SEO for New Websites: What to Do Before Launch and in the First 90 Days

Quick quiz

Is SEO right for you, and how should you start?

Question 1 of 425%

Do people search Google for what you sell?

Yes, I think soNo, it is new or very nicheI don't know

SEO for new websites follows the same rules as for any site, with one difference: you start from zero. No backlinks, no click history, no pages Google already knows. Google's own SEO Starter Guide warns that "some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months". This guide gives you the order of operations: what to fix before launch, how to get indexed, which keywords and pages come first, how to earn your first links, and how to show up in AI answers as well as on Google.

Why is SEO different for a new website?

Search engines discover pages mostly by following links. An established site has thousands of them pointing in; a new one has none, so crawlers find it late and visit rarely. Google's sitemap documentation names this case explicitly: you may need a sitemap when "your site is new and has few external links to it".

The second handicap is competition. Pages that rank on page one are usually old. In a study published in May 2025, Ahrefs found that only 1.74% of newly published pages reached the top 10 within a year (sample of 1 million URLs first seen in September 2023), that 72.9% of top 10 pages were more than three years old, and that the average page ranking first was five years old. A new site cannot attack those positions head-on. It has to find the queries where incumbents are weak and build topical authority one cluster at a time.

The good news: a new site has no technical debt, no bad links and no old URLs to redirect. Everything you set up correctly now keeps paying.

What should you do before launching a new website?

Most launch disasters come from settings left over from development. Check these points before the domain goes public:

A quick way to catch on-page errors page by page is the free Sorank Chrome extension, which lists missing titles, heading problems and other fixes on any page you open.

How do you get a new website indexed on Google?

1. Verify the site in Google Search Console

Google Search Console is free and is the only place where Google tells you which pages it has indexed, which it has excluded and why. Add the site as a domain property (DNS verification) so all subdomains and protocols are covered.

2. Submit an XML sitemap

Most CMS generate an XML sitemap automatically (WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Webflow). Submit its URL in the Sitemaps report and reference it in robots.txt. List only the pages you want indexed: no tag archives, no thin pages, no redirected URLs.

3. Request indexing for your key pages

In the URL Inspection tool, request indexing for the homepage and your most important pages. Google's recrawl documentation is clear on expectations: crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, there is a quota for individual URLs, and requesting the same URL several times will not speed it up.

4. Link every page from somewhere

A page that no other page links to is hard to discover even with a sitemap. Link new articles from the homepage, a blog index and related posts. Our full guide to Google indexing covers the statuses you will see in Search Console, and this guide explains how to submit your website to search engines beyond Google, including Bing, which feeds several AI assistants.

To check progress, search site:yourdomain.com on Google. If results appear, you are in the index; the Pages report in Search Console gives the exact count.

Which keywords can a new website rank for?

A new site wins on queries that established sites neglect. That means long-tail keywords: longer, more specific searches with lower volume and clearer intent ("accounting software for freelance photographers" rather than "accounting software").

Three filters to apply to every candidate keyword:

• Low keyword difficulty: the score estimates how many strong links the current top pages have. For a site with no links, stay at the bottom of the scale.
• A weak first page: open the results. Forum threads, outdated articles, small sites or pages that answer the question badly are signs you can compete.
• Intent you can serve: if Google shows product pages and you plan a blog post, or the reverse, change the keyword.

Our guide to low competition keywords details the method. Group the keywords you keep by topic: ten articles that cover one subject in depth build more authority than ten articles on ten unrelated subjects.

What content should a new website publish first?

Start with the pages that sell, then the pages that attract:

1. Money pages: homepage, product or service pages, pricing, one page per main offer. Each targets one clear commercial query.
2. Trust pages: About, contact details, author bios, policies. Google's quality guidelines and AI assistants both look for who is behind a site.
3. A first content cluster: 10 to 20 articles on the core problem your offer solves, each answering one question better than the current results, all linked to each other and to the money page.

Publish steadily rather than in one batch: a regular rhythm gives Google reasons to come back and lets you learn from the first results. Answer the question in the first paragraph, use question headings, add sourced figures and a comparison table where something compares. That format serves readers, Google and AI assistants at the same time.

How does a new website get its first backlinks?

Links remain the main way Google measures trust, and a new site needs a first set from real, relevant sites. Methods that work without a budget:

• Business profiles and directories that matter in your industry and country.
• Partners, suppliers, clients and integrations that can list you on their site.
• Founder interviews, podcasts and guest articles on sites your audience reads.
• A free tool, a template or original data that others want to cite.
• Unlinked mentions of your brand, turned into links with a short email.

Avoid packages of cheap links: they waste money and can trigger Google's spam policies. Our guide on how to get backlinks lists the safe methods in detail.

What does a 90-day SEO plan for a new website look like?

After 90 days, judge the trend in impressions and the number of queries you appear for, not clicks alone. Clicks follow once pages reach the first positions. Our article on how long SEO takes sets realistic timelines by situation.

How can a new website appear in ChatGPT and other AI answers?

AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini build their answers from pages they can retrieve and trust. A new site can be cited earlier than it ranks on Google for broad queries, if it publishes clear, specific answers and is mentioned on other sites. Make sure AI crawlers are not blocked in robots.txt, keep important text in the HTML rather than loaded by JavaScript, and give each page a direct answer near the top. Our study of the platforms AI assistants cite shows which kinds of sources they favor.

Sorank is our product: an autopilot SEO and GEO software built for this phase. It analyzes your site, runs the keyword research and groups the opportunities into topics, then its blog article generator writes and publishes optimized articles with sources and internal links. AI mention tracking checks every week whether ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini cite your brand, and the software obtains natural backlinks automatically from its network of 5,000+ users.

The short version: fix the technical basics before launch, get indexed in the first two weeks, then win long-tail queries with a focused cluster and real links. A new site that publishes steadily for 90 days has data, indexed pages and its first rankings to build on. To run that plan without writing every article yourself, see Sorank's plans, from $49 per month with a 3-day free trial.