introduction slide, prepping for SEO, website search engine optimization

New website? How to prep it for SEO

If you’re launching a new website, congratulations! This is an exciting time for your business or brand. But before you start celebrating, there’s one important thing you need to do: prep your website for SEO. It should be one of your primary considerations when launching a new website. In fact, the best case scenario would be that your website structure is fully built based on the SEO strategy you already have in place. Doing this from the get-go saves lots of headaches for things like web development, content formatting and design, URL structures, and more.

Why is SEO valuable for new websites? Because it helps you:

  • Attract more visitors to your website 
  • Boost brand awareness 
  • Increase leads and sales

In short, a well-optimized website will help you achieve your business goals. So how do you go about optimizing a new website for SEO? Here are some tips to get you started:

1.  Do your keyword research

Before you launch your new website, you need to do your keyword research. This will help you identify the right keywords to target that will attract visitors to your site. There are a number of different ways to do keyword research, but a good place to start is with Google AdWords Keyword Planner. This tool lets you enter a seed keyword and then shows you related keywords, as well as their search volume and competition level.


2.  Choose the right domain name

Your domain name is one of the first things people will see when they find your website, so it’s important to choose one that’s SEO-friendly. 

That means it should be: 

  •  Relevant to your business or brand 
  •  Memorable and easy to pronounce 
  •  Short and sweet 
  •  Free of any hyphens or numbers If you can, try to register a .com domain name. 

This is the most popular and trusted top-level domain, so it will give your website an instant boost of credibility.


3.  Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions

When you’re creating titles and descriptions for your website’s pages, be sure to include your target keywords. This will help search engines understand what your pages are about and match them with relevant searches.


4.  Optimize your images

Make sure to optimize your images for SEO by including keywords in their file names and alt text. This will help search engines index your images and display them in image search results.


5.  Implement Google Authorship

If you’re launching a website for a business or brand, be sure to implement Google Authorship. This will associate your content with your Google+ profile, which can help you build trust and authority.


Hosting and support

Last but not least, you’ll need a reliable hosting provider and support team to keep your website up and running. A good host will provide fast speeds, uptime, and security. And a good support team will be there to help you with any problems you encounter along the way. By following these tips, you can launch a new website that’s primed for success in the search engines. 

The next steps will include setting up Google provided tools.

Setup Google Search Console

After your website is live, be sure to setup Google Search Console. This free tool from Google lets you submit your sitemap, view your website’s search traffic and performance, and more.

Setup Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another must-have tool for any website. It lets you track your website’s traffic and performance, so you can see how well your SEO efforts are paying off.

Setup Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that lets you manage all your website’s tracking codes in one place. This can be helpful for things like Google Analytics, but also for other third-party tracking code you might need to add to your website.

Creating Content

Email marketing is incredibly effective for businesses to reach out to their target audience and make an impact. With a well-considered email marketing strategy tailored to your brand’s specific needs, you can also see an increase in leads and sales. To ensure success, it’s essential that email content is personalized and regularly updated for segmented audiences – if you’re stuck for ideas, try scouting what other companies and direct competitors in your industry are doing with email communication. Focusing on email engagement metrics such as click-through, open, and bounce rates will help indicate what works well. When done correctly, email marketing campaigns can be invaluable tools in any successful business’ marketing arsenal!

When creating content, be sure to keep the following in mind:

Keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find keywords that are relevant to your business and have a good amount of search traffic. Include keywords throughout your content: Once you have a list of relevant keywords, be sure to include them in your content. This includes the title, meta tags, headings, and body text. 

Make sure your content is user-friendly: In addition to being keyword-rich, your content should also be easy to read and understand. Use short paragraphs and simple language to make your content more user-friendly. 

Formatting your content: The way you format your content can also impact your SEO. Use headings and subheadings to break up your content, and include plenty of white space to make it easy to read.

In Conclusion

Keyword research is one of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of SEO. By understanding your target keywords and using them throughout your website content, you can improve your site’s ranking on search engines results pages (SERPs) and attract more visitors. See our article on how to search for keywords for more information.