Easy-to-understand SEO tips for a new website
So, you’ve decided to start a business and are working on a website, or you’re completely gutting your website and starting from scratch.
Creating a new website is no easy feat. You’re bringing together branding, web design, copywriting and imagery to create a website that will represent your business online and that your customers or clients will be used to buy from you or learn about you.
But there’s no point in having a website if no one can find you on Google. That’s where SEO comes in.
Starting a website from scratch means also starting SEO from scratch.
But don’t be intimidated.
New website SEO is easier than you think and allows you to start your SEO optimisation journey right from the very beginning and, most importantly, get it right the first time.
Why is it important to do SEO for a new website?
A few reasons. Firstly, SEO is one of the best ways to drive free traffic to your website.
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, so ensuring your website shows up on Google is an easy way to ensure you get visitors.
While you’re trying to grow your brand awareness, showing up for the products and services you sell is super important so you can start getting sales and enquiries.
Secondly, because your brand is so new, you’ll need to build trust with your audience. The easiest and best way to do this is to create a content hub. Content hubs house blogs that will help your audience identify and solve problems, all while building your authority and trust in their eyes.
Thirdly, SEO can take time to work, usually months, but sometimes years if you’re in a competitive industry. By starting now, you’re giving your site the best chance of ranking in the future.
What is the best website platform for SEO?
If you’ve heard that a particular website platform is best for SEO, forget what you’ve heard.
The reason many think that WordPress is best for SEO is that WordPress allows you to customise the back end of your website more easily, which is especially handy for technical SEO-gifted people.
This was great when there wasn’t a wide range of website CMS platforms around. But in the last ten years, we’ve come a long way.
For the average business, the website platforms available now don’t need their back end touched and are pretty well set up for basic SEO best-practice.
But remember, it’s not enough to optimise your website. You need to know why you’re doing it.
Ultimately, the best website for your business depends on your specific needs and goals. However, some popular options for SEO-friendly platforms include the following:
WordPress
Shopify
Wix
Squarespace
Magento
These platforms offer a range of SEO features and plugins, making it easier for you to optimise your website for search engines. Choosing a platform that is easy for you to use and offers the features you need to optimise your website for SEO effectively is important.
How can SEO help you BEFORE you build your website?
Don’t wait to hire an SEO specialist once your website has been built because we can help you even before your build gets underway.
Here’s how:
Keyword research
Understanding what keywords your target audience is searching for and incorporating those keywords into your website's content and meta tags can improve search engine visibility. It can also help with naming products and services by showing your target customers' word choices when searching for them. Give keyword research to your copywriter to ensure your website copy is tailored to your target keywords.
Website structure
Planning a website structure that is organised, easy to navigate, and optimised for search engines can improve the overall SEO of the website. This will give your web developer or designer a better idea of how big your project will be, leading to a more accurate quote from them!
Competitor analysis
Examining the SEO strategies of your competitors can give insights into what is working in your industry and inform your own SEO strategy. You’ll be able to plan the layout of your site and what content to include.
Content creation
Creating valuable, relevant, and keyword-optimised content for your website can attract visitors, improve search engine rankings, and increase engagement. While you wait to rank for more popular keywords, creating blogs to be uploaded to your website gives Google more content to crawl and can help you rank more quickly for longer-tail keywords.
By considering SEO before building a website, you can ensure that your website will be optimised for search engines from the start, improving your chances of attracting and retaining customers.
How to optimise a brand new website
You’ve hit the ‘live’ button, shared your new website on social media and are now waiting for the sales and enquiries to start rolling in!
But that’s probably not going to happen straight away.
You’ll need to optimise your new website so you can start showing up on Google. After all, that’s where most people go to find solutions to their problems.
Here’s what you’ll need to do to optimise your new website.
Target the right keywords with the right content
Write click-worthy title tags and meta descriptions
Create an informative and valuable blog
Monitor your site speed and other technical factors
Submit your website to Google Search Console
Review your analytics data
Target the right keywords with the right content
Ranking on Google for keywords related to your products and services is essential, especially when you’re trying to build brand awareness.
You’ve done the first part by building a website, but if you don’t have the right keywords on your site, it’s unlikely you’ll be found.
Choosing the right keywords is crucial because it helps determine the target audience for your website. You can target specific audiences by understanding the keywords they use when searching. This helps you increase your online visibility and will more likely get your website clicks when you rank higher.
Only finding zero search volume keywords?
It’s also great for brand awareness to show up for keywords you want to be known for.
However, ranking is not the be-all and end-all of SEO.
Once someone is on your website, how do you get them to engage with your content?
Matching keyword intent with your website content can increase engagement and conversions. Using keywords to understand the content people are searching for means you’re more likely to create content that matches your audience’s intent. After all, if someone is looking for informational content but is sent to a sales page, they’re less likely to stick around.
Keyword research can be done using tools like Keywords Everywhere, SEMrush or simply by typing words into Google and seeing what suggested search terms come up.
Keywords are the foundation of any good SEO strategy, so it’s important to pick the right ones from the start. The best way to do this is to get an experienced SEO specialist to perform keyword research.
Write click-worthy title tags and meta descriptions
It’s all well and good showing up for the right keywords, but that’s only half the battle. You still need them to click on your result. Your title tags and meta descriptions must be well-written, click-worthy and optimised.
Here’s how to write a great title tag
Keep the title tag concise: Title tags should be no longer than 60 characters, including spaces, to ensure they display fully in search engine results. Anything longer gets cut off and looks messy.
Make it clear and descriptive: The title tag should accurately reflect the page's content and provide a clear and concise description of what the user can expect to find on the page.
Include keywords: Including relevant keywords in the title tag can help improve the page's search engine ranking. Keep your target keyword as close to the front of the title tag as possible.
Add your USPs: If you have leftover space in your title tag, don’t be afraid to add a USP to encourage a user to click. This could be anything from a descriptive word like “Experienced” or “Boutique” to a business feature like “Free Shipping And Returns”
Add your business name: It’s important to have your business name in the title tag (although less important for blog pages) to raise brand awareness. It should be at the end of the title tag and separated from the target keyword with a pipeline (|) or a dash (-). Long business names should be shortened to keep within the character limit.
Keep it unique: Every title tag should be uniquely written and tailored to the content on that page.
How to write a great meta description
Make the meta description unique: Each page on a website should have its own unique meta description that accurately reflects the content of that page.
Keep the meta description concise: Meta descriptions should be no longer than 155 characters, including spaces, to ensure they display fully in search engine results, so it’s important to have your most convincing copy at the start of the meta.
Make it compelling: The meta description should entice users to click through to the page by providing a clear and compelling description of what the user can expect to find on the page. Think of it like ad copy and ask yourself if your meta description is enough to encourage someone to click on your search result over a competitor.
Avoid duplication: Meta descriptions should be unique and not duplicated across multiple pages on a website.
Monitor results: Regularly monitoring the performance of title tags and meta descriptions can help identify any areas for improvement and ensure that they are optimised for maximum impact.
An example of a well-written title tag and meta description
An example of a bag title tag & meta description
Our favourite tool for writing title tags and meta descriptions is SERP Simulator. It shows you what your search result will look like on mobile, desktop, and even in different countries.
Create an informative and valuable blog
While a blog seems like the last thing you want to do after launching a new website, it can really help your SEO and your conversion rate.
There are several reasons why launching a blog at the same time you launch your website is a good idea.
It positions you as an authority in your space
It builds trust with potential customers
It gives people a reason to come back to your site
It allows you to “sell” in a more gentle way
Customers who engage with content usually have higher conversion rates than those who don’t.
Blogs can significantly improve your SEO results. Writing blogs related to your products and services gets more relevant keywords on your website without fear of keyword stuffing. Internal linking from blogs to other pages on your site makes crawling easier for Google Bots and gives more context to your site structure and how the content relates to one another.
Plus, regular blogs also give Google Bot a reason to come back and crawl your site, and the more it crawls, the more it understands it and the more likely it is to rank you higher in search results.
But don’t just blog about anything!
Blogging should be part of a clear content strategy because otherwise, it wastes time. You should be considering the buyer's journey in your blogs and creating blogs that are SEO-optimised and interesting to read.
No more obviously-for-SEO articles like “The five benefits of X”. There is so much content on the internet, and you need to stand out with entertaining content that is also informative.
Download our free eBook
How to create a blog that people actually want to read
Stop people scrolling past your blogs and start making them work hard for your business. Goodbye, boring blogs!
Monitor your site speed and other technical factors
It’s not just on-page SEO you should worry about. Technical SEO is just as important, and once it’s done right, it doesn’t usually need to be constantly worked on.
Some of the most important technical SEO factors to consider include
Crawlability: Ensure that the website is crawlable by search engines by using a robots.txt file and XML sitemaps.
URL structure: Make sure that the URL structure is clean and concise, using keywords and meaningful descriptive text.
Page load speed: Optimise page load speed by reducing image file sizes, minifying code, and using a fast hosting service. A slow-loading website can result in a lower search engine ranking, reducing the visibility and potential traffic to the site. Google wants to give customers the best experience, and a slow-loading site is absolutely not one! Use Google’s Page Speed Insights to check your desktop and mobile speed.
Mobile optimisation: Ensure that the website is optimised for mobile devices by using a responsive design and testing for mobile usability. This is super important, given Google has moved to mobile-first indexing.
Schema markup: Implement schema markup to help search engines understand the content on the website and display it in rich snippets in search results.
HTTPS encryption: Use HTTPS encryption to secure the website and improve search engine rankings.
Internal linking: Use internal linking to help search engines understand the structure of the website and the relationships between pages.
Image optimisation: Optimise images by using descriptive file names and alt tags and compressing image files to reduce their size. TinyPNG is great for reducing image sizes.
Sitemap: Submit a sitemap to search engines to help them understand the website's structure and index the pages more effectively.
If you’ve previously used your domain, you may have broken links if you’ve completely changed the structure of your site. Broken links are a terrible user experience and stop Google Bots from easily crawling your site. Test all the links on your site and use a tool like Screaming Frog to see whether there are broken links.
If your website has lots of 404 pages, you’ll need to add a redirect. Several different types of redirects can be used for different purposes. Some of the most common types of redirects include
301 Redirect: A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, indicating that the page has moved permanently to a new location. It is used when a page is permanently removed or has a new URL. This will be the most helpful when you’ve changed your site structure.
302 Redirect: A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect, indicating that the page has temporarily moved to a new location. It is used when a page has been temporarily removed or has a temporary URL.
307 Redirect: A 307 redirect is a temporary redirect, similar to a 302 redirect, but it is a newer HTTP status code that provides more accurate information about the nature of the redirect.
Our 404 page - customise yours to give users a path out of the page and it’s a good idea to add some humour!
It is important to implement redirects properly to ensure that search engines and visitors are directed to the correct page and to avoid negative impacts on SEO and user experience.
Submit your website to Google Search Console
This is what you want to see when you look at your URLs in Google Search Console
Submitting a new website to Google Search Console is crucial for your website's visibility and ranking in search results. You can monitor and maintain your website's presence in Google search results, including submitting sitemaps and seeing an overview of the keywords bringing people to your site. Google Search Console also provides important data and insights such as click-through rates, average position, and search queries, which can inform search engine optimisation strategies. It also alerts you of any potential security issues or crawl errors, allowing them to address and fix them promptly, ensuring a better user experience for visitors.
How to submit your website to Google Search Console
Create a Google Search Console account: If you don't already have one, sign up for a Google Search Console account and add your website.
Verify ownership of your website: You need to verify that you own the website you want to submit for crawling. Google provides various methods to verify ownership, including HTML file upload, DNS TXT record, and Google Analytics.
Add a sitemap: A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages of your website that you want to be crawled by search engines. It helps search engines understand the structure of your site and find all its pages.
Submit your sitemap: Once you have added it, go to the Sitemaps section of the Google Search Console and submit it.
Monitor crawl status: After submitting your sitemap, you can monitor the crawl status in the Crawl section of the Google Search Console. This will show you the number of pages crawled and any crawl errors that need to be fixed.
Fix crawl errors: If there are any crawl errors, fix them as soon as possible to ensure that your site is easily discoverable by search engines.
Repeat steps 4 to 6: Regularly submitting your sitemap and monitoring crawl status will ensure that Google has up-to-date information about your site, which will help it rank better in search results.
Review your analytics data
There’s no point burying your head in the sand regarding your website. Reviewing your website data monthly (at a minimum) can actually help you discover ways to improve your site traffic and online visibility.
At a minimum, you should have Google Search Console, and Google Analytics set up and should be looking at the following
Google Analytics
Traffic channels - where is your traffic coming from?
Site content - what are the most visited pages on your site?
Bounce rate - how many people are coming to your page and leaving without action?
Time on page - how long are people spending on your pages?
Conversions - how many products are you selling/people booking in/converting?
Conversion rate - what is the percentage of people coming to your website and then converting?
Google Search Console
Impressions - how many times your site shows up in the search results?
Clicks - how many times are people clicking on your site in the search results?
CTR - what is the percentage of people clicking through divided by impressions?
Average position - what is the average position of your site in Google based on keywords it appears for?
Other metrics you can review
Rankings - how many keywords does your site rank for? Are the keywords relevant? What position are you appearing for those keywords? What is the percentage of branded vs generic keywords?
Backlinks - how many websites are linking back to yours?
While reviewing metrics is important, don’t become too obsessed over every single metric. It’s best to take an overall look at your analytics and keep the context in mind when looking at individual metrics.
But what about link building?
In my opinion, link building is not a priority when launching a new website unless you know you’re in an ultra-competitive space and you have the time and resources to do it. I find that a lot of small business owners worry about backlinks because they’ve heard some SEO guru say it’s the be-all and end-all, but honestly, a lot of websites don’t actually need to be consistently acquiring backlinks; They can get by with a well-optimised, technically sound website and great blog content.
That said, link building can be a great way to build authority and get more brand awareness, so if you’re going to do it, I would focus on writing guest blogs or collaborating with other small business owners with similar audiences and pitching opinion editorials to publications rather than investing in spammy link building to try and acquire as many as possible.
Investing in a new website? Invest in SEO done by a boutique SEO agency!
If you’ve taken the time to get copywriting, professional photos and a web designer to create the website of your [business’s] dreams, then SEO is the missing piece. After all, your website and business deserve to be found by the people that need you. When you want to get set up for website growth or need help with an existing website that isn’t getting much traffic, get in touch with Sunday Best Digital. Our keyword research, SEO audit and SEO strategy services in Melbourne are all designed to help small business owners grow their online presence sustainably and ethically.
