- People say it's too hard and competitive
to start a new website and do well.
Well, they're wrong.
Hey everyone, I'm Neil Patel,
and today I'm going to break down the most realistic advice
on how to start a new website and how to get traffic to it.
(soft music)
Before we get started,
make sure you subscribe to this channel,
and if you're on YouTube, click the alert notification.
Look, I want you to only start a website
if you have a few things clear.
This is really important.
One, there's a hungry market
for what you're trying to sell or put content out for,
or even if you're selling
a product or service, same concept.
And you do keyword research
and you can use tools like Ubersuggest
to see if that keyword is popular
and being searched thousands of times a month at least,
assuming a high ticket item,
if not hundreds and thousands of times a month.
Two, you can put in the work.
Eight hours a week in your first six months at minimum.
But that's not really enough, being honest.
If you can't really put in the work
then you need to hire people.
Ideally, you should be putting in not 30, not 40,
you should be putting 60-plus hours a week.
I know that sounds crazy,
but that's really what it takes to succeed.
Probably not what you want to hear,
but I would feel disingenuous if I lied to you.
Next, you need to know
that organic traffic is a longterm play.
No, you can get some traffic since the early days, right?
So if you start up,
you can generate a little bit of traffic here and there
by creating some content.
You're probably only going to reap the rewards
of your efforts more than a year from now.
In other words, from now until a year plus,
assuming you do this consistently,
you're not going to really reap the rewards.
After a year, though, you will.
Next, you know the basics of SEO
from cure research and content creation,
knowing this really does help you for success.
And if you don't, you can use tools like Ubersuggest,
you can find it at neilpatel.com/ubersuggest,
or just go to ubersuggest.com.
Or you can read some of my blog articles
or watch more videos like this.
Then you'll need a host your website on a platform
that is stable, fast and reliable.
I love WordPress.
I love hosting solutions like DreamHost.
I love WooCommerce.
That's another example of something that's stable.
And if you decide to use self hosting, it's tricky.
You'll have to do a lot of technical optimization yourself,
or you just use a platform like DreamHost
that does most of the optimization for you.
They'll work on your load time.
They're super technical
and those guys know what they're doing.
Next, you want to have a brand name
that resonates with your audience.
Is your domain easy to spell?
If it's hard, that's not going to be good.
When you tell people to go to your website,
you kind of get screwed.
Is your name memorable?
And when your brand or domain comes up,
you want it for people to be easy not just to remember,
but to type in and ideally be short and to the point.
Hopefully, you can also write tons of content on the subject
without getting bored.
Because if you get bored,
you're going to want to give up.
Now, here are the steps
that you need to take to get started
once you meet all the criterias above.
I want you to first map out the important keywords
in your niche.
When you map them out, you can go to Ubersuggest,
type in any competitor domain,
and it'll show you all the keywords
that they rank for that you don't,
or you can type in your domain name.
it'll show your competitors,
it'll show you what they rank for and you don't.
I then want you to prioritize the keywords
that are less difficult to rank for.
And Ubersuggest tells you that because it'll tell you
which keywords you can rank on page one for
in the keyword ideas report.
And when you put it in your domain,
it'll filter all the keywords for you.
Then come up with a plan
that revolves around the content clusters
so you can gradually build up your authority
in those topics.
See, Google wants to rank a site that specializes.
I mainly talk about digital market.
If I started talking about entrepreneurship
and NFTs and crypto, Google would be like,
this Neil guy's not an expert in anything.
He's talking about everything.
If I start talking about the pandemic
and medical solutions in cancer,
they'll be like, Neil's not a doctor,
He doesn't know about any of this stuff.
We're not going to take his advice.
You need to specialize.
That's how you beat the Wikipedias
without having as much authority.
Then I want you to use Google Search Console from day one.
Don't wait to set it up.
Set it up from day one.
It'll tell you your impressions,
what you're getting traction on
and what you need to do better.
Flex up your content as well through creation muscles
on a daily basis.
In other words, try creating content on a daily basis,
whether you're just busting out your phone and being like,
let me take a selfie.
That's an example of content creation
or whether you're writing a blog article
or whether you're producing a podcast
and just recording into your phone.
That's all content creation.
Heck, I could be walking throughout my day
at my job, with my daughter or my wife
and I can be recording a podcast at the same time,
knocking two birds with one stone.
Although I don't really do that
because I like spending time with my family.
But you get the point.
If you're walking by yourself,
you can record a podcast at the same time.
You're flexing your creation muscles.
And don't skip or overdo the technical SEO.
Do it once a month.
Prioritize your efforts by looking at the pages
that's trying to get the most traction on search.
And if you don't know where to prioritize
with your on-page SEO, go to Ubersuggest,
putting your URL, look at the site audit report
and follow the suggestions top to bottom.
When you go top to bottom,
Ubersuggest is breaking down the ones at the top
because they'll have the most impact for your SEO
and the ones at the bottom
because you still need to do them,
but they're not going to impact your rankings as much.
Now, if you need help with any of this,
check out my ad agency, NP Digital,
where we help companies of all sizes grow their traffic
and sales through the web.
And if you have any questions, leave a comment below.
I'm here to help.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this video.
I really appreciate it.
Make sure you like it, share it, tell people about it.
Thank you very much.