A Start-up 4 Point Checklist for Your Website's SEO

A Start-up 4 Point Checklist for Your Website’s SEO

We know that most (if not all) of Forge Online’s clients want their website to appear in Google search. That’s exactly why we include a two-hour SEO transition step into the launch phase of every single website we build and set live. We set up sitemap files, check SEO readiness and submit the new site directly to Google via Google Search Console, plus we check that all systems are functioning as they should. We even add Google Analytics to your website, even if you don’t actively monitor it yourself. We can share that data with you any time you want to see it. Do these things help your website in the right direction? Absolutely, yes. Is it all of the possible SEO work you could do on your website? Not by a long shot, no.

Here’s why:

SEO involves getting as many of your ‘ducks’ in a row as you possibly can, and also have a plan to build on that in the long term. Your website texts are by far the most influential element of your site’s SEO capability. So long as your site has lots of great content, it’s likely to do reasonably well just because of that. But that might not give you the edge that takes you ahead of your competitors in Google search!

A while ago, Google informed the world that there were around 200 different factors that determine where a website will get ranked in their search engine. Google won’t tell us exactly what they are, but they give some very strong hints. We listened and started researching as many of the factors we could discover. It’s from that research and discovery that we’ve concluded that the science of Search Engine Optimisation is very complex and that it takes many hours of work to put into place. Not only that, but when you think you’ve finished, and you have done all you can, we know that there is almost always something more you can do, or even re-do. It’s a never-ending story. It also means that without specialised skills and training, it’s unlikely that most business owners will be able to dedicate time to it.

If your business relies very heavily on the performance of your website to generate leads or income, then it’s very likely you need SEO. If your business is large enough to accommodate a dedicated in-house person to manage that for you, we recommend that as an option. For most SMEs however, having someone dedicated to SEO on their team is just not affordable. That’s when your SEO should get outsourced to someone you trust and can prove they’re up for the task. Local suppliers are always your best choice, because they understand the conditions of operating a business in the local market, they speak your language, and you can even go to meet them in a face-to-face consult.

Regrettably, some businesses just don’t have the budget to invest in any marketing at all, or some decide that search engine marketing fits into the ‘too hard basket’.

That’s prompted us to create this SEO checklist. We think you’ll find it helpful in figuring out what sorts of things you should do to optimise your website, and we want our clients to be successful, even if they never hire us to do this kind of work for them. We believe in giving away great advice for free. You trusted us with building your website. You deserve the best advice we can give you.
Top Tip: SEO is always a work-in-progress. If your website is brand new, never delay a launch because of SEO. It’s better to launch and work on it while live, than to put it off until you’ve done all you can.
So here’s the top 4 steps we know you should get sorted to get your website competitively ranked*.

Step 1.

Ensure your website has plenty of great text content. You want your website to perform better than the site ranked ahead of you, so be prepared to write! The content should be:

Interesting to read
In enough volume to keep other people (not yourself) engaged
Be completely on-topic and not talk about things that are not directly related to your business
All of the above should be better than what your rank-competitor* in Google has.

*A rank-competitor is a website that ranks ahead of yours for a search relating to your business. It’s not necessarily your direct business competitor.

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