How to Start SEO For A New Website

Starting SEO for a new Website is a tedious task and is not a hidden fact. When you start creating your WordPress blog, it seems like a simple task. As you begin creating content and waiting for Google and other search engines to drive traffic to your new Website, the reality starts to dawn on you. 

You begin to see that the work at hand goes beyond buying a Domain name and creating a blog on WordPress or Google. The need to understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its best practices begins to stare at your face. A poor understanding of SEO will leave your Website without visitors, without readers and of course, without any form of sales. 

Before I go further, I must spell it out, SEO is not rocket science. You do not need to spend another four or six years in college before learning the rudiments and implementing them. Without missing words, it takes a lot of effort and time to learn and master SEO, but you can start learning and implementing it simultaneously and at the same venue. It is a lot easier when you have a tutor and a team to work together. 

The essence of this article is to help you get started, especially if you are new and do not have any expertise in SEO. I will take you through all the aspects of SEO and point out the significant elements found in your Website. As such, if you are getting started, you will begin SEO for your new Website on a solid foundation with this post. 

Before I get started, let us look at what search engines want. 

What are Search Engines’ Priorities?

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are always looking for content and websites to present to searchers on their network. Their top priority is to direct searchers to content relevant to their search. 

But how do they determine relevance?

They have four items they give priority. Based on these four items, they can determine which relevant content should show up on the first page and which position they should occupy. These four elements are :

1. Content 
2. Authority 
3. User Experience
4. Performance 

These four elements are search engines priority, and they should be yours too. You should ensure you create relevant content for your audience. This content should be authoritative enough to gain links from others. People should perceive it and you as an authority within your niche. 

Next is your website interface and its speed. Your website interface should create a good user experience, and the Website should load fast and seamlessly both on desktop and mobile devices. 

Step By Step SEO for A New Website 

To achieve these four elements and be in the good books of search engines, below are some essential steps to start SEO for a new website. 

1. Start SEO For a New Website by Choosing a Reliable Hosting Company

I always believe in starting with the basics. The first thing you must get right is beginning with your new Website with a reliable hosting company. You will not want a website that is not up to your readers’ time. I always advise my readers to go with BlueHost; they are my number one recommendation for hosting. Other services include Hostinger, GoDaddy, and Namecheap; any of them will deliver on their promise. 

Another thing you must select carefully is your domain name. Although Google has spelt out that adding keywords to domain names will not affect SEO anymore. But it would help if you still chose a perfect domain name. Select a domain name that will be easy to remember, relevant and one that will not be misspelt when searching for your URL. Although it may be tempting to include keywords, be careful not to make the name difficult to read. It can lead to a negative ranking. 

2. Create Quality Content 

Strive to Improve on creating quality content consistently. Relevant, high quality and user-helpful content are like juice to your Website. It is not about creating new articles all the time; you can improve on existing content. 

To create new content and improve existing content. If you have multiple thin ranges, find a way to enhance them and make them broad and relevant. Remember your content should be of good quality and relevant to your audience. 

3. Select a Mobile-Friendly theme or design 

The emphasis on mobile designs has continued to increase. Although many folks still use laptops and other forms of desktops, a lot find it much more convenient to browse on their mobile devices. As such, you must ensure your Website is mobile-friendly. 

Achieving a mobile-friendly design involves a lot, but the most important thing is to have it at the back of your mind and focus on mobile-friendliness when making any decision. Google has stated clearly that mobile-first will be a priority when indexing. As such, any website that has a mobile version separate will have its mobile version indexed first. To achieve a mobile-friendly website, ensure: 

• image size is reduced to the barest minimum, putting image quality in focus 
• Text is readable. Avoid text being too small or too close together 
• Build a fast loading website. Avoid slow loading websites. 

4. Create Title tags and Meta tags 

The title and meta tags are displayed on search engine result pages (SERP). They tell both users and search engines what your pages are about. They are also an excellent avenue to insert your keywords but not overstuff keywords. Add them in n other of relevance. 

Ensure the length of your Title tag does not exceed 60 characters. Google will not display characters that exceed this length of characters for title tags and 160 characters for meta tags. 

Endeavour to create unique meta tags for each article for your meta tags. Although Google has spelt that meta tags are not a direct ranking factor, they will increase your content click-through rate. As such, take some time to craft both your title and meta tag for each article you create, that way, you will be building a good SEO for the new Website. 

5. Create a good Site Architecture 

Irrespective of how small your Website or blog is, you need a good site architecture. Your Website should be easy to navigate through your sidebars. Your categories and subcategories should link up easily to your articles, product pages, reviews and other essential pages. 

A well laid out structure will help Google and its bolts to understand and crawl your Website easily. It will also help rank your pages, most important pages are indexed and grouped uppermost. 

An excellent way to improve your Website structure is by providing clickable links at the top of your pages and also providing breadcrumbs. It will give visible trails and help users know where they are at any point in time on your Website. The same applies to search engine bolts; they can read breadcrumbs. It will help them discover crawlable URLs identify categories and subcategories. 

A good site structure will affect the SEO for new websites. It will make it loveable for users and help search engines rank your content quickly. The more easy your content is to crawl and discover, the easier it will be to rank. 

6. Conduct Keyword Research 

Keywords are likely to search terms users input in search engines when searching or making enquiries. You should create a list of these search terms that best describe products within your niche. 

Think like a user searching on Google or Bing for products or services. Please think of the likely products they will search for. Your ability to determine these keywords is essential to the success of your SEO for a new website. 

There are numerous keyword tools like Google keyword planner and Jaaxy that you can use to generate keyword suggestions. These tools will suggest keywords, analyze the expected traffic, and suggest the difficulty of ranking these keywords. 

7. Optimize your Website Speed 

When discussing SEO for new websites, page speed is essential. It is one of those factors that improve user experience on your Website, and it is also a ranking on Google’s SERP. 

When it comes to improving speed, there are different tactics, but the most important is selecting a reputable web hosting company when creating your Website. So doing, you will be making a good foundation for your Website from the beginning. 

Speed is essential. The world has moved to 4g networks and is moving to 5g now. It tells you how much the world is taking cognizance of speed. If it takes more than 3 seconds for your Website to load, the bounce rate is around 32 per cent. If it takes more than 6 seconds, the bounce rate is about 123 per cent. The chart below shows the bounce rate against speed. 

To check your Website speed and improve it, Google has created a free too called page speed insight. It gives you n insight into how your Website or page is performing based on accurate data. Top of it is the recommendation on how to improve your Website’s speed. 

8. Set up Analytics Tools 

 A good understanding of how well your Website is doing is essential. The easiest way out is using Googles Analytics – a free tool – to analyze the performance of your Website. It will track the performance of visitors and analyze their behavioural patterns. There is a lot of insights you will gain from your Website analytics.

Google Analytics will help you understand the source of traffic, conversion and lots more. 

9. Setup Google Search Console

Google search console is a free tool from Google for web admins, while bing has a similar tool called Bing webmaster tools. They are meant to help web admins measure their website performance and troubleshoot and maintain your content presence on both Google and Bing, respectively. 

These tools are good tools when it comes to SEO for new Websites. It will help you track the position of your content. To take advantage of both of them, you will need to sign up on the tools and verify your ownership of the websites. It usually involves adding some lines of codes to your Website. If you are like me, who does not like coding, you don’t have to worry, it is straightforward, and the platforms will work you through it. 

10. Submit Site Map for Indexing 

When it comes to SEO for new websites, you must submit your sitemap to Google for indexing. It will help google’s bot to crawl your Website efficiently. It is your way of telling Google that you have just created a website and inviting their bots to crawl your new Website. 

Worth noting is that Google can discover your site naturally, but that will take time. The best SEO strategy for a new website is to submit a site map manually via your Google Search Console. 

11. Create internal links within your Website.

The easiest way to tell Google what your pages are about is via internal linking. When it comes to SEO for new websites, you must use the power of internal links. They will point search engine bolts to your content and point readers to other relevant content within your Website. 

It is your ticket to reducing your bounce rate. Bounce rate refers to users who land on one page and exit without visiting other pages. If you learn to use internal links appropriately, you will reduce your bounce rate, increase your engagement and increase your conversion. 

12. Optimize your Content 

Each page on your Website contains articles; they are generally referred to as content. I advise that your articles should not be less than 800 words. My target word count for SEO purposes is usually 1,500 words. Apart from the word count, ensure they are human-friendly content create relevant links within the range, both internal and external links. 

The key is creating value. Have it at the back of your mind that the article’s essence or any form of content is to create value. Google loves user-focused content; they naturally meet the EAT (Expertise, Authority, and trustworthiness) standard. 

In conclusion, SEO is not rocket science, and it is not cast on stones. It takes a lot of testing to get it right. But if you follow the twelve key points above and set up SEO for your new Website, your content will become easily visible.

To get it right with your new Website, you have to approach SEO with the right mindset and tactics proactively. That way, your Website will become easily visible. 

However, there is a need to learn the tactics and the acts of search engine optimization. I highly recommend the online entrepreneur certification at the Wealthy Affiliate.

It is an in-depth course on Starting an online business. You will learn SEO, but you will also learn how to start a website, create SEO relevant content, and drive traffic to and monetize your content. On top of that, you can join for free. Apart from the training, you will gain access to over 100,000 bloggers ready to share their experiences.