Notice something different? Omaginarium is proud to announce the launch of our brand-new website! We hope you enjoy our new modernized feel, user friendly features, and visually exciting layout. Speaking of new websites…we thought we would take this opportunity to give you our top 10 tips when creating a new website launch strategy…….Because there should be a launch, and there should be a strategy.
Let’s dive in!
1. Make a statement
Announce it far and wide! You have created an amazing new website that you know your site visitors will love. Now shout it from the rooftops. Or, announce it in a more effective way as we lay out for you in tips 2, 3, 4, and 5.
2. Create a press release
Don’t underestimate the power of a press release. It may depend on whether the event or circumstance is something that might interest their readers or listeners, or if it benefits the community in some way. If you’re lucky, your press release may be picked up by bloggers, Tweeters and others who read it and find it worthy of promoting within their social networks. Often times, with online press release services such as PR Underground, PR Web or PR Newswire, they will distribute your press release to hundreds of aggregate sites looking for content. This is how we get featured in Digital Journal, CNN.com and other high ranking sites. Also, if you’ve created an SEO optimized website, your press release will garner precious space in the SERPS. ( Search Engine Results Pages)
3. Email your entire mailing list
The success of introducing your new website via email campaigns (link opens in new tab) depends on the timing. Schedule at least 3 emails in your auto-responder and start sending them at least 1-2 weeks before the official launch. I use Aweber as my auto responder. It makes sending emails to your list simple, as well as giving you outstanding analytics, templates, and the ability to segment and re-target. The best auto-responder email service I’ve found yet.
The first email of your launch email sequence can be a teaser, send it out 2-weeks before and you can unfold the whole deal later on.
The second email sent out 1-week before will include a few more details, like the launch date, and the main benefits. Explaining the value of your new site is an essential part of the communication and incentive for your readers.
The third email will be sent the morning of the website launch. In case someone is interested in what you promote but forgot about it, you can remind them. Thanks to your reminder they can still take advantage of the offer. Don’t forget to include the social media buttons in the launch email design so the recipients can spread the word about your product! (see tip 10)
4. Post your new website on social media
And not just on your own platforms! Be sure to include specific reasons why people should check out your new site. Tell them exactly what they can expect and what your hopes are for your site. Don’t just say, “Come check out my new site”. Rather, give people a reason WHY your site will resonate with them. Remind them why your new site offers them value. Hopefully your site will offer them value…if not, they’ll have no reason to share your stuff, right? So be picky when it comes to who you’re sharing with. They’re doing you a favor!
Use a social media automation tool- Buffer or Hootsuite are 2 great ones– to set up well-written posts on all your social accounts, but make sure you have them set for the hard launch, not the soft launch. Let’s be honest, the first day any website launches there are usually some kinks that need to be straightened, and things that are still getting squared away.
5. Link Out
This tip goes hand in hand with tip 4. As part of your website launch strategy, we can’t say enough about hyper-linking. ( See what I just did there?)
When posting your new website launch on every social media platform you can get your hands on, be sure the post doesn’t leave the reader hanging. We don’t want them to simply read your post, we want to go to your site! How do we do this? Create backlinks for every post. (link opens in a new tab)
6. Make sure your HTML is up to date
Make your life easier; use HTML5. How many times have you visited a website on Chrome and had it appear perfect, but then you checked it on your smartphone later on and it didn’t fit properly on the screen? Compatibility across all platforms is one of the HTML5’s major benefits, and this is vital for businesses today. Plus: Google down ranks sites that are not HTML5 compliant these days. Ease of readability is key.
7. Make sure to have an XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is a sitemap geared specifically towards the search engines, allowing them to crawl every page of your site, serving as a way to communicate directly with the search engines, alerting them to new or changed content very quickly and helping to ensure that the content is indexed faster. Who doesn’t want that?
For site publishers, it’s become critical to help Google specifically understand if your site is the original publisher of content.
8. Ensure your SEO is on point
Not sure if it is? Ask yourself these questions:
- Is the site optimized for the right key words?
- What key words are driving traffic and to which pages?
- Are Blog, RSS, and email subscription options included?
- Does the back end include an XML sitemap and a simple to use SEO plug-in?
- Have you included meta descriptions and title tags?
- Do you have enough good quality links?
- Are your images all alt tagged?
- Is your site ADA Compliant?
This is all about searchability. Is your website harder to find than Waldo? We’re talking about Google here, folks. When people search for your industry, or for the services and products you provide, do you even show up? Not your name, or the name of your company. That will show up, and if it doesn’t… well if it doesn’t, we’ve got a much bigger problem to tackle. No, what we’re talking about here is you, or your website coming up as a search result when people type in something relevant to you. The goal? Page one of Google. Organically, not paid (link opens in a new tab).
9. Optimize your site across all possible platforms
We’re talking desktop, mobile, laptop, all of it! Since it’s 2019, you can guarantee that your site will be viewed across all types of screens. These days, for most businesses, your site will mostly be viewed on mobile, so be sure your working with a mobile responsive site. Google looks for Accelerated Mobile Pages now- or AMP for short.
10. Don’t forget to share
The pages, the blog, the services, the products, if you have them, all need to be interesting, high quality and finally, sharable. The industry and market you are targeting deserves to know what you have to say. Make it dynamic and make it simple for them. Otherwise they’re going to quickly move on to the next guy. Like the wind they’ll go. So make sure:
- Visitors have plenty of convenient options (sharing tools) that make it easy for them to share content
- And almost more importantly: Make your content share- worthy
Does this seem overwhelming? You’re in luck! Talk to us (link opens in a new tab) today about putting together a new website launch strategy that make the impact you want and need!
