SEO for new websites

Who it is for

This service is the SEO setup that goes into a new website or a redesign. It suits Suffolk businesses that want the site to be found for the services they actually sell, in the places they work. A builder in Stowmarket wants to appear when someone searches for extensions in Needham Market or Bury St Edmunds. A Felixstowe freight forwarder wants to be found for the routes and cargo types it handles. A Woodbridge restaurant wants to turn up in the map results on a Saturday afternoon.

All of those depend on decisions made while the site is being planned. Getting them right at the start is far cheaper than fixing them after launch.

What this covers and what it does not

Included in the build	Not included (ongoing work)
Keyword and page planning	Monthly content production
Titles, descriptions, headings	Link building campaigns
Technical setup and schema	Monthly ranking reports
Google Business Profile check	Google Ads or paid marketing management
Search Console and analytics	Reputation management

We are clear about this because many businesses are sold "SEO" as a vague monthly retainer. What we deliver is a site that is technically sound and planned around search. If you then want ongoing SEO, we can advise on what is worth paying for and what is not.

What is included

• Keyword research for your services and the towns you serve, using search volume data and what currently ranks.
• A page plan that gives each important search a page that answers it properly, without several pages competing for the same phrase.
• On-page basics: titles, meta descriptions, one clear heading per page, descriptive link text, image alt text.
• Technical setup: clean URLs, XML sitemap, robots file, canonical tags, fast loading, mobile layout, HTTPS, no broken links.
• Structured data: organisation, service, breadcrumb, FAQ and article schema where it applies.
• Google Business Profile review: categories, services, description and the link to the right page.
• Search Console and analytics set up, verified and connected, with the sitemap submitted.

Step by step

1. Research. Your services, your customers' words for them, and who ranks now.
2. Map. One target topic per page, agreed with you as part of the page plan.
3. Write. Copy that answers the search properly. Search terms appear where they read naturally, not stuffed in.
4. Build. Technical SEO is part of the build: speed, structure, schema and sitemaps.
5. Check. A full crawl before launch for errors, missing titles, duplicate content and broken links.
6. Launch and submit. Sitemap submitted, key pages requested for indexing, redirects confirmed for a redesign.
7. Review. We look at Search Console after four to eight weeks and fix any gaps.

How long it takes

The SEO setup runs alongside the build, so it does not add much to the timeline. Results take longer. A new site usually takes several months to settle in search, and competitive terms take longer still. Anyone who promises page one in weeks is guessing.

What drives the cost

• Number of services and places. More combinations mean more research and more pages.
• Competition. Some sectors in Suffolk have few strong competitors; others compete with national firms.
• Redesign work. Protecting existing rankings needs audit and redirect work.
• Content. Writing good pages for each service and area is the biggest variable.

Common mistakes

• Town pages made by find and replace. Google sees through them, and so do customers. A town page should say something true and useful about working there.
• One page trying to rank for everything. Each main service needs its own page.
• Ignoring Google Business Profile. For local searches the map results often matter more than the website rankings.
• Measuring rankings, not enquiries. A ranking that brings no work is not worth much.
• Blocking the site at launch. We still see sites launched with "discourage search engines" switched on.

Local search and Google Business Profile

For most Suffolk businesses that serve customers locally, the map results are where many enquiries start. Someone searches for a service with a town name, or "near me", and Google shows three businesses on a map above the ordinary results. Those three are chosen largely from Google Business Profile information, reviews and how relevant and close the business is.

The website supports the profile. Google checks that the business name, address and phone number match, that the website explains the services listed on the profile, and that the business is genuinely connected to the places it claims to serve. As part of the SEO setup we:

• Check your primary and secondary categories match what you actually do.
• Make sure services on the profile have matching pages on the site.
• Link the profile to the most relevant page, which is not always the home page.
• Add organisation and local business structured data consistent with the profile.
• Recommend a simple, honest process for asking real customers for reviews. We never write or buy reviews.

Businesses without a public address, such as trades working from home, can still have a profile with a service area. We help set that up properly so the address is hidden and the service area reflects the towns you cover, whether that is Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket or Ipswich and the Shotley peninsula.

How we measure it

We use Search Console for impressions, clicks and the queries each page appears for, and analytics for enquiries by landing page. At the first review we check that key pages are indexed and appearing for the intended searches. Over the following months the useful measure is whether enquiries from organic search grow, and whether they are the kind of work you want.