SEO Steps for a New Website : What you should know

If you are brand new to the world of SEO or don’t have much expertise with SEO and web design, don’t worry!

Published On: February 18, 20226 min readCategories: Blog, SEO

Developing a website is not easy. Developing an SEO-optimized website is even harder. There are so many things to keep in mind that it can be hard to know where to start. Whether you’re just starting out in your online business, or if you’re an established brand, the need for SEO will always be important. This guide will teach you the basics of SEO and help you understand how it works, to ultimately allow your site to rank higher on Google’s search engine.

If you are brand new to the world of SEO or don’t have much expertise with SEO and web design, don’t worry! By understanding the fundamental concepts of SEO, you can map out a plan that will not only save you a lot of work later but also give you a better chance at succeeding with your online business. Let’s dive in deeper!

SEO Steps for a New Website:

Planning the website architecture 

The first thing to consider when planning website architecture is that when a visitor lands on your page, it should be easy for them to find out what they are looking for. The easier they find what they need, the more chances of converting them into a customer. The website should be easy to navigate and all the functional pages should be within reach. Before deciding on your website structure and hierarchy, it is a good idea to take into consideration your target audience and Website goals. 

Topic Clusters and Pillar Pages: 

The main idea from an SEO perspective is to provide diverse pieces of content that can inform and add value to a prospective customer’s life. The Best way to categorize and tie all these pieces of content together is to create pillar pages (also called hub pages) that can emphasize the specific subject and provide details about the topic. Having a lot of content on different pages of the site is of no worth if there is no relationship between the pages. To enhance the website authority, create topic clusters and then connect the pages internally.

Naming convention: 

Naming conventions is another extremely important aspect to consider when planning website architecture. SEO savvy URL structure will help the search engines to understand how URL relates with that page as well as other pages on the website.

 For example, https://nav43.com/blog/5-seo-predictions-for-2022-nav43/ 

A well-organized URL structure like above gives search engines a clearer picture that the website has relevant content for someone who is looking for 2022 SEO predictions.

Keyword Research 

To start your keyword research, you will need to have a clear notion of the main subject areas and terms you want to focus on. These need to ultimately connect the content you create to the products you are selling or the services you provide. Before doing Keyword research, understanding keyword intent is extremely important.

The next step in the SEO steps for a new website is to use these keywords and phrases with the help of a Keyword research tool to find the right keywords for your business. There are numerous SEO tools available on the internet such as Ahrefs, Google’s Keyword planner, SEMRUSH, etc. that can help you understand the competition and monthly traffic for the keywords you are planning to target. The idea here is to not go after keywords that are too competitive and rather pick long-tail keywords to target a more specific prospective customer. When you have a list of keywords, add them to your website’s title tags as well as the content.

Website design and hosting 

Everyone wants a cool-looking website with lots of visual features, but is it really worth it? If the visual elements of the website make the website load time too long it might not be worth it.

There are a couple of smart decisions that you need to make when it comes to site speed which include choosing the right web design, web hosting package, CMS (Content Management System), and the plugins that you are going to use for your website. Page speed is an important metric to consider when it comes to SEO. That being said, page speed and website design go hand in hand. 

Try to design the website in such a way that it can attract Search engines as well as potential customers. To successfully perform step-by-step SEO for a new website, make sure to minimize the features that are slowing down your website’s load time. We live in a mobile-friendly world, so make sure that your website is responsive and optimized for mobile. To check website speed, the best free tool you can use is “PageSpeed Insights Tool” by Google.

SEO employees smiling as they look into the camera.

Setting up a website in Google Search Console

To monitor your website’s overall performance, Google search console is one of the best platforms. Here you can find out any issues or warnings on your website related to the Google search engine. Not only can you troubleshoot your website based on the warnings but also come up with new strategies based on the terms that visitors are searching for when coming across your website.

You can also submit your website to the google search console to speed up the indexing process of your website. By doing this, you are informing Google that your website exists on the internet and also provide details about the pages that your website includes. 

Meta Tags

  1. Meta Title: The title tag is what helps search engines understand what your page is about. It is a brief and crisp version of your page’s content. Keep in mind that Google only displays up to 60 characters of the title. The idea here is to have a unique meta title that includes your primary keyword. 
  2. Meta Description: The length of the meta description should be no more than 155 characters. Try to embed keywords naturally in your meta description. When a visitor searches for a term that is present in your meta description, it is bolded out by Google which could help to improve the click-through rate of your website.

Backlinking

Building a beautiful, fast website is not enough. Backlinking is what will build a site’s authority over time. When done right, the process will provide fruitful and long-lasting results. Backlinking can be explained as a “referral” from another website to yours. There are many approaches to earn backlinks but it is best if you get backlinks naturally. 

How do you get backlinks naturally? Here are some tips:

  • Create meaningful blog content.
  • Use Social Sites to create interesting social media content.
  • Make Video vlogs.
  • Create comprehensive “How-to” guides.

Final Thoughts

Implementing SEO steps for a new website is a long-term process but if you take the right steps initially, you will have to do less work down the line. Knowing what SEO choices to make when designing your website could be daunting when doing it alone. NAV43 is a Marketing Agency with a focus on SEO. We specialize in helping you set up and manage your website from an SEO perspective. Give us a call today.