Ask HN: Do all startups do SEO?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1654908

by niico • 16 years ago

3 6 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've read a couple posts here where they are pretty much against SEO or see SEO as a "bad" or cheating thing.

Do you in your startup/website/company do SEO?

Maybe I am just too much of a SEO fanboy (?) but I 'm not sure if startups focus on organic search.

If so, what are your strategies? Like link building, articles, directories (no need to share your top secrets unless you want to :) )

solost• 16 years ago

It depends what kind of business it is to be honest. Most start ups focus on their product and worry about marketing and SEO later on.

SEO is just a single internet marketing tactic and in all honesty until you have something worth marketing beyond friends and family, I wouldn't worry about it or any of the other internet marketing tactics you might consider until the appropriate time.

With that said there is nothing wrong with creating an SEO frinedly site and blog early on. However I wouldn't get overly concerned about them until you really have something worth marketing. At that point you need to look at the marketing plan and I would be sure to include SEO as part of it.

SEO really has three key parts. Good on page optimization, quality content creation, and high quality link building with solid anchor text. Do those three things well and you will succeed.

I hope that helps.

garrettgillas• 16 years ago

Every company that makes a well functioning websites "does SEO". The easier white-hat practices of the past have come into common practice as part of what is considered good web development. Things like making sure all you navigational links are text, using consistent linking, and assigning correct alt tags to images go along these lines.

The the question that I think you might be trying to ask is "whether all startups go into the grey and black-hat areas of SEO". The obvious answer to this is no. Lots do though.

niico2• 16 years ago

Yeah, but every company do SEO after having a considerable amount of traffic or users when I believe it should be the other way. Egg or chicken.

fezzl• 16 years ago

I think that it's foolish for any startup to avoid or refuse to do SEO. SEO is scalable, repeatable marketing. One of the things that I hear over and over again is to constantly create relevant content that relates to the keywords for which you are optimizing. SEOMoz and HubSpot have some pretty good resources on how to get started with SEO.

ddoonie• 16 years ago

I believe you may as well do basic on page SEO when building your site. Maybe even build in a blog, which will serve two purposes - original content and updates for your readers.

You can do link building passively (review posts, guest blog posts etc...).

I do agree with some others that it would be unwise not to do a little leg work from the beginning when building your site.

niico2• 16 years ago

Another question would be. Is is possible to build something without focusing on SEO nowadays?

Ask HN: Do all startups do SEO?

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