SEO for Start-ups: Risks to Take and Risks to Avoid
The online world is becoming more powerful with each passing day. There are over 70,000 searches performed on Google on a single day, and more than 95% of purchases begin on search engines.
Most of the population has access to the internet, and probably a significant share of your target audience will be online. So you can efficiently market your product through Houston SEO company digital marketing services and search engine ranking.
To build an online presence, SEO is crucial. As it gets you on the top spot in SERPs. The higher your search engine ranks are, the more credibility your business will gain. SEO is a standard process with specific tactics. But there are certain risks you should take and avoid.
Let’s see what those types of risks are worth taking and those to avoid.
Risks that are worth taking
Modify your website design
It is said that you should not change your website design often; why?
It’s because it will mess up your ranking. A website redesign that went badly can confuse search engine bots that rank the website and put off the visitors.
Does this mean that no modification of the website is welcome?
It is risky to redesign your website design, but it is worth taking if you think the idea can boost your ranking, conversion rate, and customer satisfaction. For instance, if you have an online store and you have been using a standard template.
But now, you are tired and desire to rebrand your website that reflects your brand persona. You want to make your site enjoyable. If you think such changes will resonate with your visitors, don’t be afraid to take the risk.
What worst could happen? Won’t the website turn out as you want? It’s okay! You can return back to your original design.
Build effective links
Start-up businesses won’t see the benefit of investing in link building as it comes with a cost. Why?
Because it might not deliver quick results, but this doesn’t mean you should not opt for it. Link building is totally worth investing in. Just make sure you go for quality and high authority links rather than quantity links from any domain that allows.
If you link your content from trustworthy websites, it builds the credibility of your domain as well. The backlinking efforts are not paying off at all, then look at analytics and link to those parts of your content that customers must-see. Link building is worthy if you do it in the right way with Houston SEO services’ help.
Change the URL structure.
You might be scared of using a long URL structure as a start-up, but all you want is to build awareness about your brand to drive repeat visits. Apart from professional logo design that serves the purpose of brand recall, URL recall is also crucial. It doesn’t translate to ignore your URL structure.
You should opt for a short domain name that should ideally reflect your business name so you can have long and better-optimized URLs for other pages.
These pages should have targeted keywords performing high in them. Ensure that the keywords you add are relevant to each page. As search engines rank specific to pages rather than the website. Houston SEO will optimize your URL structure for different pages that allow you to rank high in various relevant searches.
Risks to Avoid
Deleting pages of discontinued products or services
As a start-up business, you are at the trial and error stage when you realize that certain products don’t work and you want to discontinue them.
But what about their pages? Should you delete them? NO!
It is because deleting them will lose out on your ranking for the keywords that present on the page. It is the one risk you shouldn’t take at this stage of your business. Rather than deleting a service or product page altogether. Keep the page and add a message informing the visitors about the discontinuation of the product. Redirect them to other relevant pages.
Using Black-Hat SEO techniques
Some specific SEO tactics are discouraged by Google. It includes keyword stuffing, link spamming, cloaking, negative SEO, etc. Search engines went easy on those who employ back hat tactics. As the algorithm gets more and more refined, the penalties are getting harder as well.
Don’t take the risk of trying these strategies as you might get unnoticed. With improved technology, there is a chance that Google will identify the approach and penalize you. It will be very hard once it does to get back to your reputation and rank.
Conclusion:
SEO is complicated and risky. It is time-consuming. If you do it correctly and know which risks to take and which to avoid then, your start-up will benefit from it.
Even if you can’t get results immediately, then have faith in the Houston SEO company. Be smart with an SEO strategy that improves your rank. The initial days are struggling for any business. Beat the odds by taking significant risks, and your business will succeed.