I often get questions when it comes to website building that should have been thought about before building a website in the first place.
Some people think that using a free service like blogspot is good enough for a website. This is a huge mistake if you actually want to build a site worth a damn. Using free services prohibits you in so many ways I could go on about that all day. Lets discuss building a solid foundation first.
Building on Older Websites
I have been in this business so long I still have pages built with Microsoft front-page. Although the sites are built with ancient software the pages still rank well because I cleaned up half the junk code in the sites when I made them. I rarely change a web page that is ranking so they stay for now. They are still on a good foundation so there is no reason to change that. Building links to them is the priority now and I will add a few new pages to the site from time to time just to keep it fresh and make sure I have some internal linking strategy to the older pages when relevant.
Building New Websites
Now the sites I build are built with WordPress using the Thesis framework. I use a plugin called thesis open hook which allows me to insert some things that help with SEO. With a few plugins to make sure the site speed is loading fast and internal linking in place most sites I am making now are 90% SEO friendly before they are indexed.
Get Quality Web Hosting
I highly recommend you use a quality web hosting service and if you can get yourself a VPS (virtual private server) or a dedicated server. I had a friend whose site tanked in the rankings after a Google update. Although I can’t say for sure it was his hosting he was on cheap web hosting with 22000 other websites that were not exactly in a good neighborhood. After moving to better hosting his rankings are starting to come back now.
For a solid foundation you have to have access to your .htaccess file and be able to change your meta tags. You also need a way to add tracking analytics to your site. You need to know what is working and more important what isn’t working. If someone tells you otherwise run away screaming. They are not someone you should be trusting your websites health too.
The structure you use is also a part of your rankings. Some website software makers include a bunch of HTML code that does nothing but inflate the page size and more chances to have bad code. You want to give your website the best possible chance at ranking for your niche and using sub par coding will hurt you.
With Google throwing updates to its search results every few weeks you need to have a solid foundation for your website or it could all become a waste of time. Build a solid site on a good foundation that serves a purpose to the end reader and you should be just fine.