SEO is often treated as a universal discipline—something that can be evaluated in isolation, compared side by side, and graded using a fixed set of benchmarks. But in practice, SEO just doesn’t work that way. What “good” looks like depends entirely on what the business is, what stage it’s in, and what it needs to achieve right now, and the role SEO is meant to play in the broader growth strategy.

SEO is neither absolute nor generic. It is contextual. It demands a look at the “why” of a business and its goals alongside the “how” of a well-executed SEO exercise. And those beliefs sit at the center of Edgar Allan's approach to SEO.

We don’t optimize for tactics in a vacuum. We optimize with intent. Our work is guided by a simple principle: effective SEO is contextual. It should be shaped by a client’s stage, industry, and business model—not by a generic playbook or a checklist of best practices.

This philosophy is especially relevant for the companies we work with most often: early- to mid-stage, mostly B2B, VC-backed businesses.

Why Context Matters More Than “Best Practice” SEO

SEO advice is often framed as universally applicable: publish more content, target more keywords, build more links, add more technical complexity. While those tactics can be effective in certain environments, they are not automatically appropriate for every business.

Choosing the right SEO tactics depends on factors such as:

• Company stage
  
• Industry and market maturity
  
• Business model
  
• Sales cycle length
  
• Buyer sophistication
  

Early- to mid-stage B2B companies operate under significantly different constraints than mature, SEO-led businesses. In this early, awareness-led world:

• Trust matters more than traffic volume
  
• Authority matters more than keyword coverage
  
• Clarity matters more than technical sophistication
  

SEO still plays an important role—but it is rarely the primary growth lever at this stage. Instead, it plays a supporting role, bolstering positioning, credibility, and long-term scalability.

The Early- to Mid-Stage B2B Reality

Most of the companies EA works with are not optimizing for mass demand capture. They are optimizing for:

• Credibility with a small group: investors
  
• Confidence from enterprise buyers
  
• Clear differentiation in crowded or emerging markets
  
• Shortening complex, high-consideration sales cycles
  

For these businesses, design, storytelling, and narrative clarity often matter more in the short term than organic traffic growth. When they land on a site, buyers and investors need to quickly understand:

• What the company does
  
• Why it exists
  
• How it’s different
  
• Why it’s credible
  

SEO becomes significantly more powerful once those foundations are in place. But the real story here isn’t that solid SEO work is valuable in most cases (it genuinely is); it’s that it’s not a one-size-fits-all proposition where a more technical execution is guaranteed to deliver the best results. The point is in the difference in each client’s world. And only strategic work answers the question “what do we really need here?”

Strategy First: Knowing Why and When

The defining characteristic of EA’s approach to SEO is strategic judgment.

We don’t begin by asking what SEO tactics we can deploy. We start with things that ladder up to why. 

We ask:

• What stage is this company at?
  
• What does success look like right now?
  
• Which investments will compound—and which will distract?
  

This strategic filter shapes everything that follows. As a result, our SEO work is often deliberately focused and restrained. Our job is to apply the right level of SEO for the right moment. 

How Edgar Allan Approaches SEO in Practice

1. Keyword Research Based on Business Intent

EA approaches keyword research through the lens of intent and relevance—not raw volume.

We prioritise:

• Buyer-stage alignment
  
• Solution-aware and comparison queries
  
• Category-defining language
  
• High-intent problem statements relevant to B2B decision-makers
  

For early- to mid-stage companies, ranking for fewer, more meaningful queries often creates greater commercial impact than chasing broad visibility. This approach may look modest in SEO tools, but it aligns far more closely with revenue and positioning goals.

2. Topic Planning That Builds Authority, Not Exhaustion

EA builds content strategies designed to establish authority and trust—especially with sophisticated B2B audiences.

Topic planning focuses on:

• Core commercial narratives
  
• Category education
  
• Thought leadership grounded in real expertise
  
• Pages that directly support sales conversations
  

This typically results in:

• Fewer total pages
  
• Higher editorial and design quality
  
• Longer, more intentional publishing cycles
  

For early-stage B2B brands, this depth matters far more than scale.

3. Website Optimization That Protects Brand and UX

SEO at EA is always balanced against usability, storytelling, and brand perception.

Our optimization work includes:

• Clean, intuitive information architecture
  
• Internal linking based on real user journeys
  
• Semantic HTML structure
  
• Core Web Vitals improvements aligned with Webflow best practices
  
  

We intentionally avoid:

• Over-engineered CMS logic built purely for SEO
  
• Technical structures that reduce agility
  
• Design compromises made for marginal SEO gains
  

For companies still defining their category, clarity and flexibility matter more than technical edge cases.

4. Authority Building Through Brand-Led Signals

EA’s approach to authority building reflects how trust is actually earned in B2B markets.

We focus on:

• PR and earned media
  
• Founder-led thought leadership
  
• High-quality editorial placements
  
• Brand-driven content distribution
  

This approach compounds more slowly, but it produces stronger credibility signals—both for search engines and for human decision-makers.

5. SEO as an Evolving Strategic Layer

SEO at Edgar Allan is not a static deliverable. It evolves alongside the business.

Clients receive:

• Honest prioritisation
  
• Clear trade-off guidance
  
• Recommendations aligned to stage and industry
  
• SEO strategies that mature as the company matures
  

In many cases, we advise against heavy SEO investment when:

• Product–market fit is still emerging
  
• Messaging is still evolving
  
• Brand and UX improvements offer higher near-term returns
  

This isn’t hesitation. It’s considered strategy.

Why This Approach Sometimes Appears “Less Technical”

For our early-to mid-stage B2B companies, the SEO work we deliver is calibrated to what will actually move the business forward.

That means:

• Less emphasis on extreme technical complexity
  
• More emphasis on clarity, authority, and alignment
  

We don’t optimize for maximal SEO execution.
We optimize for appropriateness.

The Real Takeaway

SEO is not a universal scorecard. It’s a strategic tool whose value depends on context.

Edgar Allan takes a considered, strategic approach to SEO—one that’s based on:

• A client’s stage
  
• Their industry
  
• Their business model
  
• Their immediate and long-term goals
  

For early- to mid-stage B2B companies, this context matters more than technical bravado.

We don’t believe in doing SEO because it’s possible.
We believe in doing SEO when—and how—it makes sense.

That judgment is the real differentiator.

Read more from the Edgar Allan Blog.

1. How to Rank a Webflow Page for SGE
2. Quality over quantity: Navigating SEO and content structure in Google’s new landscape
3. Webflow vs. WordPress SEO cage match
4. SEO 101: How Webflow agency Edgar Allan helps clients develop an SEO content strategy
5. Edgar Allan SEO 101: Backlinks and how we use them as a Webflow agency