One of the most exciting days for a business is your website launch day. You put in a lot of hard work to get here, establishing an ecommerce platform, setting up databases, and more. It was a long journey that finally feels worth something.
But, this isn’t the end. Just because your website is live doesn’t mean it will magically bring in its own customers. Getting the best results possible for your site, while not reliant on strict deadlines like establishing one, still requires diligence and effort to accomplish. Keep reading for BESTWEB’s most important things to do post-launch for a successful, lasting website.
Get a Backup Running
This is something you may have done before your website launch, but it never hurts to double-check. Technology may be amazing but is notoriously glitchy. One faulty hard drive can implode your entire server. If you want to keep all of your hard work protected, you should strongly consider backing up your data. An easy way to do this is through a backup plugin, which creates backups regularly so you don’t have to do it manually. That way, if anything ever goes wrong, you’ll know that your website content is secure somewhere. It’s a task that, even if never necessary, gives you well-earned peace of mind in the future.
Technical Considerations
- Establish Site Security: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates validate your website’s identity and allow you to securely transfer data using HTTPS.
- Test Your Conversion Path Functionality: If you launched an ecommerce website, check if your conversion path is working properly. For example, payment processes, thank you pages, contact forms, etc. should be working after your website launch.
- Check for Errors in Technical SEO: Look for duplication of title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords. Update pages if necessary to avoid content cannibalization.
- Test for User Experience (UX): Ensure each page is responsive and double-check links, icons, and files function properly post-website launch.
Setup Google Analytics and Search Console
Analytics and Search Console are amazing tools to take advantage of after your website launch. Analytics opens access to key data such as the number of site visitors, keyword status, website traffic info, and, you only need to integrate some Google code to make it work.
As for Google Search Console, this lets you understand how Google interprets your website. From there, you can understand why it ranks the way it does and how to improve it. It also highlights any errors in your sitemap and keywords your site shows up for.
Together, these tools are your gateway to getting your site as highly ranked on Google as possible.
Create an XML Sitemap
A sitemap.xml file is an incredibly useful post-launch website tool for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes. In short, the file contains entries of all the pages and URLs on your website. The file is ready by Google, which helps it read and organize the content, resulting in better rankings. Seeing as 68% of online experiences start with a search, this is a very effective way to generate website awareness. If your site is set up through WordPress, this is rather simple as there’s a Google XML Sitemaps plugin on WordPress that will do all the work and get you noticed on Google in no time.
Get Caching
Caching is an excellent way to improve the responsiveness of your post-launch website. This is useful because your website may live or die based on how fast it is. As crazy as that sounds, half of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Any saved time counts. Caching is an easy way to make that happen, with plenty of plugins around that can cut down your loading speeds dramatically. They’re easy to use, free, and get you a huge benefit. There’s no reason not to incorporate caching. If you don’t, your customers may look elsewhere.
Establish Your Product Feeds
Now that your website is launched, you want to get the word out. Getting on the radar of giants like Google and Amazon is a surefire way to guarantee success. Luckily, they let you submit a product data feed to their shopping channels. Keep in mind, though, that you want to be as specific about your products as possible. The more precise, the more likely you are to show up in searches. It can seem like tedious work, but the possibility for increased traffic from Google and Amazon will be well worth it.
Talk to Web Editors and Bloggers
The more connected and established your launched website is, the better it will perform. There’s no better way to make that happen than by talking with editors and bloggers. They can write posts or articles attesting to your site’s quality, getting it some much-needed credibility. Simply send some emails out to see if anyone would be willing to work with you. Or, use Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to have inquiries from journalists sent straight to you. Get their attention, and your site may generate increased traffic. It’s always beneficial to do some networking for your business.
Source: Shopify
Use Social Media
Social Media isn’t just one of the most important things to utilize after your website launch, it’s one of the most crucial tools for your business, period. Retailers with even just one social media account get 32% more sales over ones that don’t. With more platforms becoming ecommerce friendly, this number is likely to go up. All you have to do is get your accounts going — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are all great options.
If you don’t feel confident navigating social media yourself, don’t worry. There are plenty of businesses and freelancers that can provide this service. Also, it doesn’t hurt to try and get acquaintances or influencers to share your business on their profiles. More visibility gets more visitors after your website launch.
Get the Word Out
Ultimately, the most important way to get success after your website launch is to get people to hear about it. Luckily, there’s no shortage of ways to do that. Through Social Media, Google tools, and journalists or bloggers, you have plenty of avenues to organically direct attention to your site. Aside from that, there are some quality of life factors like backups and caching that will save you a lot of stress in the long run. The best part is, all these methods cost little to nothing for you to use. All you need to do is put in the effort, and you can get your site plenty of increased traffic all on your own.
For any other site questions or practices, check out BESTWEB’s selection of helpful articles. Make sure your site performs as well as possible.