Do you remember the time when only a website for your business was considered a benchmark of success? Yes, me neither. Today, having a website means nothing. It’s not even a drop in a digital ocean where there are 1.09 billion websites. Here, more websites get lost than created. Nowadays, going live with your website is a fraction of the job. You’ve done that, kudos. Now comes the bigger question: how to rank a new website.
Ranking a website on search engines is like being the person who brings snacks to a movie night. If you show up with everyone’s favorite popcorn, you’ll be the hero of the evening, and everyone will gather around you. But if you bring something like celery sticks, you might find yourself sitting alone on the couch. To be in the middle of the action, you need to bring the right snacks—or, in this case, rank high enough so everyone knows you’ve got what they want!
But if the answer to how to rank a new website on Google was as simple as which snacks to take to a movie, then everyone would be ranking on the first page in Google’s search results. But that is not happening. In this blog, we will look into the strategies that a new website should follow to rank higher on search engines.
How to rank a new website on Google
Here are some quick tips for you to grab the top spot for your new website.
1. Starting from Scratch: Keyword Research Strategies
Keyword research is the first step in the process of ranking a website on Google. It is because of the way the search engine is structured. It matches the users’ queries with the relevant words in a website’s content and the closest match shows up higher in the results. By targeting these keywords, you can improve the chances of your website appearing in SERPs when people search for those terms.
Brainstorm Core keywords
With a new website, you should start by researching the most fundamental terms related to your website’s topic. For example, if your website is an e-commerce store that sells shoes, your core keywords might be “shoes,” “sneakers,” “boots,” “sandals,” “athletic footwear,” etc.
Core keywords are also called seed keywords and once you have identified your core keywords, turn them into long-tail keywords so that they match with the users’ queries. Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that include your core keywords and additional modifiers. For example, if “shoes” or “boots” is a core keyword, long-tail keywords could be “women’s running shoes,” “men’s leather boots,” “affordable sneakers,” “vegan leather sandals,” “waterproof hiking boots,” etc.
Utilize Keyword Research Tools
You can make use of keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Ubersuggest for keyword suggestions based on your seed keywords, along with data on search volume, competition, and trends.
Choose keywords that have a reasonable search volume—enough to bring in traffic but not so high that the competition is overwhelming. You should also evaluate how difficult it would be to rank for each keyword. For a new website, it’s often better to target lower-difficulty, long-tail keywords (specific, multi-word phrases) that are less competitive.
2. On-Page SEO
The answer to ‘how to rank a new website on Google faster’ is on-page SEO. A well-optimized website is like any drink on the Starbucks menu. They’re just too hard to resist.
Optimized Content
A fully on-page SEO-optimized website would have content that includes target keywords naturally. Produce high-quality, valuable, and appealing content that addresses the search intent of your target audience, and make sure your content is relevant to your chosen keywords and provides value to users.
Well-optimized content is divided into title tags, meta descriptions, and headers.
Title tag: It appears in search results. Due to limited character space on SERP, title tags should be concise and incorporate your target keyword.
Meta description: It is a short summary of your page’s content. It should make users click on your link and include your target keyword.
Header Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.): These tags are used to structure your content and make it easier for both search engines and users to understand. The H1 tag is typically the main title of your page and should include your target keyword.
Image Optimization
On-page optimization also includes image optimization. It basically means that your images should be of the correct dimension and not very heavy in size. By doing that, you can lessen the image load time and speed up your website.
Also, use descriptive file names for all your images and include alt text to describe the image content and improve accessibility.
If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, take advantage of SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to help with on-page optimization.
3. Technical SEO
As the name shows, technical optimization works on a deeper and more complex level to ensure that your website functions smoothly and loads faster. Simply put, technical SEO makes it easier for websites to crawl your content and rank it.
Website Structure and Architecture
Ensure that search engines can access and crawl all important pages on your site. Avoid dead ends where search engines can’t follow links to other content. It is also important for your website to be structured in a way that makes sense to both users and search engines. Use a clear hierarchy with categories, subcategories, and individual pages. Create SEO-friendly URLs that are descriptive, short, and include relevant keywords. Avoid the usage of long strings of numbers or random characters.
Mobile-First Optimization
The answer to the question ‘how to rank a new website’ is mobile optimization. Today, most searches are made through mobile phones, and your website is as good as useless if it doesn’t seamlessly load on smaller screens.
Your website’s design should be responsive, meaning it adjusts to fit different screen sizes, especially mobile devices. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to verify your website’s mobile compatibility.
Page Speed Optimization
This is another important aspect of technical SEO. It is done by reducing the image size, simplifying coding, and using caches. Make sure to reduce the file size of images without compromising quality and remove unnecessary characters (like whitespace) from CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files. You should also leverage browser caching to store static assets locally, thus reducing loading times.
XML Sitemap and Robot.txt
Now, we are entering more depths of technical SEO. These terms are complicated, I agree but if you want to learn how to rank a new website on Google, you will have to understand them. An XML sitemap is a list of all your website’s URLs that you submit to Google Search Console. This helps search engines comprehend your website’s structure and ensures all pages are indexed.
A robots.txt file manages which pages or parts of your website search engines should or should not crawl. It is basically a gateway into your website, which you should implement. However, it is important to ensure that you’re not accidentally blocking important pages (like your homepage or blog posts) from being crawled.
Website security
This is the most important aspect of technical SEO. A secure website has a higher possibility of ranking among the top SERP results.
SSL Certificate: Obtain and install an SSL certificate to shift your site from HTTP to HTTPS. This encrypts data between the server and the user, enhancing security.
HTTPS as a Ranking Factor: Google treats HTTPS as a ranking signal, so securing your website can give you a boost in search rankings. It is an official Google ranking factor, and the search engine takes it very seriously. To secure your website, you can obtain and install an SSL certificate to switch your site from HTTP to HTTPS. This encrypts data between the server and the user, enhancing security.
4. Link Building
Link building is an effective practice of obtaining high-quality incoming links to your site from other authoritative websites. It’s a crucial aspect of SEO, as search engines consider backlinks as a signal of a website’s authority and relevance.
Creating quality content that is useful, informative, and shareable is a sure-shot way of getting other websites to link to your website. This could be blog posts, infographics, videos, guides, or original research.
When trying to acquire backlinks, remember that the quality of the website linking to you is more important than the quantity. Backlinks from reputable, authoritative websites carry more weight. Backlinks from sites related to your industry or niche are more valuable, and the text used to anchor the link should be relevant to your website’s content and have your target keywords.
A new website should definitely leverage the power of social media to promote its content and acquire backlinks. Distribute your content across social media channels to increase visibility. The more people who see and share your content, the higher the chance it will be linked to others. Responding to messages and comments to develop relationships with your followers and taking part in online communities and forums linked to your industry are also some of the ways you can promote your content on social media.
Another thing you must do is to identify broken links on other websites using online tools. These could be links to pages that no longer exist or have moved. Once you have identified them, contact the website owner and politely suggest replacing the broken link with a link to your relevant content.
5. The importance of user experience
A good user experience (UX) in terms of a new website means that the site is easy to navigate and offers value to its users.
Start by researching your target audience and create detailed user personas that outline their needs, preferences, and behaviors. You can conduct surveys, interviews, or competitor analysis to understand what your audience expects from a website like yours.
Based on the input, design a simple, logical menu that categorizes content in an easy-to-understand manner. Avoid cluttering the navigation bar with too many options. You should also implement breadcrumbs to help users understand where they are on the site and how to navigate back to previous pages.
In terms of design, use a consistent color scheme, typography, and layout across all pages to create a cohesive look and feel. Don’t overcrowd your pages; use whitespace to make content more readable and to focus users’ attention on key elements. Organize content with clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make it easy to scan.
The most important question
The process of optimizing a new website for it to grab a top spot in search engine results is long and the progress is often slow. While you are working hard on SEO, you are bound to think about how long does it take Google to rank a new website.
In this last part, we will answer this question.
Ranking a new website on search engines typically could take anything from two months to a year. This time can vary for websites, and it is based on factors like industry keyword difficulty, competition, and the quality of your SEO efforts. Consistent optimization and quality content can help speed up the process.
So, the answer to the question of how long does it take to rank a new website depends on how well-crafted your SEO strategy is. A good plan, which is based on competitors’ analysis and audience feedback and incorporates SEO best practices, is bound to give better results earlier than an SEO effort without a plan.
Conclusion
If anyone tells you they have a shortcut to rank your new website high on search engines soon, don’t believe them. The hard truth is that this is a long process that takes time before you can see results. What you could do is set clear goals and use result-oriented strategies to achieve them. Stick to a plan and you yourself will get an answer to the question: how to rank a new website.
