Just Launched Your New Website? Here’s What You Need To Do Now

It's time to celebrate. You, your team and your web design partners have put in a massive effort to get your new website ready for launch. It's a job well done. You're really proud of the way it presents your business online, your peers and colleagues have given you lots of positive feedback and your customers love it.

Congratulations, this is just the beginning. Your new website is the perfect foundation on which to build your digital marketing strategy. You need your website to be your hardest working employee, available to your customers every day and every hour, informing them, helping them and adding value.

It can only get better.
The best is yet to come, your most effective work lies ahead. The best websites are ever evolving, an integral part of your on-going marketing campaigns. It's your bit of the internet, your online hub from which all of your other marketing radiates and heads back to. A way to showcase your uniqueness to the world.

But where do you start? There's lots that you can do, but what is a priority, what is essential to do right now?

Your solution is our 6-point post launch check list to get the ball rolling and start the dial moving in the right direction.

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Set a routine, make life easier

Running a website and keeping content up-to-date can be a full time task. If you set up regular routines and checks it will make this easier going forward. Use a check list software such as Process St. or Trello

Your 6-point, post launch check list...

1. Check your analytics each month

Key track of what's happening.
Your new website should have analytics installed. This can be the free to use Google Analytics or one of the many paid for systems. Having analytics on your website is critical to measuring success, what's working and what can be improved.

Spend a set amount of time each month reviewing these analytics.

Google Analytics is packed with data which can be overwhelming or tricky to work through. I recommend you set up a custom dashboard which features the data most useful to you each month. For our clients on our Monthly Website Care Plans, we provide them with their custom dashboard which pulls in data not only from Google but other aspects of their online marketing activity, all into one dashboard for regular review and comparison.

Key takeaway - doing this each month will help you find out your most popular pages or content, so you can add 'content upgrades' or decide what's next to be fixed!

Need help?
We can set up custom dashboards, goals, tags and event tracking in your Google Analytics account so you can see the data you need to increase leads and drive business online.

2. Get going with your content marketing

It's time to start a conversation. Imagine if you could sit down with every single person who is looking for your product or service and tell them exactly what you offer and why you are unique. With Content Marketing you can.

Adding new content regularly is great for Google ranking factors (Google appreciates up-to-date content and will rank you higher). It's also extremely important for your audience, who will appreciate the value you deliver.

Creating new, useful content takes time and effort. So get your content working hard and promote it to your audience, not just once but many, many times. The internet is a noisy place, promoting it many times increases your reach.

People won't visit your website unless you encourage them to and let them know what's new. You need to reach out to them, go where they are 'hanging out' online. Reach out and share your content.

A few ideas for different types of content:

blog posts
check lists
podcasts
case studies
infographics
product reviews
industry trend reviews
webinars
industry insight
video blogs

Key takeaway - spend time creating relevant new content for your website, then make sure you promote it regularly. Not just once, but many times. Then add 'content upgrades' to your most popular posts.

Need help?
You may not have enough time to set aside to create the awesome content you need. Don't worry we're here as your specialists in; graphic design, creative content and SEO copywriting. Producing assets such as news articles, email newsletters and automation, 'content upgrades' such as eBooks, Infographics, check-lists, data sheets, designed just for your target market. Have a content project or content upgrade in mind? - we can help.

3. Build your email marketing list

Email marketing is consistently one of the strongest routes to engage with your audience. Make sure you encourage sign-ups with value-added content, offering something of value in exchange for an email address. Then follow up with additional value and your regular newsletters.

Key takeaway - visitors won't sign up to your newsletter unless they can see the value they will receive. So showcase the value you will provide. The best part is most of your email marketing can be automated. So your message is getting out there 24/7.

Need help?
We can design your 'lead magnets', sales letters and newsletters, ensuring they are brand building, well written and provide valuable insight. Have an email list building project in mind? - let's get started.

4. Get busy with Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) is not a one-time activity. Your website should be optimised for search from the very start which is great for your launch, but you need to keep measuring your success and looking out for new opportunities. It's ideal to have an SEO and content strategy in place at a time of launch. If that's not ready yet, then now is the time to make a start. From your site launch, your analytics will start to show you your traffic changes compared to your old website. New site launches can sometimes create a temporary downturn in traffic, while Google gets round to caching any new content. So collect a few months worth of data before you start to make any changes. And remember - it can take Google up to 2-4 weeks to cache any new content.
When to find out more about Search Engine Optimisation - What is SEO?
Key takeaway - Monitor search traffic over time, don't make any instant judgement, it can take Google a few weeks to cache new content.

Need help?
We have a wide range of experience and skills optimising content for search and creating Search Marketing Strategies. It takes a well thought through combination of technical, content and research to deliver effective SEO. Get in touch if you need Search Engine Optimisation assistance.

5. Get active on the right social channel

You probably don't have time to be constantly watching and posting on every single social media channel that's available. And you really shouldn't be doing that anyway. Having a conversation on the right one for your business is way more effective than trying to be everywhere. You might be a lover of Twitter, but your target audience might be on LinkedIn. Check your analytics, that will tell you where your 'social engagement' is getting results, so concentrate your efforts there.

Key takeaway - Find out where your audience likes to spend time; are they on Twitter more than Facebook, or do they search for help on LinkedIn or hangout on Instagram?

6. Regular website care and maintenance

Your website can be compared to a high performance car.
Like high performance cars your site needs regular checks and maintenance to keep it running smoothly and keep up-to-date. This monitors aspects like:

up time - if your sites not available your missing out on visitors
page speed - address any performance issues
search visibility - make sure all of your content can be found
site security - websites are continually bombarded with attacks, make sure yours is protected

If you’re regularly adding new content, images, uploads and case studies, this all needs optimising and checking regularly. Show your new website some love and give it the care it needs.

high performance website design Newcastle

We'll take great care of your website

High performance Website Care, with one of our monthly Website Care Plans. We not only look after your website, you also get unlimited updates*and personal consultancy calls to make sure your business is making a difference online. Because we love your website as much as you do.