Introduction
In this article, we’re gonna take a look at how you can create the ultimate SEO plan for a new website.
A lot of people tend to think of SEO as just this big (sometimes scary) singular thing. But it’s actually made up of several smaller elements.
If your SEO plan doesn’t focus on these smaller elements, you’re gonna end up with an SEO strategy that isn’t gonna produce maximum profits.
Luckily, this article is gonna cover what these elements are. And how you can create a complete SEO plan that takes everything into account.
Now, of course, if you have even just a little bit of experience with SEO, you might think that you already have this stuff figured out — and you might even think you can go in all guns blazing without the need for a plan.
Of course, that could definitely be true — but SEO is pretty complicated — even for me.
Plus, even if you do have a plan, there’s a good chance it might be ignoring some of the things we’re gonna cover here — especially the stuff in section four.
Because of this, no matter what your level of experience is, I really recommend you stick around until the end of this article.
Odds are you’ll learn something new — and if you don’t — you can always leave me an angry all-caps message in the comments!
Let’s begin!
Phase #1 — Doing Keyword Research
The first thing you wanna focus on when creating an SEO plan is actually doing some keyword research.
After all, the keywords you’re gonna focus on will impact a lot of the other stuff you’re gonna do later on.
There are many different ways you can find keywords for your campaigns.
One really simple method is to use the “auto-suggest” feature on Google. With this method, you’re just gonna type in a general keyword related to your niche.
For instance, if we’re in the fishing niche, we could just type in something like “fishing tips for” and we’re gonna see a bunch of really useful suggestions.
These are all good keyword ideas. And so if you’re using this approach, you might wanna create a Google Sheet, where you can just note these keywords down.
Of course, if you use this “keyword generation method,” you don’t really have much data.
I mean, autosuggest doesn’t really give you search volume data. And it’s also kinda hard to predict which keyword produces the best ROI.
You also can’t really tell which keywords are the most competitive (which is actually really important and something we’re gonna touch on later)
Because of this, you might wanna consider using the Google Keyword Planner.
This is a free tool from Google designed for people that want to run AdWords ads.
Now, even though it’s designed for AdWords, it’s actually really helpful for SEO. Because it provides keyword suggestions based on how people are using Google.
For example, if I just use the “fishing tips for” keyword we used earlier, you can see how this tool works.
As you can see, it throws out a bunch of keywords related to this initial keyword.
All of these keywords are useful targets for someone that is looking to build a site in this niche. On top of that, each suggestion comes with search volume data, as well as CPC data.
This CPC data is really helpful. Because it can help us figure out which keywords are going to be the most profitable.
Just for clarification — generally, the higher the CPC, the more profitable a certain keyword is gonna be.
Now, if you wanna take your keyword research to the next level, you might wanna consider using something like Ahrefs.
This is a ‘paid’ SEO tool, and they have a lot of really good keyword data.
When you enter a keyword into this tool, it’ll provide you with a ton of information. These are based on the keyword you’ve entered, such as search volume and CPC data.
It’ll also provide you with keyword ideas that are based on the initial keyword you typed in.
Of course, that’s all really cool — but the really interesting thing here is that Ahrefs will also provide you with something known as a “keyword difficulty score.”
This is basically a score that helps you figure out how hard it’s gonna be to rank for a certain keyword — so, the higher the score, the more difficult it’ll be.
If you’re dealing with a new site, you might just wanna focus on keywords that don’t have a very high keyword difficulty score.
This could help you land some early wins. And then once your site begins to build some authority. You can think about focusing on keywords that have a higher difficulty rating.
By the way, you can always take keywords you’ve discovered with the other methods we’ve mentioned here and put them into Ahrefs.
If you do that, you can then get data on these keywords as well. And this can then help you create a solid keyword strategy that draws data from multiple sources.
Ok, so that’s pretty much a quick insight into how you can do some keyword research. Next, we’re gonna look at how you can go about planning your content.
Phase #2 — Planning Out Content
Right, so the next thing you’re gonna want to focus on here is actually planning out the content for your site.
To be honest, once you’ve identified some worthwhile keywords for your site. Planning out the content side of your website shouldn’t be that hard.
After all, your content strategy will mostly be focused on the keywords you’re gonna go after.
So, once you’ve got your keywords, you really just need to create a content publishing schedule based on these keywords. And then actually stick to this schedule.
Now, keep in mind that, sometimes, your approach to link building can have a big impact on how you go about content creation.
For example, suppose you’re gonna build links using the Skyscraper method (something we’ll touch on later).
If you’re gonna go down this route, you’ll need to focus on creating an amazing piece of content that is worthy of links.
This single piece of content might be very difficult to create. And it could take a lot more time to create when compared to your other pieces of content.
After all, your “standard content” that targets keywords might only take a couple of days to produce. This Skyscraper content, though, might end up taking a couple of weeks!
So, if you’re gonna use a method like this, you need to factor this in. Especially if you’re dealing with limited resources when it comes to creating content.
If you don’t do this, you might end up falling behind your content schedule.
On top of that, if you’re gonna do something like resource page link-building. You might need to create some content that doesn’t actually focus on any of the keywords you’re targeting.
Again, if you’re looking to target a certain number of keywords within a given time frame, this is something you need to keep in mind.
So, because of the things we’ve just mentioned here, some people like to plan out content, only after they’ve thought about how they’re gonna build links. You might want to do this if you feel like it is a good approach for you.
Now, ideally, you want to build links and publish content at the same time. After all, it’ll be much easier for you to build links if your site has lots of content on a topic and looks like an authority.
…I mean nobody really wants to link to a site that just has one or two articles on it.
Of course, managing both of these things at the same time can be a bit stressful.
So, if you’re feeling a little squeezed here, you might wanna consider hiring a writer.
If you do this, you can just give them the titles you’ve developed based on your keyword research, and you can then focus on other things.
By the way, if you’d like some advice on how you can outsource SEO content creation check out this video of mine.
Phase #3 — Planning Out Links
Once you’ve gotten your head around keywords and content, you then need to think about how you’re gonna build links.
There are literally hundreds of ways you can build links to your site, and everyone tends to have their own favorite method.
Ideally, you don’t wanna be in a position where you’re bouncing around from one link-building tactic to another every week or so.
Instead, you might just wanna identify, and then go all-in on, 1 or 2 link-building strategies that are a good fit for you.
If you focus on a couple of methods, you can then master them and increase your odds of building links.
Earlier, we touched upon something known as the Skyscraper method, and this is a tactic I really like.
It’s great because using this approach, you can create content, and build links at the same time.
This is really powerful because you’re essentially using two different techniques to boost your traffic at the same time.
I mean, you’re creating content that will rank and attract visitors. And you’re also building links that’ll boost the overall traffic of your site.
In fact, one of our clients managed to double their traffic in four months using this strategy.
By the way, we actually specialize in this approach. So if you’d like us to help you with this kind of thing, consider booking a free consultation call with us at juliangoldie.com!
…Anyway, as mentioned, the Skyscraper method is just one of the link-building options you can choose from.
Whether you pick this method or another one, you just need to make sure you put some time aside each day/week to actually act on the strategy you’ve chosen.
After all, the best method in the world won’t count for much, if you don’t actually put the work in!
Now, of course, when you’re starting out with a new site, getting your first couple of links can be a bit hard. As people might be a bit wary of linking to you.
But, you can’t let this stop you. As you’ll need to push through if you want to end up with a profitable site!
Phase#4 — Setting Your Site up For Success
Finally, you just wanna make sure you’re actually setting your site up for success.
Right, so what does this actually mean?
Well, you want to make sure your site doesn’t have any glaring user experience and technical issues that might hurt its performance and make it difficult to use.
When it comes to user experience, there are a few things you need to pay attention to
For one, you need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
Lots of people access websites on a mobile device. And if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re gonna be missing out on a lot of visitors.
Plus, Google tends to index the mobile version of websites, before it indexes the desktop version of a website.
This basically means that you could experience much lower rankings if you don’t have a mobile version of your site.
Luckily, you can fix this issue relatively easily by just installing WordPress and using a mobile-friendly theme.
You also want to make sure your website doesn’t take a long time to load pages. Fortunately, Google has a tool called ‘PageSpeed Insights.”
If you provide that tool with your URL. It’ll analyze the speed of your site, and it’ll then give you suggestions on how you can make things better.
You might also wanna make sure you’re using plugins that are designed to help with various SEO issues.
For example, you might wanna install a plugin that compresses images so that your website loads quickly.
You might also wanna install something like Yoast SEO so that your content is properly optimized.
Lastly, you might just wanna make sure your site actually looks appealing and professional. This might sound like a small detail, but it’s actually kinda important.
After all, if your site doesn’t look that good, people might not be that comfortable with linking to it.
Plus, if your site doesn’t look appealing, visitors might have doubts about actually reading the content on your site. As they might question how trustworthy the content actually is.
Phase #5 — Monetization
Monetization is a bit of a tricky thing to talk about here. Because different types of sites require different approaches to monetization.
Ideally, you should try to have a rough sense of how you’re gonna monetize your site quite early on.
This will then help you create a plan that moves you in the direction of actually being able to earn an income from your site.
On top of that, knowing how you’re gonna monetize your site will also help you figure out which keywords you need to focus on in the long term.
Now, in some cases, it will be pretty obvious how you’re gonna monetize your site.
For example, if you have an ecommerce site, you’re most likely gonna sell products. If you’re running a service business, you’re gonna sell your services.
However, if you just have a general blog. You might not really know which path you should go down when it comes to monetization.
If you’re in this boat, you might just wanna look at what your competitors are doing.
You don’t have to monetize your site in the same way as them. But you can often use their methods as inspiration for your own site.
Plus, something to keep in mind here, is that you can always adjust your approach to monetization at any point.
So, if you’re not happy with one approach, there’s really nothing stopping you from changing course.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you should now have a strong understanding of how you can create a solid SEO plan for a new website.
When you’re just starting out with a new site, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed.
After all, there’s a lot of stuff we’ve covered in this video, and it can all amount to a pretty massive to-do list.
If you’re feeling this way, just try to take things one step at a time.
And if you consistently focus on one thing at a time. You’re gonna be able to tick things off at a steady pace — and before you know it, you’ll have a solid SEO plan that’ll help you build a hugely profitable site. videos, where I do deep dives on some of the topics I touched on today.
