18 simple but vital SEO steps for a new website

 10 SEO Tips for New Websites: Step by Step guide

1. Select Your Domain Name Wisely.

Can I do SEO on my own?

Domain names are one of the ranking elements that search engines use to determine what a website is about. It's great if you can select a domain name that's relevant, simple to remember, and combines the core term you want to rank for.
It is not something you should try to force. For example, if your company's name is Howard's Deli and the domain www.howards-deli.com is available, that's a better choice than www.egg-salad-sandwiches.com. When clients who already know you attempt to discover the site, this is likely to generate confusion.
There are a few decent tools that may help you brainstorm domain name ideas.

2. Choose a Reputable Web Hosting Company.

Google has said unequivocally that site speed is a ranking factor for SEO. Visitors are impatient and want websites to load in seconds (or less), therefore Google aims to give only results that meet that expectation.
While there are many techniques you may attempt to make your site faster over time, one of the most important actions to take from the start is to choose a web hosting service that can offer consistent speeds.

3. Conduct keyword research.

Knowing how to do keyword research is an important element of SEO. To execute many of the other items on this list successfully, you must first have a clear concept of the primary phrases and topic areas on which you want to concentrate your SEO efforts.
A variety of SEO tools give keyword ideas as well as information on the quantity of traffic and competition you can anticipate for each phrase. The most of them will need a membership charge, however you can get started for free using Google's Keyword Planner:
Google AdWords Keyword Planner.

How can I SEO my website for free?

When selecting keywords, keep in mind that you must be practical. SEO is a tough field, and a fresh new website is unlikely to compete for popular, wide phrases. Get specific by looking for long-tail keywords to target. For example, "east chicago contemporary art vendors" is more specific than just "art merchants."

4. Design the architecture of your website.

If you're just getting started with a modest site with a few pages, this may not seem like a big deal right now. However, it is still a good idea to sketch out your site design ahead of time so that you have a framework in place as you go.
Most websites should have a pyramid structure in their site design. The most essential pages (usually those that go on your main menu) are at the top, with the next most important pages (often those that go on your main menu) just below that. You'll add any category and individual pages that fall inside them beneath them.
best SEO website architecture
When you plan your site architecture ahead of time, you ensure that your website is organized in such a way that the most important pages are prioritized in terms of how easy they are for visitors to find, and you make it easier for visitors to navigate between pages on the site to find what they need.

5. Make intuitive navigation a top priority in your design.

Your site architecture is a solid first step in this direction, but it is just one component of making your website user-friendly for visitors. When designing your website, keep in mind what your clients will be thinking and doing on each page they visit. Every step of the way, you want it to be simple for them to locate what they're searching for.
That is to say:
Ensure that your main menu includes the most significant pages that visitors are likely to visit on your site.
Creating categories and subcategories depending on the browsing habits of your target audience.
Making certain that those category and subcategory pages include the keywords that your research indicates consumers use when looking for the sort of items or information on them.
Including links on each site to other, similar pages that a page visitor may be interested in as well.

How do I SEO my new website?

Including a clear call-to-action on each page, so visitors know exactly what to do next.
Including a search box on each page so that visitors who know precisely what they're searching for can get there faster than by scrolling between sites.
The purpose of this phase is to attempt to get inside your visitors' brains and picture what actions they'll want to take as they navigate your website, as well as how they'd go about doing it. Building the site needs both guessing and inspiration. However, by doing user testing before to the site's launch, you may validate (or correct) your early assumptions.

6. Establish a Standard, SEO-Friendly URL Structure.

When a search engine algorithm tries to figure out what a web page is about, one of the first things it looks at is the URL. The URL is the primary web address for each page of your site. Every URL on your website begins with your primary domain name (e.g. www.yourname.com). That will be followed by extra characters unique to the page for each page (other than your home page).
For SEO reasons, you should always tailor the URL for each page on your site to the terms you want that page to rank for. However, in addition to creating a unique URL for each page, you need also build a bigger SEO-friendly URL structure for how to name URLs on your website.
Return to the site architecture you created here. The categories and subcategories you created may become a part of the URL structure you create, allowing you to add more relevant terms into your URLs while still making them helpful and straightforward for visitors.

7. Optimize your website for good performance.

Along with your web hosting service and the plugins you use, your web design is just one element in how quick your website will be. However, many choices you make during the design stage might have an impact on how quickly your site loads for users.
A quick loading time improves the user experience and is one of the ranking elements considered by search engine algorithms. Consider strategies to boost site performance while developing your website, such as:
Reduce the use of elements that slow down download speed, such as animation or huge, high-resolution photos.
Reduce the size of any JavaScript and CSS components you employ.
lowering the number of HTTP requests on each page
To keep external scripts to a minimum, just use widgets that are absolutely essential.
Design features that seem to be really interesting may sometimes bog down your website, resulting in slower load times and a poor user experience. Consider everything you put on your site and how its impact on loading times balances up against the value it provides.

8. Use a Mobile-Friendly and Responsive Design.

People exploring the web on their mobile phones now account for more than half of all website visitors. Whereas it was logical to anticipate that most of your visitors would be browsing your website on a full-size computer only a few years ago, the majority of people who discover you will do it on the tiny screen of a smartphone.

Your site design should try to perform equally as effectively on mobile devices as it does on desktops, for the purpose of both your mobile visitors and the search engines that care about their experience. This generally entails creating a responsive website without flash and with large enough buttons for customers to easily choose them on a touchscreen. Using a responsive web design ensures that everyone in your target audience has a positive experience when visiting your site.
Mobile-friendly site design is SEO-friendly web design.

9. Take Visual Hierarchy into Account for Each Page.

How do I drive for SEO?

What users see when they arrive at a website on your site is determined by the size of their screen and browser window. In other words, many people will only view a fraction of the whole website. When creating each page, consider what you want people to see in the first few seconds they're on the page.
To guarantee that your visitors receive what they need and, ideally, stay through the first few seconds, build your pages such that the most essential content is at the top so that all visitors can see it quickly.

10. Concentrate on Indexable Content.

One of the issues of SEO web design is that many visual design elements do not transfer well to how search engine algorithms scan a website. For example, the algorithm cannot translate the information contained inside a picture or animation, even though it communicates well to a human visitor. That doesn't mean you shouldn't employ graphics in your web design; it simply means you need think about how to make them search engine friendly.
You must inform Google about any design components that are visual rather than textual. That is to say:
You should avoid utilizing flash animation since it is not indexable and is not supported by all devices.
To optimize Javascript for SEO, utilize a suggested framework such as Brombone or Prerender.
Fill in all accessible information with your target keyword, including the title and description, if you have videos on your website. Include a transcript on the website as well.
Fill in the metadata with your keyword for all photographs on your website (more on that in the next step)
Visuals are unavoidable in web design. You won't be able to avoid it. And you wouldn't want to since they improve your visitors' experience on your site. However, for the areas of the site that search engines can't see, you should do your best to explain what they're missing and take advantage of any additional possibilities to incorporate relevant keywords.

11. Concentrate on primary keywords for each page.

Your first keyword research will help you obtain a general idea of the language to use when developing your website, but it's also a good idea to choose a target keyword (or two) for each particular web page on your site.
Choose different ones for each page to prevent competing with yourself.

12. Title tags should be optimized.

What is the first step for SEO?

The title tag is one of the parts of the website that Google looks at to determine what the page is about, therefore it's another ideal place to incorporate your target keyword.
Try to make your title tag as brief as possible — Google will only display 50-60 characters on the search engine results page, and even less will appear in the tab at the top of your browser.
Also, don't keyword anything here. Using your major keyword just once should enough.

13. Image optimization

Every picture you put on a web page gives you a few more chances to optimize your website for your major keywords. When naming photos for SEO, add the keyword you're targeting (for example, importantKeyword.jpg) and update the alt text on the page with your keyword as well.

14. Improve the headings.

When writing for the web, headers may help you structure your material so that it's easier to read and skim for your visitors. As an extra benefit, your headers provide Google with more information about the topic of your page.
Include your goal keywords strategically in the headlines of your web page – but only where it makes obvious sense. You don't want to push terms in if they seem unusual to the reader, but if you can utilize the keywords in a manner that makes sense, go ahead and use them.

15. Improve the page's text.

The most essential thing to remember when it comes to website copywriting guidelines is to avoid keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is detected by search engines, and your website may be punished as a result. However, as long as you only utilize your target keywords (and associated synonyms) in places where they make sense, including them into the content on the page is a smart practice.
In most situations, if you've picked target keywords that are related to the page's content (which is critical! ), this step should come effortlessly.

16. Create one-of-a-kind meta descriptions.

While meta descriptions do not directly affect rankings, they do impact click-through rates from search results. When someone finds your website in the search results, they will see your meta description underneath the page title:
a search result with a meta description
Any words in your description that match the search parameters will be highlighted, drawing their attention to your result. Because they're attempting to determine which of the results to click on, you may utilize this content to convince them that your page is worth the click.
Always provide a meta description for each page of your website. Use the area to offer a quick summary of what's useful on the page, and try to include your page's keyword(s) organically in the description to ideally end up with some bolded text on the search results page (like with "cloud hosting" in the example above).

17. Include a link to another page on your website.

Internal linking allows you to tell Google what your website is about by using anchor text. The anchor text refers to the words that are hyperlinked if you are unfamiliar with the concept. Google recognizes the phrases used whenever there is a link to a web page and interprets them as information about what is on the page.
Internal links also allow you to demonstrate search engines how your various sites are linked and drive traffic from one page on your website to another. To prevent a high bounce rate on your website, you should ideally want your visitors to remain around; offering useful internal links is an excellent method to do this.

18. Send a Sitemap to Google.

Google must crawl your website before your web pages may appear on the search engine results page.
Even if you don't do anything, Google's crawlers will eventually find your website, but you can speed things up by uploading your sitemap using Google Search Console. You may immediately notify Google that your website exists and list all of its individual pages.