SEO for a new website and your first 90 days

New website SEO: what to do on day one

None of this takes long, and most of it only needs doing once.

1. Check the site isn't hidden. Sites are often built with search engines switched off, and the setting gets carried into launch. Open the site in a private window, then check your platform's hide-from-search settings, site-wide and page by page.
2. Add the site to Google Search Console. A Domain property covers every version of your address in one go and is verified through your domain's DNS settings. If DNS is awkward, a URL prefix property can be verified with a tag or file instead.
3. Submit your sitemap, usually at yourdomain/sitemap.xml.
4. Inspect your home page and main service pages in Search Console and request indexing. There is a daily limit and a request doesn't promise indexing, so do the pages that matter, not all of them.
5. Add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools. You can import it straight from Search Console, and Bing's index also feeds Microsoft's Copilot.
6. Set up analytics that count enquiries, not just visits: form submissions, clicks on your phone number and clicks through to your booking system.

Google says it can take a few weeks to notice a new site, even with all of this done. If the site still isn't appearing after that, our guide on a website not showing on Google walks through the indexing report and the platform settings in detail.

Redirect every old page that earned anything

This is where rebuilt sites lose the most. If your old pages had rankings or links and the new site changes their addresses without redirects, Google treats the new pages as starting from nothing, and patients who bookmarked or were sent an old link land on an error.

• List the old addresses before you switch. Search Console's Performance report shows which pages got clicks. The old sitemap and your old site's menu cover the rest.
• Map each one to its closest new page. The old "sports-massage" page goes to the new sports massage page, not the home page. Google's site move guidance warns that sending many old pages to the home page can be treated as an error.
• Use permanent (301) redirects and keep them for at least a year, which is Google's recommendation. Wix has a URL Redirect Manager, Squarespace uses URL mappings and WordPress usually needs a plugin or a server rule.
• If the domain has changed, keep the old domain registered, redirect it page by page and use the Change of Address tool in Search Console.
• Update the links you control: your Google Business Profile, directory listings, social profiles and email signature.
• Test it. Paste a handful of old addresses into a browser and check each lands on the right new page.

Google says to expect some temporary movement in rankings during a move, and that a small or medium site usually takes a few weeks to settle. If the old site ranked for almost nothing, there is very little to protect. Our guide to website redesign costs covers what a migration should and shouldn't cost.

One page per service and location

The most common reason a new practice site doesn't rank is that it has nowhere to rank from. A single Services page listing ten treatments in a line each can't match someone searching "lower back pain physio Harrogate", because no page on the site is about that.

• A page for each main service or condition: sports injury physiotherapy, back pain, post-surgery rehab. For a therapist: anxiety counselling, couples therapy, EMDR. For a dental practice: implants, teeth whitening, emergency appointments.
• A page for each location you work from, with the address, how to get there, parking and who practises there.
• Only places you genuinely serve. A set of near-identical pages for twenty towns you don't work in is what Google's spam policies call doorway abuse, and it puts the whole site at risk.

Each service page should answer what a patient wants to know before they book: who it is for, what happens at the first appointment, who will treat them, what it costs and how to book. Aesthetics pages need extra care, because claims about results need evidence and prescription-only medicines can't be promoted to the public. Our guide on adding keywords to your website covers choosing the words patients use and where to put them.

Titles and headings that match what patients search

The page title is the blue link in Google's results, and the main heading is the first thing a patient reads on the page. Google's SEO starter guide says a good title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and describes what is on it.

• One main heading per page, saying plainly what the page is about.
• Keep titles short enough to read in full on a phone. Google shortens long ones.
• Write a meta description for each main page. It is often what Google shows under your title, so write it to earn the click.
• Don't bother with meta keywords. Google says it doesn't use them.

Google Business Profile, early links and reviews

Google Business Profile

For local searches, the map results usually sit above the websites, and they come from Business Profiles. Link your profile to the new site, check the name, address and phone number match the site exactly, and make sure your categories and services match the pages you have built. Our guide on setting up Google Business Profile covers the rules on addresses and practitioner profiles.

Early links

Google finds most new pages through links, and a brand new site has none. The best early links for a practice are the ones that would exist even if search engines didn't:

• Professional bodies and registers with public directories, such as the CSP's find-a-physio or the BACP register. Where a listing lets you add your website, add it.
• Directories patients use: Physio First, Counselling Directory, Psychology Today, Save Face for aesthetics, the BDA's freelance dietitian directory.
• Local partners: the running club or sports club you treat, the gym that refers to you, the GP practice, dentist or Pilates studio you share patients with.
• Local press and community: a new clinic opening, a charity event, a talk at the library.

What to avoid: Google's spam policies name buying links, excessive link swaps and low-quality directory links as violations. Ten links from places patients and clinicians really use are worth more than hundreds from sites nobody visits.

Reviews

Start asking from your first patients, the same way every time, rather than waiting until the site is established. Our guide on getting more Google reviews covers when to ask and what the rules allow.

How long SEO takes for a new website

Longer than anyone would like, and how long depends on things you can see in advance:

• Competition. "Physio London" is a different job from "osteopath Ilkley".
• What the old site had. A rebuild with every page redirected keeps its history. A brand new domain starts from zero.
• How many useful pages you have. More service and location pages means more searches you can appear for.
• Your profile and reviews. These move the map results, which often respond sooner than the website rankings below them.

Google's own guidance is that some changes take effect within hours and others take several months, and that you should wait a few weeks before judging whether something worked. In practice, a new site usually appears for its own name first, then for specific searches such as a treatment plus a town, and only later for the broad ones. Anyone who promises page one for a competitive search in a month is guessing.

If you need patients sooner, paid search can fill the gap while the organic side builds. Our page on Google Ads for physiotherapists explains how that works for a clinic.

What to measure in the first 90 days

What not to worry about: daily swings in rankings, which are normal for a new site, and authority scores from third-party SEO tools, which are those tools' own estimates rather than anything Google reports. Impressions tend to rise before clicks do, and clicks before enquiries, so judge the first 90 days on whether each is moving the right way.