Website SEO: What to Expect With New Websites

As a website copywriter (both here and over at my freelance brand) one of the most common questions new clients ask is…

Will my new website rank in Google?

And it sounds like such a lovely, simple question with a yes or no answer. But I’m afraid it’s not at all simple, and certainly not something I can answer in a single word. Because… it depends. 

I thought I’d write out my answer here. I say pretty much the same thing every time, though I do tailor it to the client if I have some specific insights into their situation. So, let’s dive into what you need to understand about SEO and what you can expect for your website.

New Websites Take Time

Brand new websites don’t usually rank for popular search terms right away because older websites some advantages:

• An established trust profile
• A number of links already pointing to them

You might be able to rank for long-tail, lower volume keywords fairly quickly because there’s less competition for them. But if you have a new website, don’t expect to see crazy results from organic traffic for at least a year, even if you do everything else perfectly. 

Some Stuff You Can Control, Some Stuff You Can’t 

Part of the difficulty with predicting what will happen with your SEO is that there’s only so much you can control. Your performance will depend on:

• What your competitors are doing: Are they ignoring SEO or going all out?
• What the algorithms are doing: May the odds be ever in your favour!
• What your audience is doing: Will they continue to search for the same problems, solutions, and products and via the same channels?

That said, keeping an eye on these three factors is a good idea so that you can adjust your strategy (and expectations) as you go.

Get the On-Page Stuff Right First

Fortunately, you can control your on-page SEO — that is, any components of your website that contribute to your SEO results. You should make it easy for users and search engines to know what your website is about, and help them find their way around your content. On-page factors and strategies include:

• Keyword research: Pick relevant search terms (with acceptable volume and competition) and include these naturally on relevant pages, with (ideally) one solid keyword per page
• Load times: Prioritise fast web hosting and optimise your pages (and images) to load quickly
• Linking structures: Make sure your navigation is logical and that you link internally to your pages wherever it makes sense to do so, supporting users (and search engines) to find the content they’re interested in
• Technical SEO: Get all the details right, including meta titles, meta descriptions, URL structure, crawlability, sitemaps, canonicalisation, structured data, indexations, redirections, and security

In our website package, we cover each of these elements of SEO. Our goal is to get the website set up for success — and it’s up to our clients to build on this foundation with other strategies when they’re ready. Depending on the industry and competition, on-page SEO can even be enough for some websites to get a decent amount of organic traffic from search.

Build Your Website to Convert

User behaviour sends signals to Google about your website’s worthiness. If users are spending more time on your website, interacting with it, clicking through to other pages, and converting, Google will interpret this as good website; must position higher. So, make your website one that people want to interact with. Make your content useful and structure your pages with care. Try to be engaging through your content, brand voice, imagery, and style. Include clear calls-to-action so that people know where to go to next, and provide offers that people will want to click on.

Drive Traffic From Other Places

In the beginning, it’s unlikely that you’ll get much traffic from Google or other search engines. You have to build awareness around your brand and website via other platforms. During this period, your website will still provide critical functionality:

• Providing more detailed information 
• Building trust with your audience 
• Backing up anything you say on other channels
• Helping people take the next step in the buying process

So, make sure you include your link on any social profiles and relevant directories. And if your content is useful and engaging (which it should be!), make sure you reshare it on other channels, with a link back to your site. 

Create Content

Fresh content for your site (like blog articles and case studies) can certainly give you an SEO boost if you do it right. Regular website content can:

• Give you more opportunities to rank for specific keywords that you wouldn’t otherwise show up for
• Allow you to highlight (and link internally to) your products, services, or features pages
• Show search engines and users that your brand is active
• Give you (and your audience) more reasons to share your links on social media, external websites, and other channels

Consider Paid Search

At least in the beginning, paid search can be a great way to drive traffic from search engines (without having to wait for this to happen organically). You just need to allocate an ongoing budget towards it — and be willing to put some time/budget towards refining your approach. If you’re not confident with paid search, I’d suggest working with an agency that specialises in this area and can help you get the most out of your budget.

Consider Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to the activities you can do off your website that may help you signal to Google that your website is trustworthy, relevant, and worth a higher position in search results. In simple terms, if more websites (that are high quality and relevant) link to pages on your website, it can help your website rank higher in search. This should happen naturally if you create valuable content and pages on your website that others want to link to — but this can take a long time.

There are more proactive strategies you can use to speed up the process of acquiring backlinks, but I’d encourage you to tread carefully here — you could do more harm than good if Google thinks you’re being dodgy. Off-page SEO tactics designed to manipulate search results might give you an initial boost, but tank your results long-term. So, if you engage an SEO agency that specialises in this area, do your research carefully and make sure their techniques are above board. 

Organic Traffic Will Come

Let’s wrap this up with one key takeaway… if you’ve done all the right things, you have every reason to expect that organic SEO traffic will come!

It’ll take time. It’ll take work. But if you’re patient, you can expect your work to pay off. In time, organic search traffic could well become your best and most consistent source of relevant leads, referrals, and new customers.

And I reckon that’s well worth the wait!