What a startup’s first content should cover, and when it pays off

What to publish first and how to read the first six months, from the SEO work group.

Updated October 13, 2026

Start with a small set of pages on problems buyers already search for, look for early search signals in three to six months, and budget 12 to 18 months before counting on the channel.

Write about problems buyers already have. Ethan Smith groups related searches into one useful page. Eli Schwartz and Nate Turner build the first pieces from what customers say in interviews and sales calls.
Check whether the product can make the pages. Luc Levesque points to LinkedIn, where each public profile became an indexable page. Kevin Indig would test product-generated pages for marketplaces and social products, and a tight set of answers for SaaS.
Separate early signals from a dependable channel. Ethan’s three to six months is when search traffic may appear. Eli’s 12 to 18 months is the budget horizon, and Ethan agrees with it.
Track what buyers do. Eli and Nate watch for sign-ups, demo requests and sales conversations. Nate’s strongest early signal is a rep sending a page to a prospect who then takes the next step.

Group chat with Kevin, Eli, Ethan, Nate, Luc — the SEO work group

Question:

What should a startup's first content marketing focus on, and when does it start paying off?

Ethan SmithCEO of Graphite. Teaches SEO at Reforge and IE Business School

Start with a small set of articles around topics your prospective customers already search for and that connect to the product. Group related queries into one useful page rather than commissioning a page for every keyword. At MasterClass, our butter lettuce page covered definitions, health benefits, and recipes because people searched for all three; the page ranked for hundreds of related queries.

YouTube

For a startup testing SEO, I would publish roughly 10 to 30 articles first, then look at impressions and whether pages move toward the top 10 before committing to a much larger publishing plan. My rough timeline for search traffic is three to six months after launch. You can see earlier signals, sometimes a first-week ranking around position 15, but the time to meaningful revenue depends on how well that traffic converts. Domain authority changes the timeline substantially, and a new site may need to build credibility before its content can compete.

YouTube

Eli SchwartzAuthor of Product-Led SEO. Former Director of Growth at SurveyMonkey

A startup's first content should answer the problem its buyers already describe, then show how the product solves it. Talk to users about what they tried to find and couldn't. At SurveyMonkey, templates connected a searched-for problem to a usable solution; at Zapier, pages pairing tools such as Salesforce and Gmail matched a specific task people wanted to do.

Apple Podcasts+1

Share the first few pieces directly with prospective buyers and watch whether they use the solution or ask for more. Organic search is a longer investment: I would plan for 12 to 18 months, with uneven growth, rather than budget around quick traffic. If the startup is still changing its customer or product, keep content small and use those conversations to learn before funding an SEO program.

Apple Podcasts

Ethan SmithCEO of Graphite. Teaches SEO at Reforge and IE Business School

Eli's 12 to 18 months is a sensible budget horizon for a new domain. My three to six months describes when we may see search traffic after launch, not a promise of payback. I use the first 10 to 30 pages to answer a narrower question: can any of these topics reach visible rankings? If they stall, inspect the topic choice, page quality, indexing, and site authority before scaling production. In my experience, early ranking movement is a reason to keep testing; it is not yet evidence that the channel earns back its cost.

YouTube

Luc LevesqueFormer Chief Growth Officer at Shopify and VP SEO at TripAdvisor

A useful fork for the founder: does the product itself create pages people would search for? When a user joined LinkedIn, their public profile became an indexable landing page. That gave the product a growing source of search traffic alongside its invite loop. I’d check for that kind of product-generated content before committing the team to a publishing schedule. If the product has only a few pages, optimize those pages and publish answers to customer questions, as Ethan and Eli suggest.

Spotify

The payoff clock depends on which case you’re in. I’ve seen large sites with many existing pages get impact quickly because there is so much to improve. A new startup has a smaller surface and less search history, so Ethan’s three to six months is a sensible window to inspect early search signals, while Eli’s longer horizon is safer for budgeting a dependable channel. I’d judge the first effort by whether the pages bring people with the right problem into the product, then expand the pages that do.

Spotify

Eli SchwartzAuthor of Product-Led SEO. Former Director of Growth at SurveyMonkey

A page reaching the top 10 still leaves one question unanswered: can the visitor take the next step toward buying? At Mixpanel, we chose keywords, published content, and built links, yet the search visits did not convert. A company-wide analytics purchase required internal agreement and setup, so a single visit could not carry the sale.

Spotify

For Ethan's first 10 to 30 pages, I would track a second signal alongside search visibility: are visitors signing up, requesting a demo, or entering a sales conversation? The useful action depends on the product's actual buying process. A startup with a long sales cycle should judge content against that process before calling the channel paid off.

Question:

Luc suggests checking whether the product can generate searchable pages before publishing articles. Kevin, how would you choose between those paths for a new startup, and what evidence would you look for in the first six months? Please cite a relevant example or source.

Kevin IndigWrites Growth Memo. Former Director of SEO at Shopify and VP SEO and Content at G2

I’d choose the path based on the page type the product can actually produce. A marketplace with useful listings or a social product with public profiles can test product-generated pages; the content already comes from supply or users, so the first job is making a small sample crawlable through internal links and sitemaps. For a SaaS product with few natural page types, I’d build a product page and a tight set of answers around one customer problem, grounded in interviews. I’ve described marketplaces and social networks as primarily facing a discovery problem, while startups without scalable page structures have to create valuable content and earn links.

Medium+1

During the first six months, I’d test a small set of pages and check whether Google indexes them, whether impressions and relevant visits grow, and whether visitors take a product action or enter a sales conversation. If product-generated pages get indexed yet draw little relevant demand, creating thousands more compounds the wrong bet. If editorial pages draw the right audience but few actions, investigate the offer and buying path before increasing output. The six-month check is a decision point for the next test, not a payback deadline.

Medium+1

Question:

Kevin expects early feedback from sharing content and several quarters before reliable organic leads. Nate, for a startup with a small content budget, which early signal would convince you to keep investing, and when would you expect pipeline or revenue? Please ground it in an example or source.

Nate TurnerCo-founder and CEO of Ten Speed. Former VP Demand Generation at Sprout Social

For a small budget, the signal that would keep me investing is a qualified buyer using a piece in a real sales conversation: the rep sends a use-case page or answer to an objection, and the prospect takes the next step. I’d track that alongside relevant search impressions and visits. A ranking gain on its own tells me the page can be found; a buyer action tells me it may support pipeline.

At Sprout, I listened to sales and customer-success calls to stay close to the language customers used and how they actually used the product. I’d build the first few pieces from recurring questions on those calls and put them in sales follow-ups and email, where the team can get feedback within weeks.

YouTube I’d review search traction over the first six months and budget several more quarters before expecting a dependable stream of organic-sourced opportunities or revenue on a new site. Early search growth takes time, while updating an established page can produce results more quickly.

clearscope

Ask a follow-up

SEO

3M+ insights

SEO leaders from Shopify, TripAdvisor, SurveyMonkey & 1 more

by Casey Winters

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?
On a narrow set of searches close to a buying decision, with use-case, comparison and integration pages built from what buyers ask sales and support. Scale once a small batch ranks and brings qualified demand.
How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?
Start from the problems buyers describe, size whole topics rather than single keywords, and skip searches incumbents already own. A low-volume query can still earn a page if one deal pays for it.
Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?
When each page answers a distinct buyer question with data the company has. Pilot one page pattern, check quality and indexing, and judge it on qualified pipeline.
How do you get your brand cited in ChatGPT?
Answer the questions buyers ask before they choose, one clear page per question with evidence they can check, and earn mentions on the review sites, communities and media that AI answers cite.

All seo and ai search questions →

Frequently Asked Questions

What a startup’s first content should cover, and when it pays off

SEO

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?

How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?

Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?

How do you get your brand cited in ChatGPT?

Your ideas, super powered.

What a startup’s first content should cover, and when it pays off

SEO

Frequently Asked Questions

Where should a new B2B SaaS site focus its SEO in year one?

How does a young B2B site choose keywords it can rank for?

Is programmatic SEO worth it for a B2B company?

How do you get your brand cited in ChatGPT?

Your ideas, super powered.