IT

SEO agency for startups

The same search

What changes for a startup when SEO works?

People looking for a fix to the problem you solve find you: in a search engine's results and among the sources an AI assistant cites in its answer. Press "After" to see the same search before and after the work.

Before: the startup appears neither in the results nor among the sources.

Search engine

staff shift scheduling software

  1. Software directorydirectory.example › scheduling

    Shift scheduling software: the full comparison

    Scheduling tools side by side, with prices and user reviews.

  2. Your startupyourstartup.example › shiftsYour site

    Staff rotas planned in minutes

    Build shifts, collect availability from people's phones and tell the team when something changes.

  3. Industry forumforum.example › threads

    How do you handle rotas? Spreadsheet or an app?

    Store managers compare shared spreadsheets with scheduling apps.

  4. People ops blogpeopleblog.example › guides

    Staff rotas: a practical planning guide

    Rest periods, swaps and practical tips for error-free rotas.

AI assistant

How do I manage shifts for a small team without losing my mind?

You can start with a shared spreadsheet: one row per person, one column per day 1. As the team grows, a dedicated app helps you collect availability and avoid clashes 2.

Some tools built for small teams, such as yourstartup.example, collect availability from people's phones and notify everyone when a shift changes 3.

Sources

  1. peopleblog.example
  2. forum.example
  3. yourstartup.example

What changed between before and after

One page per question
The startup has a page built for people looking for that fix, with the answer in its opening lines.
A title and description that answer
The result says what the product does and who it's for, in the searcher's own words.
Quotable sentences
Clear, verifiable statements that an AI assistant can lift as they stand.
A page machines can read
Server-rendered HTML, structured data that matches the text, answer-engine crawlers allowed in.

Three acronyms

What's the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?

SEO gets you into a search engine's results, GEO works on getting AI assistants to cite you as a source, and AEO on making your page the direct answer to a question. Where you show up changes, and so does how you measure it; the groundwork is the same.

SEO, GEO and AEO compared: what they are, where you appear, what you optimise, how it's measured
SEOGEOAEO
What it isSearch engine optimisation: getting found in search engine resultsGenerative engine optimisation: getting cited by AI assistants that write answersAnswer engine optimisation: being the direct answer to a question
Where you appearOrganic results on Google and BingAnswers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI ModeAI Overviews, featured snippets, voice assistants
What you optimiseSite technicals, page relevance, links from other sitesOriginal content with data and sources, brand mentions elsewhere, access for AI crawlersShort answers up front, questions as headings, tables and lists
How it's measuredImpressions, clicks and positions in Search ConsoleCitations in answers, checked by hand or with dedicated tools; visits from assistants in analyticsPresence in snippets and AI Overviews; Google is rolling out a Search Console report on generative AI features

To Google they're one discipline: its 2026 guide to optimising for AI treats them as SEO and says no special markup or dedicated files are needed (Google Search Central).

What changes is the click. In the US, when an AI summary appeared, users clicked an organic result on 8% of visits, against 15% without one (Pew Research Center, 2025). So being the cited source matters, not just the link.

The work

What does SEO for a startup involve?

Four strands that go together: technical, content, structured data and authority. Without the technical side, content doesn't get read; without authority, even good content stays hard to find.

A frosted glass lens floating above identical glass tiles, one of them magnified and lilac

Technical

  • Static or server-rendered pages, readable without JavaScript
  • Speed and Core Web Vitals kept in check
  • Sitemap, robots.txt, canonicals and redirects in order
  • Language versions linked with hreflang
  • Answer-engine crawlers allowed in, such as OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search

Content

  • One primary query per page, no pages competing with each other
  • The answer in the first lines, then the why and the how
  • Question-led headings, tables for comparisons
  • Data with source and year, first-hand experience told plainly

Structured data

  • JSON-LD for the organisation, services, breadcrumbs and articles
  • Always consistent with the visible text
  • Hygiene, not a shortcut: it won't lift anyone on its own

Authority

  • The same name and description everywhere
  • Mentions and links from sites in your field
  • Real authors and a page explaining how you write

When

When should a startup start on SEO?

The technical side from day one, because doing it right early is cheap and redoing it later is not. Content once you know who your customer is and what they ask; authority once you have something worth citing.

  1. Before launch

    A technically clean website, one page for each thing you do, Search Console and analytics connected.

  2. First customers

    Their questions become your headings: guides, comparisons, use-case pages. SEO starts working alongside paid ads, which meanwhile tell you which messages land.

  3. Traction

    The work widens: more languages, more industries, original data to publish, relationships with the sites your audience reads. It becomes part of growth marketing.

Experience

How do we do it on this site?

The way we'd do it for you: this site runs on Next.js 16, with static pages, an English version linked through hreflang, JSON-LD structured data on every page and a robots.txt that lets answer-engine crawlers in. Alongside, the real code of this very page.

SEO is handled by My Web Lab, the group's web agency: technical and content SEO, with more than 120 projects across company websites, e-commerce and web apps.

An excerpt from this page's HTML
<link rel="canonical" href="https://mpngroup.it/en/services/startup-seo">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="it" href="https://mpngroup.it/servizi/seo-startup">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://mpngroup.it/en/services/startup-seo">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://mpngroup.it/servizi/seo-startup">

<script type="application/ld+json">
{ "@type": "Service",
  "name": "SEO for startups",
  "serviceType": "SEO",
  "provider": { "@id": "https://mpngroup.it/#org" },
  "availableLanguage": ["it", "en"] }
</script>

Questions about startup SEO

Is SEO worth it for an early-stage startup?

The technical part, yes: it's cheap if done from the start. Content pays off once you know the questions your customers ask; before that you risk writing for the wrong searches. SEO is slow to get going, so start early, but don't count on it as the only source of your first customers.

Should we start with SEO or Google Ads?

They do different jobs: ads bring traffic now and show you which messages work, while SEO builds traffic that stays without paying for every click. Many startups begin with small paid tests and use what they learn to choose their content; more on our Google Ads and Meta Ads page.

How do you get cited by ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews?

With what SEO needs anyway: indexable pages, clear answers up front, sourced data, a brand that other sites mention. Google says no special markup or dedicated files are needed; to appear in ChatGPT search you have to let its crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in.

Do we need an llms.txt file?

It does no harm, but don't expect results: Google has said it doesn't use it, and at least one study found no link with citations. This site has one; we treat it as a detail, not a strategy.

Can you guarantee a first-page ranking on Google?

No, and be wary of anyone who does. Nobody controls search algorithms or AI assistants' answers. What we control is the quality of the site's technical work, its content and the authority-building, and we measure what changes.

How much does SEO cost for a startup?

It depends on the site's technical state, the number of pages and languages, how much content needs producing and how crowded your market is. We don't publish a price list: the factors are on our pricing and timelines page.

Further reading

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