Launching a new website is, understandably, a moment of celebration for any business, as well as creative partners who have played key roles in the web development.
However, it would be somewhat unwise to remain in celebration mode for too long. There is still plenty of work to do, in terms of maintaining the site.
There are, moreover, most likely targets that the site has been set, or at least, ideals in the mind of the business owner – targets related to numbers of visitors over a given period, numbers of page impressions, and, if the site is involved in ecommerce, conversions of clicks to actual transactions. Crucial to meeting any such targets is the process of generating website visitors. After all, without visitors there can be no page impressions (clicks on links to your site from other websites or from pages within the website itself), and there certainly can be no retail purchases. Here at Click Consult, one of the UK’s leading and most creative website development companies, we work hard to help our clients meet such targets.
Where attracting visitors is concerned, the planning involved should commence long before the launch party: It should be an integral part of the website development process from the outset. For instance, it is crucial to have a clear vision of the putative website: to ensure that it has a distinctive purpose, and meets a market need. This need may belong to small, niche market, but so long as you are aware that you are entering a specialist market that is all well and good.
Having a clear vision inevitably helps attracts users later down the line. People are more likely to be interested in paying your site a visit if it is offering a clear service, offering rare news items on a specific topic, or has some other unique selling point. Furthermore, the more distinctive your site, the more it stands out from the crowd, the more likely it is to gain higher search result page rankings.
Next, you need to pay close attention to your website copy. Writing for the web is something of a special skill, and should in-fact be considered as integral to the discipline of web design: It is best, where possible, to keep your language simple, but not condescending, and to keep your paragraphs concise. However, don’t be too crisp or distanced from your readers. The writing should strike a balance between informal and informal, as well as being authoritative without being bossy. Moreover, do make sure any claims you make are properly researched, with sources stated where necessary.
Users will be far more likely to return to your site if the pages are well written, friendly, and genuinely contain information which they can’t find elsewhere.
Finally, it is almost essential these days to have some kind of a social networking presence to compliment your new website. Facebook and Twitter are the first sites to consider. Make sure your identities on this site are professionally presented and easily traceable back to your website and the products it is offering.