We wrote about founder of Text Link Ads Patrick Gavin’s latest venture, DIYSEO, last year, back when the startup was in stealth mode. DIYSEO aims to target small businesses who have a $500 budget and can only put 25 man hours per year towards online marketing and search engine optimization. Today, Gavin is announcing cool $1 million in new funding from undisclosed angel investors and the public launch of DIYSEO’s semi-automated, customized, search engine optimization tool for small businesses.
The product is primarily targeted towards small businesses who have little resources to put towards the web, including real estate agents, small car dealers, restaurants, lawyers and part-time entrepreneurs. Offered at $49 a month, the program first has the users fill out a questionnaire, answering questions about the nature of their businesses, who their major competitors are, and more. From these answers, DIYSEO will recommend keywords, where to add links on the web, and other search engine optimization techniques. Users can choose basic strategies or more in-depth SEO services.
Private beta users have been testing DIYSEO over the past few months and the platform has received positive reviews for its ease and simplicity, says founder Patrick Gavin. Gavin is experienced in the SEO startup space, Text Link Ads was acquired by Media Whiz in 2007. DIYSEO has also brought on a new CEO, Dan Olson, who is a seasoned executive in the paid search business. Olson helped create paid search startup Performics, which was acquired by DoubleClick in 2004, and then by Google in early 2009 who subsequently sold the search business to the Publicis Groupe in August 2009.
Of course, DIYSEO will face competition from a plethora of startups provide SEO services to businesses, both big and small, including Conductor, Marin Software and Kenshoo.