A website project is a big investment in terms of cash and time resources. It can also be quite overwhelming with lots of content to create, designs to approve and working to deadlines. The critical thing that’s often overlooked is what to do when the new website launches.
We’re often quoted as saying that ‘a website is never finished‘ and we really mean it, once your website goes live the hard work can begin.
A few questions might be cropping up but think about your website like a gym membership for a moment. To gain all the benefits of it, you have to use it. Success doesn’t happen over night either but here are some quick things you can do when your new website goes live.
Things to do when your new website launches
Send out an email
Once you’ve kicked the tyres and your new website is launched, tell people. You can send out an email campaign to let people know including current or potential customers and even suppliers. It’s a great excuse to get in touch with your database.
Use your email signature to tell people about the new website too. Having a branded and neatly designed email footer can be a brilliant tool for pushing out news on a medium you use frequently.
Create a Pay Per Click campaign
Whilst your website is brand new it may take a while to get picked up by Google. We generally advise running a PPC campaign for your launch. It’s a great way of giving it a boost and driving some targeted traffic for particular keywords.
PPC advertising may form part of your long-term strategy for marketing too, but for launch it’s a great way to find out what keywords or ads are going to deliver results so you can set a benchmark.
Promotion on social media
Depending on your brand and customers or clients, you maybe active on social media already. A new website launch can be promoted on social media and you might think of running a campaign, competition or promotion alongside the new launch.
Have you got all your social media accounts and access together in one place? Make sure you do a quick tally of your online presence, if it’s not updated then make it so and if you’re not using it then close it down. Similarly if you’ve refreshed your brand you’ll want to make sure all your social media sites look consistent with the new brand or website.
Adding fresh content
If your new site has a blog it’s really important to keep it updated and keep adding fresh content to your website. Strike while the iron is hot and put a reminder in your calendar to post regularly to your website. Blog posts are good content to push out on social media and can be used to optimise your website for some of your keywords. Quality content is the best way to boost your website’s online visibility.
You might want to add a review of Google Analytics to that schedule. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on what content visitors are looking at, how long, where they are coming from so you can review, tweak and improve continuously.
Make sure you’ve got your account login details to your website and you’re able to make changes and updates.
Remember, prevention and maintenance are better than a cure. Stay on top of your website’s updates, security and maintenance. Ask your web designers if they have a maintenance plan that you can take up to look after your investment.