Let’s face it, launching a personal blog, eCommerce store, or any other kind of website can be overwhelming. Especially if you’re doing everything on your own. However, when done the right way with the right web hosting service, a site can play a central role in the success of your online business.
Here, we share some of the most helpful tips and strategies for a successful launch. Let’s get started!
Find a reliable web hosting service
One of the top things to consider when launching a website is finding a highly secure, yet scalable web hosting service. Before going live, ensure your hosting service provider can provide sufficient bandwidth to support traffic growth and keep your website running smoothly. Keep in mind that you may need to purchase more bandwidth as the site grows or if the number of users increases substantially.
Choose a reliable hosting provider and you’ll never have to worry about instant scalability of web hosting resources to support high-burst traffic.
Have a pre-launch page
Even if your site isn’t ready for launching, you can still promote it through a pre-launch countdown. In fact, your target audience becomes more interested and enthusiastic about your website as they wait for the actual launch. Dropping a hint about your upcoming launch builds anticipation, which increases the chances of success when your website goes live. You can also consider creating a sign-up form for visitors that want to get notified when your site finally goes live.
Focus on creating high-quality content for your website
Before launching your website, it’s important to have a few pieces of great content ready for publishing. Ideally, create 5-10 SEO-optimized posts that can keep your readers engaged for at least one month. And because most website promotion and marketing strategies rely on content, ensure that the content delivers high value in your niche. Also, preferably, try creating different content types including how-to posts, tutorials, practical advice, expert roundups, and FAQ’s pages.
Provide convenient ways of contact for your online business
When launching a website, it’s important to provide several channels through which visitors can reach you. A good idea is providing your support email, helpline, or links to social media platforms. You can also leave the comments section open or add a live chat feature to allow visitors to contact you while still on the site.
The reason for this is to facilitate quick interactions and create connections with early adopters who are critical to your website’s growth. It’s a win-win for everyone as they can quickly notify you on things that might be wrong with your site, or offer suggestions for future improvements.
Network with influencers and other established parties in your industry
This tip works best for people with non-commercial websites, but it can also work for an online business or eCommerce website that offers great value to visit. Before going live with your website, reach out to influencers, top bloggers, journalists, and businesses in your field and let them know what you have in store. Follow them on social media and share their content with your following, regardless of its size. You can also request them to share your content with their followers, or consider running a paid promotion.
Show your visitors a roadmap of the upcoming features
When you launch a website, you need to keep your visitors engaged by showing them that more is still to come in the future. Let them know that you’re committed to improving their experience with even better offerings as the website grows. You can also provide an input form where they can leave suggestions on products or services they want in the future as well as those they do not like.
Learn the basics of SEO
You do not have to be an SEO expert to improve the ranking of your website ranking. Spare a few hours every week to learn some basic elements of SEO and implement them on your site. The following is a good place to start:
– Target low competition and high-value keywords for your website content
– Publish high-quality and original content consistently
– Build backlinks to your site
– Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly
– Add meta descriptions to your web pages
– Make sure your URLs are readable.
Track user experience and website health
Given the importance of marketing in the success of your online business, it is important to track helpful metrics immediately after launching your website. For starters, install Google Analytics or any other reliable SEO tool.
For easier indexing by search engines, you can add an XML markup to your site. Another pro tip is adding your site to Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools). It helps to check the health of your website as well as its compliance with Google standards.
Are you building or hoping to launch your website soon? Follow the above tips and enjoy a successful start. Good luck!
