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This all seems to make sense, but how realistic is it for a startup to actually spend time on SEO instead of putting those same resources into product developme

This all seems to make sense, but how realistic is it for a startup to actually spend time on SEO instead of putting those same resources into product development, traditional marketing, etc?

aerosmile 8y ago
Author here. Absolutely fair - it's the chicken or the egg question... It's important to get some quick traction doing quick and dirty tricks, but eventually you'll have to demonstrate that you have a scalable channel. If your unit economics allow you to pursue paid acquisition, then certainly focus on that in your early days (and if it's SEM, then you'll learn a lot about search terms that you'll be able to leverage for SEO down the road). But businesses that have a low LTV (eg: less than $100) often don't have that luxury. In those instances, starting with SEO early may be one of the few options you have.
- nsmog767 8y ago
  This makes sense when the content is closely aligned to the product, like in your examples with language/framework tutorials. What I don't get is all these startups putting money into blog posts like "5 things we like about mondays" when they could be doing doing something valuable.
  - aerosmile 8y ago
    Yep, I think we're all sick and tired of the "5 things..." posts. The point I am trying to make in this article is that founders of early-stage startups are able to - and should - go above and beyond that. Far, far, far beyond that. Essentially, give it all you have, and put it all in your first post rather than splitting it over many different articles. It may be a contrarian strategy, but as a startup you don't really have many other options other than to publish insanely high quality content, even if it means you won't get to publish very frequently. Once you get some traction, you can then start scaling by lowering the amount of effort you put into each and every article.
  - SerLava 8y ago
    Yeah those are the types of article topics that should be aggressively weeded out by any credible SEO specialist or consultant.
aytekin 8y ago
It sounds like they did not spend too much time on it. They hired someone in the community to write for them. Then others wanted write on their platform for free. It was a very clever strategy that scaled without much effort or time from them.
- aerosmile 8y ago
  It actually took all of my time to get the operation going. Considering that I was a co-founder and there weren't many of us around, it was a sizable time investment and a huge gamble for the company. While I didn't have to do any writing, it would be disingenuous to promote the idea that all it takes for SEO to take off is a clever trick. In fact, if there's one message I would share, it is that there are no shortcuts (but on the positive side, if you do put in the work, you can make it despite being an early-stage company). Most of my work went into analyzing the topics we should be writing about, creating lists of keywords I was encouraging our writers to use, recruiting writers, and then building relationships in the relevant communities and promoting the content. Eventually we ended up getting enough people to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter that the promotional work went away.
deltron3030 8y ago
Product development and the internal documents you have, can serve as the basis for good content. Essentially you're writing about problems that you're solving with your product. Your first articles can be related to your MVP, and the following ones about stuff you discover after gaining your first users. What I think the OP is trying to communicate, is basically that SEO or creating content that attracts people, is just a natural step within the development of your business. You'd need a interesting take on a problem or solve one that nobody else is solving, and then make sure that you don't miss the keywords people search for.

This all seems to make sense, but how realistic is it for a startup to actually spend time on SEO instead of putting those same resources into product development, traditional marketing, etc?

aerosmile 8y ago

Author here. Absolutely fair - it's the chicken or the egg question... It's important to get some quick traction doing quick and dirty tricks, but eventually you'll have to demonstrate that you have a scalable channel. If your unit economics allow you to pursue paid acquisition, then certainly focus on that in your early days (and if it's SEM, then you'll learn a lot about search terms that you'll be able to leverage for SEO down the road). But businesses that have a low LTV (eg: less than $100) often don't have that luxury. In those instances, starting with SEO early may be one of the few options you have.

nsmog767 8y ago
This makes sense when the content is closely aligned to the product, like in your examples with language/framework tutorials. What I don't get is all these startups putting money into blog posts like "5 things we like about mondays" when they could be doing doing something valuable.
- aerosmile 8y ago
  Yep, I think we're all sick and tired of the "5 things..." posts. The point I am trying to make in this article is that founders of early-stage startups are able to - and should - go above and beyond that. Far, far, far beyond that. Essentially, give it all you have, and put it all in your first post rather than splitting it over many different articles. It may be a contrarian strategy, but as a startup you don't really have many other options other than to publish insanely high quality content, even if it means you won't get to publish very frequently. Once you get some traction, you can then start scaling by lowering the amount of effort you put into each and every article.
- SerLava 8y ago
  Yeah those are the types of article topics that should be aggressively weeded out by any credible SEO specialist or consultant.

aytekin 8y ago

It sounds like they did not spend too much time on it. They hired someone in the community to write for them. Then others wanted write on their platform for free. It was a very clever strategy that scaled without much effort or time from them.

aerosmile 8y ago
It actually took all of my time to get the operation going. Considering that I was a co-founder and there weren't many of us around, it was a sizable time investment and a huge gamble for the company. While I didn't have to do any writing, it would be disingenuous to promote the idea that all it takes for SEO to take off is a clever trick. In fact, if there's one message I would share, it is that there are no shortcuts (but on the positive side, if you do put in the work, you can make it despite being an early-stage company). Most of my work went into analyzing the topics we should be writing about, creating lists of keywords I was encouraging our writers to use, recruiting writers, and then building relationships in the relevant communities and promoting the content. Eventually we ended up getting enough people to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter that the promotional work went away.

deltron3030 8y ago

Product development and the internal documents you have, can serve as the basis for good content. Essentially you're writing about problems that you're solving with your product. Your first articles can be related to your MVP, and the following ones about stuff you discover after gaining your first users. What I think the OP is trying to communicate, is basically that SEO or creating content that attracts people, is just a natural step within the development of your business. You'd need a interesting take on a problem or solve one that nobody else is solving, and then make sure that you don't miss the keywords people search for.