SEO for startups. Organic growth on a new domain and a startup budget.
SEO for startups is about winning the searches a new domain can realistically win, fast, and building from there. We know the situation from the inside: our own dronkapp.com went from a brand-new domain to 5,000+ visitors a month in about six months.
- dronkapp.com
- 5,000+ visitors a month
- Domain age
- ~6 months at the time of writing
- Ranking pages
- 200+ in 13 languages
The situation
Why startup SEO is different
Startups have no domain authority, few backlinks, a small budget and a product that may still change. Most SEO advice is written for established companies and does not fit. Chasing the big category keyword on day one is how startups burn a year on content that never ranks.
A startup SEO plan works backwards from what a young site can win: specific, long-tail searches from people with a clear need. Those searches are smaller, but they convert better, and every page that ranks makes the next one easier.
The plan
A startup SEO plan in five parts.
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Pick searches you can win now
A new domain will not rank for the big head terms for a long time. It can rank for specific, long-tail searches from people with a clear need. Those are where a startup starts.
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Build a technically clean, fast site
Getting the foundations right on day one costs little. Fixing a slow, script-heavy site after it has grown costs a lot.
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Publish pages that match buying intent
Use cases, alternatives, comparisons, pricing and problem pages. The pages a buyer reads right before signing up, not generic thought leadership.
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Use what you know that others do not
Your product data, your customer conversations and your founder expertise are content no competitor can copy. They make pages worth ranking.
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Measure signups, not sessions
Traffic is a means. We track which pages lead to signups or demos, and double down on those.
Skip for now
What an SEO agency for startups should tell you to skip
- Big retainers before product-market fit. If the product or audience might change, invest in a few strong pages, not a long content calendar.
- Buying links. It is risky, expensive and rarely necessary for long-tail searches.
- Blogging for the sake of it. Generic articles about your industry rarely bring buyers. Pages that answer buyer questions do.
- Vanity metrics. Rankings for keywords nobody searches look good in a report and do nothing for revenue.
Proof
Built on a new domain, not a big brand
We build and grow our own products, so our SEO services for startups come from doing it ourselves. Dronk hit #1 on the App Store's party game chart the week it launched, and its website now ranks in 13 languages. UnfollowCheck grew to 120,000+ users, and its website gets around 30,000 visitors a month, mostly from Google.
-
#1
Dronk
Read the case : Dronk
on the App Store's party game chart the same week it launched. dronkapp.com gets 5,000+ visitors a month in 13 languages on a domain that is only six months old. -
120,000+
UnfollowCheck
Read the case : UnfollowCheck
users worldwide, 1M+ profiles tracked and 30,000 monthly visitors to unfollowcheck.com, mostly from Google.
Fit
Startup, SaaS or B2B?
If your startup sells software on a subscription, our SaaS SEO page goes deeper into integration, comparison and use-case pages. If you sell to businesses with long sales cycles, see B2B SEO. If you are launching a mobile app, SEO for apps covers how an app website brings installs.
MediaVikings is a small studio in Denmark working remotely with founders in the US, UK and Europe. We also build MVPs and startup websites, so the site and the SEO can be planned together.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
When should a startup start doing SEO?
As soon as you know who your customer is and what they search for. SEO compounds, so starting early is cheap relative to starting late. That said, before product-market fit, keep it lean: a clean site and a handful of strong pages.
Can a new domain rank on Google?
Yes, for the right searches. Our own dronkapp.com gets 5,000+ visitors a month on a domain that is only about six months old. The trick is targeting specific searches where intent is clear and competition is beatable, rather than the obvious head terms.
How much should a startup spend on SEO?
Less than you think at first. A focused project, research plus a set of strong pages, often beats a small monthly retainer. See our SEO pricing guide for market levels.
Should we hire an SEO agency or do it ourselves?
Many founders can handle the basics themselves with the right plan. An agency or consultant is worth it when you need speed, when the technical setup is complex, or when nobody on the team has time to write.
How long until SEO brings signups?
Expect a few months before new pages settle, and longer in crowded markets. Long-tail pages can bring the first signups sooner, which is another reason to start there.
Next step