The pandemic has proven to be beneficial for digital marketing and web development services over time. Businesses now undoubtedly depend on their website for online presence, so, launching one now has become more crucial than before.
However, anything can go wrong while setting up a site. Developers and business owners can make various mistakes. Although those errors are reversible, it is a known fact that first impressions last.
Developers and business should use everything in their power and ensure a bug-free website goes live.
Benefits of Having a Website
A number of web designing services for example Digitrends are available these days. In case you are new in establishing an online presence for your business you can easily seek a professional web designer.
Before telling you What factors to ensure prior to launching a website, you need to know Why a website is important.
Here are some reasons why every business should have a strong online presence through website:
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Demographic Reach
- Credibility
- Availability
- Consumer Convenience
- Increased Sales
- Customer Rapport
- Competitive Opportunity
- Build Customer Base
- Targeted Marketing
Cost-Effectiveness
Get exposure and promotion which is less costly than traditional advertising options like print media, mass media, etc.
Greater Demographic Reach
Website transmits your business profile around the world, permitting for enhanced exposure and sales.
Credibility
Consumers are likely to consider a business reliable when it has a professional website.
Availability
A website provides consumers with around-the-clock availability in terms of access to products, information etc. As a result, this helps generates more profits.
Consumer Convenience
Being available to meet the needs of consumers at any time day or night provides added convenience. This especially gives them access to products and information whenever they need.
Increased Sales
An effective website with great content increases the probability of increased sales.
Customer Rapport
Generally, online presence helps in terms of building and fostering a rapport among visitors. Let consumers know you appreciate them.
Competitive Opportunity
When businesses consider having a website, there is more competition in the market. In order to keep up or surpass the competition, having a website is mandatory.
Build Customer Base
Consumer communication through website generally helps you build customer baseline. Also, populating a list of consumer contacts is gold to any company.
Targeted Marketing
A planned website can effectively attract the targeted audience businesses seek. This is a faster way to reach the audiences you desire.
7 Points to Consider Before Launching a Business Website
Web development requires hours of coding, creativity, brainstorming ideas, and originality. Therefore, doing it well and efficiently is not usually easy.
So, here are 7 factors to consider while launching a business website.
Use calls to action
Every well designed website is insufficient until call to action or CTA buttons are added to it. CTAs allow visitors something to do with the information they’ve received from the website. Along with further directing the use of sales funnel CTAs additionally make customer interaction on a website feel complete.
CTAs can use them to influence user behavior, therefore, they can be placed nearly on every page.
Ask users to share a post or sign up on your site. Membership sites often use CTAs to convince people to sign up and gather consumer data.
It is common to ask visitors to read more content allowing them to stay on a site longer. If strategically placed, CTAs can increase conversions and launching a website without them can lead to missed opportunities.
Use Analytics
Often, developers prioritize front end of the website, leading to back-end features being neglected.
In other words, adding analytics when creating a website is a must. Failure to do so before launching a website, can result in inability to measure web traffic.
Different analytical tools, for instance Google Analytics helps businesses understand if their applied marketing strategies are working. Analytics also helps calculate site visitors so you can figure out what’s not working.
Also, businesses can track lead conversion rate and website revenue through these analytical researches.
Creating a Coming Soon Page
Curiosity is the key to the human mind, use it to your advantage.
Let people know about a business launch beforehand by creating a coming soon page. Build anticipation and create user engagement beforehand.
Creating an attractive Coming Soon page gives users information about a business in advance. People also opt for an email list while a site is still under development.
Unable to create a coming soon page may be quiet disadvantageous. As a result, businesses miss a lot of opportunities to make their brand memorable.
Apply SEO before the website launch
Save time and resources with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. 95% of people don’t search beyond the first page, for this reason, SEO rankings matter.
Using proper SEO techniques, such as unique page titles and meta-descriptions in place for the launch.
Applying SEO strategies before a website launch is an enormous challenge. Businesses can enlist help from website development services provider companies like Digitrends to add SEO techniques to a website.
Use HTTPS protocol
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an internet communication protocol. It shields the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site.
Setting up an HTTPS protocol as a part of any website development from the start is a must. Moreover, search engines use HTTPS as a ranking factor for websites.
HTTPS for a site is helpful in the following ways:
- encrypts information so eavesdroppers can’t steal information.
- tracks user activities.
- protects data integrity during data transfers.
- prevents data from being corrupted.
- authenticates that your users communicate with the real website.
Pick your launch date wisely
When launching a website ensure to choose a good day for the launch. How to do so?
For instance, launching a site before a holiday seems like a good idea.
WRONG!
Why?
Users interact with websites in unexpected ways. It’s common for bugs to turn up once the site has a stream of visitors. It’s not possible to anticipate every single complication that arises beforehand.
Launching a site before a holiday is a detrimental idea due to technical issues that arise. The development team may not be available. This can result in missing the opportunity that the weekend or holiday presents.
Hence, it’s better to make your launch a gradual process so the progress is monitored issues as they occur.
Create redirects
For instance, a business is replacing your current website with a new one. It’s important that search engines understand the changes they are making.
Sites can have several pages that attract a lot of visitors and rank well on search engines. However, it’s possible to lose traffic and ranking if redirects are not used.
Redirects simply direct search engines and users from the old location of your content to the new one. In particular they do their job just like they are named and they even prevents user frustration when they look for your old pages.
CONCLUSION
Building a user friendly and high performing web application is no easy feat. There are a ton of challenges in web application design and development that businesses are bound to face with this task.
Make sure to choose work with a website development company that addresses all the challenges and are able to answer all your questions before you sign a contract.
For example, Digitrends as they have relevant expertise in house and a proven track record. Work only with a team that understands the vision and will fully commit to bringing it to life.