Building a brand-new website involves several essential steps. If you’d like Google to see, acknowledge, and reward your online presence, it’s crucial to implement search engine optimisation (SEO) practices. From in-depth keyword research and on-page optimisation to concise domain names and internal linking, every piece of the puzzle helps! Even the smallest of actions can make a huge difference when trying to please the Google gods.

While your website may look aesthetically pleasing on the outside, it’s vital to ensure that everything behind the curtain is functional and well-maintained. SEO prioritises more than just increased visibility and organic traffic; it also promotes better user experience, cost-effectiveness, long-term results, and one of the most important benefits: higher credibility and trust.

Whether you choose to optimise your website yourself or choose to work with SEO experts for guidance, here are some of the top benefits of implementing SEO:

Benefits of Implementing SEO Practices  

• Increased organic traffic
• Improved user experience
• Boosted conversion rates with qualified leads
• Improved credibility and trust
• Lower marketing cost compared to traditional methods
• Long-term results
• Competitive edge
• Tracked and measured results

Read on to discover the Top 14 Essential Steps for building a new website:

1) Choose a Relevant and Concise Domain Name 

Selecting a domain name that reflects your brand is important. Aim to keep it concise, memorable, and easy to spell. Avoiding complicated domain names is wise to minimise any user confusion or lack of trust.

Your domain name shouldn’t be taken for granted. Like a tattoo, you will be stuck with it for a long time, so make sure it’s catchy and properly communicates what your brand stands for and offers.

Consider the following:

• Reflect brand identity
• Keep it concise and memorable

2) In-Depth Keyword Research 

Conducting thorough keyword research is a fundamental aspect of SEO that involves identifying the specific words and phrases that users enter into search engines when looking for information, products, or services related to your niche.

It’s crucial to understand your brand and target audience when conducting this research to better steer your efforts. Other key factors include:

Understanding User Intent

Keyword research helps you to learn about users’ intent when they search online for a product or service. By identifying the keywords and phrases commonly used by your target audience, you can better understand their needs and preferences.

Discovering Relevant Topics 

Conducting keyword research allows you to uncover relevant topics and themes that resonate with your audience. By identifying popular keywords related to your niche, you can generate ideas for content that addresses specific user queries and provides value to your audience.

Assessing Search Volume and Competition

Online tools can provide valuable data on search volume and competition for specific keywords. By analysing this data, you can prioritise keywords with decent search volume and relatively low competition, allowing you to target terms that offer the best opportunity for ranking and attracting organic traffic.

It’s also important to note that higher search volume doesn’t always equate to better results. For instance, if you provide a specialised service and target a specific keyword with 30 searches, it might be more beneficial than targeting a less relevant keyword with 1000 searches.

3) Know Your Competitors

Identify your main competitors in the online space and analyse their SEO strategies. Understand their strengths and weaknesses, keywords they’re targeting, and backlink profiles. This information can help you refine your own SEO strategy and find opportunities to differentiate yourself.

Please note that while you may have physical, brick-and-mortar competitors, there may be several online that you’re not yet aware of, so ensure you conduct proper research.

4) Site Structure and Architecture

Design a clear and intuitive site structure that makes it easy for users and search engines to navigate. Organise your content into categories and subcategories, and use internal linking to establish a hierarchy.

5) On-Page Optimisation

Optimise your website’s on-page elements, including title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and URL structures. Incorporate your target keywords naturally and strategically into these elements.

A few tips include:

• Meta Descriptions: Stick to 160 characters or under.
• URL Structures: Use descriptive, concise, and user-friendly URLs that reflect the content of each page.

6) High-Quality Content

Create high-quality, relevant, and engaging content for your audience to provide more value. Focus on solving their problems, answering their queries, or fulfilling their needs.

7) Mobile Optimisation

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. With the majority of internet users accessing the web through mobile devices, having a responsive design is crucial for SEO.

8) Site Speed

Improve your website’s loading speed. Users and search engines prefer fast-loading websites. Use tools that can help you to identify the issues and fix them.

9) Optimise Images

Compress images to reduce the size of the file without compromising on quality. Use descriptive filenames and alt tags to optimise images for search engines.

10) Internal Linking

Create a logical internal linking structure to help search engines discover and index your pages. Link relevant pages together with the help of a descriptive anchor text.

11) External Link Building

Build high-quality backlinks. Focus on earning natural links through content creation, outreach, and networking. This will assist in growing your Trust Flow and Citation Flow.

12) Set Up Proper Tools

Utilise tools that can provide valuable insights into your website’s performance, traffic sources, keyword rankings, and more.

Try not to use the same tool for everything as it might not go into that much detail that is needed to build a website with strong foundation. Use analytics tools to monitor the performance of your website and complement it with other tools to understand the bigger picture and compare your performance to your competitors.

13) Promote Your Website

Leverage various channels to promote your website and attract visitors. This includes social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, influencer outreach, and online advertising. The more visibility your website gets, the more likely it is to attract organic traffic and backlinks.

14) Audit the Site

Conduct regular site audits to identify and fix any technical issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, crawl errors, and page speed issues. Addressing these issues improves user experience and ensures search engines can crawl and index your site effectively.

Building a new website is an exciting venture. However, if you wish to boost your online presence and gain trust from both users and the Google gods, it’s essential to consider the above steps when implementing SEO practices. Even the smallest changes and updates can make a positive impact.

Does your business need to be visible to Search Engines?

SEO can help optimise and significantly enhance your business efforts to help you achieve long-term success. If you really want to boost your website traffic and attract quality leads, then consider investing in strategic SEO practices, from in-depth keyword research to quality content and local SEO.

Chat with the team at Mad Scientist.