What are the first ten steps you should do with a new website

[ClaireH-184886]

First of all i would like to say how amazing this forum is, i have learnt a lot with all the great help.

I am launching a new site mainly to allow me to learn seo and to understand what is involved in building a new site and get it to the search engines.

the site is here which i have started today which is a lifestyle magazine  is http://www.womenlifestylemagazine.com/

What i am trying to understand is, what are the first most important steps when trying to get google and traffic to your site.

the site will be complete in the next week or so but in the meantime i want to use this site to learn more about seo and how you get the site discovered by visitors and search engines and the time scale behind it.

I am hoping that other people who are new to seo and are building a new site will be able to use this post to learn about what is involved and learn like me.

Would be great to hear from people who have started their own site so we can all understand what are the important steps to make and which things we should do in which order.

thank you everyone

[Highland]

I dunno about 10 steps (I hate lists that try to make some round number) but my steps would be

1. Who do you want to visit your site? Clearly women in this case, but what kind of women?
2. What do you want your visitors to do on your site? Buy? Read? Participate?
3. Identify your keywords that your audience is using. Look at similar sites and do several searches. Use keyword research tools like the Adwords traffic estimator to help narrow down words.
4. Build your content, focusing on your keywords. You need content that people want, not some formulaic mess that sounds like it was written by a content farm. Read your own content. Would you want to read your site? You need to be on topic and relevant.
5. Spread the news. Without spamming, suggest your site in places where it makes sense. Don't worry about SEO, you just want traffic. Don't just suggest your main page, but suggest deeper content (i.e. "Here's an article I wrote you might find helpful in doing this"). Blogs and forums can be good places to start, but be careful ,lest you start sounding like spam.
6. Consider advertising. Initially, your site needs to be found and advertising can bring people in. If you've done steps 1-5 well enough, your site should start drawing in links naturally as people begin to suggest you socially (blog links, social links, Google +1, etc).

[ClaireH-184886]

thank you for that.

My site will be aimed at women from the ages of 20 - 60

I want them to come and read the articles and tell their friends and also be interested in the products that i will be advertising on there but not adverts that will be in your face. i am considering just two adverts per page.

the keywords that i have researched at the moment is

lifestyle magazine

magazine for women

women magazine

holiday reviews

travel magazine

travel tips

hotel reviews

health news

health magazine

weight loss advice

the magazine is going to be a lifestyle magazine and will cover health, travel, showbiz news, fashion, product reviews, beauty tips.

the struggle will be is sorting out the home page and making sure i get the right keywords there and where to place them. I want people to come to the magazine who are looking for an online lifestyle magazine or a women magazine

[RyanKent]

Hi Diane.

The first step I would recommend is reading the Beginner's Guide to SEO. I am not simply throwing a link at you. This is truly GREAT information which you should read from cover to cover, and keep as a reference.

Before going any further, I highly recommend you take some time to ponder WHY you are making this site. There already are a huge number of sites which offer this information. What EXACTLY will your site offer that is not already available from other sites? This thought process is all about determining your niche.

Your site seems too broad at the moment to be successful in SERPs. There are an incredible number of other sites who have brand recognition and an established user base, along with strong financial resources. In order to effectively compete you will need a very strong focus, a narrow niche, and a detailed plan on exactly why a user should choose your site over the competition.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/

Take a close look at your competition and see what they are doing. Have a clear plan for how your site will be an improvement for readers. Take a look at the wiki for your niche: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women's_magazines

You will see a list of about 80 other women's magazines, along with a list of about 25 magazines that have stop publishing.

I am not trying to discourage you. To the contrary, I want you to be successful in your endeavor. I would like to see you develop a very sharp focus which can help you attract and retain a base of dedicated followers.

[augustos]

Good answer Ryan,

Adding what he said just now...Diane, your goal ppls normally have their own blog or microblog which can helps in your link building efforts... allow peoples to make comments in your website and answer them is a good way to get in touch w/ ppls. "Connect and then ask for links"

Don't forget to submit your website to google:  http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Make use of the google webmasters tools: www.google.com/webmasters/ , and submit a sitemap.xml it helps a lot to index your pages.

You need to keep in mind that those keywords u selected aren't easy to get good position w/ new websites...

The best way to get good backlinks to your website is write a unique content, i can't find another way...

Hope it can help..

[ClaireH-184886]

thank you for that. i am going to send a number of articles to free article sites but it is trying to find a good article site to do this. in the past when i have done this i have found that many people use my articles but they never put the link to the article to my site which is a big let down.