6 Things You Must Do After You Launch Your Website
After months of hard work, preparation and planning, finally seeing your website go live is an incredible feeling. However, while your website is up and running, your work as a business owner doesn’t stop after you launch your website.
You want people to find your website and your business on Google and social media. And you want your website to convert visitors into potential leads for your business. So, here are six key things you must do after your website goes live to ensure the long-term success of your business:
1. Google Analytics
Setting up Google Analytics should be the first thing you do after you launch your website. It’s a free tool that’s available for everyone. Google Analytics allows you to track and understand important information about your website:
- Who visits your website: Google Analytics shows you who your audience is, where they’re visiting you from, how they found your website, and so much more.
- What interests visitors: you can see which pages of your website get the most views and how long people visiting stay.
- Where your traffic is coming from: Google Analytics allows you to see where all the traffic is coming from and better evaluate which promotion strategies are working best for your business.
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 yourself sounds intimidating, don’t worry. Here at WAcademy, we offer a Google Analytics setup, so you don’t have to figure out everything on your own
2. Optimize for search engines
Website headline
This is your chance to tell the search engines what your business is and what it does so that when someone types in a keyword they’re looking for, your website shows up in their search.Page descriptions
Alt text on images
Every image you upload to your website has the Alt text section to add keywords to your images. So now, when someone uses Google Image search, your images with the Alt text with the keywords will show up, expanding your reach and increasing your chances of getting found by new people.
The good news is that you don’t have to do all these optimizations yourself. WAcademy offers an On-page SEO service where experts will take care of all the required optimization for you to focus on other aspects of your business.
3. Set up your social media
After you launch your website and do all the things to optimize it, it’s time to increase the exposure of your business. And the easiest and best way to do it is with the help of social media. Depending on who your targeting audience is and where they hang out, you’ll want to pick one or all social media platforms and set up your profile:
- LinkedIn: the best platform for B2B (business-to-business) businesses and professionals with over 700 million members.
- Facebook: the most versatile social media platform and the most popular one. It has over 2.8 billion monthly users, with 65% of the audience being under 35.
- Twitter: a platform with over 190 million monthly users perfect for business professionals and people looking to connect with others in their industry.
- Instagram: Instagram is great for B2C (business-to-consumer) businesses with 1.22 billion monthly users, of which even 68% are between the ages of 18 and 34.
- TikTok: the newest player in the game with over 1 billion monthly users. Perfect for B2C businesses with a younger target audience.
If you have no social media presence, the safest bet would be to start smaller and expand as you go. So, pick two platforms where you want to be active and be consistent with them. Then, create a content calendar to help you track when you’ll be posting and what content you want to create to attract new people.
Also, it’s important to optimize your social media profiles to make it easier for people to find your business when they’re looking for something in particular. Here are key things to include:
- Eye-catching image: bright, good-quality profile picture or logo will stand out amongst other profiles, enticing people to click on your profile.
- Link to your website: each social media platform allows for one link in the bio section, so make good use of it and link to your newly launched website.
- Keywords: Include keywords in your bio and the name so that your profile comes up when people are searching for a particular keyword.
4. Set up your newsletter
Email marketing is the most effective marketing channel for most businesses. According to the most recent data, the ROI (return-on-investment) for email marketing is $36 for every $1 spend, so if you’re looking to increase your profit and grow your business, you need a newsletter.
After you launch your website, you’ll want to set up sign-up forms inviting people to join your email list. Now, just asking people to sign up is not going to be enough. There has to be an incentive for people to sign up for your email list, and it has to be a good one. The incentive we’re talking about is called the lead magnet, and all businesses have one or a few to entice people to join their mailing lists.
Here are a few great ideas for lead magnets together with examples:
- Workbook
- Free webinar
- Free email course
- A discount
- Access to the private community
- Exclusive challenge
Once you know what your lead magnet will be, the next step is choosing the right email marketing software to use. There are dozens of different email marketing software out there, but here is a list of some of the most popular and best ones we recommend:
- ConvertKit: the most advanced tool. It is free for the first 300 subscribers, and then they offer a wide selection of plans to fit every business individually.
- MailerLite: a great tool for beginners. Free for the first 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month.
- MailChimp: one of the most popular software. Free for the first 2,000 subscribers.
- Aweber: great for small businesses. Free for the first 500 subscribers.
The next step will be to create a welcoming sequence for people who sign up for your list. It can be one or a series of emails that deliver the lead magnet people signed up for and introduce them to your business. All email marketing services allow you to set up an automation, so you’ll only have to set it up once, and new people will automatically be added to your list.
Once you choose which email marketing software is perfect for your business, you can hire someone to help you set it all up to save you time and hassle. At WAcademy, we have an email marketing integration service to help you set up and automate every part of your email campaigns.
5. Start building backlinks
Optimizing for SEO after you launch your website is crucial. However, it’s not the only thing that helps you rank higher in search. According to SEO expert Brian Dean, backlinking is the most important thing search engines look at when ranking your website.
“Backlinks are basically votes from other websites. Each of these votes tells search engines: “This content is valuable, credible, and useful.” So the more of these “votes” you have, the higher your site will rank in Google and other search engines,” Brian explains.
Now, every website on the internet has an authority score. You can check yours with Ahrefs‘ free tool. Simply type in your website URL, and it’s going to show you how many backlinks you have and what is your score:
The higher your score and the more backlinks you have to your website, the better your ranking will be. Now, here are a few ways you can go about building your backlinks:
Email outreach
This option is for those with thick skin and unlimited amounts of patience. First, compile a list of bloggers in your industry who have high-authority blogs. Then, read over their blogs and find blog posts where a link from your website would fit and add value to the post.
Then, email every single blogger, telling them that you think your link could add value to their post and their audience.
Most bloggers, especially leading experts in your industry, will probably say no. However, if you do a great job identifying the right links to the right blog posts, you can succeed and get other people to link to your website.
Guest blogging
Another way to get backlinks to your website is by guest blogging on other people’s blogs. Every blogger accepting guest blogs will have different rules. However, most allow one link to a website, so this can be very useful to help you build those backlinks.
Make a list of bloggers and authority websites in your niche that accepts guest bloggers. Then, write excellent pitches and pitch your post to them. Always read the guidelines before pitching because some bloggers might want to get the pitch first, while others accept only fully written posts.
Guest blogging
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 to do interviews, your name and website will be linked in the podcast episode description and the show notes. So, you’ll get the backlinks you need while also increasing the exposure of your business by being reaching a new audience.
6. Start a blog
One of the best ways to get discovered on Google and drive traffic to your website is by having a blog. Content marketing is an effective way to establish your business as an authority in your industry, and it costs 62% less than traditional marketing while driving three times more leads.
So, after you launch your website, it’s a good idea to start working on setting up a blog for your business. If you’re unsure what to feature on your blog, let’s look at a few examples of what other businesses do:
Example #1: Mejuri
A jewelry brand Mejuri has a blog called Style Edit where they showcase their jewelry and how their customers can style them to achieve the perfect look. Their approach is a great way to show people how their jewelry can add to their customer’s style and works great for e-commerce businesses.
Example #2: Teachable
An online course creation platform Teachable has a blog that covers all topics that online course creators and entrepreneurs would be interested in when looking to improve their businesses. Creating a knowledge base for your customers to find free, valuable advice is an excellent approach for software brands.
Example #3: Bennion Lambourne Orthodontics
A dentist’s office, Bennion Lambourne Orthodontics, is one of the many examples of how the medical industry can use content marketing to attract new customers. Their blog has tons of informational content on different procedures that allow people to find them when they’re looking for information online.
