Are you launching a startup and want to build your audience while establishing a successful brand? If so, you’re not alone. Countless startups try to break into already crowded markets every year, and many of them never make it off the ground.
The key to turning your business into a well-known brand is a robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Simply put, SEO is the practice of organically increasing the quality and quantity of your website traffic. The increase in traffic results in a better position on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), which leads to even more traffic and conversions.
SEO for startups is just as crucial as optimizing search for already established brands. There are quite a few benefits to actively improving your position on Google.
Today, we will explain how SEO optimization can help your startup and show you four plugins that can help boost your search positions.
The Benefits of Strong SEO for Startups
First, let’s talk about why SEO matters for startups. When you first launch your website, your traffic will be all but non-existent, you won’t have an established email list, and very few people will have ever heard of your company.
If you want to change that, you need to put your brand in a position where your startup is visible when your target audience searches for specific words or phrases. Google receives an astounding 77,000 searches a second, so securing a spot on the right page at the right time is pivotal to building brand awareness.
The higher you rank on Google, the more consumers will trust your brand. Imagine you’re searching for a store that sells candles. Who would you trust more, a business on the first page or a business on the sixth page for the search term, “cinnamon-scented candles”? Odds are, you would visit the company on the first page, and many searchers feel the same way.
SEO can also help you learn more about your target audience. When you can see how users interact with the various pages on your website, you can use this information to build buyer personas, which can strengthen future marketing campaigns.
There are plenty of other reasons you should consider fine-tuning your startup’s SEO strategy. But understanding your audience, increasing brand awareness, and building user trust all play a role in your long-term success.
Now that we know why SEO matters for your startup, let’s look at several WordPress plugins you can use to boost your search ranking.
Top 4 Plugins to Boost Search Rankings
1. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
The first plugin on our list is All in One SEO. We put this tool at the top of the list because it truly is an all in one package for startups that want to fully embrace SEO and boost their ranking.
There are plenty of helpful tools that you can use to improve the way you use keywords on your site, fix broken links, and even create flexible sitemaps that helps Google’s crawlers make the most of every piece of information on-page.
Our favorite feature is the TruSEO On-Page Analysis. This feature lets you pull up an SEO checklist on any page and find ways to improve your current structure. For instance, you can set keywords, see suggested keywords, establish social meta descriptions, and much more, all from the software checklist.
We’ve barely touched the surface when exploring the benefits and features of this SEO plugin. AIOSEO is available in several tiers, so you’ll have no problem finding a plan that matches your needs.
2. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that allows you to add Google Analytics to your website and unlocks a ton of new ways to analyze your visitors. You can use the information from visitors to learn about the devices they are using, which pages they are visiting, where they are leaving your site, and much more.
This tool is also an excellent way to track your organic keywords through Google’s Search Console. You can see which keywords people are typing in to find your site, and use that data to start ranking for other, more competitive words or phrases.
It’s also possible to use MonsterInsights to track your referral links. When you can see how people are finding your startup page, it’s easier to track your growth and find new opportunities. For example, if you see a surge in new visitors from Facebook, you can improve your SEO ranking by engaging with those same users and getting them to come back to your site multiple times.
MonsterInsights has a free version, which means you can get access to some of these features today. There are also paid plans available for people who want to get more power from this analytics tool.
3. SeedProd
The third plugin on our list is called SeedProd. SeedProd is known as the #1 landing page builder for WordPress, and it’s not hard to see why.
Once you install SeedProd, you’ll have access to an intuitive drag and drop builder that allows you to build everything from sales pages to coming soon pages for your startup. You can gather email leads, give updates, show a countdown timer, add download links, and much, much more.
The reason this plugin is helpful for SEO is it allows you to build additional pages and rank for specific keywords. So, imagine you just introduced a new product but don’t currently rank for any of the relevant keywords.
If you use SeedProd, you can build a landing page that introduces customers to your new product line and start building lead lists. At the same time, you can strategically include target keywords within your copy. When you combine the power of AIOSEO with this landing page builder, you can easily create powerful landing pages that soar through the SERPs.
4. OptinMonster
Finally, we want to talk about the lead generation plugin OptinMonster. We believe that OptinMonster is helpful for startups that want to improve their SEO ranking because it allows marketing teams to drive traffic to specific areas on-site.
For example, you could create one of the popular yes/no popup campaigns that are designed to identify pain points and direct users to the resources they need. If you’re promoting a brand new product, you’ll likely need to drive traffic to those pages through your existing content.
OptinMonster allows you to put campaigns on your popular posts that ask users questions about your latest landing page or product. If they are interested in your offer, they will click the link and go to your new page.
Over time, this traffic stream sends a positive signal to Google, which could cause a page’s rank to gradually increase. OptinMonster takes it a step further by allowing you to capture new visitors and grow your lead lists while boosting your SEO score.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy to see that SEO will continue to impact all businesses for years to come. As Google continues to put an emphasis on user intent, we will see more startups use tools to connect with their target audience and start ranking for pages before they ever complete their first sale.
If you haven’t started optimizing your website yet, now is an excellent time to start. There are countless advantages to ranking higher in the search results and plenty of tools available to make sure you start strong.
