If you had to start a website from scratch today, what would you do differently in the first 90 days?

[seoguyy]

If you were launching a brand new website today with no existing authority or backlinks, what would your first 90-day roadmap look like? Would you prioritize content, technical SEO, topical authority, backlinks, branding or AI/AEO optimization first?

 

[hipcat]

I run every new site through Page Insights and make sure my technical SEO is 100% or close before moving on to anything else. Content and backlinks are the easy part that can be done at any time.

 

[seoguyy]

seoguyy

do you start building topical authority with content first, or do you work on backlinks at the same time? With AI search changing how content gets discovered, it would be interesting to know what's working best for you in 2026.

 

[hipcat]

hipcat

I used to do backlinks early on, when it was easy to rank with them, but now do it after most everything else, and you only need a couple good ones. I do a framework of basic content related to my niche and then flesh it out later. Doing too much at first is not as good as saving some to "feed" to Google later, when it keeps coming back to check out your new content.

 

[Marc van Leeuwen]

Marc van Leeuwen

I run every new site through Page Insights and make sure my technical SEO is 100% or close before moving on to anything else.

A high Insights score and clean technical SEO are not quite the same job. Insights runs a lab test against one URL on a simulated connection, so a site can sit at green while canonicals point at the wrong version, the sitemap lists dead URLs, or pagination leaves half the pages unreachable. None of that shows up in the number.

The structural part I would finish before writing anything is duller than the score suggests. One canonical version of the site, internal links that actually reach every page, no stray noindex left behind from staging. Speed I would look at later on field data, once there are enough real visits for it to mean something rather than a simulation.

 

[NelaKola]

I’d probably start with research before touching the actual build. For a new site, the biggest mistake is usually creating a lot of content without knowing what can realistically rank. My first 90 days would be something like: find a narrow niche angle, map out the topics, publish a mix of helpful content and supporting pages, and make sure the site has a clear purpose from day one. I’d handle the basic technical SEO early, but I wouldn’t spend weeks chasing a perfect score if the site has no useful content yet. For backlinks, I’d focus less on mass outreach and more on creating something worth mentioning — tools, original data, unique resources, or content that fills a gap. AI/AEO is interesting, but I’d treat it as an extension of good content rather than a separate strategy. If the foundation is weak, optimizing for AI answers won’t save it.

 

[seoguyy]

seoguyy

Really like this approach. I agree that too many people rush into publishing without doing enough research first.

 

[peolsolutions]

I'd focus on technical SEO, publish helpful content consistently, optimize user experience, build quality backlinks, track analytics, and refine strategy using real data.