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How to Launch a Successful Website

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Earlier most of the businesses tended to acquire space in the brick-and-mortar stores for running the business.

People used to visit personally in stores to get some information about the products and services, but nowadays, the expansion on the technological front has given a new shape to the business world with the help of the World Wide Web (www).

WWW was launched roughly around twenty years ago, almost two decades ago, but looks like people have got the awareness of started making the most use of websites rigorously these days.

To start a new business, the very first thing that is looked into is the – ‘Website’. Of course, the website is the initial source of information that gives us the precise material for what we usually stumble upon on websites.

For all the business owners and entrepreneurs who want to launch their website be it in e-commerce, online marketplaces, design & development, or digital marketing, businesses are taking a rapid upturn as website-making is carrying an exponential growth with the rise in technology advancements.

For every unsuccessful website, umpteen reasons could be held responsible if we start counting like improper business strategy, lack of management planning; scarcity of funds, less market research, the unattainability of a good team and so on.

The dedicated, we know that there is nothing more painful than not being able to launch a website on time. To our surprise, there is an eye-opening fact that more than 60% of start-up websites miss the mark to establish their name globally and eventually witness a failure rate.

On the contrary, ample good reasons can make your day if we pitch the right course of track to make a successful website plan. Hence, to avoid mistakes a resourceful, well-thought-out and planned roadmap is a must for launching a website.

We know there is a lot of pressure while making the website for the first time wondering whether it will go right or not.

So, just take a relaxed breath!

Keeping our user thoughts in mind, we have come up with the right step-by-step journey for launching a website that would be the right fit for you.

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A lot of people get confused between wordpress.com and wordpress.org for getting the domain name registered for their website.

As more people are registering website domain names at a rapid pace, the domain name buying on ‘Godaddy’ reached 49.98% as of December 2018 and the domain buying is dynamically growing 3.5% year on year without fail.

So, get a hold of a domain name which suits your business niche and is/are easily available to purchase.

Otherwise, you can also increase your pocket value by buying a hefty and expensive domain name as per the availability and choice.

You may visit websites like name.com or godaddy.com to check the availability and buy a domain of your choice.

Unbelievably, every year people lose billions of dollars due to slow website performance, which results in conversion rates dropping to 7%.

Do you know why?

Most entrepreneurs and business owners “buy” hosting from local vendors at cheaper rates which ultimately shows adverse results at a later stage.

Advice is to use a solid, reliable and quality web hosting provider who offers enough storage space and secures your entire data with fewer chances of being lost.

There are a few sites that offer reliable, reasonable and scalable web hosting and storage like GoDaddy, Hostinger, Bluehost and others.

A team is one whose efforts look up in the work. Indeed you are the owner of your business, and while choosing the people of your taste is what matters the last.

Your selection of team members should be well-versed with the ins & outs of a particular field for which they’re being hired, and their knowledge should be optimum for the growth of your business.

For instance, as you are launching a new website – you require UX/ UI web designers, web developers like WordPress or PHP developers, content writers for writing website content, SEO executives or digital marketing executives, perhaps, etc. You need to analyze the professionals whom you require to be hired.

To run a successful website, you must hire experienced professionals because you can’t invest much time to hire freshers and train them initially.

However, we understand freshers can be hired at a lower salary package but hiring experienced professionals could be like investing a little more money but it would be worth your time and helpful to run the business in the initial stages.

So, choose your crew wisely! We know you won’t risk picking non-fervent people in your team.

What do you notice first when visiting some websites? Surely, we see the layout, design, overall structuring, content and theme.

Well, an interesting fact revealed that 38 percent of customers showed no interest in website engagement if the layout or content of the website is unattractive or not pleasing.

For instance, a client arrived at your website and to his surprise, he found a prevalent website theme, unsystematic layout pages, very dull colour choices and theme, and less content about your offerings – what do you think, would he like to close a deal with you?

Probably, the answer is No!

Hence, to make a user-centric website, the design and layouts must attract the customer/ visitor in the first go.

For every website to succeed, its content must be easily readable and understandable by the users.

People prefer reading user-friendlier content which should not hamper their reading convenience.

For instance, if you are reading some articles and at a point, where you feel the content has tough words or jargon, surely you will stop reading the article thereof and leave the page. Isn’t it?

Therefore, always create content which is written keeping in mind your targeted audience that helps to pull readers to your website.

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Well, the right use of technology is a must to enhance your site’s productivity.

About 40% of users tend to leave a page that takes around 3 seconds longer to load than the usual time.

The percentage rate has reached 79 per cent wherein dissatisfied buyers are less expected to purchase again from the same site, as a result of bad or slow site performance.

When you are building a new website right from scratch, you must use modern and user-friendlier technology which is good, secure to operate and easily adaptable for the users.

No user wants to use the website which has challenges in operating that.

So, it is recommended to choose and use technological advancements after a thorough market exploration that suits your requirements.

Better to hire a techy person or take a bit of technical consultant advice to handle this part if you are unaware of this segment.

Every project is incomplete without the complete testing of the website. Otherwise, how would you know snags are persisting and creating an obstacle in between?

The most crucial part is to make the site bug-free and every page is running smoothly without flaws. On top of it, your website should be mobile-friendly so that if any visitor opens the website from a phone, the site should not represent an unsystematic layout or perhaps, the visitor is unable to open all the pages.

So, have you fixed all the bugs after following all the steps above?

If not, then must do it now to avoid blunders at a later stage. Or else, this won’t leave a good impression on the visitor.

After making the website, the initial question strike is – how to generate traffic?

Certain prevailing trends always dominate the previous strategies.

The most popular and recent content marketing strategies mainly consist of three elements – case studies (64%), and blogging (36%).

You need to make good use of digital marketing solutions to pull traffic, generate leads and increase your brand’s viability effectively.

Now, here the role of digital marketing professionals comes into the picture. Sit with them, strategize your goals, set a target audience to pull traffic and here you go!

As we have discussed in the above point, 65% of traffic comes from social media so you need to embrace social media channels closely.

Hire a digital marketer or make yourself fully competent to run your SM platforms to make your presence felt.

The most prevalent social media channels are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and others.

You just need to opt and stay updated on these channels by posting regular updates which are relevant and useful for your audience, to increase your brand reach and awareness.

Moreover, the trend of paid advertising over organic one is whopping the online industry because it brings results very fast and is one of the best ways to increase the reach of your brand. 

The organic reach is somewhat less, and business owners and entrepreneurs are vastly opting the paid and sponsored ads to achieve their goals and objectives. 

As per one survey, 51% (in short- over 240 billion dollars) is anticipated to come from digital media, of all advertisement money that has been spent in 2019 worldwide.

We know you are almost ready to launch your first site now.

However, have you reassured your content part over and over again? Content is the most regarded part after site layout or theme which leaves the last impression of your offered products or services.

In the B2B community, patrons only focus on your offerings other than how good you have made the site.

The prominent way to check your content performance is easy now. There are various platforms such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Facebook Pixels which help you track the performance of your content.

To create a comprehensive flawless impact on users, make sure you have checked your content carefully before making it live.

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So, we have gone through the entire step-by-step guide to making a successful launch of the website. Before proceeding further you must ensure all the check-points or site pre-launch checklist precisely before you launch your site live publically.

IT’S TIME TO KICK-START YOUR WEBSITE

What do you need other than a complete guide to website making on its own?

Do you need a special brick-and-mortar space to run your business – NO!

Would there be affluent money involved to start your website- NO!

Can you launch a website with just a few bucks in the pocket – YES!

To meet the needs of the hour, launching a website successfully is the biggest concern of entrepreneurs and business owners.

These turn-key solutions help to make the website launch cost-effectively, and smoothly to perform better.

After all the checking, you need to create a post-launch checklist wherein your site performance has to be analyzed, site speed is to be monitored, traffic is to be evaluated, leads should be generated, business growth seems to be fair and good maintenance from time to time is essential.

How to Launch a Successful Website Read More »

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6 Key Steps to Migrate your Website Without Harming SEO

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If your website is outdated, then it won’t represent your brand well. So you have to ensure that you give your website a revamp or a redesign every 2-3 years to keep up with web standards and design trends. It is easily accomplished through a simple facelift or re-skin.

Though website migrations are common, they’re certainly not easy. And if you are planning on it, you surely need a website migration checklist SEO. If you are thinking of migrating to a new server, domain, or host, even that would require significant planning, time, and resources. 

Small mistakes can also mess up a website’s migration. And this, in turn, could destroy your company’s traffic and revenue overnight. A poorly implemented site migration can wreak havoc on the years of handwork you had put in. So, though changing your domain name or implementing HTTPS would mean a good business move, you have to consider how search engines will react to this move. There is a bit of risk of hitting organic search traffic.

This helpful guide will give you a gist of everything you need to know about migrating websites. It will ensure that you cover all the SEO bases to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Site migration is not a digital marketing trend; instead, it is migrating a website from one domain to a completely different one. Migration of sites can go deeper than just changing the environment. It means switching servers, CMS platforms, and the creation or consolidation of branded subdomains. It may also refer to switching over of site domains. 

But in most cases, migrating refers to shifting from the HTTP domain to the more secure HTTPS. However, it is regarded as one of the most “basic” types of migration. However, without the website migration checklist SEO, it does come with a series of threats, especially if you don’t have the right SEO platform and operational support.

Why is it Needed?

Website migration is needed if you wish to:

  • Shift & upgrade your site structure, navigation/design
  • Switch or go for a new content management system (CMS)
  • Transition the existing website from HTTP to HTTPS
  • Shift to a new server
  • Move to a different domain name

Pitfalls to Consider

When migrating from one domain to another, there are critical aspects that you should take into consideration.

No Planning

Most businesses opt for site migration with zero intentions to create a website migration plan. All they want to do is get a new CMS. They move to a new CMS without researching best practices for the move.

Bad Strategy

failing due to bad strategy

 It would help if you created a website migration plan. If not, you will fail to invest enough time in developing their strategy. The lacklustre strategy can put your site migration at risk.

Not Paying Attention to SEO

When undergoing website migration, you have to pay attention to SEO. For this, you should connect with an SEO consultant, agency, or in-house SEO team. Getting their suggestion when it comes to a site migration helps create a website migration checklist SEO. As a result, you won’t lose traffic, leads, or revenue long-term.

Incomplete Resources

Ensure that you set the necessary resources to plan a successful website migration. It could take care of the funding for hiring an SEO consultant or web design agency specializing in SEO.

Not Testing Enough 

Not having a good website migration plan usually means forgetting to test and follow up on their work. If you don’t find bugs within new navigation or site design, it implies havoc for your website.

You can counteract the above problems by:

  • Setting up a timeline
  • Estimating the resources needed
  • Brainstorming strategies
  • Noting potential challenges
  • Establishing a budget

URL redirection during website migration is done to ensure that all the links work on your new domain. This particularly holds for your website’s main pages because they have inbound links (referral traffic coming from another website). Not changing these pages based on content can make things stagnant and boring. Experts are suggesting trying the 301 redirects, which is also called the permanent redirect. It simply lets the search engines like Google know that your page has moved permanently. Do consider the link equity too because it may be a big chunk.

People often migrate if two organizations are amalgamating. In such cases, it is best to retain the higher ranking of the two domains, considering more users. Also, it is easier to redirect links from the lesser-performing domain. To maximize SEO, ensure that URLs are redirected only to highly relevant pages.

Here is a gist of six steps to help you successfully migrate your website:

Step One: Develop a Migration Plan

Create a concrete website migration plan, along with a website migration checklist SEO. This will help you in establishing the scope and timeline of your migration. It additionally helps to determine who will lead and support the migration. Try and have a checklist for each task.

Setting up a budget comes next. Your migration plan won’t happen in a day. In the same way, you should work out a budget to communicate with numerous team members.

Step Two: Coordinate with the Design & Development Team 

Make sure you don’t miss coordinating because you have to move forward with your website updates. In terms of redesigning, it can include reviewing wireframes, providing feedback, etc. If more than design is needed, then the development team can work independently too. The developers could work on improving the overall speed of your sites.

Step Three: Prepping Technical SEO for the Migration

Post finalizing the website’s designs or development, a dedicated SEO specialist will outline and prepare the technical SEO specifications. Some of these include:

  • HTML sitemap
  • XML Sitemap
  • URL structure
  • Redirects
  • Internal linking

You should also:

  • Crawl your existing website
  • Benchmark your existing website’s performance
  • Export your existing website’s Google Search Console
  • Have a document outlining planned redirects

Step Four: Launch and Test 

As per the digital marketing trends, you should launch & test your website. The process of testing your site commences once your development team starts building it. Ensure that during the test, it’s not accessible to search engines. Else they will crawl and index this website when you haven’t migrated your old site and content to it. This can be done by limiting its access to specific IP addresses.

  • Test & review site architecture
  • Check the site’s usability
  • Mobile-friendliness
  • Check the site’s internal linking
  • Read your site’s title tags, meta descriptions, etc.
  • Ensure your site functions
  • Go over your text file, XML sitemap, etc

Step Five: Migrating your Website

Before the business reaches the website migration plan, it can take a few weeks or months. But do remember that speed is essential. In some cases, the migration does require the website to go offline. For instance, it may be possible that you want to avoid extensive downtime. On completing the initial migration, complete the following:

  • Check & confirm robots.txt file is not blocking search engines
  • Check if the redirects work for your pages
  • Upload your XML sitemap to your Google Search Console account

All of the above actions will help your business spot critical errors fast. They will additionally boost your SEO and help your migration process become seamless.

Step Six: Following Up

Though you may have completed your website migration checklist, there is still a need to monitor your site. Make sure that your site migration is monitored to watch your rankings and traffic. Doing so can help alert your business to issues with your website migration. You can use Google Analytics to monitor your traffic and Google Search Console to track your rankings. Of course, there are paid tools too like Ahrefs or SEMrush that you can use.

Also, ensure that you check for duplication once the multiple versions of a URL are published. This will result in duplicate content. You have the option of self-canonicalization to take care of the issue. Additionally do check that links are consistent to avoid redirects from internal links. All the IP addresses should further redirect to URLs.

  • Watch out for folders that take you to content, especially “default” folders.
  • Verify that only HTTPS or HTTP is used
  • Ensure the www or non-www version of the site is accessible
  • Everything else should be redirected to the site

If your site has a search function, the search result pages should be non-indexed.

This should be in place to avoid duplicate content created by URL query strings.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the website migration process can be lengthy. However, with the right preparation, you can successfully migrate, optimizing your existing SEO efforts. 

You should get a website migration plan because that is more critical than building a checklist. If you successfully follow through on that checklist, the entire ordeal can help in seamless integration. As a business owner, it is relatively easy to get caught up in daily challenges and new projects but ensure these simple measures for successful website migration!

6 Key Steps to Migrate your Website Without Harming SEO Read More »

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