Website Aftercare: 8 Things You MUST Do After Your Website Is Launched
Congratulations! You did it!
Picture this or maybe this is you…
Your website is finally live after all the blood, sweat and tears! Haha And if you hired someone the process was probably one you thought might never end. Plus, for you it was one of the major investments you made into your business.
So it’s time to kick back and relax and watch the money roll in.
Well not so fast.
Two things:
a website is never really finished, it’s only been launched which is a great accomplishment but to have a website that sells for you while you sleep brings me to my next point….
it requires some basic marketing and maintenance
Don’t worry you’ll still get to make money while you sleep but just know while you’re awake it doesn’t mean this is an excuse to neglect your website.
A website is only one tool in the bigger digital marketing puzzle, it's the starting point to having a true online presence
Here are 8 Things You Must Do After Your Website Is Launched:
Promote Your Website
Start Blogging/ Creating Content
Use Pinterest
Educate Your Audience On Your Website/ Site Tour
Create Incentives To Use The Website
Update Content Often
Connect Google Analytics
Build Your Mailing List
1) Promote Your Website
That’s right, contrary to popular belief, your website needs promotion in the same way your storefront would need promotion. Build it and they will come only works if you have an SEO and Content Strategy to help you get found on Google. They will not come if they do not know that your website even exists. Having a marketing plan for the least is a great place to start. If you want to consult the pros for a marketing strategy or brand strategy you can do that too.
Examples of things you can to is running ads such as FB Ads, IG Ads, Google Ads etc. Funnel already existing organic traffic from your social media to your website is another way and you can also make use of content marketing. You have to tell people about your website and give incentives for people to shop on the site. If you are still taking orders from the phone or your Facebook page and barely mention your website, how will people know to use the site? How will you train your customer to use your website even if you keep taking orders offline?
2) Start Blogging/ Creating Content
If you want to be found in Google searches, Google prioritizes website with current and relevant information to what persons are searching for. Are you updating your website content? Aside from keeping information on your website current the easiest thing you can do is create new blog content. You can more than do this yourself if you are tight on your budget, but once your website is built in an easy to use way. I can help you figure out if yours is, if you are unsure.
You need to start blogging via your website. Blogging is a great tool to not only bring traffic to your website but position your business as an authority in your industry/ niche. Even if you are not interested in being an authority, but I am not sure who wouldn’t, it definitely will build trust and trust means more business for you.
3) Use Pinterest
Pinterest is another great way to get your website discovered, especially if you’re a business that has a blog. Blogs are a great source of traffic as mentioned in the previous point and Pinterest is a great platform for visual people who use it often to get discovered there. Pinterest is the visual and cute version of Google but still a very powerful tool, so you will ensure you have visually appealing graphics, infographics, etc to succeed at Pinterest. If you’re someone who does a ton of visual content creation this is a great option for you.
4) Educate Your Audience On Your Website - Do A Site Tour
As mentioned previously, you need to bring awareness to your website and incentivize the use of your website. If you don’t use it why would they? If you don’t make it a requirement, why would they? If there is no utility why would they? Make your website necessary and part of your business process.
With that being said, often times people are confused on where to go and what to do, if your site was built with the user end in mind this would not be too much of a problem but the fact is every site is different and many people are too lazy to figure out what to do next so if it is not clear make it clear. Go live on social media and give people a tour of the website. Do a series on how to find specific types of information that people ask often or an area of your website you want to bring more awareness too.
5) Create Incentives To Use The Website
Run a promotion. Give people an incentive to shop or work with your by signing up or shopping via the site. Reward those who use the website instead of using social media by offering something additional or getting a certain percentage off. If people are used to calling or messaging on social media, why not tell them “Hey, did you know this item is cheaper over on our website?”
Notice how some businesses have admin fees for coming in-house to sign up but on the website you can avoid that administrative fee, that’s because when you are using systems like a website you remove the manual labour which does in fact translates to money saved for you and your business pass down that incentive to your customer and reward them for doing so.
6) Update Content Often
Think of this, with a store front you open the store every day and wash down the entrance, dust the shelves, put up the latest sale, promotion, newest items on display for greater attention. The same applies to your website. Would you shop on a website that has the same old dated graphics and photos of stock, this can also apply to service based website where you see the same banners and not a lick of information seems to have been updated to reflect the time passed.
Just as a store front is a living breathing thing, so is your website you should be logging into you website at least once a week because you should be blogging, adding new promotional graphics you have from your graphic design or that you made in Canva to reflect what you have going on in your business. Same way we keep our social media pages active you should also keep your website active.
7) Connect Google Analytics
So you are doing all of the things for your website so it’s important that you are able to track your progress to analyze the data. Think of what insights are to your social media. You want to see exactly how much traffic is coming to your website, where that traffic is coming from, what pieces of content or which pages of your website are performing well, and what keywords are you being found for. This is helpful information that you can use to better your website strategy and increase traffic and even having your website and blog posts shared.
8) Build Your Mailing List
Building your mailing list and having a website goes hand in hand. XX% of people who land on your website are not ready to buy yet, aka they are window shopping and are window shoppers. This is not a bad thing. The bad thing is, them leaving your website without capturing their contact information (their email) so you can build and nurture a relationship with these visitors.
So there you have it 8 things you must be doing after your website has been launched. I hope these tips helped you and I love hearing from you guys. Let me know how this has impacted you today.