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In today's newsletter:
Latest Podcasts: What You Missed
Ambitious… But Lazy - What if the real goal of building a business isn’t doing more… but getting things to work without you?
10,000+ Customers With 15 People – How SweepBright scaled to over 10,000 customers with a team of just 15. A practical conversation with Raphael Bochner on leverage, focus, and designing a business that grows without growing headcount.
Hiring without Hiring – How to scale without adding payroll or burning out.
Want to Scale? ICP: Do You Know Me? – Stop selling to everyone. This episode focuses on defining your ICP so you can scale with better clients and less chaos.
The 10 Money Skills Every Microteam Should Master – You’re great at what you do. But if the money side of your business feels confusing, stressful, or weirdly fragile, this episode is required listening.
SEO Strategy for Bootstrapped Teams: Organic Growth Without Agencies
You just got a quote from an SEO agency: $5,000 per month for 6 months. Minimum.
They promise "increased organic traffic," "improved rankings," and "strategic content optimization."
You do the math: $30,000 for six months of work that might drive results in 9-12 months.
You don't have $30,000 to spend on maybe. And even if you did, you're not sure they understand your niche better than you do.
So you're stuck: you know SEO matters, but hiring an agency is out of reach, and you're already stretched thin running the business.
Welcome to the bootstrap SEO dilemma.
The $40K SEO Lesson
Let me tell you about Michelle, founder of a 4-person B2B SaaS company selling workflow automation for law firms.
Michelle knew she needed SEO. Paid ads were eating her budget, and every customer acquisition felt like starting from zero.
She hired an agency. $4,000/month. They promised the world.
Month 1: They did an audit and sent her a 59-page PDF full of technical jargon.
Month 2: They "optimized" her existing pages (which mostly meant adding keywords awkwardly).
Month 3: They published 4 blog posts that were generic, unhelpful, and clearly written by someone who'd never worked with a law firm.
By Month 4, Michelle checked her analytics: organic traffic was up 8%. Not 8% month-over-month. 8% total. After spending $16,000.
She canceled the contract.
"I paid them $40K over 10 months and got almost nothing. I could've done better myself for free—if I'd only known where to start."
So Michelle spent a weekend learning SEO. Not from expensive courses. Just YouTube, blog posts, and free tools.
She implemented a dead-simple strategy:
Wrote 2 blog posts per month answering real questions her customers asked
Optimized her product pages for the exact searches her ideal customers were making
Built backlinks by guest posting on legal tech blogs
Six months later, organic traffic was up 240%. She was ranking #1-3 for her target keywords. And it cost her $0, except for her time.
The SEO Myth
Here's the lie agencies sell: SEO is complicated, technical, and requires experts.
The truth? SEO is simple. Not easy, but simple.
Think of SEO like planting a garden.
Agencies want you to believe you need a horticulturist, soil scientists, and a full greenhouse setup.
Reality? You need:
Seeds (content)
Soil (technical foundation)
Water (consistency)
Sunlight (backlinks)
Plant good seeds, tend the garden regularly, and you'll get results. It just takes time.
Most bootstrap founders don't need an agency. They need a simple system they can execute themselves.
Why This Matters for Microteams
Big companies can throw $50K/month at SEO and wait a year for results.
You need leads this quarter, not next year. And you can't afford to outsource what you could do yourself.
Here's why DIY SEO is especially powerful for microteams:
You know your customers better than any agency. You talk to them daily. You know their pain points, their language, their questions.
You can move fast. No approval chains, no waiting for the agency to get back to you. You can publish today.
You control quality. Agencies often outsource to junior writers who know nothing about your industry. You can write content that actually helps.
It compounds. Every piece of content you publish works for you forever. It's an asset, not an expense.
The best microteam SEO strategies aren't sophisticated. They're consistent.
The Bootstrap SEO Framework
Here's how to build an SEO engine that drives organic traffic without hiring an agency or spending $30K.