So, you’ve launched your new website—now what?
Today is the first installment of ‘First-Five Friday,’ our new weekly series focusing on the first steps to prioritize following important business and marketing milestones. Today’s First-Five Friday will cover the most important things to do after launching a website.
1. Analytics/Monitoring/Reporting
The first step after launching a website should be creating and setting up accounts to audit and monitor your website’s performance and traffic. It’s important to get this started as soon as possible to catch and track all traffic to/on your site from the start—this is also important for initial feedback regarding errors, etc.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. By integrating Google Analytics with your website, you can monitor various metrics like the number of visitors, page views, average session duration, bounce rate, and much more. This data is crucial for understanding user behavior, which in turn aids in making informed marketing and web design decisions.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. It provides insights into how Google views your site, the keywords that drive traffic to your site, indexing status, mobile usability, and more. GSC is essential for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts and rectifying website errors.
Mobile Usability
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools provides extensive data to help with keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink checking, and more. It helps in analyzing your website's performance in organic search and understanding how competitors are performing. The free version of Ahrefs even provides additional error information over what is shown in GSC.
Organic Reporting
Hotjar Free Forever Basic
UX (User Experience) tracking tools like Hotjar allow you to understand how users are interacting with your website. They provide features like heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys to gather feedback, which can be instrumental in improving website design and usability. I recommend starting with Hotjar—the free version is free forever and provides plenty of data to make informed decisions about your UX. Adding these kinds of services to your website can make a big impact on performance, however—I recommend only implementing one of these upon launching the site, and then each time there are major changes to key pages. Once you get the information about how visitors are interacting with your site and determine next steps, you can then remove it from your site to help the site’s speed and performance.
2. UX Testing
The second step will ensure that your site navigation works as intended and makes sure that all your pages are displayed correctly on the most popular devices and browsers.
Header and Footer
Make sure all links in the header and footer work as intended including logos, social-sharing icons, etc.
Conversion Links
Make sure all conversion links work correctly—these are the most important links on your site. Check anything that leads to a conversion with links like “Buy Now”, “Add to Cart”, “Contact Us”, “Subscribe Now”, etc. In addition, test all forms and automated processes like email confirmations, etc.
Browser Compatibility
Test your desktop UX using the top desktop browsers Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox; test your mobile UX using the mobile versions of Chrome and Safari.
You can also use a Chrome plugin to test your site on different operating systems and browsers. The free version of "Mobile simulator - responsive testing tool" includes all sorts of options for testing—and even more options with the paid version.
3. Social Media & Local Accounts
If your business depends on local traffic (if you have a restaurant or brick and mortar business), you should start by creating a Google My Business (GMB) listing with all relevant data like hours, description, services, etc. included in the listing.
Ideally, any social media accounts you intend to include in your multichannel marketing strategy will have already been set up during the naming and domain selection phase of creating your business. If not, create accounts now with usernames/identities that match your business, services, and/or products.
Create the necessary social media accounts and post the news of your website on each account that will target your audience. If you are a B2B distributor, for example, you may focus on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. If you are marketing an online course for creating short-form dance videos, you might instead focus on TikTok and Instagram.
4. Backlinks
Backlinks are links that other websites include on their site that link to your site—these are indicators that other sites trust your content enough to send their visitors to your site. Creating and maintaining backlinks is an ongoing process, but it is important to start this process immediately; the more QUALITY backlinks you have, the more authority Google gives you.
Cheaply acquired backlinks are not only 99.99% worthless, but they can have the opposite of the intended effect, and actually hurt your authority. It can be tempting to opt for a hassle-free option and just purchase backlinks—maybe from someone who claims they are not like the others and provide links from high-quality sources—but, quality backlinks take time and effort to build.
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an email newsletter that connects journalists and bloggers looking for content with content creators/professionals/experts. Each day, HARO sends out emails highlighting opportunities to be featured on news and other media platforms. This is a great way to develop the position of expert and create backlinks to your website.
Another great option is to appear on podcasts related to the content on your site. Podcastguests.com is a great resource for finding podcasts looking for guests. Again, after appearing on each podcast promoting your expertise/product/service, your brand will get more visibility and your website will get more quality backlinks.
5. Spread the Word
Social Media:
Utilize your social media profiles to announce the launch of your website. Tailor your message to suit the culture of each platform, ensuring that your core message remains consistent. Engage your audience by inviting them to visit your site and provide feedback on their experience. This approach not only drives traffic but also garners valuable feedback for further refinements.
Encourage sharing by creating shareable content related to your launch. This could include teaser videos, infographics, or blog posts that explain what your new site is about and what value it brings to your audience. Running a social media contest with a catchy hashtag can also significantly increase visibility and engagement around your new website.
Email Marketing:
Craft an engaging announcement email to notify your existing customers and subscribers about your new website. Make sure the email is visually appealing, with a clear call-to-action encouraging recipients to visit the site. Include a section within the email requesting feedback or testimonials which can later be featured on your site or in future marketing materials.
Networking and Collaborations:
Forge relationships with other business owners, bloggers, or influencers in related or complementary niches. Meeting people either virtually or through networking events can open doors to collaborative efforts. Propose mutual content sharing or link exchange agreements to leverage each other’s audiences. This strategy can help in driving additional traffic and improving search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
Solicit Reviews and Testimonials:
Reaching out to satisfied customers or clients for reviews and testimonials is invaluable. Feature these testimonials prominently on your website and share them on social media to build trust and credibility.
Platforms like Google My Business and Yelp are also crucial for garnering reviews and enhancing local SEO. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews on these platforms as well.
Having launched your new website, you've started an exciting journey! The first-five steps outlined in the 'First-Five Friday' series underscore the importance of proactive and strategic actions post-launch. Right from setting up comprehensive monitoring through Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, and Hotjar, to ensuring a seamless user experience across various devices and browsers, every aspect helps create an effective online presence. While there are many different ways to prioritize your post-launch to-do items, this list is a great place to start!