My Website is Launched…Now What?

Getting an efficient, informative, and attractive website launched is a huge step in your company’s marketing process. These days, the web is the first place most people turn to for information, and you want your business to be easy to find, in a way that also leaves a great first impression. The journey toward getting your site up and running can take months of writing, designing, and web development, so when your site is finally lunched, it can feel like you’re crossing the finish line of a marathon. However, as much as we hate to be the bearers of bad news, that launch is only the beginning. To truly get the most benefit you can from your investment, your website will need ongoing maintenance in a number of ways.

Monitor for Problems

We’ve all had our fair share of technical difficulties over the years. When it comes to continuously evolving technology, there’s no avoiding it—sometimes, things just go wrong. Once your website is live, you’ll need to do another thorough check for any problems you didn’t find beforehand, but you should also continue visiting the site frequently, looking for problems, testing forms, etc.

Add Fresh Content

There’s really no limit to the benefits you can reap from always having fresh content on your website in the form of blogging for content marketing, up-to-date information about your services or products, and more. This is one of the most important ways to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) while also catering to current trends and issues, and once the readers find your site, it boosts your credibility with them, too.

Software Updates

There are so many different tools available for building websites efficiently, and it’s safe to say that most modern websites use at least one design theme, plugin, or other type of software tool. As long as it’s still being supported by its manufacturer (which is something you want to look for when shopping for software), this software will occasionally have updates. These updates might make the software run better, fix an error that was discovered, or even repair a major security flaw, so it’s important to keep up with them and install new updates when they’re available.

Monitor for Performance

As any marketing pro knows, keeping track of how any marketing campaign is performing is crucial to knowing whether you’re getting your investment back, as well as adjusting for better success in the future, and your website is one of the most important places to do this. Our team at McCauley Marketing Services has the tools and the expertise to monitor your site’s performance (number of visitors, conversion rates, bounce rates, etc.) and continuously make changes to improve it, so you get the most bang for your buck.

Adjust for Search Engine Optimization Changes

SEO is the practice of showing Google and other search engines that your site is relevant for certain search terms so that, when these terms are searched, your site appears as one of the first search results. But in order to continuously improve their service, search engines are constantly updating their criteria for determining how relevant a site is, so a search engine optimization specialist like those on our own team can keep up with these changes and adjust the website’s content and behind-the-scenes settings in order to become or remain among the top results.

Keep Time-Sensitive Features Current

Depending on the nature of your company, you might choose to have certain features on your website, like a calendar of events, a page listing monthly special offers, etc. These can be a great way to bring readers into the fold and keep them in-the-know, but if you’re going to include these features, it’s absolutely crucial to make sure they’re always up-to-date. Nothing tells a reader that a site is neglected like a calendar that hasn’t been updated in six months, and they’re likely to worry that if they become a customer of yours, they’ll be neglected as well.

In many cases, your website is the first impression a consumer has for your business. While this first impression is partially based on your initial design, much of it also depends on your ongoing updates and how well your site is maintained. After all, when you see a website that may have looked cutting-edge in the late 90s but clearly hasn’t been touched since, it doesn’t exactly give you the impression that the company is on top of their business, and that’s exactly the thought customers will have if your own site is left alone without regular updates and consistently new content. To learn more about how we can truly make your website work for you, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services. Plus, for more marketing tips and the latest industry news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.