Planning an SEO Campaign for a New Website

By Tyler Moore on 16 January 2012 @ 10:57 AM.

Tags: seo, seo campaigns, seo planning, link building, social media, keyword research.

When you're brought in to carry out link building for a website, you're often not the first person/organisation that company will have hired. However, there will be times you're hired to build links for a brand new site which has had minimal to no previous related work carried out on it. Beginning a link building campaign for a new site can be tricky, since you'll lack the road map of key words and valuable search terms established sites can provide. So, how do you go about building links and promoting a new site?

Research, Research, Research

The key to beginning any SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO campaign is research. In this case, you won't have analytics data for the site you're working for. However, you've probably got an idea of keywords and search terms you'll want to rank for. I like using Google Adwords Keyword tool for discovering how competitive a search term is, as well as discovering variants of that term to target. Once you've got an idea of the keywords you want to start targeting, finding relevant areas to build links is the next step.

Luckily, this step is often easier than figuring out what keywords will be most valuable to begin with. The key to good off-site SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO is building relevant backlinks. By performing a few Google searches, you can find niche blogs, forums and other areas to begin building links. You can also use Open Site Explorer to see where your competitors are building links, and who's linking to them.

Write a Press Release

I'm not typically a fan of using press release sites for SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO, mostly because I think press release distribution sites are abused by many. However, press releases are great for newsworthy events, and the launch of a new site definitely qualifies. A press release shouldn't be written the same way you'd write a blog post. Press releases are designed to appeal to journalists, not customers, clients or your target audience. An effective press release sticks to facts and data, without using promotional body copy. The key is to write a compelling press release, and then place it in the hands of journalists who work in your target niche.

As with all aspects of SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO, a press release should be targeted and specific to your niche. This will ensure the press release gets covered by relevant media outlets, which will put your site in front of a captive audience. All you need to do is make sure your site's contact information is prominent, and that you stick to the facts when talking about what your site is and who it's for. After you've written the press release, you can submit it to any number of online press release distribution sites. I recommend using PR Web or PR Leap for distributing press releases.

Begin Building a Social Presence Now

Social media presence is a bigger signal for SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO, especially in the wake of Google's recent “freshness” update, and now is the time to build company profiles on all the major social media sites: Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Once these profiles have been built, don't simply leave them alone to gather dust. Social media importance for SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO isn't simply having a profile, but about having a presence. This means actually using these sites. Exactly how you'll use social media for your SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO purposes will vary from site to site, but my advice is to use them in a similar fashion to how you use your own social media accounts.

That is, use Twitter for short conversations, posting interesting news, and interacting with your followers. Facebook isn't just for holding contests (although a good Facebook contest CAN prove great for driving traffic) but it provides an easy way to connect with interested people. Google+ and LinkedIn both make it easy to connect with clients and potential clients. Google also owns YouTube, and video is great for SEOAn acronym for 'search engine optimisation', the series of processes used to improve your ranking in search engines and drive more web traffic to your website organically.

Learn more about SEO. On top of the direct benefit for using social media sites, all of these sites are well-known and reputable and links from them to your site will be seen as valuable by Google and other search engines.

Finally, these ideas are just a general guideline. An effective link building campaign takes time, effort and creativity. Get listed in Google, Bing and Yahoo local sites, even if your site isn't specific to one location. Try creating funny videos, or a series of informative how-to video clips. Maintain a company blog, and invite guest blog posts by writers in your niche. Find creative ways to invite your users and clients to build links for you. The best link-building campaigns are dynamic and build a broad base of links across a wide range of different sites.

About the Author

Tyler Moore is an SEO consultant and blogger from Indianapolis, IN. Tyler currently works with DocRaptor, a web application used to convert HTML to Excel with a simple HTTP POST request. DocRaptor can also be used to convert HTML to PDF format, and generates beautiful, easily shared documents in a matter of seconds.

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