How should you plan for long-term SEO when building a website?

Long-term SEO should be part of website planning before the structure and features are finalized. First, clarify whom the website serves, what key content it will provide, and what actions you want visitors to take. Then plan keywords, page organization, and content management. Launching the website is not the finish line: future content expansion and team responsibilities should be considered during the build, rather than treating a ranking for a single keyword as the entire goal.

Define the website’s goals before deciding on pages and features

A website’s goals should go beyond simply “increasing traffic.” Planning should bring together the main products or services, target audiences, and desired actions. For example, a website aimed at generating product inquiries could first identify the product information visitors need, then plan the corresponding content and calls to action for contacting the business. This is a planning example, not a fixed setup suitable for every website.

In a 2012 article, awoo recommended introducing SEO before confirming the website’s structure and features: first research the content and target audiences, then plan the information architecture, keywords, and copy around users’ needs. What is adopted here is its approach to website planning, not the treatment of a historical article as current search engine rules.

• Whom does the website primarily serve, and what information do they need?
• Which products, services, or content are the website’s main focus?
• What action should visitors take after reading, and how should the page present it?

Estimate the website’s scale using short- and long-term content plans

In a 2023 article, tenten.co noted that design should begin with a confirmed content plan that considers both short- and long-term needs. A website with only basic introductory information will have different future page requirements from one that plans to publish articles weekly. Platform selection should therefore consider more than whether it meets the website’s needs on launch day.

For example, if ongoing article publication is already planned, confirm that the platform can accommodate additional pages rather than choosing a plan whose page limit will soon be reached. The reference to “20 pages” in the source material merely illustrates differences in capacity; it is not a threshold for SEO performance.

Content types, hierarchies, and relationships can also be mapped out first, then connected to a content management system (CMS). This extends content planning beyond menu labels to include how content will be stored and managed in the future.

Include post-launch content collaboration in the website team’s responsibilities

Design, content, SEO, and development teams should not work separately and only hand things over once their own tasks are complete. Following tenten.co’s advice, teams should share a content strategy so that page priorities, text, and organization serve the same goals.

awoo’s 2012 article also advocated collaboration between business owners and SEO teams to produce valuable content, supported by keyword strategies and internal linking, rather than pursuing rankings through algorithm loopholes. With this approach, the website-building stage is an opportunity to discuss who will supply content, how it will align with keyword planning, and how related pages will link to one another. As for whether content will be shared, the article also acknowledged that this is not entirely within an SEO company’s control.