Launching a new website is an exciting time, and if done right, marks the start of establishing a strong online presence. Getting SEO right from the start can set the foundation for long-term success in rankings and organic traffic growth for your business. This increases the likelihood of your site getting noticed, and more importantly, ranked.
To optimise a new site for SEO, focus on technical fundamentals, strategic keyword research, and creating high-quality content that provides value to your target audience.
Here’s our 8-step SEO process for launching your new site…
1. Set Up Your Website
Choose the Right Domain Name
A domain name is your site’s address on the internet. Choose a concise and effective domain name that reflects your brand or business. Opt for a memorable, easy-to-spell name without hyphens (we’re not a good example!) or numbers.
Although there is always speculation about whether adding keywords or using an EMD (Exact Match Domain) can improve ranking speed, consider using a branded domain rather than forcing keywords into it.
A short, catchy domain will perform better in the long run than keyword-stuffed alternatives.
If possible, secure a .com or .co.uk (depending on your location) top-level domain, as it’s the most recognised and trusted option.
Avoid using numbers or unusual spellings that could confuse potential visitors. Remember, your domain name will appear in search results and can affect click-through rates.
Choose your Platform
First, you need to choose a platform. The platform you choose should be influenced by your technical skills and the needs of your business.
For most needs we suggest using WordPress, almost all hosting providers will offer easy to setup WordPress Hosting. The platform has the largest library of plugins and themes and offers the best flexibility as your business grows. It also offers the most flexibility in optimising your site for SEO with many great tools like YoastSEO.
If you’re looking to build an eCommerce store, Shopify will be your best choice, offering a wide range of features to showcase your products and create a smooth shopping experience for users.
Secure your Site
Implementing HTTPS is non-negotiable for modern websites. It encrypts data transferred between users and your site, enhancing security and building trust.
Many hosting providers offer free SSL certificates with their plans. If not, you can often use a plugin. For example, Really Simple SSL on WordPress.
Ensure all internal links and resources (images, scripts, etc.) use HTTPS to avoid mixed content warnings. Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS to maintain a secure connection throughout the user’s visit.
Ensuring Mobile-Friendliness and Responsive Design
With mobile devices accounting for a large portion of web traffic, mobile-friendliness is essential. A responsive design adapts your site’s layout to different screen sizes, providing an optimal viewing experience across devices.
Key aspects of mobile-friendly design include:
- Readable text without zooming
- Adequate spacing for touch elements
- No horizontal scrolling
- Fast loading times on mobile networks
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check your site’s performance on mobile devices. Implement responsive design techniques, such as flexible grids and images, to ensure your content looks great on all screen sizes.
Consider adopting a mobile-first approach to design, prioritising the mobile experience and then scaling up for larger screens. This aligns with Google’s mobile-first indexing policy, potentially boosting your search rankings.
2. Conduct Keyword Research
Researching your audience and competitors along with relevant keywords is key before you come to creating content. You want to first ensure the keyword you’re going to create content for has the right search volume and intent with your target audience.
A good place to start would be searching for a seed keyword (a seed keyword is a broad term from your niche) in a keyword search tool like SERanking. You can then analyse the types of content ranking for your target keywords to understand user expectations.
Categorise keywords based on informational, navigational, or transactional intent. You can also categorise them by sub-topics to help you plan content in the future.
While your site is new, it’s worth focusing on low-difficulty, high-intent keywords. These usually come in the form of long-tail keywords. These are usually question-based keywords – users looking for specific answers within your niche.
Most tools will have the ability to sort by volume, difficulty and intent. There are also free ways to find long-tail keywords like Google’s auto-suggest, the ‘People Also Ask’ section, and related searches.
Create a keyword map to guide your content creation efforts. Align keywords with specific pages or content types on your site. Regularly review and update your keyword strategy as search trends evolve and your site gains authority.
3. Plan Your Site Structure
A well-structured website with high-quality content forms the foundation of effective SEO. Proper planning ensures your site is user-friendly and delivers value to visitors.
A logical site structure improves navigation and search engine crawling. Start by outlining your main categories and subcategories. Use a clear hierarchy, with the homepage at the top and related pages grouped beneath.
Implement a shallow site architecture, keeping pages within 3-4 clicks from the homepage. This helps distribute link equity and makes it easier for users to find information.
Create descriptive, keyword-rich URLs that reflect your site structure. For example “www.example.com/category/subcategory/page-title”.
Use internal linking to connect related pages and guide users through your site. Include a navigational menu and breadcrumbs to enhance user experience.
4. Create Search Engine-Optimised Content
Prioritise quality content that addresses user needs and questions. Write comprehensive, well-researched articles that provide unique insights or solutions. The idea is to create best-in-class content that targets very specific keywords that are linked to a question or a problem your target audience is searching for. When creating content it’s worth asking yourself the following questions:
– Does the page have a clear beneficial purpose?
– Is the information high quality & up to date?
– Does the page help my target users?
Google is looking for a page that “has an adequate level of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness”. The content you make must be in-depth and provide more insight, information and value than the pages created by your competitors.
Where possible incorporate various original content formats such as images, videos, infographics, and case studies to cater to different user preferences. Having a user watch a video naturally increases the time they spend on your site which in turn increases the chance of your site ranking.
Optimise your content for featured snippets and AIO (AI Overviews, new in 2024) by including concise answers to common questions. Use headers, bullet points, and tables to improve readability and structure.
The idea is to slowly build up expert-level authority in a specific sub-topic within your niche, answering all questions on the topic and creating different types of content to satisfy all user intent. Once ticked off, you can then move to the next sub-topic.
5. Implement On-Page SEO Elements
On-page SEO elements are important for optimising a new website’s visibility in search results. These components help search engines understand and rank your content.
Optimise Your Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions and page titles are essential for attracting clicks and improving search rankings.
Page titles should be concise, typically 50-60 characters, and include the primary keyword that the page is focused on. They appear in search results and browser tabs, making them important for user engagement, which invertedly affects ranking.
Meta descriptions, while not directly affecting rankings, influence click-through rates. These brief summaries, ideally 150-160 characters, should accurately describe the page content and include relevant keywords. Think of a meta description as your page’s elevator pitch.
To create effective meta tags:
- Use unique titles and descriptions for each page
- Include primary keywords naturally
- Craft compelling copy that entices users to click
Strategically Using Header Tags
Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) structure content, improve readability and help search engines understand your page’s content hierarchy.
The H1 tag, typically the page title, should contain the primary keyword. Subsequent headers (H2, H3) organise content hierarchically and can include secondary keywords.
Optimise Your Images
Image optimisation is often overlooked but is impactful for on-page SEO. The three components of this are alt text, image file names and file sizes.
Alt text tags provide context for images, improving accessibility and helping search engines understand visual content.
When naming your images use titles that describe the image and include keywords related to the image and the content on the page you’re placing the image on. Don’t leave the file name as shutterstock_343442.jpg for example!
With file sizes ensure your image is compressed so it doesn’t impact page load speeds but also not so compressed that you lose the quality and the image becomes blurry. You should almost never need to upload an image larger than 300kb. You should also look to serve your images as .webp instead of .png or .jpg to further help file sizes, most platforms will do this for you. If you choose to build your website with WordPress, there are numerous plugins that can help.
When optimising images:
- Use descriptive file names
- Write informative alt text for each image
- Compress images to improve load times
Properly optimised images can improve user experience, page load speed, and even appear in image search results, driving additional traffic to your site.
6. Build Authority Through Backlinks
Now you’ve got your content in place and have carried out on-page optimisation, you’ll need to focus on building your brand’s authority and credibility. This is done through acquiring backlinks.
In simple terms, a backlink is a link from one site to another. The link is signalling that the site trusts the second site for its trustworthiness and quality content. The more backlinks you have from the most reputable sites the more trustworthy your site looks.
There’s a variety of ways you can gain backlinks:
– Create unique & valuable content: Consistently share content on your website that helps your audience solve their problems. If the content is of high enough quality there’s a chance it’ll be referenced by another site.
– Start in your local area: Look to see if there are any organisations or groups your business is part of that might also have a website that can mention your site. This might include an office directory, a local event that you attend or maybe a supplier of your business.
– Citations: Set up your business profile on business directories like Yelp and Yellow Pages. These are great if your business operates in a specific location. There are sometimes 50+ directories you can register your business on for free, not all of them will be indexed and seen as backlinks but a good percentage will and should serve as a good foundation for your backlink profile.
– Write guest posts: Many sites allow you to post guest articles on their site either in exchange for expert content or for a fee. Note, although the act of buying backlinks is against Google’s Terms of Service it’s a strategy most sites employ to acquire backlinks from large authoritative domains.
Don’t forget to think about the anchor text when building links. Varied and natural-sounding anchor text helps search engines understand the context of links. You should aim for a mix of branded and partial-match anchor texts to create a diverse and natural-looking link profile.
7. Get Technical
Technical SEO will make and break your site. Proper site architecture, optimised page speed, and effective crawling mechanisms form the backbone of a well-optimised site.
Improve Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Page speed is both a ranking factor and a user experience metric. You can improve page speed and experience by compressing images and using appropriate formats, as well as minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to reduce load times.
Further, leverage browser caching (a cache is a temporary storage area that holds copies of frequently accessed data to speed up retrieval) and implement a content delivery network (CDN) to serve assets quickly to users worldwide.
As you implement these, pay attention to Core Web Vitals and look to hit the following targets:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction To Next Paint (INP): Measures responsiveness. Target less than 200 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability. Strive for a score below 0.1.
You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to measure these and address specific performance issues.
Make Your Site Crawlable with Robots.txt and Sitemaps
Once you’ve optimised your site speed, the next step is to ensure search engines can easily discover and index your content. You can do this by creating a robots.txt file to guide crawlers on which pages to access or avoid. You want to use it to block access to admin areas, duplicate content, or other non-essential pages.
On top of your robotx.txt file, you want to generate and submit XML sitemaps to search engines (you can use Google Search Console to submit your sitemap to Google). Include all important pages and update them regularly. If you chose WordPress as your platform, we suggest using YoastSEO to generate both your robots.txt and sitemap.
Implement SCHEMA Markup
To implement schema markup, you’re adding structured data to your website to help search engines better understand and categorise your content. Schema markup gives search engines clear, contextual clues about what each page entails—whether it’s a product, article, recipe, or review. This enhances your site’s visibility by allowing search engines to display rich snippets, like star ratings or product prices, directly in search results.
To get started, identify the pages that would benefit most from enhanced visibility, then use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or a plugin if you’re on WordPress. Finally, test your implementation with Google’s Rich Results Test to ensure everything is set up correctly.
8. Prepare for Launch
Proper preparation is crucial for a successful website launch from an SEO perspective. A thorough checklist and the right analytics tools will set the foundation for future organic search performance.
Finalise Your SEO Checklist & Audit Your Site
Start by reviewing your website structure to ensure it’s logical and user-friendly. Check that all pages have unique, descriptive title tags and meta descriptions. Verify that your content targets relevant keywords and provides value to users.
Ensure all images have alt text and that your site is mobile-responsive. Test your site speed and make necessary optimisations. Double-check that all internal links are working correctly and that there are no broken links.
You can use powerful tools like SERanking to run technical audits, which quickly test your site against 110 parameters. Running one of these audits before launching will ensure you’ve covered all technical bases and be confident your site is set up to be crawled, indexed and ranked.
Set Up Google Search Console and Analytics
Setting up Google Search Console and Google Analytics is essential for tracking your website’s performance and understanding user behaviour.
Google Search Console provides valuable insights into how your site appears in search results, highlighting any issues and offering data on search queries, impressions (the number of times users see your site in search results, indicating it’s indexed and discoverable), clicks, and your site’s indexing status.
Google Analytics, on the other hand, tracks how visitors interact with your website, allowing you to monitor metrics like page views, bounce rate, and conversion goals. Google Analytics segments data by demographics and devices, helping you tailor your strategies to meet the needs of different user groups. The platform also offers real-time tracking, which lets you observe visitor activity as it happens, giving a clear picture of traffic patterns around events like product launches or campaigns.
To set these up, create accounts for both tools, then verify your site ownership. For Google Search Console, submit your sitemap to help Google index your pages more efficiently. In Google Analytics, add the tracking ID to your website (many platforms offer direct integration or plugins, like Site Kit for WordPress), enabling accurate data collection right from the start. Together, these tools provide an essential foundation for refining your SEO and understanding your audience.
If you would like to discuss more about SEO, site optimisation, or any of our other services, do not hesitate to get touch with one of the Sandbox Media team.
Frequently Asked Questions
What steps are essential for carrying out SEO effectively for a new website?
Keyword research is a fundamental first step. Identify terms your target audience uses to find products or services like yours. Create high-quality in-depth content that addresses these search queries.
Ensure your site’s technical SEO is sound. This includes optimising page load speeds, implementing proper URL structures, and making your site mobile-friendly. Build a strong internal linking structure to help search engines understand your site’s hierarchy and content relationships.
How can I use Google Search Console to help my site’s SEO from the start?
Set up Google Search Console as soon as your website is live. Submit your sitemap to help Google discover and index your pages quickly. Use the ‘Performance’ report to track your site’s search performance and identify improvement areas.
Monitor the ‘Coverage’ report to ensure all your important pages are being indexed. Regularly check for crawl errors or manual actions that could negatively impact your site’s visibility in search results.
What are the best practices for integrating SEO during the initial phases of website development?
Plan your site structure with SEO in mind. Create a logical hierarchy of pages and implement clear, descriptive URLs.
Optimise your page titles, meta descriptions, and header tags (H1, H2, etc.) with relevant keywords.
Ensure your site is built with clean, semantic HTML. This helps search engines understand your content better.
Can I improve my website’s SEO for free?
Yes, most SEO strategies can be implemented without any cost. Create high-quality content that addresses your audience’s needs and questions.
Optimise your site’s on-page elements, including titles, meta descriptions, and header tags. Build relationships with other site owners to earn backlinks naturally.
Use free tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor and improve your site’s performance.
Is there an optimal time to start implementing SEO in relation to a website’s launch?
SEO should be considered from the very beginning of website development. Incorporate SEO best practices into your site’s design, structure, and content creation processes.
Continue to refine and improve your SEO strategy after launch. Monitor your site’s performance and make adjustments based on data and insights.
Remember that SEO is an ongoing process. Stay updated with search engine algorithm changes and industry trends to maintain and improve your rankings over time.
