So your website is live. Now What?
Key steps to check and keep in mind about your newly launched website.
Your website is up and running. You've personally opened it about 10 times since yesterday and reread everything, twice! You've harassed everyone you know to check it out, and of course demanded feedback. That's all great. But there's more to do.
Check it on different screens & browsers
Your developer has surely taken care of this. Then again, since you're already checking it multiple times, you might as well do it from different sources. Your visitors will be using an array of different devices and browsers. You need to make sure they're all getting the experience you want them to have.
So download all the browsers you can and browse to your website from all the devices you can get your hands on. Click on everything. Scroll everywhere. Read it all.
Get your Google Analytics Access
How fun would it be if you could watch the visitors on your website? See where they're at, what they're reading and how long they're staying...
There are a number of analytics services but Google Analytics is by far the most popular and easy to use. It's also free. So if your developer didn't put that code in, head to google.com/analytics, sign up, get the code and send it your developer to add to your website.
How else will you know:
- If your website is proving to be hard to navigate?
- Where your visitors are getting frustrated & leaving?
- What pages are attracting the most traffic?
Having access to analytics will help you monitor and optimize your website. Remember, you can't manage what you can't measure!
Next step, let's get some traffic.
Put the word out there.
Your close circle of contacts probably had its input in the early phases of the website. It's now time to spread that circle. Email your website link to everyone you know, well at least everyone relevant. Include it in your communications with potential clients, actual clients or even suppliers, tell them to check out a certain section, put it in all email signatures and let your employees spread the word…
Promote it on your social media channels
If your business already has some digital presence on social media, sharing your website link and inviting your loyal fans to visit it and give feedback is the next logical step.
Pay for traffic
There's no doubt your website is great, but unless you’re giving away one of those Tesla cars for free to every visitor, odds are you won't find visitors flocking. Thanks to Facebook & Google Adwords (among others) you can get targeted and relevant visitors to come to your website. We'll be talking about this in more details in the future, so make sure to stay tuned.
These are just some of the basics to help you get started with your new website. In fact, you've been so kind to get to the end of this that we're offering you a bonus tip, just for you!
Bonus Tip: Check if Google indexed your website
When we say Google indexed a page, it's like we're saying Google "read", understood and saved your page. It's important because if Google doesn't index your website it means your website's pages won't show up in potential customers’ searches; NO ONE WANTS THAT. It's a very detailed topic, but lucky for you there is a quick fix to check what pages Google has indexed so far from your website.
Search Google using the inurl operator. Simply type "inurl:" followed by your domain name. Like this inurl:spearheadagency.com