How to Build a Website With SEO in Mind

Creating a website is not easy, but taking care of a website that wasn’t built up thinking about SEO might become a nightmare.

Ideally, website building and SEO should go hand in hand. Let’s look at some steps you can take while building a website with SEO in mind.

By entering “SEO mode,” you’ll see great results from the very beginning!

P.S. If you need help making your site SEO-friendly, our professional web design services help you craft a website that drives both traffic and conversions for your business. Contact us today to learn more!

How to build a website with SEO in mind

Here’s how to boost your website design with SEO in 11 steps from our SEO checklist:

1. Analyze your website’s market and select your keywords
2. Optimize your URLs
3. Use your heading tags wisely
4. Make your site mobile responsive
5. Use images and alt text
6. Always include a call to action 
7. Use your content to enhance SEO
8. Beef up off-page SEO by using backlinks
9. Keep an eye on site speed
10. Keep your website secure with SSL
11. Use an SEO-friendly website builder

1. Analyze your website’s market and select your keywords

Keyword selection is one of the structural keys while building your website with SEO in mind since keyword targeting will impact where your business ranks in search results for your products and services.

2. Optimize your URLs

Avoid any URL problems hurting your rankings by optimizing your URLs. Using your keywords in your URLs helps your visitors know what pages are about and will contribute to your SEO.

When thinking about how to set up SEO for websites, this is a crucial aspect since it determines your whole site structure. And this is why good keyword research, mentioned above, is the fundamental step before building a website with SEO in mind.

3. Use your heading tags wisely

Headings will give your site structure for SEO and will guide visitors through their reading. That’s why, when building a website with SEO in mind, use heading tags to break up your pages and make it easy for visitors (and search crawlers) to find the info they need.

4. Make your site mobile responsive

If you want your leads to visit your website for longer sessions and better search engine rankings, you must ensure your website is mobile-friendly or responsive.

To support SEO and enhance user experience (UX), you need to make your website adaptable to different devices, especially mobile.

5. Use images and alt text 

Use images and add image alt text with your keywords. This will comply with accessibility, which is also how search engine bots can read image content.

6. Always include a call to action

Adding calls to action when considering building a website with SEO in mind is a great way to keep your site relevant. Not only will it make it easier to create a good conversion strategy, but also will help with your bounce rate and conversion rate.

In addition to your website traffic, you need to start thinking about conversions, whatever that means to your business: Subscriptions, calls, or sales.

7. Use your content to enhance SEO

Content is vital when thinking about how to build a website for SEO. But, why is content important for SEO? Creating creative, engaging content using your keywords and planning regular content updates will make your website relevant for your target audience and search engines as well.

8. Beef up off-page SEO by earning backlinks

If you’re wondering how to improve SEO for your site and ensure its performance is up to scratch, earning backlinks is a must. Build relationships with reputable websites, share your expertise, and earn valuable backlinks from relevant players in your business market. Backlinks will give authority to your website, and while building a website with SEO in mind, your website’s authority is very important.

9. Keep an eye on site speed

Nothing worse than a slow website. In times of instant content, people simply won’t wait for your site to load. So, you need to keep an eye on your site’s speed.

People will wait around 2 to 3 seconds for a website to load. If it takes longer, they will just abandon your page to visit other websites with the same topic. Search engines also consider page speed when ranking sites.

This is very important to keep monitoring with site speed tools and maintaining regularly while building a website with SEO in mind. The best way to do it is to optimize images, consolidate code, and limit HTTP requests.

10. Keep your website secure with SSL

Secure your website with an SSL (HTTPS) certificate. What is SSL? SSL stands for secure sockets layer, and it provides extra protection and security for your website by protecting the data shared between a website and browser.

It builds trust by assuring your users their information is safe. Also, search engines will give your site authority if your URL includes HTTPS.

Considering all these steps while building a website with SEO in mind will help your website perform better in search and support user experience.

11. Use an SEO-friendly website builder

If you use a website builder to create your site, be sure to opt for an SEO-friendly one. Some site builders come with built in SEO features, like fields to enter title tags and meta descriptions.

Some examples of SEO-friendly website builders include Webflow and Wix.

Discover Your SEO Potential

Pinpoint opportunities on your website faster and increase your visibility online with SEO.com!

Try It for Free

Ready to evaluate your site’s SEO or looking for more SEO opportunities? Try SEO.com for free and analyze your site in minutes! Our free tool also uncovers SEO opportunities faster, discover keywords, track competitors, and more!