Students have hefty academic loads and hardly any time for rest or other out-of-school activities. Despite this, numerous studies show that modern students want to become startup founders more than ever before.
Thanks to the Internet and technology, which make starting a business much easier than a decade ago, young people from all over the world are ready to capture this opportunity.
How Do Students Found and Run Startups?
Modern students are full of ideas and ambitions. Every year, we see thousands of companies founded by young people looking to bring their ideas to life. But how do they handle it?
As was already mentioned, students are facing a hefty academic load that often keeps them back from pursuing other goals. Due to this reason, many young entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg drop out of school.
Luckily, these days young entrepreneurs can delegate their assignments to services like WritePaper to get more time for their startups and ensure success. But that’s not the only problem facing college entrepreneurs.
Studies show that 75% of student startups don’t survive post-college. They often fail due to a lack of funding and resources. Yet, one more reason for failure is a lack of experience in running a business.
Not being able to promote their business effectively on their own and lacking money to invest in marketing often kill student startups. But, SEO might be a part of the answer.
What Is SEO?
An SEO or search engine optimization is a complex of practices and tactics used to boost the positioning of a website in search engines. In simple terms, it is a tactic for bringing your company’s website to the first lines in search results that users get for a relevant query.
According to Google stats, in 2022, 68% of online experiences start with search engines. That is, more than half of all users leverage search engines to discover what they are looking for on the web.
And this applies to shopping experiences as well. This fact alone proves the huge value of SEO in the business landscape. But what else can it do for you?
SEO and Student Startups: 6 Ways You Can Benefit From It
Now that you know what it is, you are probably wondering how good SEO can transform your student business. The truth is that this marketing tactic has quite a few perks, especially for young and small companies.
Let’s look at the key benefits to answer this question.
1. It Brings Visibility
Did you know that 91.5% of all Google traffic falls on the first page of search results? This basically means that over 90% of users never click on the second page. Thus, if your company’s website isn’t on the first page, your potential customers might never find you.
SEO lets you change this. By leveraging effective SEO practices, you move your site higher in SERPs. As a result, you get more people to see you and more opportunities to attract customers.
2. It Builds Trust
The lack of trust is one of the biggest challenges for startups. Being a fresh player in a highly competitive business world can make you lose many prospects. But here is a thing you need to know – Google ranks websites based on different tech specs, as well as their credibility and trustworthiness.
Respectively, users are confident that results from the first page are more reliable. So, if your site appears at the top, the trust of consumers will be higher too.
3. It Gives You a Competitive Advantage
Let’s say your startup sells lead generation services. If a prospect who is looking for such services finds your competitor with broader expertise, they will likely choose them. But if they land on your website before others, you will have a chance to convert them before they go to the competition.
This confirms that a strong SEO strategy can really give you a competitive advantage. You might also be interested to learn that over 70% of small companies don’t use search engine optimization, unlike their bigger competitors.
But those that do are proven to be more competitive. What’s more, if you leverage SEO for your startup’s benefit, it would also mean overdoing that 70%+ of small companies.
4. It Improves Your Outreach
As was already mentioned, 68% of online experiences, including shopping, start in search engines. On top of that, as many as 97% of users look up the companies they are interested in on the Internet, even if they are planning to shop offline.
These numbers suggest that if you have a solid SEO strategy, you have an opportunity to reach all these people who rely on search engines to find out about companies, products, and services.
A better outreach ultimately means more sales opportunities. So, if you are looking for a way to get your startup up and running, SEO is always a good place to begin.
5. It Improves User Experiences
In business terms, happy users mean a better brand image and more sales. And that’s one more area where SEO can help you. There are four core elements that shape a solid strategy:
- Content – High-quality articles, guides, and other types of content designed to bring real value to users by answering their questions and helping them solve their problems.
- Keywords – Relevant keywords that help users discover the right type of content, products, and services they are looking for.
- Links – On-site and off-site links that provide users with additional material on related topics and help boost the value of the content.
- Usability – Improved loading times, user-friendliness, adaptivity to mobile, and other tech specs that create seamless and enjoyable experiences for all website visitors.
Together, all these SEO elements build sites that are easy to use and helpful for users. Thus, by leveraging SEO, your business can create better experiences for users and keep them happy. And if they are happy, your business can win more sales.
6. It Can Be Cheap
Lastly, there is one more way that effective SEO can transform your student startup. Unlike many other marketing opportunities that require a lot of investment, SEO doesn’t have to cost you anything.
Creating high-quality content, leveraging links and keywords, and even improving the technical performance of your website can be done on your own. Thus, unlike other tactics, let’s say, PPC, optimization does not require you to invest money in it. Yet, as you already know, the results can be pretty great.
Want more? SEO, which can be free or cheap, can also complement your paid marketing efforts. Unpaid and paid marketing strategies are proven to work great together. So, it is a win-win deal.
The Bottom Line
So, do you really need to use SEO for your student business? The answer is most definitely yes.
After reading this article, you should have a clear understanding of all the benefits your startup gets from smart search engine optimization. With its help, you can reach more prospects, survive the competition, build trust, and save plenty of time and money on promoting your products or services. All in all, SEO is a powerful marketing tool for 2022. So, start using it to your success and transform your business!