Launching a new website isn’t as easy as hitting the ‘Publish’ button. A lot goes into planning a successful launch, including getting your site in front of the right people. Whether you are building a brand, growing your business or showcasing your creative skills, a well-designed website launch will help you meet your goals and leave a lasting impact on your audience.
Below are the steps to follow as you plan a successful website launch.
Plan Your Project
Building a website from scratch takes time and effort. Small websites need about 1-2 months to complete, while bigger sites will take longer. Define your website’s purpose and what you hope to achieve. What emotions are you looking to trigger? What will your website have that others don’t? Answering these questions will help guide you in the right direction.
Also, think about the audience you want to target. What are their interests? What problems are they trying to solve? If you don’t know a lot about your audience, you can learn more through surveys, online polls or social listening tools. The information you gather can help you create a website that meets your needs.
You’ll also need a way to measure your success. As you monitor your website, some important metrics to look at are traffic volume, conversion rate, returning visitors, social shares, search engine rankings and customer lifetime value (CLV).
Buy a Domain Name
A domain name is your unique identifier. Choose one that reflects your website’s purpose and is easy to remember. We also recommend picking a domain with a .com extension, as these websites are viewed as more trustworthy. Find helpful tips on how to choose a killer domain name for your website.
Create a Sitemap
A sitemap is like a blueprint for your website’s structure. Keep your structure as simple as possible so that people can easily find the information they need. Ideally, each web page should have a single purpose.
Most of the websites we build at Magna Technology include the following pages:
- Home
- About us
- Products/Services
- Blog
- FAQs
- Contact us
Design Your Website
You have two options when it comes to building a website. The first option is to build the website on your own using a website builder. You don’t need coding or design skills, as website builders are user friendly, fast and inexpensive. However, there are many limitations and restrictions. For this reason, we do not recommend them for big businesses or ecommerce.
The second option is to hire a web development company. While more expensive, a website developer can create a beautiful, responsive website with a custom design, professional edge and latest technology. Your website will also include built-in SEO and ongoing support for an all-in-one solution.
Plan a Content Strategy
The reason why people visit your website is because of the content, so make sure that it isn’t an afterthought. The better your content is, the more likely people are to visit and stick around. This is why creating a content strategy is essential when launching your website.
Determine what you want your content to achieve. Do you want it to entertain, inform, educate or sell? Then decide what mix of content you plan to post on your website, including blog posts, videos, podcasts, landing pages and galleries.
Optimize for SEO
Prior to your launch, you should optimize your website for SEO. This will help your site get better visibility. Keep in mind that SEO involves many components such as:
- Integrating keywords naturally into the content
- Crafting compelling meta titles and descriptions
- Adding descriptive alt text to images
- Offering well-organized and intuitive navigation
- Using header tags (H1, H2, etc.) to structure content
- Mobile responsiveness
Test Your Site
Conduct several tests to ensure your website is working and functioning as it should:
- Usability testing helps identify areas in the user journey that aren’t working as they should
- Functionality testing ensures that all interactive elements are functioning properly
- Compatibility testing requires you to test your website on different browsers, operating systems and devices
- Performance testing should be done regularly and involves checking your site’s speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights or something similar
- Mobile testing ensures that your website appears correctly on mobile screens
- First impression testing can help determine if your site is making enough of an impact to hold visitors’ attention
Set Up Analytics
We’re almost there! The next step is to set up analytics so that you can monitor your site. Make sure that you’re running reports and tracking key metrics, such as website visitors, bounce rate, average pageviews per session and average session duration. A website is always a work in progress, so when you see areas that need improvement, be sure to address them.
Launch and Promote Your Site
Now it’s time to share your website with the world! Hit ‘Publish’ and promote your site on social media, email newsletters and other advertising channels. Run ads on platforms like Google or Instagram to drive targeted traffic to your site. Also consider setting up retargeting campaigns to help re-engage people who visited your site but didn’t convert.
Maintain Your Site
Your website requires continued attention. At a minimum, make sure that your site is regularly backed up and consistently review and update your website’s content. Be sure that all links on your website work. If any are broken, fix them or remove them from your site. And, if you’re using a CMS, keep it up to date to ensure optimal performance, security and compatibility.
Website Development and Maintenance – We Do It All!
Building and launching a website is not something you have to do on your own. Magna Technology offers affordable pricing and personalized service, even for small businesses. Our team will not only build and help launch your website, but also we will maintain it with scheduled backups, regular updates, maintenance, feedback and reporting and more. Contact us today to learn more about our all-inclusive services.
