In part two, we get you started with On Page SEO practices. When looking to start a new website, or even redesign an old one, it can be confusing

1. SEO Steps For a New Website Part 1
By Mike Gracia in Featured
In part one of this guide, we cover everything from domain names, through to carrying out the research
needed to prepare for On Page SEO. In part two, we get you started with On Page SEO practices.
When looking to start a new website, or even redesign an old one, it can be confusing. There is a
seemingly limitless amount of search engine optimization info on the web these days for any budding
webmaster; however there is a problem…
The vast majority of the advice will be contradictory, and another percentage will be out of date.
This guide should hopefully provide some help. Rather than focus on any single SEO point, we will
cover all the main points, giving a brief overview. This is in no way meant to be a complete guide to
everything regarding On Page SEO, such a guide would be of a ridiculous size. This is just a step by
step guide to covering the basics of SEO. Pretty much any one of the topics below deserves a whole
article on their own, however we do not really have that much space, so please forgive anything you
feel we have missed out here.
When we think of SEO, it pays to remember that like most things, balance is the key. There are lots of
variables to be looked at, especially with On Page SEO. It would be hard, and not really necessary to
build your site solely for On Page SEO scores. In fact, Google would more than likely frown on the site,
especially these days!
Instead, try to realize that with ethical SEO, when we are carrying out On Page optimization we are not
actually trying to trick Google (or any other search engine for that matter!) All we are really trying to do
is make it easy for Google to discover the topic/subject of our website and its pages, and thus decide
when it should appear in its results.
Step 1) Domain Names.
There is a lot of debate on this is the SEO world. Should you choose a domain name that is relevant
and memorable, or one that has lots of keywords in it?
Whilst it is widely believed that having key terms in your domain name is a good idea in terms of SEO,
it is not essential. In most instances, an easy to remember and short domain is best. It would probably
pay for both SEO and also brand recognition for you to have a name that sounds relevant to your
website, and is easy to remember.
Regarding what TLD (Top Level Domain) is best, many say .com extension sites will rank easier than,
say, .info domains. What I would say here is that if you value your site, go for a decent TLD. Cheaper
domains may give the impression to your visitors that you dont really value your site, as you are not
prepared to spend $10 (or £) per year on your name!
One thing worth considering is that there is evidence that geo targeted TLDs work well, so if you are
targeting solely the UK for example, a .co.uk domain may well be a good idea. That said, do try to be
SEO Steps For a New Website Part 1 - 1

2. future proof and consider buying the .com and .net versions of your domain. If nothing else it helps to
stop other people buying other TLD versions of your domain when you are successful, with the aim of
relieving you of $$$ in exchange for the domain!
2) Plan Your Content Pages
The next step would be to plan out your pages, and what you want on them. No need to actually make
the pages or write the content at this stage… just plan the topic of the pages.
Be sure to plan for a contact us page, a privacy statement page, and ideally a sitemap page. (HTML
Sitemap, not to be confused with an xml sitemap which is meant to be submitted to Google).
Try to focus your pages subject matter as much as possible, to help them be relevant. So, for example,
if you run a Garage that services cars, motorbike and trucks, and also sells spare parts for vehicles,
and does race tuning, plan a page for each of these services.
3) Plan Your Keywords.
Next, take a look at the pages you have planned, have a brainstorm and scribble down on a bit of
paper they keyterms you feel to be relevant to your site… Dont think single words here, think keyterms.
Try to scribble down about 5 TERMS for each of your pages (inc. homepage) For Example “motorbike
race tuning” is one term, despite being 3 words.
Next, check out your competition. What words do they use in their meta keywords? (View page source
and check for [meta name="keywords" content="(keywords are here) "] This is the meta keywords the
webmaster has set for this page. The meta keyword tag is thought by many to be unimportant these
days, especially for Google optimization, but it is a good place to look to check your competitions
keyterms. It is said that Yahoo still uses the meta keyword tag.
Whilst on your competitions page(s), look at the browser title (you know, the very top bar of the
browser, usually blue) See what words they use here as, if they know what they are doing, they will
have at least some of their main key terms in here). If you are struggling to understand where to find
the title, view the source code again, and look for <title> </title> this is the title tag, and we are looking
to see what is between those 2 tags.
Write down your competitions key terms for pages that are similar in topic to your pages. Write this next
to the words you thought of yourself.
Next, go to the Google adwords keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
). Paste or type in the key terms you wrote down in the previous stages, using the keywords for one
page at a time (so, for example, motorbike race tuning, and all its associated/scribbled down key
terms). Make sure you have 1 key term per line.
One note here, many people may forget or not even realize this, but the tool I am showing your here
needs to be configured to be focused on your countries results… so, look for “Results are tailored to
…” and set it to your target audience. (UK or USA etc)
SEO Steps For a New Website Part 1 - 2

3. Next, enter the captcha code, and click “Get keyword ideas”… but Wait… we are not there yet…you
should look for the words “Match Type:“, at the top right hand corner of the table, and set it to “Exact”.
This will help ensure we dont get disappointed by expecting too high a search volume for a given key
term.
The resulting table will give you the average search volume. Now, this is a free tool made for Google
adwords users… so it is meant only as a guide. For true accuracy, a premium service such as word
tracker should be used, but this data IS helpful, and the vast majorities of people tend to be happy with
the results, so long as you ensure all the variables for country and match type and correctly configured.
If you click on the term: “Approx Avg Search Volume Help“, you will be able to sort the terms by this
field/result.
Try to find key terms with over 1000 average searches per month. Make a list of the terms with a higher
search volume than this and type them into Google. Check the number of results for the term (Look for
the words: Results 1 10 of about: below the search box on the results pages, on the right of it)
If your website is relatively new, try to focus on terms that have less than 1 million results.
Once you have made a chart with all this data (did I say that bit right? make sure you write all these
results down!) Choose your key terms for each page. When trying to decide which key terms to use, the
overriding factor should be relevancy.
Save your keyword tables, you are going to need it in part 2 of this guide… Coming Soon!
About the Author:
Mike Gracia works for kingpin-seo, an SEO consultancy focused on ethical and cutting edge SEO
techniques. Kingpin-seo also run a Google News approve Press Release agency, offering professional
Press Release Distribution.
SEO Steps For a New Website Part 1 - 3