Many small businesses even now still do not have a website, according to a this study conducted by Redshift Research survey and commissioned by GoDaddy.
A website is an invaluable marketing and promotional tool for small businesses, allowing them to reach a larger audience with minimal work.
Rather than focusing your efforts strictly on traditional (and expensive) advertising techniques like billboards and TV ads, you can leverage the power of the Internet to connect with prospective customers and clients.
But it takes more than just a generic website to succeed in today’s ever-competitive world. Here’s a short list of some essential steps you should take after launching a website for your business.
Add Your Business’s Contact Information
If you haven’t done so already, go back into your website and add your business’s contact information. When a prospective customer wants to learn more about your business, they may attempt to contact you.
Without a phone number or email address clearly displayed on your website, this prospect may take their money elsewhere — to one of your competitors.
So to prevent this from happening, create both an “about us” and a contact page, displaying your business’s contact information on both pages.
Make Sure It’s Mobile-Friendly
You should also make sure your business website is mobile-friendly. Just because it loads and functions on a desktop doesn’t necessarily mean it will do the same on a smartphone or tablet.
Mobile devices such as these use different screen sizes, different operating systems, and different web browsers. As such, some websites may contain broken elements when viewed on mobile devices.
But mobile compatibility is no longer something that webmasters can ignore. Statistics show that more people now access the Internet on mobile devices than desktop computers, attesting to the importance of mobile compatibility.
So, how can you check to see if your business website is compatible with mobile devices?
Aside from attempting to view it on a smartphone, you can plug the address into Google’s free testing tool at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/.
Not only will it check to see if your business website is mobile-friendly, but it will also offer recommendations on how to fix compatibility problems.
Submit Sitemap to Google
Google does a pretty good job at finding and indexing new webpages into its search results. After all, that’s it’s primary function — and there’s a reason why Google is the world’s leading search engine.
However, you can give the Mountain View company a helping hand by creating and submitting a sitemap. Typically created with the Extensible Markup Language format, sitemaps are a roadmap of a website, so to speak.
They contain a list of all web pages on the website, as well as URLs pointing to those pages. Once submitted to search engines, it shows them where your web pages are located; thus, making it easier for search engines to find and index all of your website’s pages.
You can submit a sitemap to Google by logging into your Webmaster Tools account, choosing your website and clicking Site Configuration > Sitemaps > Add/Test Sitemap > enter the URL of your website > Submit Sitemap.
Keep in mind that it may take Google several days or even weeks to reflect these changes. And even then, there’s no guarantee that submitting a sitemap will increase your search rankings or the number of pages indexed by Google.
Nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to get into the habit of submitting a sitemap whenever you launch a new website.
Spread the Word
Of course, you should spread the word about your new business website. If you have a newsletter to which customers and prospects have subscribed, send them a message informing them of your new business website.
This is a great way to get the ball rolling on your website, giving it an initial boost of traffic and visibility. Furthermore, some of that traffic may turn into sales.
Update Social Media Networks
Something else you should do after launching a business website is to update your social media network profiles and pages.
Most social media networks allow users to display their website URL. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Instagram, you should log into all of your social media accounts and add a link to your newly created business website.
This is particularly important if you have a strong following, as some of your followers may click your website address to see what it’s about and what you offer on it. And some of those clicks may convert into paying customers.
Create Content
If you just recently launched your business website, chances are it doesn’t have much (if any) content. That’s okay because most new websites contain little-to-no content.
This doesn’t mean you should leave your business website empty, however. Google has said that creating high-quality content is the single most important thing you can do.
So, what kind of content should you create for your business website? We could write an entirely different blog post on this subject alone, but the general idea is to focus on high-quality content that’s relevant and meaningful to your target audience.
If you run an aftermarket car parts business, perhaps you can create content surrounding car modifications, how to choose the right aftermarket parts, car maintenance, etc.
Being that all of these subjects are relevant to people who are interested in aftermarket car parts, it will prove highly valuable to your business website.
Just remember to add new content on a regular basis, as both human visitors and search engines LOVE fresh content.
What worked for you after launching your website? We would love to hear from you in the comments below!
If you are not sure how much content or what to promote on your website, we can help. At Content First Marketing, we specialize in digital and content marketing for small businesses wanting to grow! Schedule your FREE business growth call here.
