A website that ranks at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) can have massive benefits for your website or personal blog. Most web users will only click on the top three or four results and so holding one of these coveted positions for important keywords is hugely competitive. Despite common misconceptions, it takes far more than just using an attractive template to make a cool-looking website. Ranking websites takes time, effort, and knowledge, but if you get it right, the payoff will be well worth the hard work.

To help everyone out there get a much-needed boost, here are 4 effective strategies to rank a brand new website in 2021.

1. Fix all of Your Website’s Technical Issues

Ranking a website at the top of the SERPs means that the algorithms the search engines use do not detect any technical problems with your website. Today’s web user does not accept anything but a perfectly designed website and if yours takes a long time to load or has black pages or broken links, the search engine algorithms may not even rank it at all. Even if you do get visitors, they are likely to be so frustrated by their user experience that they will never come back again.

2. Optimize Your On-Site Content for Positive Rankings

When creating your website content, you need to do it in a strategic way. Keyword research is required so that you can find the most searched terms relating to your website. There are programs that enable you to scan your competitor’s websites and find which keywords they are using so that you can then integrate those keywords into your website’s content. This has to be done in a way that seems organic and natural or the algorithms may flag your website and could even blacklist it all together.

3. Create Guest Posts to Boost Authority

After your website’s technical design and on-site content is up to scratch, you can then start to focus on your off-site options. This is done by creating guest posts with backlinks to your website in order to boost your authority. These guest posts can be uploaded by bloggers with authority in your website’s field so that the search engines also regard you as an authority and increase your SERP ranking.

4. Link Social Media Profiles

Linking successful social media pages and profiles to your website will also give you more authority. The right social media platforms will depend on what kind of website you have so you will need to do some market research and find out which platforms your audience is using. Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world but Twitter, Instagram, and more specialized platforms like LinkedIn can all be effective in increasing your rankings.

Ranking a new website requires a multi-faceted approach but if you take each step logically it is possible to shoot your site up the SERPs. A combination of both on-site and off-site SEO will help to boost your website’s authority and ensure increased traffic as long as you do it correctly. Follow these four effective strategies and your new website could be in for a hugely successful 2021.