Diving into the world of SEO can be daunting for new businesses, so we’ve gathered insights from top industry experts, including SEO consultants and content managers. From claiming your Google Business Profile to conducting a comprehensive competitor analysis, explore the thirteen actionable strategies these professionals recommend for kick-starting your SEO journey.

 

• Claim Your Google Business Profile
• Develop Product Landing Pages
• Prioritize Keyword Research 
• Decide on Local vs. Global SEO
• Leverage Existing Partnerships for Backlinks
• Improve User Experience for Better Ranking
• Build a Long-Term SEO Strategy
• Utilize Internal Linking
• Create Uniquely Valuable, In-Depth Content
• Align SEO Goals with Execution
• Map Out Your Target Audience
• Focus on Quality, Not Quantity
• Conduct a Comprehensive Competitor Analysis

 

Claim Your Google Business Profile

For businesses dipping their toes into SEO, a critical first step is to claim and fully flesh out your Google Business Profile. This simple yet impactful action sets the foundation for your online identity. 

 

A detailed profile, with up-to-date contact information, service details, and engaging photos, not only enhances your search engine visibility but also builds trust with your audience. Prioritizing a great customer experience is crucial, as it directly influences the growth of your four- and five-star reviews. These high ratings boost your visibility in the local map pack and enhance the performance of your Google Local Services ads, crucial for local service businesses. 

 

Engaging with customer reviews and queries further amplifies this trust. Start your SEO strategy on the right foot by giving your Google Business Profile the attention it deserves, creating a strong online presence that resonates with your target market and propels your reputation forward.

 

Brandon Langley, Local Search Specialist, Mediagistic

 

Develop Product Landing Pages

The first thing I’d recommend for businesses starting with SEO is to write down all their product or service offerings and develop those writings into landing pages. There’s no one better to do that than the business owner. Once that’s done, a content management strategy can kick in and figure out the search journeys customers take to find said services or products.

 

Kaloyan Dimitrov, Content Manager, Enhancv

 

Prioritize Keyword Research 

For businesses beginning with SEO, a key strategy is to focus on comprehensive keyword research and quality content creation. Start by identifying relevant keywords that your potential customers are likely to search for. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner for this purpose. Once you have a list of targeted keywords, create engaging and informative content around these terms. This could include blog posts, articles, or product descriptions.

 

Ensure your content is not only rich in keywords but also genuinely valuable to your audience. It should answer their questions or offer insights. Alongside content, optimize your website structure for easy navigation and ensure it’s mobile-friendly with quick loading times. Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Consistent efforts in creating quality content and optimizing your website will gradually improve your search engine rankings.

 

Arthur Valverde, SEO Consultant, Padzup

 

Decide on Local vs. Global SEO

When it comes to new businesses and their online visibility, the first thing to decide is whether you want to target the local or global market. If the former is the case, a business should focus on a local SEO strategy while following the standard underlying and necessary SEO practices. 

 

By contrast, if you’re targeting the global market, you need to create content that caters to different audiences across the globe. Sometimes, this might include writing in multiple languages or geo-targeting regions with specific customer needs. In any case, the only way to increase your online visibility is by designing a website for humans, not Google crawlers.

 

Zeljko Mancic, SEO Manager, HIREQUARTERS

 

Leverage Existing Partnerships for Backlinks

An actionable strategy for businesses starting with SEO is to leverage their existing partnerships. Reach out to your partners and inform them about your new website. Politely ask if they could link to your site from theirs. These backlinks from known and reputable sources can significantly boost your website’s visibility and credibility in search engine rankings. 

 

This approach not only aids in building your site’s authority but also helps in establishing a strong foundational link profile, which is crucial for SEO success.

 

John Cammidge, Google Ads Expert, J Cammidge

 

Improve User Experience for Better Ranking

One actionable strategy is to improve your UX in 2024. I believe it’s going to be a huge ranking factor in 2024. Within UX, there are multiple things to improve, which makes it exciting, but one thing that makes a great UX is giving the answer immediately. If your content piece is answering a specific query, then give the answer in the first paragraph and then back it up with data and more content. Don’t hide your answer at the bottom of your article. It’s just bad UX; people don’t want to spend too much time looking for an answer.

 

Don’t worry if people visit your website, find the answer quickly, and leave. As long as they don’t go back to Google to find an alternative website, then it’s a super positive ranking signal to Google that someone found what they were looking for on your website very quickly.

 

Phillip Stemann, SEO Consultant, Phillip Stemann

 

Build a Long-Term SEO Strategy

I strongly recommend building a long-term strategy for sustained SEO results. It’s pretty common for businesses new to SEO to expect quick wins in just a few weeks, but the reality is that SEO is not an overnight process! Brands getting into SEO should understand this.

 

SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s usually not enough to just set up a website and then sit back waiting for leads, sales, and revenue to come pouring in. If you aim to rank for competitive keywords, you need a well-thought-out long-term SEO plan with clear goals, milestones, and objectives.

 

This plan might include content marketing, or it could be about reaching out to website owners to identify link-building opportunities. There’s no single ‘correct’ way to do SEO, as each website is unique and, as a result, each SEO strategy needs to be slightly different too.

 

Precious Abacan, Marketing Director, Softlist

 

Utilize Internal Linking

I’ve found that the simplest task that can have the biggest impact is internal linking. Businesses that haven’t looked at SEO properly before are likely to have neglected their internal linking, but it’s absolutely crucial for allowing Google to find its way around a site easily. It’s a very easy strategy to implement, and also sets sites in good stead for building their SEO efforts in the future.

 

Rick Smith, Managing Director, Forbes Burton

 

Create Uniquely Valuable, In-Depth Content

The most actionable tip I would offer for businesses just diving into SEO is to shift focus away from trying to game keywords and algorithms. Instead, double down on efforts to create uniquely valuable, in-depth content around topics your ideal audience already searches for.

 

When starting out, it’s tempting to obsess over search volume tools and strategically placing keywords. But search engines are smart—they can tell if posts offer genuine insight versus loosely trying to pepper phrases in for traffic. I’ve found the fastest SEO success starts with identifying problems your niche actually needs answers for, based on search trends. Then, craft detailed educational content around those issues, leveraging your unique expertise to provide analysis they won’t find elsewhere.

 

The more helpful, authoritative, and engaging your content is, the more eagerly algorithms will surface it to searchers. And nothing earns trust faster than addressing the topics your audience already seeks out answers for in a fresh, illuminating way. Approaching SEO as an opportunity to provide a public service—not gaming the system—builds that compounding authority sites need in the early stages. Offer outsiders value; traffic follows!

 

Brian Meiggs, Founder, My Millennial Guide

 

Align SEO Goals with Execution

SEO is a long game, and aligning your time-frame expectations with your goals and KPIs is an important part of a strategy that will lead to successfully executed SEO.

 

Understanding what your biggest gaps are—for example, technical, content, links, UX, quality, etc.—will help to prioritize and identify resources that will execute the tactics needed to close the identified gaps is of utmost importance.

 

Implementing processes for research, identification, action, accountability, and measurement is vital.

 

One of the biggest hurdles to SEO campaigns being effective is that many SEO recommendations are not enacted for a variety of reasons. Making sure you have the systems and processes in place to leverage an SEO campaign is the key to success.

 

Trevor Stolber, Agency Owner, STOLBER Digital

 

Map Out Your Target Audience

The one actionable strategy I would recommend is mapping out your target audience and their “job to be done.” This includes: who they are, what they do, what problems they’re trying to solve, how they’ll try to solve those problems, etc. 

 

Knowing this will flow into all of your other SEO activities: keyword research, landing page writing, content writing, etc. It serves as the foundation for all of your other work and helps ensure the work you do will have the best ROI due to alignment with your target audience.

 

Amanda Thomas, Managing Partner and Director of Client Strategy, Konstruct Digital

 

Focus on Quality, Not Quantity

When starting with SEO, my top recommendation is to put your effort into crafting unique, high-quality, insightful, and thoroughly researched content and articles. The mantra should be, “Write for people, not search engines. Focus on quality, not quantity.” It’s far more beneficial to publish one well-thought-out, researched, and high-quality blog post every two weeks than to churn out two low-quality posts weekly.

 

Many folks mistakenly think SEO is all about pumping out a ton of content, which can be daunting for startups with limited resources. Instead, the focus should be on writing two or three incredibly detailed articles that could rank for your most crucial keywords, and then work on link-building for these. It’s much more effective to have three articles that attract over 20,000 clicks each month than 100 articles with barely any clicks.

 

Creating an occasional standout resource can significantly influence how your business is perceived. Ask yourself: Are you just another startup producing decent content, or are you the startup that delivers content so impressive and valuable that people want to bookmark it?

 

Amy Tribe, Director, OGLF (Our Good Living Formula)

 

Conduct a Comprehensive Competitor Analysis

One actionable strategy I recommend for businesses starting with SEO, based on my experience, is to conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis. Beyond the standard keyword research, analyzing competitors’ strategies unveils valuable insights. Identify competitors ranking well in your niche and dissect their content, backlink profiles, and on-page optimization. This helps uncover untapped keyword opportunities and provides a benchmark for setting realistic goals. Emulate successful strategies while identifying gaps to differentiate your approach.

 

Additionally, prioritize local SEO by claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile. This enhances visibility in local searches, which is crucial for attracting nearby customers. By strategically integrating competitor insights and local optimization, businesses can establish a solid foundation for SEO success, creating a tailored strategy that aligns with industry trends and outperforms competitors.

 

Dhari Alabdulhadi, CTO and Founder, Ubuy Kuwait