Bullseye Marketing Consultants SEO For A New Website Checklist
Whether you’ve been creating websites for years or you’re just setting up your very first site, you can benefit from being reminded of the proper way to do SEO for a new website. There are many people out there who make the mistake of doing the same things for both new and old websites. The thing is, search engines view new websites a bit differently. There are things you must avoid and some things you need to make you’ve done to your site in order to give it a good chance of ranking. Read on to learn more.
1. Meta Tags
Even longtime website builders make mistakes when it comes to optimizing their website’s meta tags. The information you put here are used by the search engines when displaying your site in the SERP. Remember to make your title tag approximately 55-65 characters. Also make sure your description tag is both informative and catchy to capture the interest of potential visitors. The first heading tag must also be in H1, while subsequent heading tags must be in H2, H3 and so on.
2. Word Count
The total number of words in your content depends on your intent, keyword and topic. In general, most content on the web requires at least 400 words. There are no set rules when it comes to this. Just make sure that you provide quality content to your visitors and that there are no duplicate content on your site.
3. Alt Attributes
Most beginners do not know that they can optimize the images on their website. This is also a good practice to help visually impaired visitors to understand what the images are. It is wise to include descriptions and even keywords in your images.
4. Dashes vs Underscores
Are you using underscores instead of dashes? Then better do the opposite. Underscores do not separate words; dashes do. Just do not overuse dashes or your URL could look spammy.
5. Site Map
You should submit an XML sitemap to search engines to make it easier for them to crawl your webpages. Your site should also have an HTML sitemap and every page of your site should link to it. This is essential SEO for a new website.
6. Privacy Page
It is a good practice to include a privacy statement on your website to let visitors know what you’re doing with the information you may be gathering from them. Also include an About Us and Contact Us page as these are necessary for every new website.
7. Internal Linking
Do not make the mistake of building too many backlinks to your website when it’s only a few days old. Instead, make sure that your inner pages are linked together. This is one of the most underrated methods in all of SEO.
8. Mobile Usability
There are now more internet users who use their mobile devices instead of desktop computers. It is a must that you use a responsive them to provide the best experience to your visitors, regardless of the device they are using. Mobile-friendly sites are becoming the norm as a factor in SEO for a new website.
9. Analytics Tool
There are plenty of analytics tool you can use to monitor your site’s numbers. There are free options—most notably Google Webmaster Tools—and paid ones that come with more advanced features.
10. Site Speed
Site speed is one of the factors search engines use when ranking websites. You should make sure that your site runs fast in order to give your users the best user experience.
As you can see, SEO for a new website can be overwhelming especially if you’re a beginner. That’s why we are here to help. Bullseye Marketing Consultants will help you set up and optimize your new website to make it rank high in the SERP and boost your conversions. Give us a call right now at 561-469-8640 and we will be happy to answer all your questions.