Post Website Launch Checklist: 6 Steps To Take After You Launch Your Website

Congratulations, your website is up and running! All the preparation, planning and work you’ve put in can finally start paying off, but you cannot sit back and relax just yet. Creating and launching a professional business or ecommerce website is a huge start, but now is the time to shift gears and start checking the boxes on your website launch checklist. Welcome to the post-launch phase.

While creating a website and making it your own might be highly rewarding and fulfilling, attracting visitors and converting them into customers is what really makes or breaks a website. So, how do you make your website visible on Google Search or other major search engines? How do you build an online presence using social media platforms? How do you keep visitors interested? And how do you grow your website’s authority?

Continue reading this post to learn about six important steps you can take to turn your collection of web pages into a successful, engaging and converting website that attracts returning visitors.

Step 1: Set up Google Analytics

Whether you run a WordPress site or a site built using a different content management system, you need a web analytics service that would allow you to track and understand important information about your website. A Google Analytics account can provide you with incredible insights. 

• Who visits my website: Google Analytics profiles your visitors and reveals what language they speak, what devices they use, how old they are, and so on.
• Where is the traffic coming from: The service also allows you to track where the visitors are coming from, which can help strategize different marketing campaigns.
• What interests my visitors: The tool allows you to see which site pages are the most or least popular, how visitors navigate your website and how long they stay.
• What kind of traffic do I get: With Google Analytics, you can track organic, social, referral, email, paid and other kinds of traffic to better plan your campaigns.

Google Analytics is a complex tool with a wide array of features to choose from, and it’s essential for every business owner. If setting up Google Analytics on your WAcademy website yourself sounds intimidating, don’t worry. We can help you out.  

Step 2: Optimize the website for search engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the next big thing you must take care of. Why is it important? This is what makes your website visible. If you ignore SEO, no matter how original your content is or how amazing your services are, no one will know about it. 

Basically, SEO ensures that your website is accessible and can attract visitors. Well, isn’t good content enough? It is not if your website is not considered valuable by search engines, like Google, which uses web crawlers to check if websites should be indexed.

Let’s go over a few things that are easy to fix to improve your SEO score and increase the chances of ranking high on the targeted visitors’ search results pages. 

Fix broken links

A broken link refers to a web page that the visitor cannot access for a number of reasons. As a website owner, you are responsible for making sure that all website pages are up and running or redirect appropriately. If you do not fix broken links, your conversion rates can plummet, your bounce rate can increase significantly and your domain rating might suffer.

Audit your site’s performance

If your site loads too slowly (slower than 3 seconds), web users will not wait. After all, there might be hundreds of other websites on the search results pages that match their queries. Also, check if the load speed is good on mobile devices. To make sure you provide a positive user experience, you have to keep your website running smoothly. 

Add a website headline

Every website has a headline that tells the search engines what the website is all about. It’s like a first impression that you provide for potential visitors. If your website’s headline is incorrect, you might also suffer from a high bounce rate, or visitors might not open it at all if they do not understand the benefit of visiting it.

Add meta descriptions

A meta description summarizes the web page’s contents and informs search engines about them. You want to make sure that every single page on your website is optimized for SEO. From About Us to Contacts to Solutions – provide accurate meta descriptions to let search engines know how to index your website properly.

Create alt text for images

Accessibility to web pages is an important thing to consider. If you want to be inclusive and cater to everyone potentially interested in your website, add image descriptions – alt text. From the SEO perspective, this can also help you attract visitors who could potentially find you via Google Image searches that match specific keywords.

Step 3: Utilize social media

Once your website is set up, optimized for search engines, and you are ready to track the traffic and other visitor metrics using Google Analytics or an alternative tool, it’s time to think about social media presence. 

Increasing exposure to your business via social media can be highly rewarding, and all you really need to do is set up profiles on your preferred platforms. Your choice might depend on the kind of business you run and the visitors you want to attract. Let’s look at some of the options.

• LinkedIn: The the best platform for B2B businesses and professionals that has more than 900 million members in 200+ countries.
• Facebook: Potentially the most versatile social media platform has nearly 3 billion monthly users that spans all generations.
• Instagram: The platform caters to B2C businesses and has around 1 billion monthly users, 61% of which are in the 18-34 age range.
• Twitter: A platform with over 330 million monthly users is perfect for businesses looking to share ideas and connect with customers on a more personal level.
• TikTok: The short-form video platform has quickly attracted more than 1 billion monthly users that include Apple, Duolingo, Nike and other major brands.

If you have no social media presence, pick a platform you are most familiar with and go from there. The key is to be active and consistent to grow your following. Note that a tidy content calendar can help you track and plan posts. 

Make sure you optimize your social media profiles as well to make it easier for people to find your business. Here are key things to include. 

How to optimize social media

• Recognizable name: Make sure you create easily recognizable social media handles that match your brand and website names.
• Relevant keywords: Include keywords in your bio/about section and your brand name to help people find you among the sea of other profiles.
• Eye-catching profile picture: Add a profile picture or logo that will help you stand out amongst other profiles, enticing people to click on yours.
• Link to your website: Include the link to your website in the bio/about section to make sure that your visitors can access it immediately.

To bring people to your social media profiles directly from your website, consider integrating a social media feed that pulls posts from all the different profiles.

Step 4: Set up a newsletter

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels for businesses small and large. It is estimated that the ROI (return on investment) for email marketing is $40 for every $1 spent, so if you’re looking to increase your profit and grow your business, you should set up a newsletter. 

Once you launch your website, add a sign-up form inviting people to join your email list. Of course, just asking people to sign up is not going to be enough. There has to be an incentive (lead magnet), and it has to be a good one. Here are a few great ideas for lead magnets:

• PDF cheat sheet
• Free webinar
• Free email course
• A discount
• Exclusive access
• Access to a private community

The next step is choosing the right email marketing software. There are dozens of different email marketing software options out there, but here’s a list of some of the most popular ones.

• ConvertKit: An advanced tool that is free for the first 300 subscribers.
• MailerLite: A great tool for beginners that is free for the first 1,000 subscribers.
• MailChimp: One of the most popular tools that is free for the first month.
• AWeber: An option for small businesses that is free for the first 500 subscribers.

Once you choose the software, create a welcoming sequence for people who sign up for your list. Send one or a series of emails that deliver the lead magnet people signed up for and introduce them to your business. You can automate all of this, which means you only have to set it up once, and new subscribers will automatically be added to your list. 

If you need help sorting this out, consider the option of outsourcing email marketing.

Step 5: Build backlinks

Implementing an SEO strategy after the launch of your website is crucial. Backlinking – which is part of off-page SEO – is, without a doubt, one of the most important things search engines consider when ranking your website. 

The more quality backlinks you have – which means they come from respected websites with higher domain ratings – the more valuable and credible your content appears to search engines. If you have yet to increase your own domain rating via backlinks, there are a few ways in which you can go about it.

Engage in email outreach

Compile a list of high-authority blogs that post about topics related to your business. Then, list blog posts in which you could add a link to your own content. The part that requires the most patience is emailing every blog, telling them that your link could add value to their blog post and audience. Let us warn you will hear no a lot.

Dedicate time to guest blogging

Another way to get backlinks to your website is by writing guest posts for other blogs. Every blog has different rules regarding this, but most allow one link to the author’s website. Just like with email outreach, make a list of authoritative blogs that accept guest posts and pitch your ideas. If your pitch is accepted, you can then write a guest post and secure a backlink.

Consider guest podcasting

Guest podcasting is an excellent way to get backlinks to your website and build your name as an expert in your field. When you go on podcasts, your name and website are linked in the podcast episode description and the show notes. So, you get the backlinks you need while increasing your business exposure by reaching a new audience.

Step 6: Start a blog

One of the best ways to get discovered on Google and drive traffic to your website is by running your own blog. Content marketing is, without a doubt, an effective way to establish your business as an authority in your industry.

To make sure your blog is successful and people are actually interested in your content, you will need to do some research and planning. Your content marketing strategy may involve as few or many steps, but here are the key ones:

• Analyze your target audience
• Perform keyword research and competitor research
• Consider different content types and brainstorm ideas
• Identify your goals and decide how you will measure success
• Publish and promote your content

Using Google Analytics, Google Search Console or another online tool, you can easily figure out who visits your website, but when it comes to content, you can also decide who you want to target. For example, if your product is designed for a younger audience, you have to understand what interests them and how you can approach them. This may determine what kind of content you create – short-form blogs, long technical articles, tutorials, how-to guides, informative pieces, etc. 

It is also important to check out what your direct competitors are doing to determine content gaps (the topics that are not widely covered) and see how you can compete for a higher ranking. Once you have a general understanding of what is happening in your industry, start jotting down ideas and identifying goals you want to reach with your content.

Once you are ready to publish content, create a calendar and post consistently. Also, do not forget to promote your content via social media channels and continue researching your industry to keep your blog fresh and valuable. 

Conclusion

Your new website launch is an exciting step towards bringing your business online, but there are more steps you need to complete if you want your website to take off and become visible to potential visitors and customers.

By implementing a web analytics service, you can determine who your visitors are and create services and content that cater to them directly. Then, through SEO best practices and technical SEO implementation, you can attract organic traffic and increase your visibility online. A social media presence can also help with that.

To build trust with existing clients and generate new leads, a newsletter is an irreplaceable tool. And following a thought-out backlink strategy can help you gain the trust of search engines and build the authority of your domain. If you create quality content your visitors read and share, you can further establish your website’s authority.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that even with the final website design in your hands, the post website launch checklist continues to grow. Every existing site requires continuous enhancements to ensure that it is accessible and valuable to your visitors. 

All in all, whether you built a business or ecommerce site, it is finally here, and exciting things are coming! If you are interested in additional services for your WAcademy WordPress site, we are ready to work with you!