If you've just created a website, it’s important to know what steps to take before its official launch so you set yourself up for success. Far too many businesses take the leap without first assessing what needs to be done in order to rank high in search engines and get noticed by the right audience.
The key is in properly optimizing your website for search engines so you can be sure your content gets the attention it deserves. When it comes to SEO, there are a few key things you should do to get the best results and reach success, including the following:
- Creating an optimized Coming Soon page
- Optimizing for mobile users
- Increasing site speed
- Using long-tail keywords
- Creating an XML sitemap
Here is more on the different ways you can use SEO to your advantage before even officially launching your website.
1. Create an optimized Coming Soon page.
Did you know it's completely possible to build an email list and a loyal following before your website’s official launch? If more marketers knew and took advantage of this, they'd start way ahead of the game before ever making a sale.
If you can decide who your target market is and what interests them enough to hand over their valuable information, you're already on your way to earning loyal visitors. With this information in hand, you can create an optimized Coming Soon page that collects email addresses and other details you need to boost your lead generation and engage with your audience.
Based on your niche and industry, add researched keywords to your Coming Soon page so Google can crawl your new website and make it easy for your target audience to find you. Use this opportunity to build your brand. To set the right tone, be sure to use the right images and visual content.
How exactly do you go about creating a Coming Soon page that people are excited to engage with? You could use a handy tool like SeedProd to be the face of your website so that every time someone visits, they see that your site is almost ready for the world to see. They can stay in tune with the official launch date and look forward to it so that when the day arrives, they're ready to engage with and consume your content.
Get your visitors excited for your upcoming website by adding a countdown timer so they know exactly when it happens and can tune in as soon as the time comes.
2. Optimize for mobile.
In the U.S. alone, 81% of the population owns a smartphone, while 96% own a cell phone, according to Pew Research Center. These devices make it easy to surf the web anywhere and at any time, which is why it's essential that your website is optimized for mobile devices. If not, you're neglecting a high percentage of people who use their smart devices to visit your website and engage with your content.
Test your website on mobile devices to make sure that anyone viewing your content from devices other than a desktop have a seamless, positive user experience. Google's Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you if it caters to mobile audiences or not so you can make changes where necessary and not risk losing potential followers.
3. Increase site speed.
Garnering and keeping a loyal following is about giving them a positive UX. A huge part of this is making sure your website doesn't lag and loads quickly. Few things are more irritating than visiting a website only for the loading time to take what feels like forever. It’s not fun for users and will cause them to bounce right off the webpage.
Research by Google found that 53% of users will abandon a page if it takes three seconds or longer to load. If that doesn't sound like a whole lot of time, it's because it’s not. You have three seconds to make a positive, lasting impression on new visitors. Those few seconds will determine whether or not they stick around for your site's launch. Don't disappoint by making them wait longer than they have to.
Use Google's PageSpeed Insights to test the speed of your website and make sure it isn't so long that users abandon the page and decide to take their business elsewhere. Compress your image files so they load faster on the page. Enable browser caching so that your browser can load your webpages without sending another HTTP request to the server. These are just a few steps you can take to get rid of potential lag on your website.
4. Use long-tail keywords.
Earlier we talked about incorporating keywords into your Coming Soon page to be noticed by your target audience. This can include many different types of keywords, but for the most part, you want to pay attention to long-tail keywords to give your site any chance of ranking in search engines. This is because specific content is more likely to bring you an audience within your niche that's responsive, active and engaged. Anything too broad will bring you the wrong people who aren't nearly as invested in your content.
When someone uses a long-tail keyword in search, they already know what they're after. If your website is one of the first they see, there's a good chance they'll click through and engage. That's why it’s so important to conduct keyword research relevant to your audience and their needs.
In a recent case study, Neil Patel was able to increase the qualified visitors to his website by 91% just by using long-tail keywords in his content. By consistently posting in-depth content surrounding these keywords, he saw a surge in organic traffic. Even though your website hasn't officially launched, you can still incorporate these key phrases into your Coming Soon webpage and landing pages so that can still garner a sizable amount of traffic.
5. Create an XML sitemap.
To increase the chances of your target audience finding your content, you want to make it as easy as possible for Google to crawl your website and index it within its search engine. Without Google's crawlers, which are responsible for reading your content and deciding where it should rank in its search engine, it would be extremely difficult to get your content in front of the right audience.
For the content that's going to be published on your website, it's important to create an XML sitemap. This is a list of all the URLs that make up your site. They make it easy for crawlers to index your website and organize its information accordingly. It's best to do this prelaunch, as you'll continue adding to your content as time goes on. This will help keep you on track.
If you aren't implementing SEO tactics into your website before its official launch, you're losing out on many potential conversions that your business could use to reach success faster. Pay attention to all the ways you can incorporate it into your conversion strategy so you're able to increase your organic traffic, collect email addresses and jumpstart engagement.