My lovely new website is live...now what?
Congratulations on your shiny, new website. You should be proud of what you've achieved and now we want to help you make it a successful marketing tool for your business.
What do I do now?
STEP 1 - ADVERTISE!
STEP 2 - Keep your content engaging
STEP 1 - Let People Know You Are There
Whether you are a new business or doing a refresh, the first thing you need to do is to announce the launch. No-one is going to know you're there unless you tell them. That is what our motto "Be Seen or Play Dead" is talking about.
To promote your website, we recommend an Ads campaign. Just for a month or two, help create a new audience, re-engage your existing, and rank above your competitors across Google and YouTube with a paid ads campaign. The great thing about Google Ads is that you can cancel month by month, so you are only committing to the time and budget that YOU choose.
You might even like to consider Facebook advertising to expand the reach of potential new leads and clients. Facebook ads target not only Facebook users, but also Messenger and Instagram.
Let us know if you would like more information around announcing your website and generating traffic from new clients or markets.
STEP 2 - Keep your content engaging
Google particularly considers ALL page content to match a search to a website and to rank a site well, to ensure the content will be relevant to what the user is looking for.
Keeping your content relevant, engaging and up-to-date so that it generates and holds traffic is therefore now more important than ever. This way you can help maintain your rank position in the organic (non-paid) search results.
As part of your website build, we have already optimised your starter content. This means when people use search phrases relating to your content, your website would be selectable for the search results list. You need to keep this going.
You can use our guide below to maintain your content, or if you need help, you could consider a managed SEO campaign where designer digital proactively monitor and maintain your organic search ranking over and above your competition.
"You cannot buy engagement. You have to build engagement." — Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Guide: How do I maintain my content?
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Look at your Google Analytics regularly to understand how visitors are using your site
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Add regular and relevant new content
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Get social to create a following and grow incoming links
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Email regular newsletters to generate traffic to your website
| 1. Look at your Google Analytics regularly to understand how visitors are using your site |
Sign in at https://analytics.google.com/ and click on the Home icon in the left hand column. This dashboard has all the statistics relating to your website from your selected timeframe.
The main statistics to watch are;
- the number of sessions (i.e. visits to your website),
- page views - which content is generating traffic, and which is not
- session duration (i.e. the average amount of time people spend on the website per visit)
- bounce rate
To keep it simple; if Sessions and Session Duration are increasing, then what you're doing is moving in the right direction and you just need to keep improving it.
The bounce rate tells you if people are clicking away when they land on your webpage. If your bounce rate is high, then your content isn't relevant enough to your user and needs re-writing.
Hint: If your bounce rate is over 60%, then have a chat with us about getting it within the generally accepted normal range of 40 - 60%.
| 2. Add regular and relevant new content |
Content that is fresh, interesting and relevant to your industry and area of expertise is key to engaging your customer and establishing credibility with Google.
It shows that your business is active and ready for new customers.
Not to mention Google loves websites which are frequently updated, so this will help to improve your search rankings as well.
Google doesn't know what good content is, but it knows what popular content is. The more your content is linked to, the more popular Google will recognise it to be, which will also improve your rankings.
The golden rules for adding content are:
- Write for your audience, not for Google
- Update regularly, eg a monthly blog
- Make your content original and interesting
- Share it
Hint: If it's getting unmanageable, remember we can provide you with copywriting services to write blog posts and web pages for you.
| 3. Get social to create a following and grow incoming links |
Engaging in social media can be really effective as a branding tool and to drive traffic to your website.
Each Social Media platform has a different target audience and reach, so use your Google Analytics to find out more about your audience and which platform might suit your market objectives best.
Make your post schedule achievable and have a list of things worked out about what you are going to say. If you have written a blog for your website, promote it on your social media channels to increase your audience.
Always consider what your target audience wants to know, read about and think is important.
- consider which platform will work the best at attracting your target market
- work out a plan of how often you will post on your social media
- share your website post content to your social media account
- post content relevant to your audience
Hint - Don’t think of your website as static, as you will lose! Your website is an ever-evolving marketing tool - refresh and engage.
| 4. Email regular newsletters to generate traffic to your website |
A newsletter is still a powerful tool to engage your client base and to drive traffic to your website.
Create your email campaigns with content that your target audience will want to read, show your industry expertise, provide tips and link it to articles on your website. The traffic will contribute to your improved ranking.
Nobody likes being spammed, so make sure your newsletter is clear, interesting, relevant and readable.
Add a newsletter sign-up button to your website to create an authorised database.
Hint: If you haven't already done so, talk to us about integrating a newsletter sign up form on your website with a free email campaign service like Mailchimp.
In a Nutshell
If you remember anything from this post - remember "Grow your website and be social". Keep that in mind and you won't go far wrong.
A final tip - keep going back to this list on a regular basis and rethink your content from your customer's eyes, because sometimes what you did last month or last year may need a little tweaking!
Of course, you may just want someone to do it all for you - in which case you may be interested in our digital marketing services.