After dedicating a lot of resources and time to it, your new website is finally ready. So, what next? Launching a new website is a big achievement. It has the potential to turn around your business, especially considering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Irish businesses. A new website can help you establish an engaging brand identity, create a new perception of the business, and improving your credibility. It could be just what you need to get ahead of the competition. But if you consider the fact that there are over 1.7 billion websites on the internet, you know that the real work is just starting.
This is not the time to slack off. You have to nourish your website and make it work for you. The website needs to stand out among your competition. No matter how great your new website is, it won’t help your business if nobody is noticing it. If you are clueless about what to do after launching a new website, here are a few tips that can help:
- Start with keyword research
When people search for information related to your niche, they should find your website. For example, if you built a website for roofing services then you’d want people who search for terms related to roofing to find your website. But how would you know what people are searching for in your niche? The answer is simple, keyword research.
Leverage keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner to find the terms people are using for their searches and the search volume of each keyword. Keywords will help your website become more visible and improve traffic.
- Start creating content
What comes next after you’ve performed keyword research? Putting them to use through content. Your website should have high-quality content that is frequently updated. Give your web visitors value for their time. It will not only drive traffic and increase lead generation but also establish your business as a thought leader and an authority within your niche. You will gain the trust of your audiences.
- Optimize the website for search engines
It is not only the content that needs to be optimized for SEO. This includes both general SEO and local SEO. The whole website should be optimized for search engines. It means ensuring that your URLs, page titles, headers, meta descriptions, and image alt text have keywords incorporated into them.
Other ways of ensuring that the website is optimized for search engines include:
- Using reliable web hosting services.
- Having a responsive website.
- Optimizing the website for mobile devices.
- Ensuring the website has quick loading speeds.
The world of search engine optimization is constantly changing and new trends come up every day. You need to keep up with the trends. For example, voice search is on the rise. According to Google, at least 20% of searches are voice searches. And with voice search, the focus is shifting from keywords to intent.
- Adopt a data-driven approach
The secret to constantly improving the performance of your website is to always measure. Track how many visitors used your site, how long they stayed, which pages they stayed on the most, and many other important metrics. This will enable you to calculate the return on investment. Compare your data from month to month and see whether you are improving or not.
Tools such as Google Analytics can be quite helpful in measuring the important metrics from your website.
- Get on social media as well
It is important to establish a strong social media presence. It is an excellent tool for increasing your audience base and attracting visitors to your website. Social media campaigns can complement your SEO efforts and increase organic traffic to your website. Choose social media platforms that are most aligned to your business goals and develop a social media strategy for it.
- Ensure the website has smart features
Your website needs to have smart features that will engage your visitors and increase your chances of conversion. Some of the must-have features for a smart business website include:
- The perfect home page- You have less than 0.2 seconds, according to studies, to make a good first impression on your site visitors and influence their purchasing decisions. Make good use of the opportunity.
- Media support- We are in the age of video marketing. 85% of internet users were consuming video content as early as 2018. You cannot afford to leave out audiovisual content on your website.
- Clear site navigation and architecture- A third of online consumers find Irish websites too difficult to navigate. Make it easy for your visitors to find the information they need on your site and perform desired actions. Do not forget to include a visible and clear call to action. Clear site navigation also helps with SEO.
- Accessibility tools- These will help in opening up your website and ensure that it is accessible to everyone including persons with disabilities. They will be able to easily interact, navigate, perceive, and understand your website. One accessibility tool you can use is accessiBe.
- Heatmaps- Heatmaps will help you to understand what your site visitors do on the pages, what they are looking at, and how far they scroll, etc.
Do not forget about other features such as integrated reviews engine, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integration, email marketing, language conversion, and chatbots. These features are not only intended to increase engagements and conversions but also allow you to study what’s working for the website and what’s not.
- Website maintenance
Above all, website maintenance should be one of your top priorities. This will ensure that your website is always running at full capacity and offering optimal performance. It will boost site security and increase your traffic because of improved user experience.
If you have a basic website, then you should consider upgrading it to an eCommerce website so you can be able to sell to different markets. It will also enable you to serve your customers as they can shop from the comfort of their homes and deliveries arranged even when the physical store is closed. If you don’t have the budget needed for an upgrade, then you can apply for a website grant.
It will take time before you start seeing the fruits of your labour. Getting ranked high in organic search results isn’t something that is going to happen overnight. Be patient. These tips are only intended to get you started. There’s so much more you can do. However, it can be exhausting to execute a digital marketing strategy while also running other business functions. That is why it is better to just hire a digital marketing agency to handle your online needs while you focus on serving your customers.
