Starting SEO for your Existing Website - Where Do I Begin?
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Even if you have enough time or money to integrate SEO into your online strategy after your website is live, you may feel overwhelmed if you’re learning about SEO two days after the site’s launch. As with website development, SEO encompasses many different components including keyword discovery and research, optimization of the site itself, search engine submission and link placement and (in an ideal world) ongoing site updates and content creation. It can indeed be a daunting task to confront each of these issues soon after you’ve conquered the challenge of the site build and launch. Again, don’t panic! Here are a few things to consider that may make the task at hand much more palatable.
- Remember, you are the expert in your industry. Just because you did not build your website with SEO in mind does not mean that it isn’t search engine friendly or that the content isn’t keyword rich and valuable. Spend some time reviewing what you’ve already done and create a wish list of things that you could do to enhance the asset you’ve already created. Most people will not need to start from scratch when it comes to SEO even if they are just learning about it at the end of the web development timeline.
- You probably already have the resources to implement basic SEO including web developers (either in-house or via a vendor partner), a good copywriter and the drive to learn the basics of SEO via Websites such as www.seochat.com and www.searchenginewatch.com. As stated, you can start by optimizing just a few pages of your website and build a case for more in-depth optimization when time and money permit.
- It can take up to 8-10 months for brand new domains to rank well in Google and other search engines after site launch. This gives you quite a window of time to build an SEO strategy for your new website and begin implementation of SEO tactics. Basically, your website’s not going anywhere anytime soon, so relax, take a deep breath, and read a bit more about SEO instead of going into panic mode.
- You can build inbound links the minute your website is launched, so at the very least, consider a link building strategy even as you contemplate how to approach on-page optimization. The same resources that discuss the basics of SEO also provide direction about link building strategies. You can also learn a lot by lurking and posting on the popular SEO forums including SEOchat.com’s own forum, Highrankings.com, Searchenginewatch.com and others.
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