What's New: Getting started with SEO

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

SEO doesn't have to be hard!

• If you're focusing on SEO, this guide can kickstart your strategy, helping you hone in on keywords, rank in search results, and build backlinks.
• Looking for a technical cofounder? Use the tips below to identify, attract, and secure the perfect match.
• Founder Brad Adkins went from $0 to nearly $5,000 in revenue in one month with Designfly, his design subscription service. Here's how he generates leads, and how he hit the sweet spot with his pricing.

This issue is sponsored by Secret, the #1 SaaS deal marketplace for startups. Access millions of dollars in savings for SaaS services, including Notion, Stripe, and HubSpot, to kickstart and scale your startup. Trusted by 60,000+ startups globally.

Want to promote your business in front of over 75,000 indie hackers in a future issue of the newsletter? Reach out here. —Channing

🚀 Getting Started With SEO

by Harrison Broadbent

SEO may seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be! Here are the current stats for MONN, my side project. We're not even a month in yet!

It's actually pretty easy to get started and build traffic. Here's how!

SEO show

I've started treating SEO like a bit of a game in my head (I love incremental games, so maybe that has something to do with it!).

When you're focusing on SEO, you have three main goals:

1. Find good keywords to target in your content.
2. Create useful, informative content that targets those keywords you found.
3. Share, promote, and distribute your existing content to build up backlinks to your site.

It's kind of like a loop:

This is a pretty typical feedback loop, and it takes a long time to get going! That's what people mean when they say SEO is slow. You're starting from zero, and trying to build up heaps of articles and backlinks to soak up as much SEO juice as possible.

So, how do you actually do it?

1. Find some keywords:

Ahrefs Keyword Generator is a great free tool to help you figure out which keywords to target. Just start typing in words and phrases related to your product, and see what comes up.

If you're creative and lucky, you'll be able to find keywords like this:

Keyword difficulty (KD) of zero and 500 searches per month is great! But let's break it down.

Domain rank (DR) is how much weight search engines give your site. If you have a high DR, it's easier to rank for keywords, allowing you to appear higher up in search. DR goes from 0-100.

If you're a fresh site with zero DR, your website has no reputation or backlinks. To have any chance at ranking for a keyword, you're going to need to find ones that have very low difficulty. That means that not many other authoritative websites are targeting this keyword.

Just play around, type in queries, and see what you come up with. Ideally, you want keywords with a KD of less 10, and 100-500 searches per month.

2. Backlink building:

You need backlinks to:

• Make Google know your content even exists.
• Prove to Google that your content is worth showing in search results.

Backlinks are links to your content from other websites. Any link at all is technically a backlink, but not all backlinks are the same.

The only ones that actually matter to Google are the ones it's told to "follow." The person or website posting your link can decide whether to make their link to your website "dofollow" or "nofollow." Only your "dofollow" links contribute to your domain authority.

You can actually investigate this right now. Open your browser developer tools (usually F12), and use the inspect element tool to inspect this link: MONN - Cloud monitoring for SaaS.

You'll see something like this:

  <a href="https://monn.app" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MONN — Cloud monitoring for SaaS</a>

Indie Hackers automatically inserts a "nofollow" to its links, presumably to prevent link spam. So, how did I get backlinks? I got a bit lucky.

In the Ruby on Rails niche, there are some great blog aggregators and newsletters that will post your article and link back to your website. So, I posted my ActionMailer article to one of them, and got a few tiny backlinks:

Pro tip: Get comfortable with the Ahrefs Backlink Checker tool. Like the keyword tool, you want to spend a lot of time playing around with this.

A domain rank of 0.8 is pretty abysmal! Luckily, it doesn't take much to rank for keywords with a difficulty of zero. By continuing to post articles and get backlinks, you can slowly build your DR.

Building your DR moves you up in the search results so that more people see, share, and link to your content. More links to your content moves you even further up the search results!

Will you implement these SEO tips? Share your thoughts below!

Discuss this story.

📰 In the News

from the Growth Trends newsletter by Darko

🤝 TikTok has introduced more ways for creators to collaborate with brands.

💲 Marketing tips for small budgets.

💻 Google Analytics 4's Audience Export API.

📱 Twitter now allows subscribers to post 25K character tweets.

💬 WhatsApp will soon let businesses send you personalized messages.

Check out Growth Trends for more curated news items focused on user acquisition and new product ideas.

🔎 Tips for Finding Technical Cofounders

by Joseph Lee

It can be difficult for non-technical founders to find engineering talent to make their ideas a reality. I thought it would be helpful to share some insights from over six years of company building.

Having gone through the long, grueling process of cofounder matching and idea validation myself, here are four actionable steps that I recommend to find your ideal technical cofounder!

1. Build in your zone of excellence

Instead of copying trends (generative AI, anyone?), try to double down on an idea or opportunity in which you're a subject matter expert. Building in areas of expertise will not only give you an edge, but it'll also attract technical cofounders with a higher degree of conviction.

When reaching out to potential cofounders, demonstrate how and why you're a subject matter expert. You can achieve this by clearly articulating the pain point and growth opportunity, and showing how your experience puts you in the position to capitalize on it.

2. Create an interactive prototype

Taking a few hours to build out a prototype demonstrates some serious initiative, and will set you apart from most of your competition. Creating an interactive prototype can be beneficial for two reasons:

• It forces you to think deeply about the benefits, features, and workflow of your product beyond just the macro idea.
• It illustrates the opportunity more clearly than just words, sketches, or diagrams.

Beyond searching for cofounders, a prototype will help you quickly validate your assumptions with prospective customers , enabling you to learn and pivot. If you're looking for easy tools to set this up, check out my tool Supademo, or Figma.

3. Generate traction

Prioritize this early and often, even before settling on a cofounder. Your aim is to generate as much momentum as possible, in the form of customer interviews, signups, beta customers, letters of intent (LOIs), or commitments for trial usage.

Simply jot down everything you can do as a non-technical founder that will move the needle forward for your idea. Execute as many of these as possible, and present outcomes to potential technical cofounders during your search.

4. Reduce the perception of commitment

Technical cofounders are constantly inundated with requests and opportunities from startups, investors, and recruiters.

Make it easy for them to commit by starting with an informal relationship, assuring them that the partnership is a non-binding, non-exclusive agreement to start off with.

Think of this opportunity as a way to build a community of smart, forward-thinking potential founders, instead of forcing conformity from the start.

In practice, this could mean starting with a small brainstorming session (i.e. a commitment of one hour weekly meetings) that can be used to audition your business skills, competency, and execution. Remember , you're effectively a recruiter at this stage; continue to repeat the above steps to gain traction, build trust, and de-risk the opportunity for your technical cofounder.

What are your top tips for finding technical cofounders? Share below!

Discuss this story.

🔥 Landing Page Hot Tips

by Rob Hope

Strengthen your landing page with these design, development, and conversion tips:

Avoid animation overkill.

Gratuitous scroll transitions no longer impress. Subtle animations are timeless, and show intent.

Subscribe to Rob's One Page Love newsletter for his favorite UI, design, and development finds.

💰 Brad Adkins Hit Nearly $5K in One Month

by Brad Adkins

Hi, indie hackers! I'm Brad Adkins, and I'm thrilled to share the exciting progress that I've made with Designfly, my unlimited design subscription service.

In our first month, we've generated a total of $4.9K in revenue. Along the way, I encountered a few challenges that I believe can offer valuable lessons for fellow founders. By sharing my experiences, I hope to help you navigate these hurdles and achieve your own success!

The pricing

Initially, I set the price point for our service too high, ranging from $3.7K to $4.9K per month. While I engaged with some leads, I faced difficulty in closing sales.

However, after careful evaluation, I made the important decision to lower our prices to a more accessible range of $1K to $1.9K per month during the early stages of growth. This adjustment proved to be instrumental in our initial success.

The landing page

Additionally, I realized that our landing page, though visually appealing, lacked clarity in communicating our service and process. Seeking valuable feedback from the creative community, I dedicated an entire week to revamping the website.

By streamlining the content and focusing only on the essential information, I significantly improved our conversion rates, and onboarded three additional clients within one week of revamping the site. This valuable lesson taught me the power of simplicity and effective communication.

The challenges

Now, let's discuss the challenges that I encountered, and how I plan to address them. One aspect that I'm constantly striving to optimize is the value provided at our price point. While I initially offered three business day delivery for most design requests, I discovered that this timeframe was often too long for most clients.

As a result, I have reduced our delivery time to two business days, ensuring a faster turnaround. I am actively working on reflecting this improvement on our website to align with our client's preferences.

Another challenge that I faced, and continue to face, is driving traffic to Designfly. However, I have discovered an effective method that has yielded promising results.

During my journey, I embarked on another venture, Roasti (achieving number two UX Product of the Week on Product Hunt), just two weeks after launching Designfly. This sparked significant attention and generated valuable backlink traffic to Designfly, effectively serving as an upsell.

By actively engaging with others, offering assistance, and leveraging the power of networking within the creator community, I attracted clients and nurtured a vibrant sense of community and collaboration.

The lesson

In conclusion, my journey from $0 to $4.9K MRR in just one month has been filled with valuable lessons and exciting achievements. To generate leads, I've been utilizing various forms of social marketing (this post being one of them!).

Remember that success is within your reach. Always stay open to learning, adapting, and connecting with others in your industry!

Discuss this story.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Harrison Broadbent, Darko, Joseph Lee, Rob Hope, and Brad Adkins for contributing posts. —Channing