Launching a website is no easy feat. Finally reaching that launch date can feel like a huge weight lifted off your shoulders. All the hard work is done, right? Not quite. Let’s take look at the six Steps You Need To Take After Launching A Website
Launching your website is just the first step in an ongoing journey. Now that your website is out in the big wide world, it’s your job to make sure people visit it. You don’t want all that hard work to be for nothing.
The internet is a highly competitive space, but taking these six steps post-launch will drive traffic to your website and set you up for search ranking success. Let’s get into it!
Six Easy Steps You Need To Take After Launching A Website
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Google introduced mobile-first indexing in 2016. This means your website’s mobile version is how Google determines your ranking position. If your website isn’t mobile responsive, you’ll throw all your ranking potential out the window.
There’s a smartphone in the back pocket of most people worldwide. In fact, according to SEO Agency Found, “40% of web visitors are using mobile devices. With up to 30% using tablets!”.
A mobile-friendly website lets you reach this audience, boosting visibility and site traffic in the process. The more visitors you get to your website, the better chance you have to outshine your competitors in the search engine space.
Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly should play a key role in its design and development, so if you’re only just checking now…chances are you’re a little late. With that said, there are a few tools and plugins that can help post-launch if you need a quick fix.
Protect your website
Taking precautionary measures protects your website from a wide range of worst-case scenarios. While you may not think it’ll ever happen to you, security breaches and server issues are a very real threat in the cyber community.
With proper security measures in place, you can avoid nast breaches and attacks.
For the best website protection, run regular backups and install firewall protection:
Website backups
Regular backups are the best way to avoid losing your precious website data. Imagine losing all of your blog posts or, worse, a customer database.
That’s hours and hours of work, deleted at the drop of a hat. Whether it’s human error, hacking, or an update gone wrong, various situations could lead to the loss of data.
Install firewall protection
A firewall helps prevent cyber threats, protecting your website from attacks. If you’re running an eCommerce website, you have an obligation to protect customer data and may be liable in the event of a security breach.
Yes, the internet is a big place, but hackers have a way of preying on the vulnerable. A firewall monitors and blocks unwanted traffic, preventing cybercriminals from accessing your system.
Choose the keywords and phrases you want to rank for
Selecting your keywords starts with researching the popular search terms among your audience to find the ones that offer the best ranking potential. Using the right keywords helps you avoid publishing content that won’t see the light of day in search.
Online Keyword Research Tools analyze the search volume and ranking difficulty of each keyword. The higher the ranking difficulty score, the less likely your keywords will drive traffic to your website.
When you have selected the keywords you want to rank for, include these strategically around your website, including:
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Alt image tags
- Blog post titles
- The first 100 words of a blog posts
Sign up to Google Analytics
Google Analytics will be one of your most frequently visited sites once your website is up and running. This free analytical tool collects your website data to provide a full breakdown of how well it’s performing online.
Track the number of visitors coming to your site, where they came from, which device they used, how long they stayed for, and many more important metrics that highlight areas that need improvement in your website promotion.
Launch social media and spread the word
Social media is an effective way to generate brand awareness and promote your website to a highly targeted audience.
Building your social media presence won’t happen overnight, but the more you engage, the faster your following will grow. Each social media post has vast reach potential, so it’s important to post regularly and share any new content as it’s created.
Once you have decided on the social media platforms you want to be active on (the more, the merrier), you can take things up a notch with paid advertising. Every social media platform offers some kind of ad spend that boosts the reach of particular posts. Social media advertising is highly cost-effective and measurable, informing you of the success of every promotion.
Start building links
Link building is one of many SEO techniques that improve search ranking positions. Search engine algorithms use the number of links to a web page to determine its relevance and value across the internet.
Various link building strategies will establish your website as a credible source of information.
To get started, try these three techniques:
Create quality content on your own site
The higher the quality of your content, the more likely other websites will pick it up and link to it. Search engines love high-quality content, so always strive to publish your best work.
Discover unlinked brand mentions
Other sites may mention your brand name without linking to your website. Believe it or not, you can find out when this happens and ask the site owner to add a link. Sites like Ahrefs Site Explorer are easy to use and show which sites to contact and politely request they add a link.
Create online directory listings
A quick search will show which online directories are most popular in your area. Listing your website on each of these sites lets you add your website link to several credible sites. This is a quick and easy way to build links without having to reach out to other websites.
Set your website up for success
Launching a new website is exciting, but it’s nothing new. The internet is saturated with websites gunning for the top spot in search, and you’ll need to be an active competitor to prevent all your hard work from drowning in the depths of Google’s back pages. While it’s an ongoing effort, these six tips are a great place to start.