Short answer: In the first months, make sure Google can crawl the site, set up Search Console, pick a few specific searches made by people close to buying, and give each one a proper page. Then add useful articles slowly and get listed in honest places. Expect little search traffic at first; nobody can promise a ranking date.
A new website is invisible to Google until Google decides otherwise. Nobody links to it yet, nobody searches for its name, and there's no history to judge it by. That's normal. It doesn't mean anything is broken. It means the first months of SEO are mostly about laying foundations that pay off later, and being patient while they do.
Here's what we'd do in those first months, in roughly the order we'd do it. No secret tricks, because there aren't any.
First, make sure Google can read the site
Before any keyword research, check the boring technical things. They're boring because they either work or they don't, and when they don't, nothing else matters.
- Nothing blocks the crawler. Developers sometimes switch off indexing on a test version and forget to switch it back on at launch. Check the robots.txt file and the page settings.
- There's a sitemap. A simple list of your pages that you submit to Google Search Console, so Google knows what exists.
- Each page has one clear address. The same page reachable at several URLs splits whatever attention it gets.
- Pages load quickly on a phone. Google mostly looks at the mobile version of your site, and so do a lot of your visitors.
- Titles and descriptions are written, not left as defaults. Plenty of live business sites still have a title like "Home | Untitled".
Set up Google Search Console in the first week, and Bing Webmaster Tools while you're at it. They're free, they tell you what the search engines see, and they're the only reliable source of data you'll have early on.
Which searches should a new website target?
A new site can't compete for the broad, popular searches straight away. "Web design" or "accountant" are taken by sites that have been around for years. Aim instead for searches that are specific and made by people who are close to buying.
Compare "accounting software" with "bookkeeping for small restaurants in Lyon". The second one is searched far less often. It's also searched by exactly the person you want, and the competition is a lot thinner. A handful of searches like that, done well, is a better start than chasing one big term you won't reach for a long time.
A good way to find them: write down the questions customers actually ask you before they buy. The phrasing they use on the phone is usually close to the phrasing they type into Google.
Give each important search its own page
One page about everything ranks for nothing. If you offer three services, give each one its own page that explains it properly: what it is, who it's for, how it works, what it doesn't include, the questions people ask. Write it for the person reading it. If it helps them, it tends to help with search too.
Your service pages are more important than your blog at this stage. A blog is useful, but only after the pages that describe what you sell are in good shape.
Write a few things worth reading
Once the main pages are solid, add articles that answer real questions in your field. Not "10 tips" padded out to a word count, but the thing you'd explain to a client over coffee. One useful article a month that you'd be happy to send to a customer is better than one a week that nobody finishes.
Link these articles to the relevant service pages, and link the service pages back where it makes sense. Internal links help visitors find their way and help search engines understand which pages matter.
Get your name out there honestly
Links from other websites still count. For a new business, the honest sources are fairly obvious:
- A Google Business Profile, if you serve customers in a particular place.
- Listings in the directories your industry actually uses, not the ones that sell links.
- Partners, suppliers and associations you already work with.
- Local press, trade publications or podcasts, if you have something genuinely interesting to say.
Avoid anyone selling hundreds of links for a small fee. At best those links are worthless. At worst they're the kind of thing search engines penalise.
How long does SEO take for a new website?
For the first while, very little will happen in search, and that's fine. Google needs time to find your pages, decide what they're about and see whether people find them useful. What you should see in Search Console is pages getting indexed, then appearing for a few searches, usually far down the results, then slowly moving up for the specific terms you targeted.
How long that takes depends on your field, your competition and how much work goes in. Anyone who promises first-page rankings within a fixed time is either guessing or planning something you won't like. Nobody controls Google's rankings, including the people who'd like you to think they do.
What to measure
Rankings for one keyword jump around and don't pay the bills. Look instead at:
- Pages indexed, early on.
- Impressions and clicks in Search Console, over months rather than days.
- Enquiries from search, which is the number that actually matters.
- What visitors do once they arrive. If people land and leave straight away, the page isn't answering their question, and that's often a quicker fix than more traffic.
That last point is where SEO meets conversion work. There's no point bringing more people to a page that doesn't help them take the next step.
The short version
- Make sure the site can be crawled and loads quickly on a phone.
- Set up Search Console.
- Pick a few specific searches made by people close to buying.
- Give each one a proper page.
- Add useful articles slowly, and link them sensibly.
- Get listed in honest places.
- Measure enquiries first, and be patient.
Sources
- Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide, on sitemaps, page titles, meta descriptions and canonical URLs for duplicate pages.
- Google Search Central, Mobile-first indexing best practices, which says Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking.
- Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search, which lists buying or selling links for ranking as link spam.
If you've just launched and want a second pair of eyes on the foundations, our SEO page explains what we look at, and a one-off technical website audit checks them in a week or two. We won't promise you a ranking. We will tell you what's stopping Google from reading your site properly, and what we'd fix first. You can also book a free call.