{"id":14591,"date":"2017-07-05T14:41:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T11:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/?p=14591"},"modified":"2018-07-10T13:47:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T10:47:22","slug":"startups-seo-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/14591\/startups-seo-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"16 Reasons Why Startups Fail at SEO and How They Can Recover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Failure \u2026\u00a0a rather hard to digest word. Failure is the bad guy everybody avoids. Winning, on the other hand, is a whole different story. But with new beginnings comes the challenge to keep your head above water and not to mess it up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not science per se. It is just sweat, practice and A\/B testing based on your data and real data examples. Startups fail at SEO because they aren\u2019t prepared or do other rookie mistakes, but in the next few minutes you\u2019ll find out how to steer away from them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Failing can give you a real sense of what works out for you and what doesn\u2019t. Startups fail because they take the wrong approach, don\u2019t know their audience or\u00a0overlook making a market\u00a0research,\u00a0bringing a product to an oversaturated market and so on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Discover all the reasons why startups fail at SEO. Learn from the others’\u00a0experience. Find out the best examples of startups SEO failures and find out how you can get better from today\u2019s article. In addition, learn what makes a startup successful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s filled with peppery examples, appealing explanations, and strong SEO solutions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Selling to the Wrong Customers Profile Will Kill Your Startup<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Believe SEO Is Just a One Time Thing Will Make You Lose 92% of Your Audience<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Not Scaling Your Results Gets You Only 50% of Your Goals<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Ungrounded Overconfidence Will Leave You Stuck in the Pivot Phase<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Not Knowing Your Target Will Bring Higher Costs and Fewer Users<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Choosing an SEO Company That Will Rank You First in One Week Will Tank Your Ranks Definitively<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Having a Slow Loading Website with Bad User Experience Can Decrease Conversions by 100%<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Targeting Misleading Keywords Will Bring Zero Traffic to Your Website<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Not Using Marketing Tools Won’t Bring You SEO Opportunities<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Using Old School SEO Techniques Will Get You a Google Penalty<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  11. Building Low-Quality Links Gets You\u00a025% Search Visibility\u00a0Fall<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  12. Over-Optimizing Anchor Texts Sends an Alarm Signal to Google\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  13. Not Adapting Your SEO Strategy to the Evolving Industry Will Crash You<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  14. Having Unrealistic Timeframe and Budget Means Game Over<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  15. Poor Content Investment Makes You Lose More Than 67% Leads<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  16. Writing Low-Quality Content for Another Purpose Won’t Bring You Any Leads<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
     <\/div>\n

    1. Selling to the Wrong Customers Profile Will Kill Your Startup<\/h2>\n

    One of the major reasons why startups fail is selling to the wrong customers. It all comes to your audience. You\u2019ll never have to bleed out customers.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n

    Your audience must be on the top of the list. They are the ones who will use your product or services. Your business should revolve around them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     <\/p>\n

    There are a lot of startups that don’t know their audience, which their purchase flow is, their interests or other behavioral characteristics.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    It’s exactly like when you would like to invite some friends to dinner but don’t know their preferences. Do they eat pork? Does anyone have food allergies? Does anyone eat vegan food? You need to know this information before you start preparing the meal.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Calxeda, the company that started to provide computers based on the ARM architecture for server computers, had a problem regarding their audience. They moved faster than their customers could move, having problems getting in line with their level of knowledge. They started acting faster than their customers\u2019 understanding.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    We moved with tech that wasn\u2019t really ready for them \u2013 ie, with 32-bit when they wanted 64-bit. We moved when the operating-system environment was still being fleshed out – [Ubuntu Linux maker] Canonical is all right, but where is Red Hat?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \"Calxeda\"<\/td>\n\u00a0Calxeda testimony<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
     <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Wrong customers don’t see value and they won\u2019t come to your site and eventually won\u2019t buy. If you focus too much on the best channels to reach your targets you won\u2019t succeed either.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Selling to the wrong customers will kill your startup.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    The mistake startups do is focusing on channels rather than target customers. They start their marketing backwards: Channels > Segmentation > Customer > Message.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n<\/span>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Not Targeting Your\u00a0Customer Profile?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    To improve your chances of success you need to start your online strategy in reverse. \u00a0<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Start with the customer, make a profile for your buying personas, then continue with the segmentation process, create the message and select the right channels. If you defined your customers’ profile, but the channel you reach out to them is not the right one, you\u2019ll lose them.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    When you finish those steps you will be prepared, you\u2019ll understand your customers. You\u2019ll speak the same language. But your job is not done yet. You have to set the right goals. \u00a0<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Follow the targeted social profile. Let\u2019s say your customers are mainly on Twitter and your social activity takes place on Facebook. You should be where your users are.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    For example, Get Vero<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s social media strategy focuses more on Twitter<\/a><\/strong>. You can see in the next screenshot that their articles get more shares on Twitter. That is the secret: become famous through what you write about way ahead of who you are.<\/p>\n

    \"getvero-content-marketing\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Multi-channel promotion is also an option. But stick to 3-5 social accounts. Adapt your message to each channel.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Another thing you could do is ask for feedback from your prospects. Spend enough time talking with customers to find out how you can improve your business.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    2. Believe SEO Is Just a One Time Thing Will Make You Lose 92% of Your Audience<\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Believing SEO is just a one-time thing is a definitive reason for failure.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t set and forget. This a vicious mindset for every goal you make. Set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) objectives and then follow their evolution, take a decision based on them.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Always have continuity for everything you do. Never let things unfinished because you\u2019ll not evolve. That is a mistake that even older firms do.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    SEO is what you do to push your website on the search engines. If you\u2019re not there, you don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    There was a saying: The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results. Lots of studies say only 8% of searchers<\/a><\/strong> end up on the second page of Google. More than that, the total of average click-through rate for top 10 queries is 208%<\/a><\/strong>, meaning users click more than twice on the first result page.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Not Having Continuous\u00a0Monitoring?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    It is important to make an SEO strategy you have to follow. If you don\u2019t have the knowledge for it, hire or collaborate with a trustworthy party. Make an SEO audit and invest (time, money) in SEO because you need to make it to the first page.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Use audit tools such Site Explorer<\/a><\/strong> for a quick analysis. If you want something more complex use cognitiveSEO<\/a> <\/strong>or call a hard working Pro.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Make a blog, where you post new and qualitative content on a weekly basis or a period of your own.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Take, for example, the help desk software GrooveHQ<\/a><\/strong>, that has created a link profile in the tech and business industry using mostly blogs. Another great thing they did was to build anchor text that is extremely specific besides the branded ones.<\/p>\n

    \"groovehq-content-strategy-marketing-no-seo-tricks\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Their accurate way of building online presence helped the startup to develop a steady and valuable growth.<\/p>\n

    \"groovehq-digital-marketing-strategy\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Groove HQ has an excellent content strategy<\/a><\/strong> because they worked to offer catchy content, grab bloggers\u2019 attention and have a great social strategy in place. It was the safest SEO strategy to ensure nothing came back to haunt them.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    3. Not Scaling Your Results Gets You Only 50% of Your Goals<\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Not keeping track or results of poor accountability is another SEO startups fail.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Pursuit results in every goal you make. Results must be measured no matter what. Otherwise, you can\u2019t learn anything. Make sure you mark your key milestones. During your product development process, you have to establish which are the most significant points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t do that you\u2019ll never know how much you\u2019ve invested and you won’t be able to make a comparison with the outcome. Eventually, you\u2019ll lose focus and this will kill your startup.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The postmortem company MyFavorites<\/a><\/strong> has a story you should learn from. The initial idea of MyFavorites was showing and telling your favorites, but in the end that was all: an idea.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    Steve Poland, the founder of postmortem MyFavorites said<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    When we came back from SXSW, we all started losing interest, the team was all wondering where this was eventually going, and I was wondering if I even wanted to run a startup, have investors, have the responsibility of employees and answering to a board of investors, etc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \"Steve<\/td>\nSteve Poland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Currently the Managing Director of Z80 Labs \/\u00a0@popo<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    And he didn\u2019t go on with it.<\/p>\n

    \n

    A successful entrepreneur will set aims, test hypotheses and evaluate the results.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    An SEO plan can include lots of activities that you\u00a0need to break into tasks, set a timeframe for\u00a0and organize. This way you can have a bigger picture.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Not Scaling Your Results?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    A clearly defined road map, with tasks assigned to specific team members, can consolidate and enhance your SEO strategy. There are lots of tools for that: Meistertask, Trello, Blossom and much more.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Use tools such as Google Search Console, cognitiveSEO, Google Analytics for tracking data and your SEO activity.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Setting goals in Analytics and Google Adwords can help you see if the strategy and SEO campaign you\u2019ve conducted is the right one to fulfill the target.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    4.\u00a0Ungrounded Overconfidence Will Leave You Stuck in the Pivot Phase<\/h2>\n

    An SEO expert \/consultant\u2019s\u00a0job is to understand the role of the clients, to deliver what has been promised and to educate them in terms of what SEO can and can\u2019t do for their business. \u00a0<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Not being able to see the bigger picture is another startup SEO failure. Usually, this happens if the entrepreneur is overconfident in his knowledge but doesn\u2019t know SEO. And it can easily turn into arrogance and therefore another startup fail, even if you have the best business plan of all.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    If you may, please learn from other mistakes. Keith Nowak, the founder of what had to be Imercive, a social media marketing company that provided branded instant messaging applications, says on this site<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    We were caught mid-pivot \u2013 half way between a strategy we knew wouldn\u2019t work and one which we believed could be successful but was not able to be aggressively pursued.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \"Keith<\/td>\nKeith Nowak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Founder and CEO of Ten Thousand \/\u00a0@keithbnowak<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    He continued with the explanation about his postmortem Imercive experience, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    We were extremely frustrated at not being able to properly go after our new strategy and every day that passed without meaningful progress was one step closer to the failure of my first company. Even though we put everything we had into getting through this phase we were never able to make it through the pivot.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \"Keith<\/td>\nKEITH NOWAK<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Founder and CEO of Ten Thousand \/\u00a0@keithbnowak<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Ungrounded Overconfidence?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Work on your weakness or collaborate with somebody who sees the bigger picture. A good couple can make a “big picture” person and somebody who’s detail-oriented. Find out who you are and start working on your approach so you can fulfill the plans.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Look for trends using Google Trends<\/a><\/strong> or search for news in your industry, subscribe to feeds to get the freshest insights.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Use BrandMentions<\/a> <\/strong>to get notifications with different mentions you\u2019ve set up so you can be aware of what your competitors or other companies are doing.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Listen to Google Webmaster Central and Hangouts<\/a><\/strong> to hear news, get new features insights and find out what other changes happen inside Google. Or search for summaries with the most intriguing SEO facts<\/a><\/strong> exposed on Google Webmaster Hangouts.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    5.\u00a0Not Knowing Your Target Will Bring Higher Costs and Fewer Users<\/h2>\n

    Not segmenting your SEO efforts to target customers with the highest potential Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is another reason why startups fail at SEO.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t conduct link building techniques on sites with thin content such a web directories of all sorts of websites that have a list with links. Don\u2019t try and build links on all kind of sites that are not related to your industry or sites that are too general.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The wider the audience, the larger the SEO costs of attracting them on your website.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The sad and real fact is that many startups assume which their target is. You wouldn\u2019t believe, but some startups think that because they are developing the next app, all the smartphone users are in their target.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    They couldn\u2019t be more wrong. There are so many different types of smartphone users that\u00a0you can\u2019t count them even using your both hands.<\/p>\n

     <\/div>\n

    As Mayank Jain writes in TalentPad\u2019s post-mortem<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    We failed because of our inability to figure out a scalable solution, which addresses a large enough market in India. One of the things that our entire team has been passionate about is making a big impact to a wide-ranging audience. We could not figure out a way to achieve that.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \"Mayank<\/td>\nMayank Jain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Tech Entrepreneur \/\u00a0@jainmayank_943<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    TalentPad was a marketplace for technology recruitment.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Not Knowing Your Target?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Create a name for yourself. Start building a reputation and create awareness around your name and your business. Make a connection between them.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n

    You can start by creating relevant content to your niche and write on websites that are newsworthy and have lots of viewers. This means to go narrow and deep. Work on from there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     <\/p>\n

    After that bring them to your blog. Here, create content and share it on other platforms such as Inbound.org, GrowthHackers, Medium.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    I bet that there are many other tools and platforms you could use to get the word out, but that it’s up to you to find them since they are targeted by the industry or type of activity.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n

    More than that, you can appeal to amplification techniques<\/a><\/strong> to reach a wider audience and multiply your links by hundreds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     <\/div>\n

    6. Choosing an SEO Company That Will Rank You First in One Week Will Tank Your Ranks Definitively<\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Among the reasons why SEO fails might be because you collaborated with cheap SEO \u201cconsultants\u201d.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    How many times did you hear a cheap SEO freelancer performed black hat SEO<\/a><\/strong> and poor link building on a website?<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"rank<\/p>\n

    How many sites did you hear complaining about the fact they got penalized for this? Make sure you don\u2019t do these kinds of mistakes<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Just a few days ago we had a client who was saying he was struggling to clean his site of a bad vicious collaboration in the past.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The company used a cheap \u201cspecialist\u201d to do SEO and made a mess on the previously good SERP with a terrible and absolutely dreadful link farm.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Being new in the business and needing to do SEO so that people will find you in Google is hard.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What Is the SEO Solution For Choosing Shady Companies?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    You have a lot of options for this SEO failure. Have a well-structured approach before you contact somebody. Learn a few SEO basics to understand what you have to do next. Do your homework and be prepared. Take your time for a thorough job. Acknowledge one or more of the next solutions:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n