8 SEO Challenges That Australian Startups Face and How to Overcome Them

Search engine optimisation has constantly been evolving with continuous rollout of algorithm updates by search engines like Google. However, with these constant updates, startup companies are facing certain SEO challenges.

These challenges would make the SEO for startups more complex as companies would struggle for higher rankings. Today, SEO hasn’t remained a straightforward process, and surviving without it for startups will increasingly become tougher. It’d be like letting go of a major chunk of your business.

However, you don’t have to burden yourself to find solutions to overcome challenges that SEO may throw your way. 

In this article, we’ll go deeper into explaining the most common challenges startups face and how to overcome them. But before we do so, let’s glance over what 2023 holds for SEO.

How SEO Will Fare in 2023?

In the past couple of years, Google has rolled out many search algorithm updates including Page Experience, Search Essentials, Helpful Content, and Guidelines for Site Owners. But the repercussions of these updates will be felt in the coming years.

These updates will move the needle of SEO in 2023 and redefine the meaning of “Search Engine Optimisation”. SEO will become more about creating people-first content where visitors have a satisfying experience.

Additionally, Google refreshed the guidelines for site owners and introduced search essentials such as technical requirements, spam policies, and key best practices. Thus, everything you do for SEO from now on should adhere to these updates as they’ll change the SEO landscape.

SEO in 2023 will no longer be about ranking on the first position of the first page, it’ll be about creating consumer-centric content, improving their experience, and removing hurdles out of the way. 

That said, let’s see some of the SEO challenges startups may face in 2023 and what they can do about it.

Challenge 1: Inflation May Delay SEO Implementation

While the worst days of Covid-19 are behind us, the economic turbulence and disruptions created by inflation will make the road to recovery a bumpy ride. 

Also, the Australian market faces hiring challenges as big companies attract skilled talents with their big budgets, leaving almost nothing for small businesses and startups.

According to Government records, inflation in Australia has currently risen to 7.3%, which is said to be the highest since 1990.

Industries like real estate & housing, transport, and food & non-alcoholic beverages have seen the highest inflation rate in 2022. Also, it’s predicted to peak at 7.6% until it starts declining in mid-2023.

Such a high inflation rate won’t just create problems for consumers but also pose a challenge for startups. With less buying power than large organisations, startups would struggle to acquire the best SEO talents, which can delay its implementation.

This will cause uncertainty with no predictions of when it’ll end, which force startups to raise the prices for their products or services. However, this won’t create any silver lining but make things like acquiring new and retaining existing customers difficult.

How to Overcome It

One thing to understand here is that not all businesses will have a lasting impact due to the increasing inflation rate. Businesses with higher expenses will see a high impact while startups with low operating expenses may see minimal impact.

Thus, you should plan to utilise your funds optimally only for the necessary marketing strategies that bring great results such as SEO. Also, the effects of inflation may start to wear off after mid-2023 or at the beginning of 2024.

So, your plan to overcome this startup SEO challenge should be to reduce your expenses as much as possible and invest in the right strategies that generate higher yields.

Challenge 2: Constantly Evolving Search Algorithms

As discussed above, search engines bring several updates and algorithm changes within a year that impact your rankings, and engagement metrics. Moreover, Google and others are much fond of constantly refreshing their guidelines and algorithms to favour quality publishers and eCommerce.

They want to improve the experience of their users by providing relevant, original, accurate, and valuable content. And in their quest to do so, many startups struggle to cope with these constantly evolving algorithms.

Due to these frequent changes, you may experience a drastic drop in your rankings, traffic, and conversions. Moreover, such negative outcomes can demoralise your team and scrap any plans to implement the white-hat SEO tactics that bring actual results.

How to Overcome It

While you can’t control these experiments and updates from search engines, what you can control is how you react to these changes. You can counter the negative impacts by staying abreast of search algorithm updates and changes. 

You need to go deeper into understanding how it works, what changes it brings, and how it’ll impact your rankings.

Prepare countermeasures that help you avoid the ripple effects of algorithm changes so you can continue on your path to drive conversions through SEO. Also, you don’t want to be using any outdated or black hat SEO practices that can hinder your growth and attract penalties.

Adapting to these strategies will help you iron out this SEO challenge and its negative impact. Moreover, you can also hire an expert digital marketing team that helps you stay on top of the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates.

Challenge 3: Beating The Competition

The internet is ubiquitous, meaning anyone in the world can be your direct competitor. There will always be an influx of new companies entering the market to outrank you, making the competition more fierce for the top spot in search engine result pages (SERPs). 

This is because of the flexibility offered by platforms such as Wix, Shopify, and others that enable entrepreneurs to begin their digital journey.

This would be an additional competition you need to beat apart from the one you already have. What’s more, just like you, each of your competitors is trying to out-optimise and out-rank your site with whatever they have. They want to be ahead of their nearest and toughest competitors and beat them to be at the helm of SERP.

Thus, such a high level of competition can stifle your startup’s SEO strategy. And in order to survive, you’d need to come up with ways to stand out. Let’s see how you can do so.

How to Overcome It

The first and foremost thing you can do is a deep competitor SEO, content and backlink analysis. Scrutinise each aspect of your competitors to see what works in their favour and where they lag behind. 

Consolidate and leverage this data to your advantage by doing better at SEO than them plus improving where they lag.

Another way you can stand out from the competition is to keep tweaking and A/B testing to see what brings high rankings and organic traffic. Also, include content marketing in your portfolio of SEO strategies to overcome this SEO challenge.

Create quality content in different forms such as blogs, videos, podcasts, case studies, success stories, user-generated content, and others. Doing so further helps beat the competition and win at a race to the top of the SERP.

Challenge 4: Page Experience and Core Web Vitals

Google’s page experience update specifically focuses on enhancing the user experience by introducing search signals such as Core Web Vitals, Mobile-friendliness, and others. 

After the implementation of this update, Google is set to revolutionise how it perceives the page experience and what site owners can do to enhance it.

The core web vitals, specifically, look for page content loading speeds, interactivity, and stability of the content. The problem here is that websites aren’t that well-optimised for performing great on newly introduced search signals. 

According to a report, desktop and mobile sites take an average of 10.3 sec and 22 sec respectively to fully load.

Another study by Portent found that more than 80% of websites take around 5 secs to load. Chances are your website could belong to this 80% group but have no idea how you can fix this SEO challenge. Worry not! Here we explain how you can fix it.

How to Overcome It

Overcoming this SEO issue by yourself alone is not going to be a cakewalk because as a startup founder, you may have a limited understanding of how website load speed works. 

Since a website is a complex construct of different design and development technologies, the optimisation will require the hands of web design experts.

However, here are some steps you can take to optimise your website for page speed:

• Choose a hosting provider that’s optimised for high performance
• Compress media files to reduce the content load speed
• Limit multiple redirects to not affect your page speeds
• Implement caching to reduce page speed
• Enable browser caching
• Prepare your website to perform well on Core Web Vitals to boost rankings
• Utilise asynchronous and defer loading for JavaScript & CSS
• Remove unnecessary JS and CSS and minify the HTML, JS, and CSS files
• Use Content delivery network for enhanced loading performance

Challenge 5: Keyword Cannibalisation & Incorrect Usage

Keyword cannibalisation occurs when multiple pages on your site start ranking for the same or similar keywords. These pages then start competing with each other on SERP and may hurt your rankings and organic performance.

Another similar SEO challenge is incorrect usage of the keywords on your website. Google today takes a high-level approach when scanning the pages for keywords and ranking them based on those keywords. It looks at overall tone, relevancy, and user intent to present the most accurate results.

The problem here is when pages compete against each other or have incorrect usage of keywords, it becomes difficult for search engines to rank them accordingly. However, there’s always a fix to these problems.

How to Overcome It

To eliminate the keyword cannibalisation challenge, what you can do is keep track of what keywords have already been utilised. Also, learn how to do thorough keyword research for SEO to discover new sets of keywords to utilise for your website.

Additionally, to ensure the correct usage of keywords, you need to go deeper into understanding the intent and problems users have and are trying to solve. Doing so helps you make informed decisions and plan your content strategy with a larger vision.

Challenge 6: Tracking Results and Effectiveness

While keywords have remained a consistent part of SEO, the challenge here is tracking the results and revenue they bring. It’s often a struggle for small startups to track the effectiveness and outcomes of each SEO tactic they implement.

Tracking results and effectiveness is almost impossible but an inevitable part that helps gauge how much the company makes out of it. This is because the calculation involves tracking what pages show up for what keywords and how much organic traffic they gain from Google to how much actual revenue they generate.

While it seems doable if there are limited pages on your website, it increasingly becomes complex when there are tons of pages. Thus, keeping tabs on what pages appear for what keywords can get a little complicated. But what can be done about it? Let’s see.

How to Overcome It

Instead of keeping tabs on individual pages and keywords, it’s better that you understand and track SEO metrics that are way important for your business. You need to focus on tracking overall results such as signups and user interests that may have some revenue value associated with them.

You can also track revenue per user or consider clicks or monitor the right KPIs to avoid spending time on vanity metrics. Vanity metrics do look good and exciting but do not offer any actionable insights. 

Here are a few criteria to select the right metrics to track SEO effectiveness:

• Must offer a specific value
• Should be measurable
• Can be assignable
• Should be realistic
• And time-relevant

Challenge 7: Consistent Optimisation Can Seem Tedious

Let’s crack the myth that SEO is a once-and-done game. It requires continuous effort and optimisation to sustain the initial growth throughout. However, such continuous optimisation may seem a tedious job for startups, especially when there’s a talent crunch.

The task further becomes tedious when there’s no permanent SEO member in your team to handle the such level of optimisation. Also, as mentioned, Google comes up with several new algorithm updates and changes in a year. This already makes it hard for a single person to handle your site’s SEO.

No long-term plans for resolving this SEO challenge can cost your startup to lose out from the competition. However, overcoming this challenge is not so hard either. Let’s see what you can do.

How to Overcome It

As discussed earlier, companies with a good budget to spend on the right marketing strategies like SEO can set aside some funds to hire an expert team of SEO professionals. You can hire an SEO agency near you, for instance, from Brisbane, Perth, or any other location in Australia.

Doing so helps you out in two ways. First, it eliminates the need to constantly chase the right SEO talent to hire in-house. And second, you can task your SEO partners with consistent website optimisation to help you stay abreast of the current algorithm updates and changes.

This way, startups with long-term SEO goals can easily bypass the tedious constant optimisation SEO challenge for better outcomes.

Challenge 8: Improper Budget Allocation for SEO Tools/Resources

As evident as it is to allocate a budget for SEO, it’s also important to reserve some funds for SEO tools and resources. SEO tools have become a necessity nowadays as they help you gain essential insights not only about your website optimisation but also about your competitors.

Also, hiring resources such as SEO experts, agencies, consultants, or staff would require proper budget allocation. However, getting such budget support in the initial stages would be tough. Also, you’ll need to hire more than one in-house SEO specialist to attend to all the SEO aspects.

Besides, the problem with hiring multiple experts is some of them may be well-versed in one SEO aspect, but not in others. For example, your in-house SEO is good with technical and on-page SEO but not with off-page SEO. This will force you to spend more on hiring multiple SEO specialists, which can put a dent on your budget.

How to Overcome It

Instead of hiring multiple SEO experts, you can choose to work with a single digital marketing agency.

SEO agencies have all-round experts to take care of all your SEO needs. And as long as the SEO tools are concerned, the agency you hire will take care of that part on your behalf.

Thus, you only need to allocate a budget for hiring a qualified team of digital marketers and SEO experts.

Conclusion

The path to success is always filled with challenges and it’s especially true when we talk about search engine optimisation. SEO is significantly important to get it right but certain SEO challenges create hindrances for startups who are on the path to success.

If handled shrewdly, you can easily overcome the pressure of inflation, beat your competitors, allocate proper budgets, and follow the rest best practices for your startup growth. The task even becomes real easy when you have a dextrous team of digital marketers and SEO professionals such as Supple.

We have a proven track record of helping global and local brands with strategic SEO implementation. Contact us to consult with our SEO experts that help overcome any SEO challenges you might face in 2023.