You’ve launched your website. It looks great. And you’re excited that after weeks or months of work, it’s finally live.
So, now what?
I’d love to tell you that you can sit back and watch the clients roll in. But it, unfortunately, doesn’t quite work that way. Your work doesn’t stop when you set your website live. To get the most out of your new website, you need to commit time to keep plugging away on it.
A fantabulous website with a sleek design and good usability will help you turn visitors into paying clients but you still need to get them onto your site in the first place.
I’m a big advocate for treating your website with regular TLC. A bit like a garden – tending to the unruly areas, trimming back the excess and planting new content. This kind of pruning helps enhance your website/garden by making it more inviting and pleasant to use.
Makes sense, right? Here are 4 things that I think are important to do after launching your website.
Organise a proper launch
Now I’m going to assume that you haven’t or don’t plan to do anything other than post a quick link on social media to announce your new site. While this is a brilliant idea, and one I fully endorse, it can be overlooked and lost among the gazillions of posts we see on our feeds every day.
To really make the most of your website launch turn it into an event. A celebration. Involve your audience and encourage them to interact, share, like and actually visit your website.
You could, for example …
- Build interest and anticipation over a period of a few days by having a countdown post each day.
- Run a competition with the winner being announced on your website on launch day.
- Reach out to your business or blogger contacts and ask them to share your website.
Create a schedule for regular updates/maintenance
One of the best ways to get people on to your website is by creating content. Good quality, relevant content wins every time.
This is most commonly achieved through a blog on your website. Now I can hear your groans already. Blogging is one of the things that many small business owners hate. I’ve heard all the reasons for not doing it from not having the time to having no clue what to write.
And I do admit that blogging isn’t always my favourite job, I also know the huge benefits it has brought to my business.
Just a few of these include…
- Clients contacting me to work on their branding and website design after finding my blog posts on Pinterest.
- Generating thousands of visitors to my website each month.
- Creating a connection between myself and my audience.
- Showing that I am an expert in my field.
- Helps establish credibility and builds trust with my audience.
The above are just a few of the benefits I’ve found. You can experience them too by producing your own content.
Blog your case studies, share tips and tricks, promote services and most importantly build an audience. If people see you sharing information on your industry you will become their go-to person when looking for your products or services.
A well-written post once a month will add just as much value (and sometimes more) to your website than posting daily or weekly.
It’s not just blogging that you should factor into your website update schedule. Taking care of those small maintenance tasks is also important. Things like making sure your prices, services and products are up to date. That old offers or content is removed and that your website is kept secure and safe from hackers.
If you don’t have the time or desire to keep your website updated, you can outsource it to an expert. A lot of website designers, like myself, offer website maintenance to help you take care of your website so you don’t have to worry about it.
Work on your SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is something that every small business knows they need to think about but many are still unsure what it actually is.
In basic terms, it’s making sure your website is ‘optimised’ to be found and listed on search engines. And that rarely happens overnight. Listing on the first page of Google for your favoured keywords is likely going to take weeks, if not months to achieve.
Website SEO is an ongoing process and can be a complicated beast at times, with an ever-changing landscape of dos and don’ts. What worked 5 years ago may not factor into getting your website on search engines anymore. For that reason, you need to keep yourself educated on what’s new in the world of SEO and tweak your site accordingly. Or you may even consider hiring a pro to help do it for you.
Track your progress
Your website needs to have a goal. Without one your website will lack focus and add nothing to your business.
Your goal will vary greatly depending on your business. It could be anything from getting people to buy your products, up selling your customer extras to increasing your leads and enquiries or providing relevant information to visitors. Check out my post with 5 Tips To Design A Better Website, where I talk more about website goals.
As with everything in business you need to track what works and what is underperforming. Your website should be included in your performance review.
To track your website…
- Install Google Analytics – a giant in the world of website statistical analysis. It lets you see where your visitors are coming from, what pages they go to and how they interact with your website. This information is crucial in figuring out what methods of advertising are working best for you. As well as what content is popular with your visitors.
- Add Google Search Console – a handy addition to your website monitoring. Within the console you can see what websites link to you, keywords people use to find your website, any errors on your website and how Google ‘sees’ your website.
Bonus tip… Don’t expect all the good things to happen overnight.
Building a successful website takes time.
Listing highly on search engines, increasing your traffic, gaining clients and customers from your website is unlikely to happen immediately after launching. Have a little patience and continue to work away at building and improving your online space. It will pay off in the end, I promise.
If you’re struggling post-launch or want to talk with me about a new goal-orientated website for your small business – get in touch for a chat. I’d love to help you grow your business online.
So you’ve launched your new website, now what? Here is 4 important things to do after launching your website.
