Hi -!

Marketplaces are different from traditional websites. This is both a challenge and a big opportunity for search engine optimization (SEO).

The purpose of SEO is to bring high-quality leads to your site from Google and other search engines. SEO requires no initial marketing budget, but the payoff can be substantial: a defensible, steady source of engaged traffic.

But SEO takes a lot of work. And some learning if you’re new to it. 

So, is SEO the right investment for your marketplace? It can be if:

🔎 There’s organic demand for your offering. Is your audience googling for solutions to a problem your marketplace solves? Or are you like Uber and need to start by first educating your audience about your product?

☎️ Your marketplace concept doesn’t require prioritizing other channels. On some marketplaces, audiences respond better to word-of-mouth, social media, or direct sales. But remember: these don’t have to be mutually exclusive!

🌱 You’ve built your initial supply. According to a study by Lenny Rachitsky, SEO tends to be a more influential strategy for growing marketplace demand than supply.

📈 You’re prepared to wait for the ROI to accumulate over time. For all its potential, SEO can take months to show results.

To learn more, check out my colleague Mira’s introduction to marketplace SEO. In the article, you’ll find:

• A detailed introduction to marketplace SEO and what investing in SEO means in practice.
• A bunch of examples of successful marketplaces that benefit from SEO (and marketplaces that don’t as much).
• A curated list of further reading + recommendations on great (and often free) SEO tools.