sel logo
Search Engine Land » SEO »
Launching a new website is one of the more exciting projects for a company. And during these projects, everyone involved obsesses over the smallest details as if their lives depended on it.
The colors, the logos, the fonts, the pictures – no stone is left unturned, except the stone that has SEO underneath it. Often, SEO is the team not allowed in the room.
After the big launch, everyone expects traffic to appear magically. When it doesn’t, they have to spend more money fixing an SEO problem.
Building SEO from the ground up in a website is less expensive and gets results faster compared to trying to bolt it on as an afterthought.
This article will explain the three stages of a website launch and how SEO should play a part in each stage:
If your company is launching a new website and you want to advocate for SEO during the process, read on.
In the strategy phase, teams discuss how the website will look and function.
While others are debating about whether the website should have black and white or color photos, your job is to lay the foundation for SEO.
The best way to do that is through the following key tasks that will impact how designers and developers build the site:
Keyword research helps you align your website content with the queries that your target audience uses when they search for what you have to offer.
What role does this play in the new website?
The keyword research you do during the planning stage will impact what content shows up on the website at launch. For example, it can help build the navigation on the site and what the topics will be.
You will get a chance to engage the team during this phase by asking them questions to create your seed list of keywords, like:
You should have a nice list after exploring these questions (and possibly more). Then you must do the heavy lifting of refining that keyword list with the right SEO tools.
Once you have refined the list, you can see more clearly what the main navigation will look like. And I’ll touch on what to do with that next in SEO siloing.
SEO siloing helps to organize content and links on a website. Some of the goals of SEO siloing include:
With your keyword research, you can mock up a site architecture that will support those keywords with content.
How? I’ll use a fictional power tools website as an example of how you might architect a site using keyword research.
If you ran a power tools company that sold cordless power tools, electric power tools and gas-powered tools, then your keyword research would likely show that you want to go after key terms like “cordless power tools,” “electric power tools” and “gas-powered tools,” among others.
As you create the site navigation for the website’s designers and developers (yes, you should be involved in this!), you’d show how the site navigation and content will support those keywords.
Below is a graphic illustrating the landing pages and subpages to be developed on the power tools website. The pages will have content that supports the primary keywords.
SEO siloing takes things further and indicates how to link these pages.
As you move away from the strategy phase and enter into the build phase, the designers/developers create the site.
This is usually the longest phase of the website launch, and it’s another time when your job is to ensure everyone is thinking about SEO.
There are three primary areas of concern:
Many website designers and developers aren’t well-versed in SEO. So they can mistakenly build a site that works against a search engine’s ability to crawl and understand a website.
Not only that, but you could build pages that don’t offer the best user experience. And many website publishers want to keep Google’s page experience update in mind as they optimize their pages.
Before they start their work, make sure your designers/developers are on the same page with SEO-friendly web design.
Have discussions about how the website will:
The people building the site should keep the following SEO-friendly design principles in mind:
Google has information on many of these topics at Google for Developers.
Content is one of the most important SEO tasks in a website launch.
Google wants to rank the highest quality content in its search engines. And given that you are competing against millions of other websites, this part must count.
As the person advocating for SEO, you need to ensure each landing page and subpage is filled with quality, helpful content.
As you are creating the content, ask questions like:
For more, see Google’s:
Dig deeper. How to survive a Google core update and come out on top.
Once the pages are built and the content is in, the next step is to optimize every page to the best of your ability.
There is no one-size-fits-all checklist here, but some of the most important on-page tactics to consider are:
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
Processing…Please wait.
See terms.
It’s go time and the pressure is on.
The launch phase should go smoothly if everything was done well leading up to it. However, there are still some critical SEO tasks in the pre-launch and launch phases.
Before the site goes live, do the following tasks:
Launch day is an exciting time for everyone involved. In terms of SEO, this stage is all about monitoring and reacting accordingly.
Look for things like:
After launch, remember that SEO will never end – it will progress and change.
As long as you have competition, and as long as Google makes changes to Search, you will need an SEO strategy for your website.
With more competition now than ever in search results, building SEO into a new website from the ground up gives you a better chance to perform.
The sooner you can begin driving traffic, the better – every day counts as you work to get ahead of your competition.
If you are part of a website launch team, ensure everyone thinks about SEO at every stage, including the strategy, build and launch phases, by following the guidance in this article.
Dig deeper: SEO during website development and post-launch: Key considerations
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
Related stories
New on Search Engine Land
About the author
Related topics
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
See terms.
Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.
March 15-16, 2023: SMX Munich
Online Aug. 16-17: SMX Master Classes
Online Nov. 14-15: SMX Next
Start training now: SMX Advanced
Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.
April 15-17, 2020: San Jose
Become a Data Champion By Mastering Marketing Analytics Automation
Why Consent and Compliance Matter With Programmatic Ads
From Zero to Hero: Apply Pillar-Based Marketing to Your SEO and Digital Campaigns to Drive Revenue
Enterprise Marketing Attribution and Performance Management Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
Enterprise Account-Based Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
Enterprise Marketing Work Management Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
The Content Marketer’s Funnel
Meet your new AI-powered marketing assistant!
Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.
Topics
Our events
About
Follow us
© 2023 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Third Door Media, Inc. is a publisher and marketing solutions provider incorporated in Delaware, USA, with an address 88 Schoolhouse Road, PO Box 3103, Edgartown, MA 02539. Third Door Media operates business-to-business media properties and produces events. It is the publisher of Search Engine Land the leading Search Engine Optimization digital publication.
