Your New Website is Live… Now What?

November 1, 2022

Keith Schoeneick

senior web designer/developer

Congratulations! The day has finally come to launch your shiny new website for all the world to see. Hours upon hours have been spent designing, developing, testing, editing content, finding the right photos, creating engaging layouts, and making sure that your brand is represented correctly. Now what?

You are finally on the right track to increasing your brand recognition and growing your business. But the work is far from over. It’s important to remember that your website is an integral part of your marketing strategy. There are a few steps you should follow once your site is launched in order to gain more traffic, improve search results, and maintain your websites’ performance.

PROMOTE IT.

In order to make sure that your website is getting the most views possible during its debut, you need to spread the word in every way possible. Let your personal network of family, friends, and colleagues know that you now have a new website and ask them to check it out and share it with their network. Posting the news of your launch on social media is another fool-proof way to engage with your audience and get more click-throughs to your site. Ensure that all of your social media channels have your new website address, and while you’re there, it’s a good time to update your channels with any new branding or artwork used on your site.

CONNECT IT.

Connecting your site to tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can benefit your website immensely. Google Analytics (GA) will allow you to keep track of vital information about your visitors, such as bounce rates, page views, time spent on your website, and a lot more. Using GA will help you to create goals that will track conversions, like form submissions, on your website. All of this data will help you to see how certain pages on your website perform, and where you may need some improvement. Using Google Search Console (GSC) will ensure that your website is verified and that it can be indexed properly on Google.

Another great tool you can use to manage your presence online is Google Business. Just confirm that you own the business and then you can add in all of your important contact and business information, photos, logo, and customer testimonials. Continue to update over time by adding new photos and promotions.

UPDATE IT.

Making sure that your site runs smoothly is not as tricky as it sounds. Updates to themes, plugins, and CMS platforms are released quite often, so keeping them up-to-date will take a bit of proactivity. Often, security issues and/or bugs will be addressed with an updated version of the plugin or theme. We suggest that you deactivate any automatic update features on your website and server which will prevent any issues arising without your knowledge. Setting up a staging server to test all of the updates first is the safest way to ensure that you minimize any conflicts that could result in a broken site or missing content. It is suggested to check for available updates on a bi-weekly basis. An up-to-date website, is a more secure website.

Your site doesn’t just need tech updates; it also needs content updates as well. Search engines LOVE seeing new content when they crawl the content on your website. Seeing no changes equals no movement in search engine results. Adding a blog to your site is a guaranteed way to keep moving up towards that coveted first page of search results.

TEST IT.

Not all content is the best content, and one way to improve on it is to check how the content is performing from time to time. How is that new slide you added working? Is it getting the clicks you want? Are people filling out the forms? These are all things that can be analyzed and tracked. Using landing pages created specifically for marketing campaigns is a great way to track conversions.

After making updates to plugins, themes, etc. you should test your website to ensure that everything is still functioning as it is supposed to. And it’s not just for those with frequently-changing content. Even minor tweaks to improve the user experience can make a difference. Virtually everything on your website and in your promotions can be tested, helping you to improve your overall success.

Successful websites are constantly evolving, so don’t let your launch day be the last day you pay attention to your website. You just invested a lot of time and money into this new website, let’s keep it performing at its highest level by treating it like a living extension of your marketing team.

If you are having difficulty with any of these steps, or need someone to help you through the process, the Solari Creative team is here to help. Contact Us using the form on this page!

Do you have a question or a project that you would like to talk about?

send us a message

What kind of project do you have?

How soon do you want to start your project?