Can you actually do effective SEO on your new website before it is even launched? While your search engine optimization might not start to take effect until the website is live, there are lots of things you can do before your website is even finished to make sure you get the best ranking possible. Right now, before your website is up and running, and maybe even while the new website is in the development phase, is the perfect time to optimize that website. Here is an SEO strategy to follow that will help get you the best rankings possible.
Shorten your URLs and include keywords.
Before anyone has your new URLs, make sure they are as short, as memorable, and as keyword-rich as possible. A page on your website that has a URL like example.com/samples is going to look much more legitimate, be much easier to remember, and be more inviting to click on than a URL like example.com/page_id2/product_id2. Keeping your URLs as short as possible and with a keyword included will make the site more user friendly, which Google and search engines like it will always appreciate.
Keep your site navigation simple.
Before you launch your new website, make sure your site navigation is as simple and easy to understand as possible. Not only does this make your website better for the site visitors, it makes your website easier to crawl, which means you do not have to wait as long for Google to find and index all of the pages on your website. A silo structure is usually best, but in general, a simple structure, that is easy to follow and has lots of interconnected pages is the very best way to keep your site as user friendly and as search engine friendly as possible.
Make sure each page has a single purpose.
You do not want to try cram too much information onto a single page. This will make it difficult to rank any page for any specific keyword and will ensure that your site visitors have a very difficult time finding the information they are looking for. The last thing you want to do is make the life of your site visitors difficult. Take, for example, a website that is specifically designed for a dentist. While you could create a page that lists all of that dentist’s services, you could also create a separate page for each of those services. If you do the second, site visitors will be able to find exactly the information they want about the services they need. It will also bring more directed traffic to your website, which is more likely to result in a conversion.
Keep each page longer than three hundred words.
While there is no hard and fast rule that dictates how many words you should have on each page, your pages will rank better if they have at least three hundred words, with pages that have more than a thousand ranking even better. If you do not have enough to write about to fill three hundred words, you might actually be making your pages too targeted. Going back to the dentistry example, if the dentists offers two different types of implants, those could likely be included on the same page, under the umbrella of implants. Don’t just fill your pages with fluff if you cannot think of any more relevant information to include.
Do a link audit.
Even if you are keeping most of your old URLs on your new website, it is still worth your time to see if there are any links that need redirects or that need to be removed completely in order to ensure that your link profile is healthy.
You should be doing link audits regularly to make sure that you are only accumulating links from high quality sources and that they are actually boosting your SEO, but before your launch your new website is one of the best times to do an audit, just to make sure that as you move to the new website, there is nothing standing in the way of your rank.
Make sure you include a sitemap.
A sitemap is a vital part of any website, even if no site visitor actually views or uses that sitemap. Do not simply migrate the old sitemap over onto your new website and do not just neglect to have one created. Also, it is important to make sure that your sitemap uses the right protocol (if you are switching from HTTP to HTTPS, for example. This will dictate whether or not a search engine is capable of crawling the website.
Market your new website.
You are likely going to see a drop in rankings when you migrate an old site to a new website. The best way to increase your ranking, whether your website is just completely new or whether it has been migrated is to market it. Make sure to announce the new website over your social media, so people get excited and come and see what’s new and different!
Can you actually do effective SEO on your new website before it is even launched? While your search engine optimization might not start to take effect until the website is live, there are lots of things you can do before your website is even finished to make sure you get the best ranking possible. Right now, before your website is up and running, and maybe even while the new website is in the development phase, is the perfect time to optimize that website. Here is an SEO strategy to follow that will help get you the best rankings possible.
Shorten your URLs and include keywords.
Before anyone has your new URLs, make sure they are as short, as memorable, and as keyword-rich as possible. A page on your website that has a URL like example.com/samples is going to look much more legitimate, be much easier to remember, and be more inviting to click on than a URL like example.com/page_id2/product_id2. Keeping your URLs as short as possible and with a keyword included will make the site more user friendly, which Google and search engines like it will always appreciate.
Keep your site navigation simple.
Before you launch your new website, make sure your site navigation is as simple and easy to understand as possible. Not only does this make your website better for the site visitors, it makes your website easier to crawl, which means you do not have to wait as long for Google to find and index all of the pages on your website. A silo structure is usually best, but in general, a simple structure, that is easy to follow and has lots of interconnected pages is the very best way to keep your site as user friendly and as search engine friendly as possible.
Make sure each page has a single purpose.
You do not want to try cram too much information onto a single page. This will make it difficult to rank any page for any specific keyword and will ensure that your site visitors have a very difficult time finding the information they are looking for. The last thing you want to do is make the life of your site visitors difficult. Take, for example, a website that is specifically designed for a dentist. While you could create a page that lists all of that dentist’s services, you could also create a separate page for each of those services. If you do the second, site visitors will be able to find exactly the information they want about the services they need. It will also bring more directed traffic to your website, which is more likely to result in a conversion.
Keep each page longer than three hundred words.
While there is no hard and fast rule that dictates how many words you should have on each page, your pages will rank better if they have at least three hundred words, with pages that have more than a thousand ranking even better. If you do not have enough to write about to fill three hundred words, you might actually be making your pages too targeted. Going back to the dentistry example, if the dentists offers two different types of implants, those could likely be included on the same page, under the umbrella of implants. Don’t just fill your pages with fluff if you cannot think of any more relevant information to include.
Do a link audit.
Even if you are keeping most of your old URLs on your new website, it is still worth your time to see if there are any links that need redirects or that need to be removed completely in order to ensure that your link profile is healthy.
You should be doing link audits regularly to make sure that you are only accumulating links from high quality sources and that they are actually boosting your SEO, but before your launch your new website is one of the best times to do an audit, just to make sure that as you move to the new website, there is nothing standing in the way of your rank.
Make sure you include a sitemap.
A sitemap is a vital part of any website, even if no site visitor actually views or uses that sitemap. Do not simply migrate the old sitemap over onto your new website and do not just neglect to have one created. Also, it is important to make sure that your sitemap uses the right protocol (if you are switching from HTTP to HTTPS, for example. This will dictate whether or not a search engine is capable of crawling the website.
Market your new website.
You are likely going to see a drop in rankings when you migrate an old site to a new website. The best way to increase your ranking, whether your website is just completely new or whether it has been migrated is to market it. Make sure to announce the new website over your social media, so people get excited and come and see what’s new and different!