Here are 10 essential steps to build an SEO Strategy for your new website: 

1. Pick the right domain name
   • Align your brand name with your domain name
2. Choose a high-quality website hosting provider 
   • Your host’s speed impacts your site’s performance
3. Set up Google Search Console 
   • Verify GSC so it collects important SEO performance data.
   • Items to check regularly:
     • Page speed issues
     • Organic keywords that bring in website clicks
     • Your average click through rate (CTR)
     • Sitemap submission
     • Crawl and index errors
     • Page performance
4. Study your search competition 
   • Identify companies who sells similar content, & have keyword rankings 
   • How is their company similar to yours? 
   • How is it different? Check out their unique selling points.
   • What topics do they write about?
   • What keywords are they already ranking for?
   • Add your root domain vs your chosen competitor root domains
   • Review the competitor overlap & shared keywords.
   • Export into a spreadsheet & filter for the keywords that are relevant for your website. 
5. Research keywords & create a keyword map 
   • Cluster & map your keywords onto a spreadsheet
   • Search intent & the buyer journey:
     • Awareness stage > Consideration stage > Decision stage
     • Does the keyword truly match my product or service?
     • Does the keyword match questions that customers have asked (or might ask) throughout their buying journey?
     • What is the keyword’s difficulty? (level of competition to rank for that keyword)
     • What is the search volume of the keyword?
     • What page types appear in the SERPs for this keyword? 
6.  Build a strategic content calendar (and keep posting) 
   • Turn keyword map into your content 
     • Prioritize sections of your keyword map
     • Optimize your content
     • Track your keyword rankings
     • Post consistently
7. Follow your URL structure 
   • Stick to the URL structures you’ve outlined in the keyword map & use keywords in the URL
8. Review Core Web Vitals & Page Experience
   • Check if your website passes CWV & review users engagement metrics
9. Observe accessibility 
   • Regularly review indexing issues & design your website with the appropriate font and image size. 
   • Include these items:
     • Optimize alt text in images (for screen readers)
     • Use enough contrast (make sure your colors are easy on the eye)
     • Correctly label elements like buttons
     • Make your font size big enough to read
10. Promote Regularly 
    • Increase your SEO performance by promoting your content across other marketing channels. 
    • Think about paid traffic for the first few months 

Overwhelmed? We can help! Call 248.528.3600