First of all, congratulations on completing your new website. It is not easy and after many hours of planning, designing and coding, your website is ready to be launched.
However, when it comes to launching your new website, you need nerves of steel. There is going to be fear and uncertainty in the air because you want the launch to be seamless as a site that is the central hub where all the traffic comes in. Your website is where your customers will find out who you are, what you sell and how someone can purchase your products.
So to make things easy for you, we are have made a list of the six most important things you need to consider when launching a new web site.
1. Don’t rush it
One of the most common mistakes when launching a new web site is rushing into it. Many business owners and web developers like to go straight into launching a website without planning for the unexpected. However, a million things can go wrong if you have not taken precautionary measures.
Let’s say you finished your website on Thursday and you decided to launch it on Friday. This schedule can be problematic in many ways. For instance, if your website launch was completed by 4:00 p.m. on a Friday, your web developer would only have two more hours to fix any bugs, issues or problems the website has. Some of these changes may even go unnoticed due to time and can be on the live website for the whole weekend.
So, the foremost consideration that you need to keep in mind is not to rush it. If you decide to go ahead with your website launch, you need to make sure unfinished sections are initially left out initially as you can always publish them later.
2. Audit all your website links
A website is as strong as its weakest (broken) link.
When you create a new website, you create an entirely new URL structure. During the development phase of your new website, many things are in motion and chances are there will be some broken links.
Broken links often occur when you revamp a website or if you change an URL. For instance, if your “About Us” page was formerly at http://yoursite.com/about-us/, then it would be indexed by search engines and whenever someone wants to visit that page again, Google or Bing will show them this link.
To solve this problem, you need to use the famous “301 redirect”. What your web developer needs to do redirect customers to the new URL whenever someone visits http://yoursite.com/about-us/.
Also, it is imperative that you check the broken links on your website. To do it quickly, use this excellent tool to find out if you have broken links and their location.
3. Check your content
Just like your website’s links, your content also needs an audit before your website launch. It is important to ensure that there is no dummy text (Loren Ipsum) anywhere on your new website. Also give your content a thorough reading to ensure there are no grammatical mistakes, typos, or spelling errors.
4. Test your contact forms
Whether you optimized your website for lead generation or your website is simply a final destination for all online traffic, you have to make sure your contact forms are working.
To do this, test every form embedded on your website by filling in the text and making sure it goes to the right email. In most cases, every page has its own contact form, so it is easier to track where the lead came from. Test each one and make sure they are all working.
5. Optimize your new website
Search engine optimization (SEO) is as relevant as it was five years ago. In fact, it should be the first thing in your website launch marketing plan.
Since you have a new website, you need someone to look into all the things required to make sure your website is on the top of search engine results. This includes everything from keywords in your content, Meta descriptions, title tags and other SEO essentials are in place.
6. Review, improve, and maintain
Unlike conventional marketing, the digital world keeps transitioning into new things. This means you have to make sure you cater your website to new trends, updates, and changes. It is important to bring in your employees into this process. Ask them to share their feedback and updates with you so that you can work on them promptly.
It is also important to listen to what your customers are saying about your website. The website is for them, so their input is crucial to its overall success. As a business owner, you need always to have one ear to the ground.
Phew – congratulations again on your website. It is now time to celebrate with your employees, treat them to a dinner or even an office party; you all deserve it. Contact Edkent Media to book a free consultation and see how your newly launched website can benefit from SEO.
