The 7 Simple Steps From Semalt To Set Up A Website With High SEO Potential
As the owner of a new website, you definitely want it to be noticed quickly and start attracting traffic. However, it may take some time for a new site to appear in search results, much less before it scores high in the SERP list. Changing search trends, growing industries, and frequent technological changes and updates to Google algorithms can make it difficult for new domains to gain an edge. So how to create a website that will have great potential and will allow you to quickly implement an effective SEO strategy? We invite you to read on to learn more about this subject!
1. Plan your site architecture
Even a small website with several pages requires logical architecture. Most sites have a pyramid structure that starts with the home page at the very top. Below are the most important subpages that should be easy to find using the navigation bar. At the very bottom, there are subcategories, individual product pages or articles.
A solid, logical structure helps Google understand where the most valuable content is on a given site. This, in turn, enables Google bots to index the page quickly. A well-thought-out architecture also prevents similar parties from competing with each other. The more relevant pages should be placed higher in the pyramid. Thanks to this, they will be indexed first and will occupy higher positions in the search results. In addition, a clean and organized structure will make it easier for visitors to find what they need and thus provide a positive user experience. It is said that positioning should start with UX (user experience) and the appropriate website design. We fully agree with that!
This is called the SXO approach!
You can make your site structure even clearer by placing navigation menus or clickable links at the top of the page. This allows users to see where they are currently on your site. Doing so will also help search engines to better understand the content of the website. Google's crawler bots take your page's menu and use it to define categories and subcategories, as well as to find new URLs for crawling. The easier it is to find new links, the sooner your site will be placed in the search engine.
2. Choose a good domain name
Your website's domain name and homepage URL may seem insignificant, however, they actually help search engines find out what the page is about. Choose a name that your customers can easily remember. While it may be tempting to include a large number of keywords in your domain name, we don't recommend doing this. Not only does this make it harder to remember your website URL, but it can actually lead to a negative impact on your ranking. The practice of using a specific keyword as an SEO domain is largely useless these days.
Domain history
Before placing an order for a free domain, check its history. It is not always that a free domain is completely new at the same time. Poor quality of the purchased domain or the fact that it was previously "punished" by Google can have a very negative impact on subsequent SEO activities. It's best to verify your domain in the following three steps:
- Check that the domain is new. This can be verified the fastest in the online archive. After indicating the domain name, you will receive information about the previous website registration dates. After selecting a specific date, you can see what content was on the site on that date. Thanks to this, you will find out if the previous content on the website will be appropriate for your business profile.
- Indexed URLs. In the next step, it is worth checking if the search engine has no remnants of previously indexed content from the domain you are interested in. If there is no content on Google at the address of the specified domain, a message will appear on the screen.
- Link facilities. This step only applies to the purchase of domains that have already been registered. To make sure that the website is properly prepared for SEO, it is worth checking if any links are leading to the page. This can be checked with the command link: domain name. If the links leading to the domain are of good quality, you should consider purchasing it. Otherwise, we advise against choosing such a domain.
3. Choose the right web host
Does hosting affect SEO? The short answer to this question is yes. The wrong choice can negatively affect SEO performance. Therefore, before purchasing a server, it is worth considering the following issues:
- Server location: make sure the web host server is in the same country as your site to avoid traffic loss due to the geographic location of the new host.
- Server quality: look for a web host that offers top quality hosting services. If you choose a host whose servers are crowded and therefore generate a lot of downtimes, your SEO ranking may suffer.
- Server speed: most website owners try to keep their pages as fast as possible. One of the determinants of website loading speed is hosting. If your hosting slows down, the page itself takes longer than 4 seconds to load, which will be a signal for Google to lower your SERP rank. This is especially true for mobile searches, which now account for more than half of all internet searches.
4. Analyze keywords and key phrases
It is worth doing keyword research before developing and adding content to your website, to avoid later changes when SEO activities begin. Nobody knows your company, your products or services better than you do. Therefore, we recommend that you create a list of terms that best describe the content you want to present on your new website before creating your website. Think like a potential customer using Google looking for a product or an answer to an intriguing question.
Try to enter some of the basic keywords in the search bar and see what autocomplete suggestions Google is giving you. Defining your keywords early will help you rank your new site faster. There are many SEO tools, such as the Dedicated SEO Dashboard, that help you choose keywords based on what users are searching for or information about your competitors' activities. Use this data to decide which keywords you want to use on your new website.
5. Create relevant content
Apart from keywords, the content of your web pages is another important aspect of building your website. The content can be any type of words used on the website, images, audio clips and any kind of content that contains information about the company. The content suitable for SEO should be unique, valuable and diverse, in other words - high quality.
In the fight for high positions in search results, the amount of content on the page is also important. The more, the greater the chance that any of the words used will appear in the search results. However, nothing by force. The quality of your content should be your top priority. If users do not find valuable or necessary information on the website, they will quickly leave it, which will harm its position in the search results.
6. Design the website to be mobile-friendly
Nowadays, mobile-friendly websites matter more than ever. More and more people use them to search the web, as this method is sometimes faster and more convenient than starting a laptop each time. For this reason, it's a good idea to make your website mobile-friendly and easy to view and navigate with their help.
Already at the Mobile World Congress in 2010, Eric Schmidt, the then CEO of Google, said that designers working on websites should follow the principle of "mobile-first". This means that with any website, it is the mobile version (not the desktop version) that plays the first fiddle. The mobile-first indexing policy has been developing dynamically since that time and since March 2021 it applies to all websites appearing on Google. And since from that moment bots are indexing the mobile version, not the desktop version, you should take care of creating a fully responsive mobile website with content and functionality equal to the desktop version.
7. Website code optimization for SEO
When we think about search engine optimization of a website, keywords, content and link building come to mind first. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, because, in the end, it is the content of the page that is the most important ranking factor. However, you cannot forget about the other, no less important, issues that affect SEO. One of them is the site code.
When starting work on a new website, it is worth remembering that not only users will be browsing it, but also Google indexing bots. Even though these algorithms are constantly updated and improved, they are not always able to decide whether the content on the website is appropriate. Especially when it just showed up. On the other hand, indexing robots are really effective in analyzing the code and judging whether a given page has been built in the right way.
Content management systems (CMS) very often insert unnecessary pieces of code into the script, which do not serve any purpose, but actually make the source code look very "sloppy". If you are using a CMS such as WordPress to create your site, make sure that the HTML code is in order before publishing.
Having clean HTML helps to improve your website's rankings on the SERP. Clean and structured HTML makes it easier for Google bots to find and index your webpages. It also makes it easier for them to navigate between pages on your site. Search engines analyze text, keywords, alt attributes, links, and link titles or tags. If you take care of the HTML code from the very beginning, you will avoid the costly and very time-consuming redesign of the website when you decide to implement SEO activities.
Summary: the site is perfect for SEO
If you are just building or planning to start a new website, we hope that the above tips will be helpful and will allow you to create a website with great SEO potential. This way, once you start your SEO efforts, you'll be on your way to generating more traffic and occupying higher rankings.
Is there anything more that can be done to better prepare the new website for future SEO activities? Of course, but the issues we have described are a very good starting point. If you want to learn more about SEO, please follow our blog, where we regularly publish new articles.
However, if you need help in preparing a new website for positioning, please contact us. Our specialists will be happy to provide you with useful tips or optimize the website for you so that it is fully ready for effective SEO.