One of the most common mistakes made by small business start-ups is the thought process that SEO is an activity that occurs after they have launched their new website. Those who follow this thought path are missing out on several crucial planning stages. As a result, they risk either hindering their chances of success in the search engines or, worst case scenario, making any possibility of top placements on Google virtually impossible. For anyone thinking about launching a new online business with SEO as part of the marketing plan, there are many things you can do to avoid either of these pitfalls. Here are my top 5 tips for start-ups:
1. Create your SEO plan before you brief a web developer.
SEO is not an afterthought. You need to research it carefully before you launch your website. The two most crucial planning activities are: key-phrase research and competitor benchmarking. Whatever you do, don’t guess the keywords and phrases you think people will use to find your products and services on Google and other search engines (make sure you use a research tool such as Wordtracker). And, even more importantly, do not assume that you can achieve top placements for your chosen keywords without analysing the competition and the likelihood that you can outrank those currently in the top ten.
SEO, particularly for brand new websites, is essentially a long-term investment. Be aware that, unless you have a sizable budget for online marketing and link bait promotion, you won’t achieve top placements in the short-term for highly competitive keywords. With all this in mind, you need to approach your web designer with a detailed plan of your site structure, with content prepared to target both your short and long-term keyword targets.
2. Make sure your web developer understands the fundamentals of search engine friendly website architecture.
You will be surprised how many web developers are not clued up on search engine friendly website architecture. It’s absolutely crucial that you find one who is otherwise you could find yourself in the aforementioned pitfall of having a website that is either difficult or impossible to rank in the search engines. Pervasive use of AJAX or Flash technologies, for example, may prevent search engines from being able to crawl and index your content. You also need to ensure that your website utilizes HTML based link navigation and that your site structure is relatively flat, as content buried deep in your site’s structure is less likely to be found and indexed. If you’re uncertain how to brief a web developer on building an SEO friendly site that integrates your keywords efficiently into the architecture, it’s advisable to bring in an SEO consultant to assist you with this process.
3. Be certain to use a reliable and trustworthy web hosting provider.
Sharing the same web server as black-listed websites has the potential to cause major issues for your website, even if you follow white hat tactics in every other area of your SEO activity. Make sure you use a reputable host and consider paying extra for your own dedicated IP address. This ensures that you’re not sharing the same IP address as spam sites.
4. Ensure that your website is set-up so that non-technical people can edit and add content.
Content development is another crucial aspect of SEO. Small business start-ups need to consider a content strategy to build the depth and quality of their web pages. This could potentially be a very costly process if you find yourself in a situation where you have to submit a request to your web developer every time you wish to add new content to your site. So before you go ahead and brief your web developer, make sure you know which CMS (content management system) they intend to deploy. Publishing platforms such as WordPress are ideal for many start-ups as they can be very cost-effective to implement, are relatively easy to use for non-technical staff and, above all else, are very search engine friendly.
5. Install a sitemaps and web analytics solution.
As mentioned above, if you’re using WordPress, installing a sitemap and analytics solution is relatively straight forward and free if you use the Google plug-ins designed specifically for this platform. A sitemap will help search engine spiders to crawl and index your site more efficiently whilst having Google Analytics (or an analytics solution of your choice) is absolutely essential for monitoring your keyword traffic and site performance from the outset.
Follow these tips from the outset and you should avoid the calamity of owning a website that is difficult to rank in the search engines. If you’re uncertain about preparing your site for future SEO success, be sure to discuss this in detail with your web developer or contract a professional SEO consultant to mediate the development process.
James Hubbard is a small business marketing consultant based in Brighton, UK. James has helped numerous small business start-ups develop search engine friendly websites and put in place realistic SEO objectives.
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