Congratulations on getting your website up and running!! If you’ve been following along with each list in our series (SEO, analytics, web design, and launch), you should have just launched your new website. Now, it’s time to double-check that everything is working properly and get started on your marketing campaign!
These lists will help you organize and begin marketing your new website to your contacts. Following this checklist will hopefully ease any pain you’d go through if you had to do it on your own.
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Post-Launch
For your new website to run smoothly from here on out, you must make sure that all your analytics are in place. As long as your website is functioning properly from the start, you should have minimal issues in the future.
Double-Check Google Analytics and Confirm that Your New Site is Functioning Properly
- Confirm that Google Analytics collects data. That way, you’ll be able to see to what users respond best.
- Configure Search Console (make sure it is https:// if the website has a security certificate, otherwise it will show up as http://).
- After being setup for the domain within the Search Console account, be sure to turn in a new sitemap.xml. Make sure the new sitemap passes without errors.
- Once the sitemap passes, select Crawl > Fetch as Google, and enter your domain before clicking “Fetch and Render.”
- Double-check all of your site’s pages and be sure none of them are set to “noindex, nofollow.”
- Additionally, check the robots.txt file to assure it is not set to “index, nofollow.”
- Check that all login areas are set to “index, nofollow.” Then set the sitemap.xml to “disallow.”
Marketing and Announcements
The site is now live and, if all steps were followed, functioning properly. You will want to let your customers and contacts know that you’ve updated the website with a small marketing campaign.
Inform All your Contacts of The Newly Launched Website
- In your next newsletter, announce the launch of your website. Something as simple as “Check out our new website!” works great for a subject line.
- Create a post regarding the process and thinking behind your redesign. Thank anyone who contributed and reflect on the challenges.
- Write more announcements and schedule them on social media. Generally, one to three shares a week on each social network is acceptable.
- Update the feature image on your social networks and use this image update to remark on your new website launch.
- For the next couple of weeks, include a “check out our new website” link at the bottom of your email signature.
- Inform anyone calling your main phone line by changing the outgoing message to include a line about your new website.
- No press release should be necessary unless you have a unique new aspect on the site.
Congrats! Your website has launched with minimal stress and tons of confidence. Give your team high fives and celebrate!
Now that you’ve got your new website up and running, it’s time to get back to business! If you’d like to know more about ways to up your website game, check out some more of our resources.
