results require consistent effort over time. Therefore, to do SEO right, here are ten tips to follow:

1. Search relevant keywords

According to a BrightEdge study, organic search fetches 51% of website traffic. The other 49% comes from social media channels (5%), paid search (10%), and other sources (34%). For businesses, 40% of the revenue is received through organic traffic.

The study reveals that an excellent SEO strategy helps discover your content on the Internet and indirectly boosts your revenue. Therefore, pick the right keywords to push yourself to the first page of Google search.

Make use of tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz, KeySearch, and implement tracking technologies such as shopify server side tracking to ensure precise data collection even when browser-based tracking falls short. Keep a balanced mix of industry-specific global keywords, commonly searched generic terms, and broad keywords to maximize your startup’s visibility.

But more importantly, focus on user intent rather than just specific keywords. Understanding what users are truly looking for allows you to create content that directly addresses their needs, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

2. Value website User Experience (UX) more

Both SEO and UX are two peas in a pod. While a robust SEO strategy helps you connect with potential customers seeking what you offer, the website experience enhances the brand perception and influences conversions.

Did you know that 3/4th of users admit to making judgments about a business’ credibility based on its website design? Therefore, you should optimize for user intent. Calculate the average time spent on each web page to check their satisfaction with your website.

If not, be sure to:

• Make your website mobile-friendly
• Increase your website loading speed
• Use ad placements wherever necessary
• Use pop-ups sparingly and in a non-intrusive manner

This might be a bigger project, but there’s no harm in reviewing your startup’s branding to ensure it’s consistent, accessible, and enjoyable to use, encouraging users to stay longer and return more frequently.

3. Ensure your email list is clean and validated

Focus on your website’s visible elements and marketing infrastructure, such as your email campaigns, to maintain a high-quality user experience and optimize overall website performance. For example, sending emails to invalid or outdated addresses impacts deliverability and wastes resources.

Regular email cleaning helps remove inactive or non-existent addresses from your database, improving your email marketing performance and, indirectly, boosting traffic to your website.

Furthermore, email list validation ensures that your email campaigns reach engaged, real users, preventing your domain from being flagged as spam. By improving email deliverability, you can drive more users to your site, contributing to traffic growth—a critical factor in SEO.

4. Optimize for voice search 

Voice is in—with over 50% of the global population using it to browse the internet as of 2024. But here’s the catch: a typical voice search isn’t the same as a text search. When you talk to your device, you’re more likely to use long-tail search queries to mimic how you speak in real life. Therefore, here’s what you can do to optimize your content for voice search:

• Prioritize local keywords, as voice searches are three times more likely to be local-based than text searches across desktop and mobile devices.
• Shift focus from isolated keywords to topic clusters, reflecting the conversational nature of voice queries. This helps capture a broader range of user intents and aligns better with how people naturally ask questions.
• Enhance content for featured snippets, as voice assistants often pull answers from these. Structure your content with concise, informative responses to common questions, making it more likely to be selected for voice search results.

5. Publish high-quality, original content

Content will always lie at the heart of SEO. You should create high-quality, accurate, and engaging content that improves your site authority. This is a far more efficient way to rank high on search results than stuffing your content with keywords.

In fact, your content should aim to address a topic holistically and provide the answers that people are looking for rather than worrying about keywords only. This requires thoroughly understanding your target audience and what they’re searching for.

At the same time, you should audit your content regularly and check for overlaps and repetitions, which could lead to content cannibalization (where your pages knock each other out of search results).

6. Keep your website secure

While security may not impact SEO directly, it certainly impacts your user experience.

Users are unlikely to browse through or even click on a website link that doesn’t look secure–and the fewer click-throughs you get, the lower your rankings fall. Therefore, enable HTTPS protocol if you haven’t already done so.

It’ll give your website users an encrypted and authenticated connection that protects their privacy and helps you rank higher on Google. This is particularly important if you’re looking to collect user information through a form on your website.

7. Do local business listings

You need to optimize your profile on popular platforms and listings to get your startup to rank high in local searches. For example, Google My Business (GMB) provides a step-by-step optimization process that requires diligent following.

Please ensure your profile is complete and you have updated all the information GMB requests. Also, add your accurate location on Google Maps so people know where to find your startup.

Any changes you may make to your business name, contact details, address, holidays, or working hours in the future should also be updated promptly on GMB.

If you’re a SaaS startup, you can create an account on G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra. In this regard, you should also optimize your business’ social media profiles so that the users looking for recommendations on Facebook or Instagram can find your business as well.

8. Put a link-building strategy in place

Link building is a crucial aspect of local SEO. Strong links will bring in direct referral traffic, build your reputation, and increase brand visibility with your target audience. Try to get featured in directories of the top brands in your industry.

You can get event links from your city’s or local community website by hosting an event, such as a charity fundraiser or donating to a local club.

Another great link-building tactic is to request referrals from businesses offering services that are complementary to your own. For instance, accountants could get links from companies that provide services to business startups, such as stationery supplies.

9. Structure your site data

Algorithms don’t always understand the context of the content your site features. This is where data structuring plays a role.

Data structuring simply means giving search engines “hints” about your content by helping them understand your page elements and how each element relates to the others.

When done correctly, structured data will help you publish your content across any device, browser, or virtual assistant so that you can connect with your customers across any surface. 

10. Perform technical SEO checks

Technical SEO remains essential for improving a website’s usability, indexation, and rankings. However, with so many tasks to juggle, it’s easy to get lost in minor details that yield little impact. Prioritization is crucial.

Here’s how to approach it in 2024:

• Switch to HTTPS: Google continues to flag websites without HTTPS as “Not Secure,” which can hurt user trust and rankings. Be sure to fix this problem if it exists.
• Streamline your sitemap: Establish a clear hierarchy where all pages are easily accessible within a few clicks, improving user experience and crawlability.
• Optimize semantic markup: Use schema correctly, as it helps search engines understand your content better, improving search results.
• Implement Core Web Vitals: Focus on optimizing load time, interactivity, and visual stability, as they’re crucial ranking factors in Google’s algorithm.
• Ensure mobile-first optimization: Mobile usability is more important than ever. Ensure your website is fully optimized for mobile, considering responsiveness and speed.

Over to you

SEO is an ongoing marketing activity for your startup. It’s crucial to getting traction on your website and influencing brand authority and conversions. Therefore, invest time in strategizing your SEO. Once implemented, make sure you analyze its performance every month and make changes wherever required.
ake changes wherever required.