SEO for Tech Companies: Dos and Don’ts
There’s so much information out there about SEO for tech companies that sometimes it can be considerably hard to know which of that information is helpful and which one is not. That perhaps explains, in part, why some IT firms end up implementing some SEO tactics that they think will push their business forward, only for the opposite to happen. Wrong or outdated SEO tactics can be extremely harmful, especially to a small tech company with a small IT lead generation budget. The following are some dos and don’ts that every IT firm must adhere to for a chance to not only survive a cutthroat market, but thrive in it.
SEO Dos for tech companies
1. Keyword research
Any successful SEO project relies heavily on keyword selection. All content you create for your website must have industry-relevant keywords that can improve your ranking within the IT industry. Take your time researching the best keywords that can lead to robust lead-generation.
2. Create linkable assets
Content creation is always at the center of any successful SEO project. Creating linkable assets is about creating unique content that other websites, especially authority niche sites, will want to link to. This approach is the best in creating backlinks. When you create a piece of content (whether an article, an infographic, a video, etc.) that people can’t resist linking and sharing, then you have a truly linkable asset, ultimately making lead generation for IT companies seem like a walk in the park.
3. Use a content management system
A content management systems (CMS) like WordPress makes the process of collaboration on a piece of content easy before it is published. It eliminates the need for hand-editing, essentially speeding the creation process. Additionally, a good CMS will typically have SEO plugins you can use to optimize your content for search engines. When it becomes easy to create and edit content, it makes it possible to create more unique content and ultimately works towards strengthening your SEO efforts.
4. Contribute articles to industry-relevant, authority sites
Marketing for tech companies is not limited to on-page SEO. In fact, it is often what happens outside your site that has more influence on your website’s ranking on search engines than what you do within the site. One big way of achieving this is through guest blogging – contributing to authority websites in your niche. These websites are high ranking sites with a noteworthy domain authority. Contributing an article gives you a chance to get a link back to your website while presenting you as an authority in the IT industry.
5. Publish unique data
This SEO tactic is especially relevant for B2B tech marketing. While it is part of creating linkable assets, it deserves its own mention because of how powerful it is as an SEO strategy. By sharing unique data like statistics and case studies, you give readers insights into how a project worked, what the challenges were and how they can replicate the results in their own projects. Publishing unique data is one of the most effective way of marketing for tech startups, quickly bringing them into the fore in SERPs as other websites, including those with high domain authority, rush to share this unique data with their audiences.
SEO Don’ts for tech companies
1. Do nothing
While SEO concepts sometimes can seem abstract and technical, you should do everything in your power to not let industry jargon discourage you from getting started with an SEO plan. Don’t shy away from starting wherever you are and asking questions along the way. Months later, you will look back and see just how much search engine optimization knowledge you’ve acquired over time.
2. Assign the wrong person to do SEO
This is one of the most common SEO mistakes that IT companies, especially tech startups make. Perhaps in efforts to save on labor costs, IT firms use salesmen, software programmers, graphic designers, product managers, etc. to do search engine optimization in addition to the work they’ve been hired to do. This compromises the results obtainable in SEO.
On average, an SEO campaign needs anything between 50 and 125 hours a month. Using employees that you have hired for other tasks to do SEO deprives your IT firm of incredible results that are only attainable by having an SEO expert on board. Sometimes it may be necessary to hire an SEO agency to deal with everything related to search engine optimization for your IT company.
3. Only do onsite SEO
Onsite SEO only accounts for around 30% of the factors that search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yandex use to rank a website. While many IT firms often concentrate on onsite SEO in order to sell their products and services in the local market, neglecting offsite SEO means that there are many more ranking factors you are neglecting that your competitors are not. For competitive markets like IT, neglecting offsite SEO will have devastating effects on your business that could take you a long time to recover from.