In the promotion of a crowdfunding campaign, online visibility plays a key role. Capital raising happens online; potential investors hook up almost exclusively online. 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization), that is, the set of strategies aimed at Improve the ranking of a website on search engines, is one of the most effective tools for increasing organic traffic to campaign communication channels.

Unlike advertising activities, which bring results in the short term but are fee-based and cease when investment stops, a good SEO strategy can ensure consistent visibility over time. This aspect is crucial in the precrowd, when working to build a community and gather expressions of interest, but also during and after the campaign.

Because of its nature as a medium- to long-term activity and its profound impact on the company's online channels, in fact, SEO is a valuable asset regardless of the crowdfunding campaign period.

In this article we explain what is an SEO strategy for crowdfunding and how it can be leveraged to promote a campaign in synergy with paid tools within a plan to communication for crowdfunding.

What is SEO

La SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is the set of techniques and strategies aimed at improving the visibility of a website on search engines such as Google (but not only!). 

In concrete terms, it means. Make a site's pages appear among the top results when users search for relevant keywords for the relevant industry. It is a discipline that combines technical (site structure, speed, mobile friendly), editorial (producing useful and well-organized content) and strategic (keyword choice, audience analysis, link building) skills.

The benefits of SEO for crowdfunding

Implement a SEO strategy in the preparation of a crowdfunding campaign Allows for:

• Intercept potential investors at the time when they are actively seeking information on issues related to the campaign and the product/service offered by the company;

• Expand the audience reached (need a crowd, a crowd to achieve capital raising goals)

• Position the sponsoring company as influential in its field, building trust in the project;

• Reduce dependence on advertising investment by consistently generating organic traffic;

• Improve the quality of lead generation: optimized content linked to tools such as landing pages and forms allow you to collect contacts from people who are really interested.

• Amplify the herd effect and social proof mechanism, helping to dispel uncertainties of potential investors. An interested user who sees the company's website always appearing at the top of searches perceives it as authoritative and highly frequented by people, so it develops trust.

Where to apply SEO in a crowdfunding campaign

1. Corporate website and campaign landing page

A well-optimized site represents the core of the SEO strategy. For a crowdfunding campaign, we talk about both the corporate website and the landing page dedicated specifically to crowdfunding: this is where potential investors need to be channeled, especially in the precrowd phase, so this is also at the heart of the success of the crowdfunding campaign. 

Some best practices:

• Optimize titles, meta descriptions and URLs with strategic keywords;

• Have a clear structure with informative sections, project storytelling and obvious call to action;

• Place a visible link to the dedicated crowdfunding landing page on the company website.

• Ensure loading speed and navigability from mobile;

• Connect the site to analytics and CRM tools to track conversions.

2. Corporate blog

A updated blog is one of the most powerful SEO tools. It may seem anachronistic, yet despite its loss of popularity as an online content venue, it is still one of the main hooks by which companies draw visitors to their websites.

It allows you to rank on multiple keywords related to your industry and the type of project being funded. 

I types of content to focus on must be different. For example:

• Educational and informative articles about the financial instruments offered and the benefits of investing (e.g., "how equity crowdfunding works" or "why invest in renewable energy" etc.).

• Insights into the team and the history of the company or the technology used

• Insights and clarifications on the technology used, the problem solved by the product or service offered, and related topics.

Each article should be ordered through H1 headings and secondary headings, contain internal links to the campaign landing page and call-to-action for newsletter subscription or expression of interest.

3. Guest post and backlink strategy

Publish articles on authoritative third-party sites (online magazines, blogs and industry portals) helps to:

• Generate quality backlinks, which improve domain authority and thus SEO ranking;

• Reaching new target audiences;

• Strengthen the reputation of the project.

These activities fit perfectly into the precrowd phase, where the goal is to create interest and bring qualified traffic to the campaign, but they also support the authority of the proposal in the later stages, creating a Online ecosystem conducive to conversion Of potential investors.

SEO Techniques

Targeted keyword research 

Users use specific terms to find information, products, or opportunities:

researching the right keywords is a pillar of SEO, essential for ranking in relevant search results

Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, SEOZoom or SEMrush to identify queries related to your industry.

One particularly effective approach is to focus on the

long-tail keywords (long-tail keywords). In fact, phrases consisting of three or more words have less competition and are more targeted, attracting more qualified traffic with more specific search intent.

L'natural integration of keywords so identified in the texts of the site and blog is equally important. The main keyword should be included in the title tag, meta description and at least once in the first 100-150 words of the page content. It is also advisable to use related keywords and synonyms throughout the text to provide richer context for search engines and improve understanding of the content.

It is critical avoid "keyword stuffing", i.e., the excessive and unnatural repetition of keywords, as this practice can penalize site ranking.

An extra tip concerns the strategy of Local SEO (If the project has a territorial dimension): include references to the geographical area among the keywords to attract users interested in local initiatives.

User experience (UX) and page speed

User experience (UX) plays a key role in SEO. A website that offers good UX is intuitive, easy to use, with clear navigation elements, and optimized for all devices.

Two crucial technical aspects for UX Are:

• La page loading speed: Users today have high expectations and will abandon a page if it takes too long to load. Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights can be used to analyze load times and identify areas for improvement.
• La mobile responsiveness, or website responsiveness on mobile devices: a site that adapts fluidly to different screen sizes ensures an optimal user experience on smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

In all online shopping experiences, if a user encounters friction, such as slow loading or confusing navigation, they are very likely to abandon the transaction. This immediate abandonment, in crowdfunding, directly translates into. missed investment opportunities. Therefore, for crowdfunding campaigns, technical SEO elements such as page speed and mobile responsiveness are not just ranking factors; they are direct drivers of conversion.

Title Tag and Meta Description Optimization

I title tag are a crucial component of SEO, being the first thing users see in Google search results at the top of each search result. They must be descriptive, concise and include the main keyword at the beginning to maximize relevance and attractiveness.

La meta description is a brief summary that appears below the title tag in search results. This, too, is a key element that users review before clicking on the link. An effective meta description should be persuasive, include relevant keywords and encourage clicks, accurately reflecting the content of the page. The recommended length is about 160 characters.

Structuring this content to directly answer frequently asked questions also increases the chances of appearing in Google's featured boxes (of becoming, that is, featured snippet).

Creating valuable content

SEO-optimized content should not "speak" to the search engine, Google or whatever it may be, but rather should talking to people. It is fine to optimize all the technical and mechanical aspects, but one should not forget that that content has the function of being read by someone who is searching for something. Every on-page element, from the URL to the text, should be crafted not only for the algorithms, but also to maximize clarity, trust, and the Persuasive power for human audiences.

Publishing valuable, high-quality content is essential for attracting and engaging the audience, but also for improving the ranking of the web page-it is a virtuous circle. Google does not reward content that is on the surface technically perfect, but is then empty of real meaning or difficult to understand.

This is especially important if we are Improving SEO in preparation for a crowdfunding campaign.: the ultimate goal is not simply to be visible on the search engine, but to turn users into investors after who clicked on the link at the top of the results list. This goal can only be achieved with quality content, logically structured and visually appealing pages, and clear call-to-actions.

Any content should be clear and engaging, provide really useful information for readers and be well structured, using short paragraphs and bullet points to improve readability and user experience.

The Visual elements, such as photos, videos and infographics, make the page lighter and more attractive, and help communicate messages more effectively. These elements should be optimized for fast loading and maintain high quality by using descriptive file names and always adding the alternative text (alt text) for each image. Alt text not only improves accessibility for all users, but also provides valuable context for search engines.

An extra tip is to optimize content for voice search as well: more and more people are searching for information by talking to their device. Provide content in the form of FAQs or practical guides to intercept this type of search.

Creating a network of internal links

Internal linking strategy consists of linking different pages within one's website. This practice helps search engines understand the content context and hierarchy of the site, enhancing the domain's overall authority. 

A logical and hierarchical site structure, supported by relevant internal links, is critical to prevent the creation of "orphan pages," or pages with no incoming links, which are difficult for search engine crawlers* to discover and index. 

*A crawler is software by which a search engine analyzes all the content on a network in a methodical and automated way and creates an index of URLs that it can offer in the search.

To facilitate and guide this activity, in addition to taking care of the logic of the site structure, other technical operations include: 

• Proper configuration of robots.txt files and robots meta tags to guide crawlers and prevent unnecessary pages from being indexed (not mandatory, but often useful)
• The creation of an XML sitemap, a file that provides search engines with a structured list of all important URLs on the site
• The use of HTTPS (SSL/TLS Certificate), a standard requirement for site security and a ranking factor because it protects user data and signals reliability to search engines.

Structuring SEO-friendly URLs

The URLs of the landing page and corporate website pages should be short, simple and include the primary keyword, making it easy for both users and search engines to understand. 

It is good practice to use hyphens (-) to separate words and keep all letters lowercase, as per the preset formatting in most site-building software. It is critical to avoid unsafe characters (, #, %, etc.) and unnecessary URL parameters (?id=123) that can make URLs less readable and less attractive.

Channels on which to integrate SEO with other activities

SEO works at its best for the promotion of crowdfunding When integrated into a multichannel strategy:

• Email marketing: blog content can be used to feed informative and persuasive newsletters.

• Social media: any new SEO content can become a post on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, generating traffic and shares.

• Advertising: even the Google Ads campaigns provide for optimization through SEO analysis, identifying keywords with the highest conversion rates and creating a consistent network of free and paid content with the same keywords.

SEO performance monitoring and analysis for crowdfunding

The monitoring and analysis of SEO performance are indispensable for evaluating the effectiveness of implemented strategies and making any necessary changes in real time.

For comprehensive monitoring one can use a combination of dedicated tools, some of which can be found for free, others are paid, such as:

• Google Search Console To find out which search queries bring users to the site and which pages perform best
• Google Analytics To track organic traffic, analyze user behavior and monitor conversions
• Google PageSpeed Insights (already mentioned)
• Google Looker Studio to get reports from data
• Other paid professional tools outside the Google suite for more targeted analysis.

Through these and other tools, the following can be analyzed the key KPIs of an SEO strategy:

• Organic Traffic: the number of visitors coming to the site via organic search results. 
• Keyword Placement: where the site appears in search results for target keywords. 
• Impressions and Clicks (CTR): impressions indicate how many times the content appeared in the search engine SERP, while clicks and Click-Through Rate (CTR) measure the effectiveness of title tags and meta descriptions in generating interest and traffic.
• Conversions: the number of investments, expressions of interest, newsletter subscriptions or other desired actions that can be directly attributed to organic traffic.
• Bounce Rate (Bounce Rate): The percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing a single page. A high bounce rate may indicate problems with content relevance or user experience.
• Average Session Duration and Pages per Session: The level of user engagement with the content of the site. Longer duration and more pages visited suggest greater interest.

Performance analysis should be done consistently to avoid wasting resources on a strategy that does not work or could work better.

In this analysis, it must be taken into account that SEO is a slow tool, which takes time to show results, which are progressive and come from a consistent and regular volume of content, not from a single activity, unlike other promotion tools.

For this reason, it does not make sense to carry out SEO activities for the horizon of the crowdfunding campaign alone; rather, it is effective to include them in a long-term communication and marketing plan to be continued even after online capital raising.