As a Web3 startup, it is common to encounter difficulty when trying to build brand awareness online. Furthermore, it may be quite daunting trying to carve a name for your brand on the internet and Web3 space which is flooded with lots of content from your competitors and other brands. That is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play.

How Does SEO Help Web3 Startups?

SEO helps decentralized applications and protocols rank better on search engines like Google and Bing and even decentralized search engines like Dweb Search. That way, your website and content gain more visibility, and your Web3 business can gain brand awareness. With time, you also achieve brand authority as your company becomes a thought leader in your Web3 niche. Although it sounds straightforward, creating and implementing an SEO strategy isn’t as easy. That is why many Web3 businesses outsource such tasks to Content Marketing firms like Off-Chain Communications. Irrespective of whether or not you decide to do that, below are some of the best SEO practices for your Web3 startup to achieve maximum results: 

Best SEO Practices For Web3 Startups

Below are steps that Web3 startups must take to rank on Search Engine Results (SERPs) and reach their target audience:

1. Conduct Keyword Research: SEO is about optimizing your website and content for search engines. To achieve that, you have to identify relevant keywords and phrases that can help these search engines understand the relevance of your business and place them in front of your target audience. For instance, if your decentralized application provides financial services, you should be more concerned with getting your platform and content in front of people interested in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) or who regularly use DeFi platforms to process their transactions. That is why you need to use relevant keywords in the DeFi space, as that will alert search engines like Google that your content is targeted at DeFi enthusiasts or people who make DeFi-related search queries. SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, SEO PowerSuite, and Ahrefs are keyword research tools to find relevant keywords in your Web3 niche. 
2. Use Keywords To Optimize Your Website and Its Content: This process is known as On-page SEO. It involves using relevant keywords to optimize anything on your web pages, like blog posts, landing pages, and other web copies. Ensure that you implement the keywords naturally and organically. Many tend to include as many keywords as possible without minding the consequences. This act is known as keyword stuffing, and it can be counterproductive as that confuses search engines, and you end up not ranking for any of the mentioned keywords. 

Furthermore, you must create high-quality, informative, and engaging content to achieve desired results. That is important because search engines are more concerned with ranking content that provides value to users above anything else. So, your content should convince these search engines that they are worth being ranked. 

3. Create Quality Backlinks: Backlinks are an essential part of your Off-page SEO strategy. Search engines like Google also consider how frequently other websites link to your website when ranking your content. These search engines believe that when your content is frequently linked from other websites, your website and content are valuable and could also be valuable to its users. Below are some of the best ways to build white-hat backlinks: 

• Write guest blog posts.
• Create valuable lead magnets
• Partner with relevant Web3 brands in your niche and ask them to link to your website.
• Get Web3 blogs and influencers to promote your services.
• Ensure that websites that reference your content give you credit 

4. Interlink Content On Your Website: This process of linking pages on your site to one another is called Internal Linking. Internal Linking helps search engines find and rank your pages and posts. It also connects your website and helps search engines understand the structure of your site. These search engines can then prioritize the most important pages and posts and rank them higher, allowing your target audience to find them easily. Use natural language for your anchor text when linking content on your site. Avoid generic calls to action like “click here to read on airdrops.” Instead, use a more persuasive tone like “if you enjoyed reading this article, you might also enjoy..” while doing this, ensure that the interlinks are to related posts, and resist the urge to force-feed links to your top pages or products and services.

5. Allow Search Engines to Index Your Website: Search engines need to be able to index your site before they can rank it. These search engines usually “crawl” webpages and add indexable pages to their library of indexed URLs. What this means is that they are aware of your page or post and will rank them whenever a user makes a relevant search query. For this to be possible, you need to make your pages indexable. Depending on what platform hosts your website, some settings allow search engines to index your site or not. While indexing is automatic, you can also submit your website to search engines for indexing. For example, you can submit your webpages to Google by using Google Search Console and can also use this tool to track what pages on your site Google has indexed. Considering your Web3 target audience may be more inclined to use decentralized search engines like Dweb Search, it is best to follow their guidelines and allow them also to index your site.

6. Use Web3-based technologies: Use decentralized protocols like Cybercon, Soluency, Diode, 4Everland, Fleek, Chainstack, SWARM, and IPFS to host your website. These website hosting platforms can help improve the efficiency and performance of your website, which can inadvertently make your site more optimized for search engines.

7. Track and Measure Your SEO Efforts: Carry out SEO analytics to measure your SEO efforts. That involves collecting and analyzing data to see what is working in your SEO strategy. It helps you make more informed decisions, run additional SEO campaigns and improve your Website’s SEO. Use tools like Hubspot Website Grader, Google Analytics, Seolyzer, Bing Webmaster, and Matomo to audit and monitor your website.

SEO Writing Tips For Web3 Startups

From the above, it is obvious that high-quality and optimized content is required to rank high on search engines. But how can your Web3 startup write optimized content, especially blog posts, for your target audience? Let’s take a look. Below are tips on how to incorporate SEO in your content:

1. Use Header Tags: Header Tags give search engines a better idea of your post and the sections within it (Introduction, body, and conclusion). Your H1 is meant to be the introduction which gives an overview of what the blog post will cover. By the way, your introduction must engage the visitor, so they are convinced to read on and stay longer on your site, which could indirectly affect your SEO ranking (we will discuss that later on). Other header tags (H2s, H3s, H4s) should further break down the subtopics within the article, with H2s being the most important of these subtopics. Ensure your header tags carry relevant keywords, as it gives you a better chance at ranking on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).

2. Optimize Your Content for Google’s Snippet Section: Google’s featured snippets are those short texts from specific web pages that answer a searcher’s query. They are simply the most direct answers to a search query. So, how can you get your content to feature in the snippet section? You have to format your content using descriptive headers and subtopics that contain similar questions to what your target audience may be searching for and also put a direct answer under these headers (Use your H1, H2, and H3 header tags). The answers should be brief and clear; they typically shouldn’t be more than 60 words. So, for instance, if your target audience is searching for “How To Use DeFi Platform,” you can put “How To Trade On a DeFi Platform” as your H1 or H2, followed by the answer, which in this case could be a numbered or bulleted list. 

3. Keep Your Reader In Mind: It is easy to get so caught up in trying to rank your content on search engines that you forget why you are putting out the content in the first place – to provide value to your target audience. More so, your target audience is looking for answers when they make a google search and Google will rank content that they feel provides value to their users. Therefore, write high-quality blog posts that address your buyer persona, their pain points, challenges and interests. Your topics should automatically resonate with your target audience and pique their interest. 

4. Meta Descriptions are Important: Include meta descriptions in your posts, and they should contain relevant keywords. They give your posts more exposure, as that is another way search engines communicate with your website to determine search engine rankings. Meta descriptions are meant to summarize your post, so keep it brief while including one to two keywords. 

5. Avoid Keyword Stuffing: There is always the urge to include as many keywords as you can in hopes that it will make your post more optimized. However, that only makes your piece overbearing and gives the user a poor reading experience most times. Implement keywords naturally and it is usually best to work with two or three keywords in to avoid saturating the post with several keywords that you only end up confusing the search engine when trying to rank your post.

6. Longer Posts Are The Way To Go: Search engines prefer longer and more thorough blog posts that provide valuable information to the user. Furthermore, creating longer and high-quality blog posts gives search engines like Google a better idea of what your post is about and where to rank them on SERPs. However, the burden is on you to create blog posts that won’t bore but rather engage your reader from beginning to end. To achieve this, avoid long paragraphs and keep your sentences shorter for better readability. Bullet points are also a great way to grab your reader’s attention and make the content easier to read.

7. Title Your Post For SEO: Your headline also matters in terms of how you rank on search engines. Write a compelling title while also including your primary keyword to attract search engines to your post. There are various ways to write a catchy headline; useful tips include using numbers and invoking curiosity in your reader’s mind with a teaser.

8. Dwell Time Matters: Although dwell time is an indirect ranking element for search engines like Google, it’s crucial to the user experience, which matters most regarding SEO. The amount of time a reader spends on a page of your blog is known as dwell time, from when the visitor lands on your website to when they leave it. Search engines infer from reader engagement how valuable your content is to the reader and whether or not it is worth ranking high on SERPs. It is logical to infer that the longer a visitor stays on a site, the more relevant that content must be. However, that is subjective, so dwell time is only an indirect indicator for SEO. As such, don’t be forced to manipulate your content strategy just because you want this dwell time metric to favor you.

Why SEO Should Matter To Web3 Startups

Below are some reasons why Web3 startups should have an SEO strategy:

1. Brand Authority: Having your website rank high on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) gives your business credibility. That is because your website and content have to be high-quality and noteworthy for it to rank so high in the first place. Furthermore, websites and pages that appear high on search engines are seen as thought leaders in their niche. 

2. Cost Effective: SEO is cost-effective compared to other marketing strategies. It only requires time and patience on your end. All that is required is to create high-quality, engaging, and informative content that provides value to your target audience. Once you can achieve that, search engines handle the rest by indexing your web pages and making them available to users looking for what you offer.

3. Complements Other Content Marketing Efforts: SEO can be a great reward for other content marketing efforts, especially when your content is helpful and valuable to your target audience. Once search engines realize that users find your content engaging and informative, they will likely rank your site better in search results. 

4. Gives You A Competitive Edge Over Your Web3 Counterparts: Your Web3 counterparts are also likely investing in SEO, and ranking ahead of them on SERPs gives your business the upper hand. Why? Most users don’t scroll past the first page of a google search result. As such, potential customers are more likely to patronize you over them, and that is why ranking so high on search engines is a no-brainer. If your competitors currently rank above you, it is time to conduct a competitor analysis to identify their SEO strategies, what keywords they are ranking for, and their backlinks and contemplate how you can perform better than them.

5. SEO Improves User Experience: Although the purpose of SEO is to make your website search engine-friendly, a great SEO strategy improves the whole user experience. By putting in the work, you create high-quality content that visitors find valuable. Your website also becomes faster and easier to navigate and use when well-structured. That will ultimately bring more leads for your company and increase customer satisfaction. Therefore, SEO is a win-win in all ramifications. 

6. SEO Provides Valuable Insights: SEO analytical tools provide you with valuable data and information which you can use to measure your business’ progress and identify areas for improvement. It also allows you to identify the sales funnels that are working for your business and get a glimpse of what your customers’ buying journey looks like, what keywords and search queries led them to your site, and also the various touchpoints and pages they engaged with before purchasing your Web3 offerings. These insights will also help you to improve your SEO strategy and discard what aspects aren’t working for your business.

As mentioned earlier, SEO is more challenging than it looks. It could take a while before you start seeing results, even when you implement your SEO strategy effectively. Because of the technicalities involved, it may be better to outsource this task to a Web3 Content Marketing Firm like Off-Chain Communications. Off-Chain Communications assists Web3 startups in achieving brand exposure and implementing the best SEO practices which help drive quality traffic to their websites. The firm is responsible for helping several Web3 brands increase their user engagement rate, gaining more conversions and increasing ROIs.

Interested in marketing your blockchain/Web3 project? Please contact Off-Chain Communications for a free consultation and quote.

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