Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic to a new website, but it can feel overwhelming. By following some key best practices, you can lay the proper SEO groundwork as you build out your new site.
Choose an Effective Domain Name:
Pick a domain name that is short, easy to remember and contains your most important keywords if possible. Avoid overstuffing with keywords though. Using hyphens to separate words can aid readability.
Outline Your Site Structure:
Plan the architecture of your site by thinking about key topic areas and user flows. Break down content by theme, product category or other logical groupings that make sense for your offering. Start with 20-30 key pages such as “About Us”, “Products”, “Blog” etc.
Integrate Google Search Console and Google Analytics:
Set up these vital free tools from the start to index your pages and track site traffic and key metrics. This provides the data you’ll need for analyzing how your SEO efforts are working.
Ensure the Website is Mobile-Friendly:
With more searches happening on phones than computers, a mobile-friendly responsive design is vital for both user experience and SEO. Google explicitly favors sites optimized for mobile users.
Research SEO Competitors:
Who else ranks for your target keywords? Analyze their SEO approaches including on-page optimization, content formats and linking strategies to inform your own efforts.
Conduct Keyword Research:
Identify the specific terms and questions your audience is asking around your offerings. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help uncover volume estimates and competitiveness data to help guide your keyword selection and content planning.
Optimize Content:
Create high-quality, original content focusing on your researched keyword terms. Include them naturally throughout pages and meta descriptions. This gives search engines signals on relevancy to specific queries.
Promote Your Site:
Earn high quality backlinks to pages from other trusted sites. Also promote your content through social media, email newsletters and other channels to gain initial traction.
Audit and Improve Over Time:
Use analytics and Search Console data to continually evaluate successes and areas for improvement with your on-page and off-page SEO activities to boost your rankings and traffic. Refine approaches accordingly.
Ongoing SEO is key, but smart planning in launching a new website paves the way for search visibility and user discovery during the critical launch phase and beyond.