Ready to launch a new website? Now you can sell the products/services with utmost feasibility. Publishing a website is one of the best things that help you drive sales and grow your business. This plays an indispensable role in forming the foundation of marketing your brand so that people from all over the world can reach out.
Also, it is intrinsic for website developers to choose an effective content management system that facilitates designing, management, and optimization. Each and every visitor should have access to your website. A successful website experience includes reading a blog post to learning more about your company to completing the registration process to becoming a customer, and everything that is in between.
Before launching a new website and coming up with new ideas, website developers need to check the ‘ before launch checklist to make sure the site is ready to launch and that it will support the visitors and businesses whenever it goes live.
1) Set up a pre-launch page
Just because your site is not ready for visitors clearly does not mean that you should not commence promoting it. In fact, the promotion of a website with a pre-launch setup can generate a higher level of interest and enthusiasm.
2) Upload an XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is one of the best documents that provide search engines with pages and posts on your website. This way google crawls the website more efficiently, meaning the content of your website could be indexed properly.
3) Implementation of search engine optimization (SEO)
Before consulting website developers and making your website look amazing in experience, there is an immense need for you to work with an SEO specialist to ensure that your website is search-friendly. SEO is one of the best processes that increases the overall visibility of your website and generates traffic. However, if you do not want to commence launching your website with an SEO process, then it is recommended to have an SEO-friendly structure at least.
The crucial SEO elements to consider before launching
- A person types keyword before into a search engine whenever he/she wants to have information about any particular topic. Informative keywords are always descriptive. The keywords should be used in plain language terms so that more and more people are able to speak and write about it. So, if you use these keywords in a website’s content, search users find it and recommend it to potential customers.
- The Metadata of a website helps you convince potential visitors to click. When you build a website, these keywords can be easily added by filling the description from SEO settings.
- Internal links help search engine optimization determine the overall structure of a website and make navigation easier. So, it is critical to check the entire work quite well before launching a website.
Also, it is recommended to business owners to improve the local SEO strategy.
4) Enable global styles
There is an immense need for every website of the page to look similar to one another. It should look like it belongs to the same brand. Whenever you create a website, always ensure to use similar colors, fonts, and logos. This maintains the consistency of various pages.
5) Connect to Google Analytics
There is an immense need for every website to know the relevant details about its google analytics. It includes the ways users engage with the website’s content and how the website performs overall. Google Analytics is one of the free-of-cost tools that website owners own to know more about the demographics of a target audience, the number of time users spend on a website, and which pages do they visit the most. With this relevant information in mind, web developers can see what is working best and where there is room for improvement. To commence measuring the activity of your website, there is an immense need for you to install the Google Analytics tool.
Many content management systems tend to facilitate this with a highly effective analytics tracking option. It can also be used to avoid the code of the site directly. Besides a web analytics solution, it is highly recommended to install the Google Search Engine for your website. With the help of this tool, website developers can index and search the results organically. However, before launching an application, various other factors should be considered too. The factors include a broken link, schema markup issue, and other associated technical SEO metrics.
6) An email sign up form
Once you grab the attention of people towards your website, email marketing is a great way to continue that ongoing relationship. Always ensure that the features of your website have a signup form. Regular email communication helps in sharing news and updating content that is relevant to your target audience and showcases your expertise.
When users visit your website, it asks for the user name and email address. But in order to come up with more personalized and informative content, consider collecting more relevant information like birthdays, locations, business interests, and whatnot. The better information can give you better insights about future communications.
7) Always have a clear CTA (Call to action)
Sometimes, it might not be possible for a reader to interpret your mind so it is essential for website owners to have clear CTAs. It is a win-win solution if your CTA is persuasive and explains your requirements to the users.
- The content of the entire page should be directly related to the call to action (CTA). Always explain the benefit of taking this action.
- The CTA should always use relevant words but it should not be pushy. Sense of urgency is creative but in order to come up with something great, writers need to have an encouraging tone.
- It is always recommended to use command words. Instead of asking readers to click here, ask them to ‘read this blog ‘‘buy now ‘or ‘download the application.
8) Mobile optimization
Mobile devices play an intrinsic role in generating traffic for your website, so always ensure that your websites are accessible and viewable to people on one go. Links and good content are the crucial components of mobile search optimization. But various other elements also need to be considered like
- URL rendering – the way URL would look better in an address bar.
- Page rendering – How to interpret the code visually
- Mobile-focused markups – Code through which page can get discovered in search engine.
9) Test everything
Before launching and introducing your website to the world, test everything. Always commence with usability testing.
- Check links – Take out enough time for checking all the hyperlinks. Both internal hyperlinks and external hyperlinks would work.
- Test how your website works in different browsers and devices. From forms to fonts, always ensure that everything works quite well on both desktop and mobile. If you do not have enough time to test the website manually, then consider a service known as Browser Stack.
- Page speed is one of the most important factors when it comes to the google search console. Consumers are less likely to visit your website if it keeps loading slowly. Various things like plugins and larger images negatively impact the loading speed of a website.
- If you tend to have an email sign-up form on your website then you need to have automated messages that are directly integrated into the entire process. Also, ensure that any feedback form tends to accept the submissions quickly and instantly.
- Proofread the website. Let your friends view the website before anyone else does. Let them review everything so that there is room for improvement. Have a reading copy to ensure it is free to understand and free of typing errors.
10) Promote a website effectively
Now that your application is ready to launch, use various strategies to promote it among people throughout the world. Marketing is a key towards awareness, and there are many ways through which you can encourage more and more people to visit your website.
- Incentives – Come up with a promo code so that users have free perks like shipping, downloads, and discounted offers. Contests are also one of the great ways for creating excitement and driving traffic.
- Automation – Once someone tends to sign for an email list, automated emails help in keeping your brand on top and encouraging them for future websites.
- Social media across all channels – Consider investing in social paid ads are interesting to reach a wider range of target audiences.
Linda Hartley is a digital marketing manager at Appstirr, who loves to write content on the latest topics, including Blockchain, B2B business models, application development, and much more.