What differentiates SEO for startups and SEO for established enterprises?
Limited time and SEO budget
Even after getting funded, the majority of the budget will be allocated to operational efficiency, sales and technology teams, with limited funds allocated to digital marketing until you start showing tangible progress.
You will be measured by quarter and will need to show tangible gains within 12 months. You will need multiple agency partners with a performance-first mindset and not a retainer-based model.
Scale of existing competitors
You’re not the first — or the last — to join the party. Established players might have hundreds of keywords being ranked with thousands being associated with their domain.
They might also have hundreds of content marketing pieces and paid campaigns running, which at a first glance may seem challenging to defeat until you form an intelligent spearhead SEO strategy.
Category making
If you’re trying to create a category that is “new”, remember that people won’t be searching for what your product team thinks the market needs. You will need to do your research into how people currently search for the competitive alternative you’re trying to replace.
This way, you will attract people based on what they know (as they are looking to solve a problem) and then introduce them to your new concept.
Stress to perform
As a new marketing team in a startup, you will need to ensure your operational efficiency is at peak level. You will be wearing multiple hats, learning to work with new teammates and pulling long hours while managing multiple vendors. For this reason, your projects will be more prone to failure.
To prevent failed projects, you need to use Monday.com or Wrike to get 100% transparency in all of the initiatives you’re running and ensure your vendors are on board with task transparency as well.