How To Rank A Startup Higher And Get More Clients

You’ve just been hired as the new digital marketing person of a newly-created startup. What’s the best place to start? At the beginning, of course. In this article, we’ll give you ideas on how to start ranking your brand new company and get some traffic going to its website, acquiring new leads in the process. Let’s begin.

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Website SEO Optimization

First, you’ll need to take care of content on your company’s website. You’ll need it to rank higher when people browse for certain keywords related to the company. For example, if the company is based in New York and creates computer software, using the <meta name=”keywords” content=”INSERT KEYWORDS HERE”> code in the ‘body’ section will certainly help Google and other search engines notice it much easier. In the “INSERT KEYWORDS HERE” section, you can input keywords such as ‘new york computer software, it company new york’ etc, usually not more than 4-5 keywords in total, separated by commas.

A sitemap is also useful, especially when you want Google’s algorithms to better understand the content on your website. Submit a sitemap.xml file here, and let Google do the rest. It will register every page on the website, including all textual content – such as keywords.

As for the images, even they play a part in the SEO strategy. Even size of the images matters, as the site will load much quicker if they are compressed without losing on quality. The ‘ALT’ tag of images can also be used to input keywords, and help improve search engine optimization greatly.

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Blog and submitting URLs

Keywords, great content, adequate pictures – all these will assist you in getting more traffic and recognition with the browse engines. Try getting plenty links posted and make sure you make it easier on Bing and Google by submitting URLs manually. Click here for submitting URLs with Bing, and here for helping Google with this matter.

How to get this going? If you’re up for it, write content yourself on a weekly/monthly basis. In case you need more articles done in no time, hire freelancers or delegate this task to team members involved in content writing. Even the rest of your coworkers may help out (once a month or so), by using a day or two to write some good content.

You may hire freelancers via Fiverr, Indeed, Scripted, and other well-known hiring platforms. Check for their backgrounds and portfolios before continuing, unless you want a duplicate content which will ultimately get you in trouble. Don’t be afraid to spend a few more bucks on quality, unique content, rather than getting ‘3 for the price of 1’ worthless articles.

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Extensive Email Prospecting

Probably one of the most important marketing techniques, sending emails and occasional newsletters is a must. Start by finding emails and leads using social networks, install ‘subscribe’ options on the company’s website for a larger mail database, and spend part of your budget for a good automation platform, such as MailChimp, MailerLite, GetResponse, etc.

There are many websites offering ready business emails to be purchased. Alternatively, if you’re low on budget, you could do it manually using Google Maps and company directories, depending on location. Either way, sending neatly written, concise emails to the right people will get you your first, starting clients. From here on, sky’s the limit!

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Social Media Marketing

The last part is the most difficult one. Right now, the most recommended social media platforms for business promotion would be Facebook and LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a more serious tone to it and attracts mostly business people, while Facebook remains the number one social media channel, with over 2.28 billion monthly users (as of October, 2018), meaning it’s the largest global market.

Using Facebook’s Business Manager and LinkedIn Ads will do wonders for your business, reaching more and more people every day. Hire someone to help you with creatives, brainstorm first before you post anything, and make sure it’s clean, visible, and attractive at the same time.

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Free Listings & Pricing

Depending on the industry you work in, there are always ways to improve your exposure to the audience, for free. Find free listings on the Internet and submit your company, along with contact info and website URL, for easier communication. Another important thing is pricing, so don’t be afraid to offer your services/products at cheaper prices in the beginning, only until you fill in the company’s portfolio, then switch to normal prices once you have some projects as background.