How to Create An SEO Blueprint for A New Website

Author: Maciej Grzymkowski, Content Writer

Getting started with your own, brand new website is not an easy task, especially without a prior significant online following. With the right strategy and careful planning, you can build a site that ranks high on search engines and attracts plenty of organic visitors. 

With so many ranking factors to take into consideration, it can be easy to get lost in where to start. This guide will help you devise a sound new website SEO strategy and point you towards the things you should prioritise the most. 

Why is SEO Valuable for New Sites? 

A well-optimised website is easier to find on search engines, thus getting more eyeballs on your brand. This is why SEO should be high on your list of marketing priorities as you gear up to launch your website.

What can SEO do for you, business-wise? For starters, it can significantly lower your customer acquisition costs – if people can find you by simply Googling whatever it is they’re in the market for, it will free up much of the budget that would otherwise go to your outreach, sales, and marketing efforts. 

SEO can also help you increase your online brand visibility and awareness. In the case of eCommerce businesses, that can directly translate into higher sales numbers.

Best of all, implementing SEO for new website owners is one of the most inexpensive ways to attract interest around your brand. With a bit of time and effort, you can set up a good SEO blueprint in just a couple of days. 

Our 12 Step Process to Creating An SEO Blueprint

You don’t have to be a digital marketing expert to get your new website SEO in order. By following these twelve tips below, you’ll make significant steps towards getting ahead of your competitors with poorly optimised websites. 

Choose The Right Domain Name 

Be mindful when choosing your domain name, as it can truly make or break a website. 

Your domain name should be short, catchy and easy to remember, so that visitors will associate it with your brand even long after they leave your website. 

It should relate to your industry, but don’t make it too on-the-nose. 

Skyscanner is a great example. Today, the name is synonymous with looking up cheap flights. If the domain was something along the lines of “bestflightcomparisons.com,” would it still be as successful?

Acronyms are also effective. Sites like IGN or TED are instantly recognisable, and you can easily access them as soon as you open your browser. 

Once you decide on your domain name, you need to check if it’s available. 

Use Namecheap or Google Domains to look it up in a matter of seconds. 

Choose a Fast and Reliable Web Hosting Provider 

Unless you’re planning on setting up your own server, the next step is to find a secure, trustworthy hosting provider. 

Web hosting affects SEO in a whole myriad of ways, as it can influence your site’s speed, security, and even reputation. 

When you browse through your hosting options, be mindful of the following: 

• Support: you’ll need to be able to reach your hosting provider whenever any issues arise with your website, so 24/7 customer support is a must-have. 

• Security: if a potential hosting provider doesn’t come with a free SSL/TLS certificate, don’t bother with them, regardless how attractive the pricing. Unsecured websites won’t rank high on Google. A lack of certificates is also a red flag for most users. 
• Server location: look for a host with servers in the country where most of your traffic will come from, as server location affects the speed of your website, a crucial ranking factor. 

There are a number of hosting services available online. Before you make the final decision, you should read through online reviews and other users’ opinions on sites like Reddit. 

Set Up Google Analytics & Google Search Console 

Google Search Console (GSC) will allow you to identify any major technical errors on your site, identify underperforming pages, submit sitemaps, and a lot more. Setting it up is quite easy: 

1. Log into the GSC with your Google Account. 
2. As the property type, select Domain and then enter your domain name. 
3. Then, you’ll need to verify your ownership of the site. There are a few different ways to do it, and Google will provide you with instructions for each one. This is what it looks like in the case of TXT verification:

4. Once your ownership is verified, you can start using the GSC right away! 

When it comes to Google Analytics, the process is a bit longer, but equally straightforward. This time, Google will guide you through all of the steps, starting with account and property creation, all the way through to setting up your business objectives.

Create a Logical Site Structure 

Without a coherent and logical site structure, search engine crawlers won’t be able to effectively go through your website and index all of the pages. 

Sketch out the structure before you actually start building each page in order to have a clear outline to follow. 

A pre-created structure will help you interlink your pages in a way that makes sense. With internal links, you will be able to connect all of your pages so that none of them are further than three clicks away from each other, a good SEO practice that will make your website easier to navigate for both users and web crawlers alike. 

Choose a Logical URL Structure 

Once you get to creating the different pages on your website, make sure that you also optimise your URL slugs. 

These are the parts of the URL that come after your domain name.

They should be concise and descriptive for each page, for example: www.mybusiness.com/store-locations. 

Study Your SEO Competition 

Unless your business is so unique that nobody else is offering products or services similar to yours, you’re going to have competitors who also try to rank for the same keywords. Take a look at the websites of your top competitors, and assess what they’ve done to rise up the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

In your SEO competitor analysis, pay particular attention to the following: 

• Backlink profiles 
• Search engine rankings 
• Content quality
• Keyword targeting 

By carefully analysing your competition, you’ll be able to identify opportunities for SEO improvements you can make to your own website 

Do Keyword Research & Create a URL Map 

Now you’re ready to move on to researching the keywords you want your website to rank for. This is where you identify what your target audience is searching for on Google, allowing you to cater your content to their particular needs. 

If you already have your site structure mapped out, you have a good idea of what your core pages will be about. Now, your job is to find the right keywords to match these topics. 

Using SEO tools such as Ahrefs or SEMRush is the best way to go about this. 

For instance, Ahrefs’ keyword generator can provide you with hundreds of keywords. All you’ve got to do is type in the product/service/subject of the specific page, and it will return dozens of popular keywords relating to that phrase. 

Let’s say you’re selling car tires and want to set up a page where potential customers can learn more about your products. Simply type in “car tires” into the keyword generator, and you’ll get a list of keyword ideas, like so:

Assign a primary keyword to each of your core pages in your URL map, and do the same for the remaining pages.

Create SEO Optimised Content 

Once you’ve decided on the target keywords for your core pages, it’s time to get down to SEO content creation. 

Populating a website with content optimised for SEO takes time, but it’s also an inseparable part of the whole process. When writing up your onsite content, keep in mind that optimising it is not only about including the right keywords. Here’s a rundown of what you should look out for: 

• Search intent: think about “why” people would be trying to find the page you’re creating. Knowing your searchers’ intent, you can create a page that caters to their specific needs. There are four main types of search intent: 
• • Informational: the user wants to learn more about a particular subject. Example: “who is Elon Musk.”
  • Commercial: they’re in the market for a product or service, but want to find out more about their options before deciding. Example: “best lawnmowers.” 
  • Transactional: the searcher knows what they want to buy, but is looking for the best place to get it. Example: “cheap gaming mouse.” 
  • Navigational: they’re looking for a specific website or page, but don’t know the URL. Example: “gmail login.” 
• Page titles: Just like your URL slug, the page titles on your website should be to-the-point and concise. A title that’s too long will not display correctly in the browser’s bar or SERPs. 
• Meta descriptions: This is a brief description of a given page that gets displayed on the SERP. If you don’t have a meta description, Google will find an applicable snippet in your content to display it. It should fall between 155-165 characters. 
• Headings: You should use descriptive subheadings to structure your content. There should be only one H1 per page (ideally with your target keyword in it), and the rest should be H2-H6. 

Create a Content Calendar 

It’s not enough to just create all the pre-planned pages for your website and call it a day. It should be updated regularly with content that supplements your core pages in order to stay relevant in your niche. 

Most businesses do it by running a blog, with posts going up every week (or more frequently). This is also good for establishing your website’s topical authority, conveying that you’re a reliable source of information within your niche. 

Create a content calendar to plan out your content ahead of time. Start a spreadsheet with all of your weekly content ideas, along with all of the targeted keywords. That way, you’ll be able to prepare your posts weeks in advance and not have to worry about coming up with new ideas on the fly. 

Make Sure It’s Technically Sound 

When focusing on keywords and delivering high quality content, you shouldn’t neglect your technical on-site SEO efforts. It is the support system of your entire website. 

Here are some of the things to pay attention to, among others: 

• Create an XML sitemap and a robots.txt file, both of which make it easier for web crawlers to access and index the right content on your website. 
• Ensure fast loading times of your pages – your web hosting plays a role in page speed, but it can also be impaired by large images or other multimedia.
• Use HTTPS over HTTP. The two protocols are nearly identical, with one crucial exception: HTTPS encrypts all requests and responses via SSL/TLS, keeping your site and its users secure. 
• The majority of website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you’re likely to miss out on a significant number of potential customers.  

Monitor Your SEO Performance

Keep a constant eye on all of your website’s crucial SEO metrics, such as the bounce rate, pageviews, or click through rate, just to name a few. 

You can do so via Google Analytics and the Google Search Console, but using third-party analytics webapps can come in handy, as well. 

Services such as Ahrefs or Semrush can provide you with valuable insights into how your site is performing vs. your competitors. They’re also powerful research tools you can use to see which keywords you rank for, and which ones you should be ranking for, among other things. 

Promote Your Website 

Even if you do everything right SEO-wise, it may take time for your website to get discovered organically. You need to do some promoting in order to get some initial viewers on your site. Start by sharing it among your family and friends, and them move on to: 

• Distributing links in online communities: join niche-relevant groups on platforms like Discord or Reddit, as well as popular social media sites, and share relevant blog posts and other content on there. 
• Promote your site via email: gather contacts from your niche groups, work associates, friends, and other people to send out potential future newsletters and website updates. Consider adding a sign-up window on your site so that people can add themselves to that list.
• Build a network of associated pages and creators: if you link to other, related articles or publications, reach out to them and spread the word about your new project. These associations might come in handy later down the road, and even lead to profitable collaboration opportunities as you expand your business. 

The Bottom Line  

So there you have it: our guide to creating an SEO blueprint for your brand new website. This is by no means the end-all, be-all solution that will guarantee your project the top spots in search results. Consider it to be more of a checklist of the absolutely essential things you need to incorporate into your digital marketing strategy if you want to be competitive in organic search. 

Remember: the road to achieving SEO success is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Long-term consistency and attention to detail are both crucial in this industry. You may be fighting an uphill battle at the beginning, but it does get easier once you get some traction. 

At SUSO Digital, we pride ourselves on helping businesses large and small rank better on search engines. Feel free to reach out to us if you need assistance in extending your website’s reach and visibility.