SEO for Startups

Today I have a meeting to discuss SEO with a female startup founder in San Francisco. So I did a few searches in her niche to see if her company pops up. It doesn’t, which is why I guess she needs someone to work on her SEO. Cool! Maybe I can create an article here for all founders needing SEO for their startups.

First step: Find out who her competitors are.

Second step: Do a Google search for the founder to see what’s online about her. Ooh! A YouTube video showing her speak on a panel about her industry. It’s quite helpful to see what her personality is like.

Third step: What are some industry events I could attend to generate blog posts about her company, and thus increase her “Google Authority?” Example: Maybe I should go to the Ft. Lauderdale 2023 Sellers Summit?

Fourth step: Are there plans to add an “About” page? The human touch is missing from this potential client’s website.

11 a.m. Twist!

Just got pinged by this potential client on LinkedIn. Turns out she already found someone to do her SEO, but she says she will refer me to her network of startup founders, woot! So I sent her the link to the new Georgic portfolio that outlines 3 case studies: Urban Alliance, Natural Investments, and NASHP.

And now I’m wondering, hmm. Maybe I can just look around my own neighborhood to find new clients, so I rode my bike to Regus, a co-working space not too far from our new “Georgic” headquarters. There was no one at the front desk when I arrived, just a sign that said “Out to Lunch,” which allowed me to walk right in. Not very secure in a state/country where people like to shoot guns in public places. This allowed me to wander through the hallways until a guy from “LPL Financial” gave me his business card after I told him I do SEO. OK, cool. Unofficial networking!

So now, I’m Googling his company and there are quite a few negative results: “Is LPL financial a real company?” and “Is LPL Financial corrupt” and “Is LPL Financial a pyramid scheme.” Ugh. Does this mean I would be cleaning up the company’s SEO? Do I even know how to do that? No.

By the time I walked back to the front desk, there was a woman there and I was able to ask her if the Coworking Space hosts networking events, and she said yes, there will be one this summer. Meantime, should I get a new mailing address at this location? The price is $115 per month vs. $65 per month for a downtown address. Hmm.

If I want to offer SEO for startups, maybe I should have office space at a co-working space.

Starter Studio? Or Pipeline. Or Venture X. Serendipity Labs? Industrious? UCF Creative Village downtown?

But maybe I just want to work with female founders. Is that sexist?

No. It’s called diversity, equity, and inclusion of humans who were previously pushed out of the places of power, and it’s alive and well and happening, regardless of one person’s abuse of governmental powers.