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SEO before, during or after site is complete?
What is considered best practice for setting up SEO? Is it acceptable to build the site optimise for SEO and then add pages later? Obviously with blogs this happens but does this affect sitemap etc?
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8 Replies
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Build a site that is optimal technically and has a logical architecture then expand content. You don’t want to be stuck with a suboptimal host/CMS/template – which is so often the case. Or else you might waste loads of time building something that looks good but isn’t fit for purpose e.g. slow on a phone or non indexable
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SEO is not a single event, it is a process. So, it needs to be done before, during and after the site is complete.
Generally, I prefer to create a list of target keywords before site creation. These should be used to inform the site’s content, but you must also remember that the content must be effective as well as ranking.
Then, on page optimization happens as you create the pages.
When the site goes live, you’re going to need to build links. That’s the lion share of the ranking algorithm.
Then, revise and create new content as needed. Build links. Repeat.
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Yes.
If you have an existing site, measure how it is performing. For a small site, look in Google Search Console and save the info. If you have key performance indicators like conversions-per-month, make sure you know what your baseline is.
As you’re developing your site, plan what topics/keywords you need to cover in order to be “complete”. Prioritize these so you know which ones have have to have for launch and which you should plan to grow over time. This can provide a good content roadmap for 6-12 months to either add a level of detail to your evergreen pages or a series of blog topics.
When you launch, re-measure to make sure you didn’t lose ground. Adjust where necessary to fill in any holes.
Understand that there are a lot of sides to SEO. Making sure the site is set up well for SEO is important, but so is building each page so it is optimized and doing outreach so some of your pages are linked to by 3d parties. It’s a 3-legged stool and if you’re missing a leg your site will fall down.
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Yes
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Well, each page has to have what it needs to rank well in Google, as soon as Google sees it. Interlinking within pages, sitemaps, H1, titles, desc, keywords you want to rank etc etc. The rest is done as you go. For example, when you add a new page, it will be added to sitemaps and so on.
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, you can always choose to do **SEO after** you’ve implemented your **website**. However, you might be missing out on a lot of great ranking opportunities **during** this time. You may require a **website** change, content revamp, **and** other necessary remodifications **in** order to properly rank for search engines
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If it is a new entity eg new domain, then during [remember to avoid indexing in the staging site]
if it is an old entity eg re-design or migration, then before the site is complete [remeber to get a full URL map before you start to do anything]
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That said, the latter is more time consuming than the former
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Hope it helps : )
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Thanks!
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