Early-stage SEO: the first 90 days on a new domain.
A new domain has no history, no links and no rankings. The first three months decide whether it gets indexed, trusted and found. This is the plan we run.
The fastest way to waste a new domain is to publish fifty pages before Google trusts it with five.
Days 1–14: foundations
- Pick one host (www or not) and redirect everything else to it once. See the redirect loop that took our site down.
- Server-render pages so search and AI crawlers see the content. See why React sites can be invisible.
- Sitemap with honest lastmod, submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. See when to change lastmod.
- IndexNow for Bing on every publish. See our setup.
- robots.txt that allows search and AI search bots. See which bots to allow.
- Organization schema, an About page and real author pages.
Days 15–60: the first pages
- Service or product pages that say plainly what you do, for whom, at what price.
- Five to ten answer pages for specific questions your buyers ask, each with something only you can add: your data, your process, a tool.
- Internal links from every new page to the relevant service page, and back.
- Steady pace. A few strong pages a week beats a burst. See scaled content abuse for why.
Days 60–90: read the signals
| Signal | What it tells you | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Pages indexed vs submitted | Whether Google trusts the site enough to store pages | If many sit in "Crawled, currently not indexed", improve or merge them before publishing more |
| Impressions | Which topics Google is testing you for | Expand the pages getting impressions |
| Average position | How close you are to page one | Improve titles and depth on pages at positions 8–20 |
| Clicks | Whether titles and snippets earn the visit | Rewrite titles on pages with impressions but no clicks |
What to expect
Impressions come before clicks, and both start small. In our early-stage SEO case study, a newly launched startup went from a flat baseline to search impressions up 67% and clicks up 59% over a trailing 28-day window, with 289 new users and no ad spend. That is what a healthy start looks like: modest absolute numbers, a clear upward curve.
Track AI visibility from day one too. A small 50-prompt panel shows whether assistants are starting to name you; see the tracker.
Questions people ask
How long does SEO take for a new website?
Expect indexing and early impressions within the first weeks and meaningful clicks over months. In one early-stage engagement, impressions grew 67% and clicks 59% from a flat start over a 28-day window.
How many pages should a new website publish?
Start with core service pages and five to ten genuinely useful answer pages, then publish steadily. Watch indexing before scaling up.
What should I do first for SEO on a new domain?
Choose one canonical host, server-render pages, submit a sitemap to Google and Bing, set up IndexNow and allow search crawlers in robots.txt.
Want this mapped onto your product?
See how our SEO work runs, or send your store link and a founder will reply personally.
