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15 essential small business website launch steps

Make sure you have a good handle on the support arrangements with your web provider. You should be confident logging into the site CMS to make changes but you also should know what you can do if you get stuck (and how much it will cost you). If there is a bug-fix warranty as part of the development this is good to know as well.

Update your business cards and any other print material that you have – remember I said you have to be thinking about this stuff well and truly prior to launch, arranging print materials can take time.

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Some basic stuff that I think pretty much every small business owner should do when they launch their site

Update your email signatures and any other electronic signatures that you have (forum signatures etc). On your email signature make sure it’s clear that the site is new, at least for a few weeks. Forum signatures are a great idea if they are allowed by forums that you are on and you should definitely mention your site on them – not only will other forum members visit your site but some forums will allow Google to follow these links and it will help your SEO.

Send out an email newsletter to your list and customers – make sure you thank your web provider We like that!

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Set up Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) to monitor mentions to the site – add one for your business name and your domain name. If you do find people talking about it, thank them and engage with them if you can (i.e. if someone posts it on Twitter, RT it or thank them). If you are an RSS junkie like me and you don’t want to get loads of emails, set up your Google Alerts to come in via RSS and look at them via your RSS reader. If you have no idea what I’m talking about I might do a post soon on RSS cause it really rocks, it’s been around for ages but I still come across people all the time who don’t have a clue what it is.

Tell your customers to check it out and ask for feedback.

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If you use Twitter or Facebook (which you should) mention it on those sites – ask for feedback.

Make sure your web developer puts a link on their blog or on their site – this will get the site indexed in Google 100 times quicker than submitting it to Google. If I add a link to my blog http://awebsitedesigner.com.au it will get indexed by Google in a couple of days sometimes on the same day. If you submit it to Google it could be 5 or 6 weeks!

Add the site to any directory listings that you have – if you don’t have a Google places listing get one at http://google.com/places and add the site to as many other directories as you can (I will be posting a list of free directories – particularly Australian ones on this blog soon) .

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If your web developer (or any other company you partner with) allows you to post testimonials to their site, do so and make sure you ask them to link back to your site using some keyword relevant anchor text (they will know what this means even if you don’t).

Tell people that you are talking to – if they ask “How’s business” say “Great, we just launched a new website, you should check it out and let me know what you think”.

If you have a personalised voice mail message and you are in the habit of changing it regularly, change it to mention the new site. If you aren’t in the habit of changing it regularly, mention it on there but just don’t mention that it’s new.

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Post the site on a forum that allows community reviews. The Flying Solo small business forum is a great example. Not only will you get valuable feedback, it’s also a good excuse to put a link to your website in a forum post (and as discussed above this will help with human and possibly search engine traffic). Obviously if you aren’t willing to consider the feedback then don’t write a post asking for it.

If your website is newsworthy for whatever reason, consider a press release and releasing it to the PR syndication services. In fact it’s not a bad idea to write a press release anyway and in your news items, refer to the press release – it makes it look a lot more important he he.

Implement whatever marketing plan you have devised at the start of the process (hopefully you have one).

Call Us: 1300 760 363

Call Us: 1300 760 363

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