When creating a website from scratch it is very important to get the on-site SEO covered, as it will help you immensely when you do the actual SEO for it. Even if you take another road later on, you can still benefit from this “early bird” preparation if done right. Preparation is the better half of success, so let us prepare!

Who’s searching for what?

You most probably have some idea what you will be using your website for and an approximate one about what people are going to be searching for to find you. However, it is necessary to check these ideas against an actual search engine – and almost everyone optimizes for Google, let’s be frank. Figure out what words or phrases match what you are offering and talking about on your website. When you have several potential options, consult a keyword explorer to see if you were right and some of your chosen words and/or phrases are actually good main keywords to target.

Who’s the king?

You are probably bored to death of the infamous “content is king” mantra, and yet, without the content all your on-site optimization strategies will not yield much result. As always, the best advice is to create engaging content that is unique, if possible. Not that multiple pages with the same content are that big of a no-no, but it’s still not a good look. However, regardless of the quality of your content, you should be acutely aware that without it, there is very little that can be done in terms of SEO. Of course, the content itself does not have to created entirely by you. There is an entire scene dedicated to guest-blogging, where people submit content to your blog section (if you have one on your website). This boosts your relevancy and they leave links in the text that might lead to their own content. 

Have you done your crawling?

One thing is certain, if your website has not been indexed by the search engine, you will not show up in any search. This is something that is normally done by Google, but there is always a chance that some of your content has not been indexed, or that the deeper or less obvious pages turn up with problems. This, of course, affects the health of the entire website. If you are unsure whether your site has been fully indexed, try using SEO crawler technology to review your pages and see if a problem persist.

Do you feel complete?

When you have figured out the way people search for your content and added some actual content that is optimized for the given keywords, it is time to look at autocompletion. People will often choose the autocomplete option on purpose, but a lot of times by accident as well and you need to be prepared for this. The autocomplete offer gives you an overview of things that people are actually typing – which can give you another round of ideas for your own long tail keywords. Remember that people use whole questions when searching for something, not only a few words. You can find it in the Google search results under “People also ask”.

Do you even link, bro?

One thing to remember is to always link internally, if it is feasible. Try to refer to earlier articles or blogs on your website when mentioning terms that you have talked about before. This helps to strengthen the keywords internally, which in turn gives the search engine the impression that you are relevant for this kind of content. Sometimes, it is good to use a call to action at the end of a text, where you openly say “click here to find out more” or something similar. Still, generally, the best practice is to insert the link organically, at the exact words that refer to similar content on your website. It is a good idea to check which of your pages have the highest page authority, as these are the pages you want to link from. On the other hand, if a page has a lower page authority, you generally want to link to that page, to raise its rank.

 After you implement the advice listed here, you will be well on your way to more advanced parts of the ever-changing SEO landscape. Good luck, traveler!