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The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Website for Startups

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The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Website for Startups

In this digital age, opportunities are endless. The internet is a dimension of infinite possibilities for people to grow, promote, and market their businesses. Most startups take advantage of this prospect and ensure that their company has a running internet presence. And one way they do this is by building a website.

However, with all the competition online, building a website is not sufficient. You need to create a concise but eye-catching enough that you’ll attract visitors into customers. And this process is not simple. You need to write, design and develop a user-friendly website that stands out from your competitors.

Luckily, we can help you with that! This article will share 10 tips for developing a website as a startup!

Why do you need a website as a startup?

It’s a common misconception that startups should not spend money on a website, mainly because they are expressive to make and maintain. Most think that the website is useless in generating sales or getting customers.

On the contrary, a website is one of the most essential needs for a startup. A website is the most crucial asset for any startup. It’s the first thing people see, and it actually makes a great impression on people. It creates the essence of legitimacy. And as a startup, reputation and legitimacy are what you need to attract customers. So, if you want to attract investors and customers, you need a professional website.

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In addition, developing a startup website can help you market your products or services,

10 Tips on How to Get the Most of Your Website as a Startup

As mentioned earlier, startup websites are the key to success. It drives a lot of traffic, converts customers, and acts as a storefront for your internet business.

Thus, you must do it right. So whether you are hiring a website development team or will develop the startup website yourself, you must do everything right. You need to make sure that it is a performing website and not just a crappy or scammy website.

Likewise, here are 10 tips on developing your startup website and getting the most out of it!

1. Keep It Simple and Minimalistic with Your Design

A website design can make or break a startup company. A wrong website design can lead to a lot of problems. And if it’s too complicated, visitors may not be able to find the information they are looking for, such as product data or contact information. And this is the last thing you want as a startup – losing a potential customer over a web design.

Likewise, we should always keep in mind that simplicity is the key to a startup website. We should never overwhelm our visitors with too many features. Moreover, you should start with the idea of not trying to sell anything on the site but just trying to get people interested in what we have to offer.

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2. Make sure it’s optimized for SEO

One primary reason startups should focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is visibility. SEO can help them get their name out there. A strong SEO strategy will help them rank higher in SERPs, generate more traffic, and attract more potential clients – which they can convert into revenue.

However, SEO optimization for a startup website is not just about ranking well on Google. It’s about ranking well in search results relevant to your business. As such, here are some ways to adopt SEO in your startup website:

  • Using keywords in your content;
  • Create a power page content along with infographic or presentation videos;
  • Posting SEO optimized and rich articles;
  • Optimizing the URL structure;
  • Publishing content regularly and consistently;
  • Fast loading speed;
  • Existence of high-quality backlinks;
  • Linking from social media to your website.

3. Place clear CTAs

CTAs are an essential factor for any website as they can make or break the site’s conversion rates. Per se, a startup website should have clear CTAs so that visitors know what they are supposed to do on the site.

The best way to put a CTA on a website is to make it prominent and eye-catching. You should also make sure that it’s easy to find and doesn’t require any effort on the visitor’s part to click on it.

4. Maintain a cohesive brand identity

Branding is essential for every business, especially for startups. It gives your startup an identity, personality, beliefs, values, and story. It is a way for customers to easily remember your company. Good branding can make you iconic to your customers.

And since your website is the storefront of your startup on the internet, you should make sure that it has your branding. Your startup websites should maintain cohesive brand identity and design. It can help you establish a personal connection with your visitors and communicate your product to them. This will give the website an edge over its competitors.

Likewise, a well-thought-out brand identity in your website can create a lasting impression on the customer, making them want to come back to your site repeatedly. It also helps build trust with customers, which becomes crucial when dealing with sensitive information like banking details or personal information.

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5. Post engaging and niche content

Niche content is a must for startups. It helps them connect with their target audience and provides them with an opportunity to get discovered by potential investors. As such, your website should have content that will be able to engage with your visitors and make them want to discover more about your offerings.

Here are some tips that will help you create better niche content for your startup:

  • Target a specific niche close to your business industry. You must understand the needs of your target audience and come up with solutions to those needs.
  • Ensure that your niche content is engaging and has the potential to be shared on social media.
  • Make sure that you post at least one piece of niche content per week.
  • You can also try guest posting on a related website to invite others to visit your blogs and articles.

6. Make sure that it’s easy to navigate

When people use a website, they usually go to the homepage and then explore. So, your navigation needs to be easily maneuverable.

A well-designed and easy-to-navigate website is an essential factor in attracting potential customers. Customers will want to explore your site, so it needs to be easy to find what they are looking for without having too much trouble. A good navigation design will help make your site more user-friendly and encourage visitors to stay on the page longer.

7.  Leads to Your Social Media Accounts

Social media platforms are powerful tools for marketing and promoting your business. They are also a great way to stay in touch with customers and other people who may be interested in your company.

Likewise, adding social media accounts to your startup website is a great way to increase the spread of your content. When you include a share button on social media button on your website, users will likely do it if they enjoyed your content enough. It can help you grow your business by increasing awareness of what you offer.

8. Show Testimonial

Testimonial is a startup website need. It is crucial for your startup website because they give a sense of legitimacy to the product. And since you are only starting, this lets the user feel more confident about the product, which leads to them trusting it more.

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Moreover, adding testimonials to your website is an excellent alternative to the standard sales pitch. Most consumers are more likely to buy your products after seeing other customer reviews.

9. Adaptive Design and Mobile Friendly

According to the latest data from GSMA Intelligence, there are about 5.32 billion unique mobile phone users in the world. And as a startup, you should not ignore the opportunity to make your website accessible to these people.

As such, mobile-friendliness is crucial to the success of any startup website. A website that is not optimized for mobile devices will not be able to provide the best experience for them. Potential customers using mobile to browse your website will likely leave when they see your website is not mobile optimized.

10.  Be ready for changes and adapt!

Startups have a lot of unique challenges to face. They have to think about their customers, their branding, and the market they are in. It can be challenging for startups to keep up with website trends in this fast-paced world.

But if they don’t adapt to the trends, they will not be able to make themselves stand out from the competition. Websites are built for the people who visit them. It is essential to know what your audience wants and needs to provide them with that experience. Monitor their behavior and experience on your website, collect results and share your ideas with digital reports with your team, so you will discuss it together and make it better. The website should be able to provide what they need and make sure that they have a good time while they are there.

Final Thoughts

There is no instant recipe for building the perfect startup website. You are most likely to stumble or face challenges when developing one. Still, it would be better to follow these tips and minimize errors. After all, you are just starting with your business and have limited resources.

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So make sure to get it right and see your website help you increase sales and revenue!

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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