Creating a new website for your business? Before you press publish on your shiny new site, there are few things you need to do. Getting your website off on the right foot will not only ensure you have maximum impact, but it will set your business up for success in the long run. A website is a great way to attract people to your brand, your product and your services, but before you launch, here are 5 things you need to do.
1 Connect your social media accounts
If you haven’t already, you need to create social media accounts for your business and connect them to your website. Almost every business will benefit from having a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest account. Remember your audience will want to connect with you in various ways, so you want to give them options. You can also drive traffic to your website from your social media accounts and visa versa.
2 Sync with Google Analytics
Don’t press publish before you’ve hooked up your new site to Google Analytics. You’ll want to start tracking your website stats from day one, so it’s best to get this sorted asap. Every day you put it off, you’ll be losing out on valuable information about your audience. Google Analytics is an amazing tool and will show you exactly where your traffic is coming from and all kinds of helpful information about your audience.
3 Install an SEO plugin
It won’t be long until you’ll need to familiarise yourself with search engine optimisation, SEO for short. Essentially, this is the endless quest to rank well in Google. While this may not be a priority at the start, you will eventually want your website and subsequent pages to rank well in order to increase your search traffic. Installing a comprehensive SEO plugin can help you with things like writing meta descriptions and SEO-specific titles.
4 Check functionality
Finally, check your website to make sure all features and pages are functioning correctly. Run a test for any broken links or 404 pages and fix them right away. Double check your navigation is working correctly, and any lead generation forms, such as email sign ups, are displaying and functioning as they should. Click on your social media icons and make sure they lead to the right pages. Get someone else to double check your site to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
5 Back up your site
To prevent any loss of data, it’s worthwhile backing up your site on a regular basis. Before you’ve even launched, set up your site security for peace of mind and to protect your data from malware attempts. This is also important if you are fiddling with code, so you can revert back to an old version if anything goes wrong. And remember to regularly backup your site moving forward.