You setup a new site and did everything by the book. You did keyword research and determined the words and phrases you wanted to target. You bought a domain with your holy grail keyword/phrase in it. You designed and coded the site taking aesthetics and usability into account. You made sure everything was search engine friendly, optimized titles, metas, H1s, proper 301 redirects, etc. You wrote quality keyword-rich content, uploaded the site, created and submitted an XML site map to the engines, etc. etc. etc. Now what???
While you may get indexed within a couple of weeks (after submitting your XML sitemap of course), it could take 3 months or longer to have a shot at achieving decent search engine rankings. Age is a definitely a disadvantage in this regard as well if it was a totally new domain name and site. As with links, the engines look at the age of a domain as a factor in viewing it as an authority. What can you do in the meantime to drive traffic/sales/leads?
- Get links!!! – You can read a good primer on this in my Link Building Basics article, but this is definitely one of the most important things to do if you want to obtain decent rankings. I recommend kickstarting a link building campaign with a combination of directory listings and some paid text link ads.
- Get your name out there – Post to blogs (blog outreach), submit to forums/message boards, and use any other social media that is relevant to what you are trying to promote. Be careful not to just post commercials, you need to post something informative and relevant that can help the community. Often times, giving free information and advice is the best way to generate tangible revenue.
- PPC (Pay per click) – Pay per click, also call SEM or Search Engine Marketing, is a keyword targeted advertisement. While you do have to pay for these listings rather than organic/natural listings which are free, PPC can be a beautiful thing as long as campaigns are properly built out and the cost per conversion is tracked. The best aspect of PPC is that it is instantaneous. No need to wait for the engines to spider your site. You pay to be listed and you’re there (once your ads are approved) and everything can be tracked so you know your total spend, cost per click, and cost per conversion (lead, sale, etc.).
- Press Releases – another technique to create a buzz while providing an SEO benefit is to send out a press release. You can do this electronically through PR Web and they will distribute it to a list of media contacts. Keep in mind that the release will have to meet their guidelines and be approved, so be creative and make it newsworthy! These releases are indexed by Google and if picked up by other news sites can really help get you noticed.
- Keep building out content – depending on the type of site you are running, this could be anywhere from essential to important. Obviously if it is anything content based or a site where you require repeat visitors, you need to keep it fresh. Also, you want the spiders to see a freshly updated site where new content is added regularly. Make sure you build this content out in a strategic manner to target phrases that you want visibility on.
- Analyze statistics – this is extremely important for any site, but especially a new site. You want to look at your analytics to see if there are any usability issues, what marketing efforts are working and what aren’t, and when you do get indexed, what phrases are bringing you traffic. You may be surprised and find that you are getting traffic for phrases you didn’t target and not getting traffic for the ones you targeted. This may open the door to some opportunities or may require you to go back to the drawing board.
One key thing to keep in mind is make sure you have a reasonable sample before making snap judgments. If you’ve only had a handful of people come to your site, don’t make the assumption that their behavior is indicative of a trend, especially if they all came from a single source! - Monitor competition/industry – this should always be an ongoing task. Keep abreast of your industry by signing up to Google Alerts – they will notify you of any stories related to a keyphrase you submit. Make sure you always monitor your competition! Think of it this way, if you were fighting a war wouldn’t you rather have a satellite watching the enemy’s every move rather than fighting blind?
This is just a brief list of things you should be doing, most are ongoing and never ending. Internet marketing and search engine optimization is something that can be easily taught, but it is a never ending battle. Gone are the days when a site could be optimized, launched, get top rankings, and stay there for years with little to no work. The Internet is a different place now, and to compete in this space requires constant effort.
Best of luck with your new site launch!