MOVING FORWARD
Woohoo! Congrat’s your site is now LIVE. It’s been a pleasure working with you. Here are 5 things to do moving forward:
1. Spread The Word
When your website goes live, the most important thing to do initially is to drive traffic to it. This will help google index it faster and start improving your SEO rankings immediately. Here are some ways to consider getting the word out:
Email Newsletter
If you have a newsletter or email list, be sure to let them know that the new site has launched and even more importantly, how it can help their business or add value to them. Mailchimp is one of the most popular platforms.
Use your network of Facebook, IG, Tik Tok to get the word out. You’d be surprised how far one post can go when it’s shared and liked.
Word of mouth is still the most powerful referral. If you’re as excited as I am when your site launches, tell those around you! Get their opinion and see what they think about your new online presence. That’s valuable feedback that may come in handy when considering changes and additions to the site moving forward.
2. Ask For Reviews
Google Reviews
This is highly recommended as google reviews are generally what will pop up when somebody finds your site with an internet search. You can either have your customers google your business, then leave a review OR you can use this site to generate a direct link: https://supple.com.au/tools/google-review-link-generator. It’s super handy
Yelp Reviews
Yelp reviews are also great and are now a more reputable spot for customer reviews. Don’t be afraid to ask for your customers to leave a review on Yelp!
Testimonials for Website
After your website is live, we recommend gathering as many testimonials as possible to post on the website. Even if you don’t currently have any on the site, if you can gather 5-10 good, personalized reviews (usually gathered via email or off of google or Facebook) we can eventually set up a testimonials page. Users will often look for reviews ON the site as well as on other outlets before making a purchase, calling or emailing. I recommend putting the best one’s on the site
3. Keep Things Fresh and Updated
I recommend changing out or updating images 1-3 times a year. If your website has a main image right when you open the front page, it’s important to keep that fresh and new. For the user, it looks like you’re taking the time to update your site and therefore making it more valuable for them.
If your site has been sitting for more than two years or so, it’s strongly recommended that you do something to spice it up. Whether it’s making some cosmetic changes to the action colors or menu bar, or even just adjusting or adding some new graphics/images. Keeping your site fresh is a GREAT way to keep people coming back.
If information, staff, hours or services change for your business, be sure to change the website too! There’s nothing worse than having wrong information on a website. Or have a staff member’s picture on the page who doesn’t work there anymore. Keep your website updated and streamlined to your business.
4. Build Site Content
Blogging sounds a bit overrated and useless to a lot of people and I can understand that, but the facts are the facts – websites with blogs generally drive 30-40% more traffic to their sites than their competitors. Google will often pick up blog posts before picking up major website pages. If you can contribute good, lasting content that is well thought out and valuable to your customers, you will drive more traffic. Don’t be afraid to use social media and use your network to get the word out. It’s worth having someone maintain a solid website blog to drive your traffic and grow your online presence.
it’s generally good practice to not only update your images and graphics, but also your content! If you have more services to add to your site, do it! Google LOVES seeing that a site is being built on to. You can also repeat the steps above by reposting your site to your social media outlets and saying that you have updated images, content, new blog post, etc.
if things in your industry change or your services change, be sure to update your site accordingly. Even adjusting content by a few words can show google that your site is being worked on and is again…”alive”.
5. Protect Your Website
Over 50% of all web traffic is currently spammers, bots, malware and hackers. If you haven’t already joined with my Website Care Plan to protect your website, I highly, highly recommend it. You can find out more as to why here, but the fact is that sites are getting hacked left and right these days. And most of the time, for no reason more than a hacker thousands of miles away just happening to find a way in or a web spider that got through a hosting company’s firewall, etc.
If your site isn’t protected and secured, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a breach. Our security plan lets you (and me) sleep better at night knowing that your site is protected in the following ways:
LASTLY I”D LOVE A TESTIMONIAL!
If you had a great experience, I’d love to hear about it. Not only does this provide feedback on what I can improve on, but it goes a long way with my potential future clients.
