Starting a business is a bit nerve-wracking when you consider that 80 percent of businesses fail within the first 18 months. The thing that will separate you from your competitors is not your determination but the innovative thought process behind how you choose to market your brand and relate to consumers. Businesses should be aware that a vital component of a successful venture is marketing strategies that position a brand as a viable contender. Business owners must also be aware that search engine optimization (SEO), feedback, ratings, likes and reviews also optimize the need of product or services. Here are seven SEO tips for new companies or business ventures.

1. Use SEO Optimization to Build Your Website

Consider your website as your primary source to target traffic, boost your sales and engage with your followers. It is important to your business functions, so you need to place a high value on making sure your landing pages and content rank highly. Some of the things you must decide include:

• Use your domain name to define who and where your business is
• Research high-ranking keywords to use in titles; you will need to find a variety of keywords that define your niche, your product or service and where you market to your consumers
• Add your name, address and contact information to your homepage, About Me page and landing pages

2. Advertising Across Multiple Channels Is Critical

An effective way to implement SEO is to make your business available by creating advertising across multiple third-party channels. When you fail to list your information or is incorrect, it negatively impacts your ranking as well as the traffic and conversion of sales. Some of the steps to take are:

• Search local websites like Facebook, Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor and online directories to claim your business listing and update your name, phone number, website URL, address and product or service information
• Add images, how-to videos and URLs that promote your business positively
• Ensure that your business has the appropriate tags including service or product categories
• Use keywords in your business name, but do not overdo it with a string URL; algorithms notice when you are trying to go keyword crazy, which affects your ranking and search engine results negatively

3. Learn to Diversify and Optimize Your Backlink Profile

Businesses implement anchor text formulas to promote pages or content. Businesses must use each of their SEO strategies once rather than using one numerous times. Website diversification enables algorithms to score a site or page higher. Here are a few ways to diversify your website:

• Use generic anchor texts like “Click Here” to prioritize keywords for basic searches
• Use naked URLs to create hyperlinks using your domain name; Example: <https://www.templates.com/bestsellers/>
• Use branded keyword links to brand your company or domain name
• Using citations on images and videos helps you optimize links and websites
• Using partial anchor texts will match partial keywords rather than exact matches; Example: <los angeles seo company>
• Using long-tail text to include keywords that consumers use when searching
• Latent semantic indexing will create hyperlinks with various keyword criteria

4. Engagement Is Crucial

Online reviews boost your credibility and visibility better than any other marketing strategy because the consumers are sharing their experiences and validating your value to others. Some of the things you can include:

• Actively encourage your consumers to leave feedback
• Let customers know the sites where they can leave feedback
• Don't post false reviews as it hurts your credibility

5. Devise a Public Relations Strategy

Media coverage often occurs in your business. Do you have a strategy to let your followers know about it? Linking to credible sources drives your ranking significantly, especially with these tips:

• Release PR notices to inform your followers
• Create links to each third-party source
• Develop relationships with local bloggers and media sources

6. Optimize Social Media Tools

If you are not yet aware, social media will play a critical role in business functions. The more you engage, the better your business is visible to online social media users. It will also drive your search ranking up when consumers use hashtags about you. Some steps to try are:

• Create a social media campaign and strategy that directly engages consumers across all the social media platforms
• Add updates about product or services, public relation notices of news links, and promotions that increase participation

7. Create an Interdepartmental SEO Strategy

Keywords will only work if your business has a strategy to achieve specific objectives. Do you optimize text, videos and images? Is the content easy to navigate? Here are a few things you can do to create a well-developed website:

• Create a campaign with other credible businesses to provide organic SEO
• Use different types of language to diversify your website
• Use a free website like Google Trends to update trending keywords

We would love to hear from you. Do you implement any of these strategies? Do you have any advice for up-and-coming businesses?