Which Startups Do SEO Best? Here Are the Grades.

A few weeks ago Red Herring announced its annual Red Herring 100, a list top startups.

The list, which HubSpot and seven of its customers were honored to be included on, is a collection of North America's most promissing up and coming companies. Past winners include Google, Yahoo!, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, and YouTube.

Since Red Herring doesn't rank the 100 companies it picks, we thought we'd offer our own ranking: search optimization effectiveness. We took the list, ran it though our free Website Grader tool, and got scores for each company. The scores are on a 1-100 scale, where 100 is the best.

The results are below.

What can we learn from this list? One thing is clear: The scores are above average. Only 14% are below 50. That's indication of SEO's importance. The companies that are growing are doing it well. 

Twitter (www.twitter.com) 99.9
YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com) 99.8
HubSpot (www.hubspot.com) 99.7
Ustream.TV (www.ustream.tv) 99.2
Appirio (www.appirio.com) 98.8
Rocket Lawyer Incorporated (www.rocketlawyer.com) 98.6
Elastic Path Software (www.elasticpath.com) 98.4
Zuora (www.zuora.com/index.html) 98.4
Rapid7 (www.rapid7.com) 98.1
Marketo (www.marketo.com) 97.9
Zimbio (www.zimbio.com) 97.8
Neohapsis (www.neohapsis.com) 97.7
Atiz Innovation (www.atiz.com) 97.5
DocuSign (www.docusign.com) 97.4
ClickFox (www.clickfox.com) 96.7
Attivio (www.attivio.com) 96.5
HomeAway (www.homeaway.com) 96.3
Jaspersoft (www.jaspersoft.com) 96.3
ParaScale (www.parascale.com) 96.3
Avidian Technologies (www.avidian.com) 94
LucidMedia Networks (www.lucidmedia.com) 94
Nirvanix (www.nirvanix.com) 93
Mob4hire (www.mob4hire.com) 92
Purewire (www.purewire.com) 92
Qtask (www.qtask.com) 92
Reality Digital (www.realitydigital.com) 92
Promisec (www.promisec.com) 91
Top Layer Security (www.toplayer.com) 91
Cast Iron Systems (www.castiron.com) 90
CSA Credit Solutions (www.creditsolutions.com) 90
BrightQube (www.brightqube.com) 88
DealerSocket (www.dealersocket.com) 88
Electric Cloud (www.electric-cloud.com) 88
Bluenog (www.bluenog.com) 87
Netcordia (www.netcordia.com) 86
NetWitness (www.netwitness.com) 86
Pivot3 (www.pivot3.com) 86
Quantivo (www.quantivo.com) 86
Carbonetworks (www.carbonetworks.com)  85
Clarabridge (www.clarabridge.com) 84
Airclic (www.airclic.com) 83
BeyondTrust (www.beyondtrust.com) 83
Complete Genomics (www.completegenomics.com) 83
OpTier (www.optier.com) 83
Concerro (www.concerro.com) 81
Damballa (www.damballa.com) 81
Dyadem (www.dyadem.com) 81
IPextreme (www.ip-extreme.com) 81
KESDEE (www.kesdee.com) 81
Trion World Networks (www.trionworld.com) 81
Yodlee (www.yodlee.com) 81
Quantenna Communications (www.quantenna.com) 80
Dataupia (www.dataupia.com) 79
NextLabs (www.nextlabs.com) 79
YottaMark (www.yottamark.com) 79
Arista Networks (www.aristanetworks.com) 77
Dilithium Networks (www.dilithiumnetworks.com) 77
Reflex Systems (www.reflexsystems.com) 77
WhiteHat Security (www.whitehatsec.com/home/index.html) 77
Pliant Technology (www.plianttechnology.com) 75
Acclarent (www.acclarent.com) 74
INVIDI (www.invidi.com) 74
IQNavigator (www.iqnavigator.com) 74
NeoEdge Networks (www.neoedge.com) 74
PharmaSURVEYOR (www.pharmasurveyor.com) 74
Theorem (www.theoreminc.net) 74
Adaptive Planning (www.adaptiveplanning.com) 72
Aster Data Systems (www.asterdata.com) 72
Ethertronics (www.ethertronics.com) 71
Univa UD (www.univa.com) 71
Bubble Motion (www.bubblemotion.com) 69
Optoplex (www.optoplex.com) 69
OptionEase (www.optionease.com) 68
Mixed Signals (www.mixedsignals.com) 67
Applied Identity (www.appliedidentity.com) 65
Weather Trends International (www.wxtrends.com) 65
Bridgelux (www.bridgelux.com) 64
INRange Systems (www.inrangesystems.com) 62
AppTrigger (apptrigger.com/index.php)  61
Mersive Technologies (www.mersive.com)  60
Cresta Technology (www.crestatech.com) 59
Ontela (www.ontela.com) 59
Neophotonics (www.neophotonics.com) 58
Amitive (www.amitive.com) 57
Birst (www.birst.com) 54
Xunlight (www.xunlight.com) 53
Kovio (www.kovio.com) 48
EoPlex Technologies (www.eoplex.com) 47
ESP Technologies (www.fastesp.com) 46
Microfabrica (www.microfabrica.com) 46
Correlix (www.correlix.com) 45
Everspin Technologies (www.everspin.com) 44
Vumii (www.vumii.com) 43
Mediaspectrum (www.mediaspectrum.net) 42
RecondoTechnology (www.recondotech.com) 40
Adaptive Engineering (adaptiveengine.com) 32
Orasi Medical (www.orasimedical.com) 29
BlackBall (www.blackball.com) 25
Microvi Biotech (www.microvibiotech.com) 25
Eden Park Illumination (www.edenparks.com) 6

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