Startups are a trend in the economy of Cyprus that is here to stay, since authorities seem determined to encourage such ventures, which hold promising prospects for the country’s future and especially for the younger generations of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Scarcity of resources, both of time and of money is a common problem faced by those trying to launch a startup. Especially in a market such as Cyprus where the reigning conditions are still largely immature and often unwelcoming for startup ventures. With these facts in mind SEO is a powerful tool SEO is a powerful tool that could help take any startup business to the next level and if the SEO strategy is effective then it can bring about results at a relatively low cost and in a relatively short time.
There is little doubt whether your startup business really needs SEO, because in today’s digital era, irrespective of the product or service they are selling, all businesses require an online presence and all businesses can benefit from the increased traffic that comes through the right content creation and optimization, which in turn leads to search engine optimization (SEO) and better ranking results in searches, since spiders are able to crawl your webpage with greater ease.
Having on online presence as a business presence but not implementing SEO strategies, means you most probably have a website with no traffic, which in the end is like having a business with no customers. Therefore, if you want to grow and attract potential customers, you need to identify your target audience, create content that is relevant to them and optimize it through the implementation of SEO tactics in order to attract the right traffic and convert it to customers.
If your startup venture already has an online presence but needs to reach out to a broader audience to showcase that your product or service is unique and can solve problems, if you need to attract more traffic and need more people converting into actual customers and actual users of the web-content you generate, then SEO is the way to go and it is sure worth deciding to put in the money and effort in time that is required to effectively implement SEO methods to attract web traffic.
Here’s a few pointers from our team of resident experts that you need to consider once you decide to implement SEO. The first decision you need to be taking is whether you will hire an external SEO expert or engage in SEO internally as a business or even as a person. Although there are plenty of free resources online which can teach SEO keeping up with the ever changing “demands” of search engines is indeed challenging and overwhelming even for pros, let alone for amateurs. The decision is up to you and should be taken considering how much time you have available to dedicate to SEO and whether or not you can afford to enlist external help. If you decide to go it alone, keep in mind that you will need at least a couple of hours on a daily basis for SEO education and about twice as much for actual implementation.
You need to start accessing the organic search results of your business through free tools such as Google Search Console and start reading, evaluating and understanding your search analytics, click-through rates and specific keyword searches that have driven traffic your way.
Knowing the exact profile of your existing traffic can help you optimize your efforts and be more targeted through the use of more specific keywords and the right usage of meta descriptions and title tags. The later are important since they also display when a page is shared on social media as well, so make sure you keep title tags (essentially the title of your page) to a maximum of 60 characters long, making sure it provides a clear and accurate description of what the page is about.
On the other hand, meta descriptions are vital and crucial because SERPs use these in order to show the ranking results. Keeping in mind that search engine “requirements” in terms of SEO and search engines are constantly changing and evolving, one such recent change being the increase in length from around 160 characters to around 300 characters, make sure that your meta descriptions contain the right keywords and are written in a way that directly answers the possible queries and questions posed in online searches by potential customers.
A factor that is often overlooked but is in fact of crucial importance in terms of effective SEO is the actual speed of your site. This is not only because if your site is slow to load then potential users might leave it fast and go elsewhere, but also for technical reasons as well, since search engines, such as Google, consider the technical aspect of site speed, i.e. how fast your server receives the first byte of webpage info, as very important and a determining factor when ranking sites on results pages.
Knowing who you are competing against is yet another significant angle that you should focus on. Although it might be an unpleasant process, it is necessary to compare and contrast your performance and ranking to that of your competitors and recognise what the strong and weak points are both for them and for you so that you can take the necessary measures to improve against your competitors.
The importance of SEO cannot be stressed enough but if you feel you don’t have the time or the necessary understanding and knowledge to learn about and effectively implement SEO methods and strategies, contact our team today to arrange a consultation and let us work with you to find affordable and effective solutions in terms of SEO that will pave the way for making your vision into a reality and your startup or newly founded online business venture into a great success!
