New Site Checklist

cc976a · 06-02-2012, 10:41:54 PM

Does anyone have checklist of sites or a process you follow to help gain a search engine listing for a brand new site - and start getting on to the SERPs, get the first few backlinks and some traffic through the door?

Thought it might be a good idea to start a thread giving some help to the new and some new tricks and ideas to the more established

My couple are:

1. Add a sitemap and submit to G

2. Start a �5-10 CPC campaign on Adwords (I've seen better rankings on sites I advertised initially than ones I didn't - be good if anyone can share their own analysis on this)

3. Get listed on Splut.com

Anyone else care to share....

cc976a · 09-02-2012, 11:41:34 AM

No one?.....thought it may take a while to get this going

boxfish · 09-02-2012, 11:59:26 AM

I usually just start adding content. By the time I have a decent amount on then the site is usually indexed. I think this is down to using Wordpress and it sends pings every time you post.

I then leave it before I start looking at getting links, which vary depending on the type of site it is.

I don't submit anything to G, don't use adwords on most sites and don't even know what Splut is.

I don't see the point in doing too much at the start, I would rather just get the content indexed and leave it sat for a while.

VSC · 09-02-2012, 02:29:57 PM

HTML sitemap
XML sitemap http://xsitemap.com
Text sitemap (Yahoo)
RSS feed http://www.rssgenerator.net

Solid onsite SEO.

Ping when first online - then wait.

Once pages start being indexed, tweak.

MASSEY · 13-02-2012, 11:45:25 PM

Adwords has no affect on your rank.

Sitemaps are only needed for huges sites that can't link to all the deep pages so well from the valuable pages on the site.

And splut.com is a place to get a link, not the best to get indexed straight away.

The way to get a new site in the serps quick is to publish a page of decent content on the site, then use one of your other sites that has been indexed for a while and publish a blog post linking to the new site. You have brought it to the attention of google then and it will index accordingly, not always straight away.

alex · 14-02-2012, 08:06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MASSEY

Adwords has no affect on your rank.

Sitemaps are only needed for huges sites that can't link to all the deep pages so well from the valuable pages on the site.

I feel it never hurts to get the Sitemap in there, however many pages the site has. Also, with regards to adwords I find my sites generally rank better when using adwords. If anything, new pages are indexed more quickly.

The steps I use are as follows:

1) Ensure site/new page follows a good logical structure (i.e. CSS/style.css; images/generic/image1.png; products/category1/product1.php etc). Also good to use a descriptive file name e.g. red-parker-pen.php. Many argue that using '-' is better than '_', and vice versa, to seperate words in file names! My experience suggests using '-' is better than '_'. Any opinions?
2) Ensure page has good content (for best results regarding a descriptive page use approx 150-300 words of unique descriptive content that is not spammed with keywords).
3) ensure correct use of h1,h2 tags etc. Use correct html tags rather than 'creating them' with CSS. CSS is there to style, not replace! Make sure CSS is in external file.
4) Get the SERPs right first time - devise good META title/descriptions. be specific to the page, not the site as a whole.
5) META keywords - generally considered to have little effect, but surely helps some sites/databases etc so I do it as part of the routine. Choose maybe 10 good and specific keywords.

*Upload Site/Page*

6) Create Sitemap.xml that truly reflects update frequency etc. This is important since in my experience Google et al seem to really appreciate this information.
7) robots.txt

submit to webmaster tools etc
9) If selling products then set up a feed in Google Merchant Centre.
10) Site-specific privacy policy.

*Then tinker*

11) Investigate appropriate internal linking structure and use link title tags for more description.
12) As much JavaScript as possible in external files (use as little JavaScript as possible as a rule).
13) use most size effective image file sizes at 72dpi. Only use images where code won't do it because keeping load time down is important!

*Then off-site SEO begins*

14) Social Media and feeds
15) Adwords etc.
16) Blog posts. Do not spam, do not rush! no-follow is just as good as do-follow links! This assumes you are of course playing a long term game where you wish to receive quality traffic rather than make a quick buck!
17) Link Building, but don't go crazy! This is a gradual process and I find it's better to receive links from 10 industry-specific sites than 100 free databases etc.
1

Sign up to review sites if appropriate. After 30 reviews you get the star ratings in Adwords and it instils trust.

I would say don't get all stressed out with low Page Rank scores, if you're getting TARGETED traffic and are ranking well for your keywords who cares how much traffic you receive. I always say it's better to get 50-100 quality hits per day than 1000 that are not of your target market. EDIT: To clarify this point of course traffic volume is important, but targeted traffic is better than masses of irrelevant traffic.

Also, don't stop once done. Regularly add pages and tweak if appropriate to improve quality. It's better to have many pages of quality interlinking content than a few full of information that could be seperated.

This is what has worked for me, but I would certainly love to hear your opinions since approaches vary and although this has worked, I'm sure there are better ways of doing it! Anyway I hope it helps.

VSC · 14-02-2012, 09:10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

I feel it never hurts to get the Sitemap in there, however many pages the site has. Also, with regards to adwords I find my sites generally rank better when using adwords. If anything, new pages are indexed more quickly.

The steps I use are as follows:

1) Ensure site/new page follows a good logical structure (i.e. CSS/style.css; images/generic/image1.png; products/category1/product1.php etc). Also good to use a descriptive file name e.g. red-parker-pen.php. Many argue that using '-' is better than '_', and vice versa, to seperate words in file names! My experience suggests using '-' is better than '_'. Any opinions?
2) Ensure page has good content (for best results regarding a descriptive page use approx 150-300 words of unique descriptive content that is not spammed with keywords).
3) ensure correct use of h1,h2 tags etc. Use correct html tags rather than 'creating them' with CSS. CSS is there to style, not replace! Make sure CSS is in external file.
4) Get the SERPs right first time - devise good META title/descriptions. be specific to the page, not the site as a whole.
5) META keywords - generally considered to have little effect, but surely helps some sites/databases etc so I do it as part of the routine. Choose maybe 10 good and specific keywords.

*Upload Site/Page*

6) Create Sitemap.xml that truly reflects update frequency etc. This is important since in my experience Google et al seem to really appreciate this information.
7) robots.txt

submit to webmaster tools etc
9) If selling products then set up a feed in Google Merchant Centre.
10) Site-specific privacy policy.

*Then tinker*

11) Investigate appropriate internal linking structure and use link title tags for more description.
12) As much JavaScript as possible in external files (use as little JavaScript as possible as a rule).
13) use most size effective image file sizes at 72dpi. Only use images where code won't do it.

*Then off-site SEO begins*

14) Social Media and feeds
15) Adwords etc.
16) Blog posts. Do not spam, do not rush! no-follow is just as good as do-follow links! This assumes you are of course playing a long term game where you wish to receive quality traffic rather than make a quick buck!
17) Link Building, but don't go crazy! This is a gradual process and I find it's better to receive links from 10 industry-specific sites than 100 free databases etc.
1

Sign up to review sites if appropriate. After 30 reviews you get the star ratings in Adwords and it instils trust.

I would say don't get all stressed out with low Page Rank scores, if you're getting TARGETED traffic and are ranking well for your keywords who cares how much traffic you receive. I always say it's better to get 50-100 quality hits per day than 1000 that are not of your target market. EDIT: To clarify this point of course traffic volume is important, but targeted traffic is better than masses of irrelevant traffic.

Also, don't stop once done. Regularly add pages and tweak if appropriate to improve quality. It's better to have many pages of quality interlinking content than a few full of information that could be seperated.

This is what has worked for me, but I would certainly love to hear your opinions since approaches vary and although this has worked, I'm sure there are better ways of doing it! Anyway I hope it helps.

I also always create an RSS feed, a comment script, fast loading pages.

Comment script is especially important I believe. I generally make the comments myself, but it adds interactivity to the site and makes it simple to "update" pages in the view of the search engines. The main search engines are looking for as much interactivity as possible nowadays.

alex · 14-02-2012, 09:30:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VSC

I also always create an RSS feed, a comment script, fast loading pages.
Comment script is especially important I believe. I generally make the comments myself, but it adds interactivity to the site and makes it simple to "update" pages in the view of the search engines. The main search engines are looking for as much interactivity as possible nowadays.

Really good points! I mentioned feeds and touched upon fast-loading pages by reducing images, proper mark-up etc in my post, although it maybe wasn't quite clear? What I didn't mention was comments.

Interactivity is definitely an important aspect of modern sites, but I also feel they should only be used where necessary. Naturally all sites vary and in my case for my online shops I have to be careful. For example I decided not to build a product review script because you just can't control what customers write. Including a blog with interactivity is however something I'm currently working on. I guess it comes down to specific pages and what you're trying to achieve from the site. I've used www.disqus.com which is a pretty good tool.

On a similar note pages that you want to use as a fixed point of reference, such as archived pages or fixed fact pages/descriptions etc would probably rank better if you set the update frequency in the XML Sitemap as 'never' or 'yearly' and disable comments. I find that if you inform search engines of pages that never change then they may crawl them less often, but they rank better than 'dynamic pages' that actually stay the same.

Another point I thought I'd mention regards html sitemaps. I agree in that you should use them, but I would block them from being indexed by search engines. I used to have one for griptape.co.uk and it was being ranked higher than the product pages! XML sitemaps are for search engines, html are for user navigation so it may be a point worth considering.

VSC · 14-02-2012, 09:41:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alex

Really good points! I mentioned feeds and touched upon fast-loading pages by reducing images, proper mark-up etc in my post, although it maybe wasn't quite clear? What I didn't mention was comments.

Interactivity is definitely an important aspect of modern sites, but I also feel they should only be used where necessary. Naturally all sites vary and in my case for my online shops I have to be careful. For example I decided not to build a product review script because you just can't control what customers write. Including a blog with interactivity is however something I'm currently working on. I guess it comes down to specific pages and what you're trying to achieve from the site. I've used www.disqus.com which is a pretty good tool.

On a similar note pages that you want to use as a fixed point of reference, such as archived pages or fixed fact pages/descriptions etc would probably rank better if you set the update reequency in the XML Sitemap as 'never' or 'yearly' and disable comments. I find that if you inform search engines of pages that never change then they may crawl them less often, but they rank better than 'dynamic pages' that actually stay the same.

Another point I thought I'd mention regards html sitemaps. I agree in that you should use them, but I would block them from being indexed by search engines. I used to have one for griptape.co.uk and it was being ranked higher than the product pages! XML sitemaps are for search engines, html are for user navigation so it may be a point worth considering.

This is going to turn in to a love fest - Yes, totally agree.

Comments should only be used when necessary.
What I try to do, with ecommerce sites is build a blog/comment area. It can be used to promote products, add news etc and add interactivity. Though it's not always practical - time constraints etc.

Another trap that some people fall in to is only creating backlinks to their home page. Always build backlinks to all your product/content pages. On some sites when I have a new product, I'll put out a press release, get articles out etc etc. It will increase that pages PR and traffic and overall will build the site's rep in the vire of the main search engines.

alex · 14-02-2012, 09:50:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VSC

This is going to turn in to a love fest - Yes, totally agree.

Comments should only be used when necessary.
What I try to do, with ecommerce sites is build a blog/comment area. It can be used to promote products, add news etc and add interactivity. Though it's not always practical - time constraints etc.

Another trap that some people fall in to is only creating backlinks to their home page. Always build backlinks to all your product/content pages. On some sites when I have a new product, I'll put out a press release, get articles out etc etc. It will increase that pages PR and traffic and overall will build the site's rep in the vire of the main search engines.

Haha, well at least we're agreeing. Again good points, I'd do the same. Hopefully this thread will be providing lots of information for people. That said, it's one thing knowing what to do, it's another actually putting the effort and doing it. Unfortunately success is not quickly achieved, work is ongoing and time consuming, but done right will pay off.

06-02-2012, 10:41:54 PM	#1 (permalink)
cc976a Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,301 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 32)	New Site Checklist Does anyone have checklist of sites or a process you follow to help gain a search engine listing for a brand new site - and start getting on to the SERPs, get the first few backlinks and some traffic through the door? Thought it might be a good idea to start a thread giving some help to the new and some new tricks and ideas to the more established My couple are: 1. Add a sitemap and submit to G 2. Start a �5-10 CPC campaign on Adwords (I've seen better rankings on sites I advertised initially than ones I didn't - be good if anyone can share their own analysis on this) 3. Get listed on Splut.com Anyone else care to share....

09-02-2012, 02:29:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
VSC Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: UK Posts: 537 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 21)	HTML sitemap XML sitemap http://xsitemap.com Text sitemap (Yahoo) RSS feed http://www.rssgenerator.net Solid onsite SEO. Ping when first online - then wait. Once pages start being indexed, tweak. __________________ Make a Video Website - 3D TV Deal - Make RSS Feeds - Automatic Website Translation - My Web Site Ranking - Is My Website Down? - Wholesale Supplements

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09-02-2012, 11:41:34 AM	#2 (permalink)
cc976a Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,301 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 32)	No one?.....thought it may take a while to get this going

09-02-2012, 11:59:26 AM	#3 (permalink)
boxfish Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 399 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 10)	I usually just start adding content. By the time I have a decent amount on then the site is usually indexed. I think this is down to using Wordpress and it sends pings every time you post. I then leave it before I start looking at getting links, which vary depending on the type of site it is. I don't submit anything to G, don't use adwords on most sites and don't even know what Splut is. I don't see the point in doing too much at the start, I would rather just get the content indexed and leave it sat for a while.

13-02-2012, 11:45:25 PM	#5 (permalink)
MASSEY Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Birmingham Posts: 92 No Classified Ratings Domain Trader Rating: (0% / 0)	Adwords has no affect on your rank. Sitemaps are only needed for huges sites that can't link to all the deep pages so well from the valuable pages on the site. And splut.com is a place to get a link, not the best to get indexed straight away. The way to get a new site in the serps quick is to publish a page of decent content on the site, then use one of your other sites that has been indexed for a while and publish a blog post linking to the new site. You have brought it to the attention of google then and it will index accordingly, not always straight away.