I want to share my learnings from my first non-SEO-friendly website in the hopes that you can avoid the same when starting your new site.
This website was for a mini project to experiment with SEO tactics. I started with buying a domain and used the ready-to-go template. I thought I was done!
I put all my hopes on the website builder. Then I realized that it’s not as simple as it seems.
My site didn’t attract many visitors, so I analyzed what went wrong with my approach. What can I learn from it, and how can I improve if I want to do it again?
As a small business owner, you may have found yourself in a situation like mine. You start a website and buy some ads to promote it, and then visitors will come. Unfortunately, as search engine algorithms evolve, it becomes harder and harder to attract visitors to browse your site.
Today I share a few lessons that I learned from my experiment.
Lesson 1: Set the purpose of the website
I didn’t have a clear website blueprint when I built my site. It took me extra effort to adjust the pages after they were built, which meant a lot of extra time and energy. If your website is small, you may get away with it in the beginning. But if you are thinking about a larger website or long-term business strategy, then it’s better to do it right the first time.
What is the purpose of your website?
Is it for eCommerce or brand building?
It is critical to have a clear purpose for your website. Start by listing out all the services and information you want to show on your site.
The goal here is to build a website hierarchy and structure URLs accordingly.
This plan is as crucial as the blueprint of your house. Do not mess up the position of the pipes for the kitchen and bathroom, or it will cost you much more time and effort to fix it.
Draw a website hierarchy like below and put all your ideas into buckets (products, services, or general information).
For the most important pages, you want them easy to find for your visitors — ideally within three clicks. Do not stack them after the third layer. Google crawlers or your potential customers will get lost if your website is like a maze.
Once you build your website hierarchy structure like the one above, it will help you set up the URLs.
Today we’re using the example of a freelance website specializing in ASO (App Store Optimization), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). You can see from the structure that any users visiting the website can quickly find the service they want.
Layer 1: www.app-marketer.com
Layer 2: www.app-marketer.com/service
Layer 3: www.app-marketer.com/service/ASO
Lesson 2: Keyword Research
I did keyword research simultaneously while crafting the design and content. However, this was not efficient. And if you are a newbie, you might be indecisive on which keywords best fit your website.
With a clear website purpose, you can start with initial keyword research. My website is about services, including ASO, SEO, and SEM. My goal here is to build an SEO-friendly website to attract app developers who may be interested in my service.
Once I decide the purpose of the website I want to build, I start to look at competitors’ websites through keyword research.
Keep in mind that SEO is not a one-day job, and the website will not rank #1 on the first page overnight. Hence, I strongly suggest having the SEO mindset throughout every task for your site.
My keyword research steps are the following:
Step 1: Search on Google
Assume you are the user who needs the “app store optimization services” What would you search on Google? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, using their logic to think and search on Google.
I use Google as an example since it is the largest search engine in the world. However, I suggest taking further action to search other search engines such as Bing or Yandex based on the type of your business and targeted region, if you have the capacity.
From there, you can see there are 293,000,000 results for the same search term. Isn’t it amazing?
This proves how hard it is to rank on the first page of the Google search engine.
Don’t let it frighten you. I am here to share some tips to help!
Now check out the bottom of the page as well.
These are related queries that users used. I document those keywords highlighted in bold above in a spreadsheet to use as my seed list , and I’m not using any third-party keyword tools yet.
Step 2: Google Trends
I now use the topic and keywords related to my website and find out the trend for those keywords.
A side note: Google Trends is a great tool. If you are a professional blogger, you can use Google Trends to inspire you when you want to write on a new topic.
Step 3: Refine the list with keyword tool(s)
Now it’s time to utilize third-party keyword tools, and there are plenty out there. SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SimilarWeb are at the top of my list. Use any of them to find out how your competitors are ranking with which sets of keywords. Do not do keyword stuffing. Instead, it’s better to have a more nuanced sense of what keywords or synonyms you can use in your H1/H2 tags and content development.
Takeaway:
- With this basic information, I know what kinds of keywords I can use on my website, blog posts, and ad copy.
- Use the Google Trends topic and search queries to understand your target audiences and how they talk to Google.
- Look at a few websites from the first page and bottom of the page, and you can see some words have been highlighted in bold. Use them as the core keyword when you craft your web metadata and content.
Lesson 3: Build and register your domain
Now I use the keywords related to the core business to search available domains. Yes, domains! You can register one main domain for your website, but it is recommended to buy other similar domains. Then you can capture all users even if they have a typo on their search bar, or prevent your competitors from buying similar ones and “stealing” your potential visitors.
There are so many free and beautiful website builders, such as Weebly, Wix, and WordPress. These services provide various packages for your choices. Or, you can buy a template, register the domain, and host the website by yourself.
Here, I’ll skip the discussion about the pros and cons of those options.
Just one important reminder: Please register a search engine-friendly, brand-friendly domain name; in other words, include your brand in the URL. Ensure your domain is related to your brand, core service, or relevant keywords. It will help you rank better while you accumulate more high-quality content for your website.
Then it’s about building the website content. Remember the idea buckets from the website hierarchy?Your content is not just for the Google Crawler to crawl — when you categorize the related content to the right bucket, and it helps the human user navigate to the right page without wasting time and giving up/leaving the site.
Here we are going to combine the keyword and your core service to create the website content. Try to utilize those core keywords in your content.
Last but not least, do include a call-to-action on your core service page.
Lesson 4: Website Go-Live
Once I finish all the website content and have given the site a stylish design, it’s time to go live. It’s so exciting!
Do a final check before publishing the website. It will save you trouble from debugging afterward.
Checklist before publishing the website:
- Did you back up the files?
This is to avoid any errors or accidents from a crash and losing all of your well-crafted website, especially if you do not use any ready-to-use website builder services. - Did you validate HTML files?
This is especially important if you are not using the website builder. You can use the free tool W3Schools to validate your website. - Did you create a sitemap? (Optional)
This is for submission to all search engines, regardless if you use a website builder. Here is one free tool I recommend. After your sitemap is created, download the sitemap file and save it to the domain root folder on the server. Please note that the correct file format of the sitemap is the XML file type. - Did you submit the sitemap to major search engines? (Optional)
Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools): When you log in to Google Search Console, look for “Index” in the left menu panel. Choose “Sitemap” and type the correct URL of your sitemap, which is the place where you save your sitemap file. Then click “Submit.” It’s done!
Bing Webmaster is a similar approach as Google Search Console. Use the same sitemap to submit to Bing Webmaster. - Review Spend some time to review the metadata title and ALT tag.
- Apply the related keywords to your website description and do not overdo repeat keywords in the content. These days, search engines are brilliant. They can tell if your site is stuffing keywords. You can use synonyms and related words for web content. It still helps crawlers understand your site and how you provide excellent quality of service or content for your visitor.
Lesson 5: Website Speed
When you use a lot of images on your website, you’d better optimize the image size to meet the optimal website loading speed. This is a post-check after the site is published or when you start to execute your regular technical SEO audit. The tool I use to audit page loading speed is the Google PageSpeed tool. It shows the website loading speed for your site whether a user visits your site using a mobile or desktop browser.
You will see many opportunities to optimize your website, but choose the most crucial part to start with. This will boost website performance faster.
Okay, now I launch the website. Can I sit back and relax?
Nope.
Let’s wrap up with the ultimate lesson I learned about making my site SEO-friendly.
We are on our journey toward an SEO-friendly website, so we’re going to continue building high-quality blog content and product pages. SEO includes on-page, off-page, and technical SEO strategies. Pay attention to technical SEO to fix any critical issues and develop your off-page SEO plan. Then your website will become a genuinely SEO-friendly site.
My lessons today should benefit any SEO rookie. I am still on my way to becoming an expert and will continue to share more lessons learned along my SEO growth path.
