When designing a new website, you must strictly adhere to a few fundamental SEO rules and choose a suitable website builder (or content management systems - СMS). In this article, we'll discuss them in detail and provide some helpful SEO customization tips for your newly minted website.
Launching a New Website: Your SEO Checklist
Do you point to the big red start button on your new website? Wait a second (or rather 660 of them). There may be SEO considerations that you haven't considered yet, from a keyword-to-URL summary looking for crawl errors to setting up proper tracking. In this artice I will cover five large boxes that you need to tick before putting that site into operation.
Keyword in the URL tab for your content.
So let's start with number one here. What I suggest you do is, while checking the site you created, do a keyword search. There are many whiteboard Fridays and blog posts I wrote here at Moz about great ways to do keyword research. But search for keywords and create a list of keywords that essentially map all the keywords you initially target to all URLs, the pages you have on your new site.
So it should look like this. It has the URL, then RandsAnimals.com, which targets the keyword "fantastic beasts", here is the title of the page and here is the meta description. Then I have RandsAnimals.com/lemurs, my lemurs page, which focuses on "lemurs" and "lemur habits". That's the title.
We recommend that you go through them and make sure that if you have an important keyword that you haven't targeted yet, do so, and also if you have a URL, a page on your website on which you have not yet intentionally targeted for a keyword. , make sure you do this too. This can be a great way to start browsing a small site and make sure you have a few terms and phrases that you target. This is also useful when positioning and optimizing the page later.
Accessibility, crawl, and UX
So what I want you to do here, is ask yourself:
- "Is the content of my website accessible to search engines?"
There are some great ways to view them. You can use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. You can use something like OnPage.org to crawl your site virtually and make sure that crawlers can reach all pages, that you don't have duplicate content, that you don't have skinny content, or that pages you think have no content, no broken links, no broken pages, all kinds of good stuff.
- Is the content accessible to all audiences, devices and browsers?
Then we don't ask about search engines and their crawlers, but about audiences, people and whether your content is accessible to all audiences, devices and browsers possible. So, this can mean things like screen readers for blind users, mobile devices, desktop devices, laptops, browsers of all kinds. We recommend that you use a tool such as a verification browser to make sure that Chrome, Firefox and ... What's Internet Explorer called now? Oh God. They changed it. Microsoft Edge. Make sure it works in everything.
I love that I think there is a gallery of peanuts they will call quitting. It's like looking at lunch and thinking, "Rand, if I call you now, it won't be answered." Know. Know.
"Are those pages loading fast everywhere?"
So I could use a tool like Google Speed Test. I can also run some proxy checks to make sure I'm from all kinds of regions, especially if I'm targeting internationally or know I'm targeting rural areas where my pages load quickly everywhere.
- "Are the graphics, design, experience and UI convenient and pleasant for all users?"
You can do this with some internal usage tests. You can do this informally with existing friends, family, and clients if you have one. Or you can use something like Five Second Test or UsabilityHub to run some more formal online tests. Sometimes this can reveal things in your browsing or content that are preventing people from having the desired experience - it's very easy to fix.
- "Is the content of my website accessible to search engines?"
Configure important services and monitoring
So there are a lot of things you just have to set up around a website. These include:
- Web Analytics: Google Analytics is free and very popular. But you could also use something like Piwik or, if you are older, Omniture. You will want to crawl. OnPage or some of these others will verify that your scans are actually loaded on all of your pages.
- Runtime Tracking: If you haven't checked them out, Pingdom has some very cheap plans for early stage sites. So as you get bigger they can get more expensive and sophisticated.
- Retargeting and Remarketing: Even if you don't want to pay now and don't want to use any of the services, you can put at least Facebook and Google retargeting pixels on your website on all of your pages so that your audience can be accessed in the future.
- Set up some branded alerts: the cheapest option is Google Alerts, which is free but not very good. If you use Moz Pro, there are Fresh Web Explorer alerts, which is great. Mention.net is also good, Talkwalker, Trackur. There are a few options that are paid and a little better.
- Google Search Console: If you haven't already set this up, we recommend that you do so in addition to Bing Webmaster Tools. Both can reveal some mistakes. If you do SEO, you may want to set up some kind of SEO tool to monitor and access your rankings regularly, show your competitive opportunities and wrong steps, you may want to show link building skills, all kinds of things. I urge you to take a look at one of these five. There are others. But these five are quite popular: Ahrefs, Moz, Raven, Searchmetrics or SEMRush. These are certainly some of the best known around.
- Social and web profiles: Again, it's important to set them up before you start your new site so that no one jumps to the name of your Facebook page or your Pinterest page or your Instagram profile page, or of your YouTube page or your SlideShare page. I know you could say, "But Rand, I don't use SlideShare." No, not today, but in the future, you may want to and believe me to claim Rand's Animals on YouTube and SlideShare, you will need to claim regardless of the name of your website. I'll claim them later. But you have to wear them all because you don't want anyone else to record them later. I urge you to check the complete list of all social networking sites, all web profiles, to make sure your brand is protected.
Schema, rich snippets, OpenGraph, etc
Optimization in general, broader. So here I'm actually going to go to these URLs and make sure that "Hey, okay. I know I've targeted these keywords and I've already created a meta description for my page title. But let me see if there are any other possibilities."
Are there options for content or image research? Do I have rich snippet options? Maybe not, but I may have stars in user reviews for my Rand's Animals site. I don't know if people especially like this LIF GIF over that LIF GIF. But they can be set up on your site and you can see a description of how to do this on Google and Bing. They both have the resources to do it. The same goes for Twitter and Facebook, which offer cards so you can introduce yourself there. If you are using OpenGraph I think it will work well on LinkedIn and other similar services as well. So these are great options.
Start the link reinforcement and extension plan
So one of the things we know about SEO is that you need backlinks, engagement and signals like that to rank well. We recommend that you have a successful launch day and launch week and even a launch month. This means, by asking the question beforehand:
- "Who will help you improve your launch and why? Why will they do it?"
If you can identify "These people, I know they want to help personally" or "They are friends and family. I have business relations with them. They are my clients. There are journalists who have promised this. They are bloggers. Who cares much about this subject, they need things to write about. "Whatever it is, if you can identify those people, make a list and start with that direct contact, it's definitely something you should do. I would plan ahead and warn people when you would do that. That way, when the launch day comes, you will have wonderful and interesting news to announce. Two weeks after you started saying "Hey, I launched a new site a few weeks ago", you are no longer new, so the chances of receiving coverage diminish quite quickly after the first few days.
- "What existing relationships, profiles, and sites do I need to update to create news (and accuracy)?"
I would also like to ask you what existing relationships, websites and profiles you already have that you can and need to update to create buzz and more precisely, to create accuracy. So, these are things like anything from your email signature to all your social media profiles that we've talked about, both the profiles that you've claimed and the ones that you have personally. You need to update your LinkedIn. You need to start updating your Twitter page. You need to update Facebook. You may want to update all of these things. About.me if you have a profile there or if you are a designer, maybe your Dribbble profile, whatever you have.
* So you should also think, "I have content that I've contributed to over the years on the Internet, on all kinds of other websites, and if I were going to say," Hey, I have a new one. Could you refer to this new site instead of my old or new site that I’ve just launched, instead of my old employer that I left? "You can do that too, and it's certainly a good idea."
- "What can media coverage, social coverage or communication with influencers do?"
The last thing I would like to ask is the people who might be furthest from you, but media coverage, social coverage, or information about influencers, similar to "Who will help empower you and why?" You should be able to list those people, find those outlets, find a few email addresses, send a presentation if you have one, and start building those relationships.
Launch day is a great reason to get access. If you're throwing something new, it's a great time to do it and that can help you get a boost. OK. We hope that when you launch your new site, you follow this checklist, get into these details, and get a much more effective SEO experience.
If you've started a website and see things are missing from this list, check out any other recommendations you've received, please leave them in the comments. We would like to talk about it.
- "Who will help you improve your launch and why? Why will they do it?"
5 Best website builders for SEO
Imagine that you and a friend are building similar websites, but your friend has chosen another website builder with better SEO tools. Your builder is more limited, but you're sure it doesn't matter as long as you're posting good content.
Your friend's site will soon be ranked first in Google search results. In the meantime, your site hits the fifth page of the same results somewhere. Your friend gets a lot of traffic to his site. When you check your site analysis, you only see the digital tape.
Fortunately, this is not necessarily your future!
Therefore, you should choose a website builder that will not only facilitate the creation of your website, but will also support the growth of your search results. We take it very seriously here at the Website Creation Expert, so we tried to find the best SEO site builders.
Now let's start with the persecution.
The top five website builders for SEO are:
- WordPress.com: ideal for those who want a practical SEO experience.
- Weebly: It has dozens of useful and quality SEO applications.
- Squarespace: A great choice for those who are more confident in SEO.
- Wix: Perfect for complete SEO beginners.
- GoDaddy: It is the right choice for those who prefer outside help with SEO.
I didn’t tear them out of the air. WBE researches all the best website builders, compares features, and conducts user tests to get an overview of the industry. According to our research, these three are the best in the field of SEO.
This section will explore each SEO builder's credentials and the features you need to consider when choosing a website builder. Eventually, you should have a clear idea of which builder is best for you.
We got to that.
If you are reading this blog, you probably have at least an idea of what SEO is, but it’s worth summarizing briefly. This way, we know exactly what to expect from our top SEO website makers.
SEO is a way for web content to improve your chances of appearing in search results on sites like Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo.
The ultimate goal of search engines is to bring in users with relevant, high-quality information. SEO is the process of tagging these fields and ensuring that search engines know how to find you.
Just a few things that have an important factor in SEO are:
- Meta titles and meta descriptions: The title and summary of your site that appear in Google search results
- URL structure: Ideally, a short URL is a page with relevant text
- Image Replacement Text: Explanatory text that appears instead of the image on your site if the image is not uploaded
- Backlinks: External links to your site that add credibility to your content.
- Website speed and mobile usage: factors that determine whether a user experience on your site will be good or bad
- Structured data: a standardized way of generating code that is easy to understand search engines by search engines
The site needs to be able to handle all of these things and more. A website maker without strong SEO is not worth the time or money.
The best SEO builders follow the trends and facilitate the implementation. Depending on the skill level of the target customers, they also teach. If you're still learning the details of SEO, don't worry - there are external builders who can help you with this process.
For a more complete view of each website builder's offers in terms of SEO, see the table below.
Wix: Perfect for absolute SEO beginners (from $ 13.00 / month)
Benefits:
- Coding is not required - no code knowledge is required to use Wix SEO. Instead, Wix keeps its SEO features simple and intuitive, like a drag-and-drop site editor
- Built-in SEO - You don't have to waste time figuring out what confusing apps and gadgets to download. SEO features are integrated into the Wix control panel, so you can get started easily.
Weaknesses:
- Advanced SEO is difficult: Wix has more than covered basics, but more sophisticated things like structured data aren't integrated into the platform (although you can add them)
- Limited control: Because Wix SEO is so easy to use, it can't provide direct editing control on platforms like Squarespace.
People who complain about website builders sometimes blame the fact that they build the site without optimizing. There was some truth in that, but no more. Wix has improved its SEO game in recent years to effectively become a market leader.
SEO is a long-term game and you need platforms to help you stay on top. Wix is one of the best SEO site builders for those who are still learning the basics. SEO Wiz guides users step by step through essential tips, suggests improvements and even sets goals.
Wix encryption is not required. From meta titles to 301 redirects, SEO is built directly into the Wix control panel. Each page has dedicated SEO settings, and each image you upload has an alternate text entry, so the images are interpreted by search engines.
Another big plus is the power of its integration with Google. Web analytics tools are essential for understanding the traffic to your site, and Google is the gold standard. Linking Google Analytics and the Google Search Console to Wix sites is just an example of entering a tracking code.
SEO is actually much simpler than it sometimes seems. Wix makes it easy to maintain the SEO of your site and notifies you when you fail.
Wix has introduced a number of SEO features over the last few years, and the Help Center is the most comprehensive you can find anywhere. Even if you don’t use Wix, it’s worth browsing its SEO guide.
Compensation for Wix’s ease of use and internal functionality is diminished when it comes to more advanced SEO methods. Structured data (which provides search engines with additional, very important information about your site) is becoming increasingly important for SEO. To add it to Wix, you have to do it manually - with a code.
It’s a bit of a pain, but it deserves an explanation. SEO students who have learned from it will find Wix clogged after a while. However, this is a game with website builders: the price of convenience is control.
However, Wix mostly understands that its users are not technical. An excellent balance of functionality and control. Its SEO builder not only simplifies, but learns the basics when you’re not sure what something means. If you want a comprehensive and supportive SEO experience, Wix is a great option.
Weebly: Contains dozens of useful and quality SEO applications (from $ 5.00 / month)
Advantages:
- SEO application: Weebly offers SEO monitoring through integrated applications.
- Custom URLs: You can customize the URLs of each page on your site to make them more attractive to search engines.
Weaknesses:
- Product image jokers can't be changed - you can add other tags to regular images, but photos of E-Commerce products are out of luck.
Weebly prides itself on ease of use and SEO is an important part of that. Everything from meta descriptions to web analytics is included in the platform. Like Wix and Squarespace, Weebly keeps all the essentials in it.
Meta titles and descriptions, custom URLs and alt text are part of the page editor. The integration of Google Analytics and Search Console is as easy as entering a tracking code. The mobile editor ensures that your site looks and works well on all devices, something that is increasingly important for SEO.
Weebly's plugin library is very powerful. There are dozens of SEO oriented plugins in the application center. For example, Site Booster (which displays your site on Google Maps, among other things) shows that it is worth browsing. All in all, Weebly SEO is comprehensive and easy to use.
In a strange omission, Weebly doesn't currently allow customization of alt text on product images. Ordinary picture? You go crazy, but you are out of luck trying to sell things. We'd be surprised if this has been the case for a long time, but it's a warning to remember if selling online is essential to your plans.
That said, Weebly is currently all about E-Commerce. It is already developing into a powerful hybrid between general purpose site builder and a dedicated retail platform. The same goes for SEO, which has a foothold in both areas. From page titles to custom product URLs, Weebly strikes a particularly good balance of SEO for small business needs.
Squarespace: It’s the perfect choice for those more expert about SEO (starting at $12.00/month)
Pros:
- Lots of user control: you can choose to add your own code, which opens up a whole new world of advanced techniques
- Clean and structured interface: if you don't want to work with code, Squarespace's basic SEO features are clearly formatted and easy to edit.
Cons:
- It is not suitable for beginners: there are better platforms if you need more SEO guidance
- It is not a specific application for SEO - Squarespace lags behind Wix and Weebly in that it does not offer SEO features in a dedicated application.
Squarespace is the big, dark, and beautiful riddle of the world of website builders, or whatever they want to believe. The SEO features are advanced and well integrated, but don't expect to hold hands like you would with Wix and Weebly. If you're familiar with the basics of SEO and want more backend control, Squarespace may be the builder for you.
Squarespace has an extremely organized, almost CMS-like backend. This makes it easier to stay in the best SEO, provided you are already familiar with the best practices. The dashboard still offers the odd hint or explanation, but not in the same tour mode as its peers. However, if you need help, Squarespace has put together an SEO checklist and guide to improve your site's visibility in the search engines. All in all, it's a more casual and manageable experience.
Meta titles and alt text aren't the only things to consider for SEO (although they are important). Your site needs links too! Squarespace's social networking integration is the best in the market, and a vibrant multi-channel online presence can work wonders for SEO.
In conclusion, search engines prefer to trust sites that other sites trust.
One downside to Squarespace is that it can be a bit tricky depending on the model you're using. Some show alt text on the site, which is not how it should work. You can find this out in the bush by browsing the Squarespace template guide, but it's a strange obstacle to have to jump.
And again, keep in mind that better SEO methods require "code injections," which means adding personal code. If the last few years have been an indicator, all the major builders will soon launch structured internal data solutions, but you know what I say about the hypothesis ...
However, in general, Squarespace is an excellent option for SEO. If you want a builder to teach you the basics of SEO, Wix and Weebly are better suited than Squarespace. But Squarespace has always imagined itself as a more advanced class of website builders. If that sounds like your vibe, try the free trial to see if that is the case.
GoDaddy: Great for those who want outside help with SEO (starting at $10.00/month)
Pros:
- SEO Expert: With this simple tool integrated into the site you receive some simple questions and suggestions on the best keywords for your targeted website
- SEO Service Team: If you sign up for this paid service, a team of experts will research your target markets and optimize your site without lifting a finger.
Cons:
- SEO features are limited to the cheapest plan: to get the most out of GoDaddy's SEO tools, upgrade from the basic plan
- Value for money: GoDaddy's SEO services are useful, but not the cheapest on the market, and most features are limited to state-of-the-art plans.
Let's face it: GoDaddy's SEO features are virtually absent from its cheapest plan ($ 10.00 / month base). However, if you move to the next level (default at $ 15.00 / month) you will see a huge surge in SEO features, including targeted keyword suggestions from the GoDaddy team.
Then you can track your search rankings over time to see how GoDaddy's (or your SEO genius) keyword suggestions have improved your ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). You can always view the progress of your website from the account dashboard.
The main feature of GoDaddy is the "SEO Wizard" tool that is included on the Premium plan ($ 20 / month). The SEO expert will ask you a few questions about your website and then give you targeted keyword suggestions that you can use to optimize your pages.
If you want to take your optimization efforts even further, GoDaddy's SEO Services team offers free telephone consultations asking about your business / blog goals and budget. GoDaddy's SEO Services option is $ 6.99 / month and you essentially pay for the SEO team to do a website review and search for your target market. Once this information is obtained, the team will carry out SEO updates over time to improve your website in search results. The main benefit to this is that there is very little to do - the GoDaddy team is in full control of the reins.
Let's be honest: $ 6.99 a month isn't very cheap for the kind of work the GoDaddy SEO team does. However, if you choose to use this service, it comes with a lot of SEO benefits. After selecting a recommended plan and enabling on-site optimization, 80% of GoDaddy customers saw the results of the first page for the targeted keywords within six months.
WordPress.com: Great for those who want a hands-on experience (starting at $4.00/month)
Pros:
- Optimized Themes: All WordPress.com website themes have been created with SEO rankings in mind
- Personalization: WordPress.com offers numerous options for editing your meta descriptions and titles.
Cons:
- Limited access: Although the basics are included in every WordPress plan, you'll need to upgrade your business plan to access most SEO tools
- Advanced user interface: WordPress.com is not as intuitive as other website builders when it comes to editing your website.
First of all I have great news for you: WordPress.com does 85-90% of the basic SEO mechanics for you. WordPress themes are designed to attract search engines right out of the box. In fact, much of the HTML is formatted with the display of search engine crawlers. However, if you want to dig deeper into your website's search engine optimization, you have a few options.
WordPress offers four different pricing plans. The number of SEO features depends on the plan you choose. The free and personal plans for $ 0.00 and $ 4.00 / mo, respectively, provide just the basics of SEO. This is sufficient for personal websites. However, if you want to scale, you need the Premium plan (USD 8.00 / month) or the Business plan (USD 25.00 / month).
You have Google Analytics built into your Premium plan, but advanced SEO tools don't come into play until you switch to your business plan. If you choose to upgrade, you will have access to your site:
- First page meta description: edit the general summary of your website that will be shown to viewers in Google results.
- Personalized Post Meta Description: Change the meta description of individual pages.
- Custom Title Formats: Customize how your site's content titles appear in the SERP.
- Social Search and Preview: See how your website is doing on search engines and social media before you publish it.
If you know your SEO and want to be very involved in the process, WordPress.com is a great choice. Nevertheless, you have to forego simple operations to make it easier to get started. WordPress isn't as intuitive as builders like Wix or Weebly.
Final Thoughts
Search engine optimization is critical to the success of your website. When choosing a website builder, SEO functionality is one of the most important things to consider. For the best website builders, SEO is comprehensive and easy to use.
In summary, the top five SEO website builders are:
- Wix - Perfect for absolute SEO beginners.
- Weebly: Dozens of Useful, High Quality SEO Applications.
- Squarespace: An Excellent Choice for the Safer SEO.
- GoDaddy: Great for those who need outside help with search engine optimization.
- WordPress.com: Really great for those looking for a very hands-on
- SEO experience.
They are feature rich and easy to use. Wix and Weebly are especially good at explaining features and setting goals by integrating their knowledge base directly into the manufacturer. Which of the two is best for you ultimately depends on your personal preferences. If you're not interested in learning about SEO and would rather have your builder take care of you, GoDaddy's "we'll see if anything goes" approach is even more enticing.
Squarespace and WordPress.com are great options for those less familiar with SEO best practices. These builders won't hold your hand during the process, but then not everyone wants their hand held.
All five builders tick the essential SEO boxes and their development teams will make sure they keep up with the trends. Ultimately, it comes down to which builder best suits your site's needs.
Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.com have free plans so you can use them for as long as you want before you decide if they are right for you. Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, while GoDaddy's free trial ends for a month. Both options should give you enough time to form an opinion about the platforms.
Choosing one of these five builders will help ensure that the sad picture I painted at the beginning of this article doesn't happen to you. Instead, get rid of the digital laundry and scale up SEO success!
