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5 Things to do Before you Launch your Website

by Andy Brudtkuhl on February 24, 2009

I know your excited – I always get excited too before launch. It’s never a great idea to launch a website without a web strategy plan, but if you don’t have time for a full plan – make sure you cover the basics. There are rare circumstances where a website is successful right away without up front planning. It has happened for me in one case with IowaFlood.com – but that was a good (lucky) implementation that was right place at the right time.

Before you hit the “ON” switch on that shiny new website (hopefully a WordPress site!) here are 5 things you should take care of…

1. Define your Goals
We always recommend you define your goals for the website before you launch. By defining your goals right away you have a clear focus and easily measured milestones. If you have no goals for the site – maybe you should think twice about launching. Afterall – it’s a lot of work.

2. Checkout the Competition
You probably already have an idea of another website you have used for inspiration for your idea – some that you wish to emulate. Combine that list with the first page of Google results for the search terms you are targeting on your website. Now visit those sites and simply check out what they are doing… How are they converting leads? What content are they producing? How is their site structured? If they are successful there are tangible reasons that you should emulate on your new site.

3. Analytics, Analytics, Analytics
Before you launch – make sure you have web analytics software installed – whether it is Google Analyics, Clicky Analytics or something else. Just make sure it’s installed and working before you publicly launch your website. You need to track everything – from the beginning. This data will be extremely helpful later on in your web strategy lifecycle.

4. Develop your Workflow
Admittedly this is something we have learned the hard way. It’s hard to keep our website running well without a schedule. This is analogous to scheduled maintenance for your car.. If you don’t keep servicing your vehicle it will break down on you. An effective web strategy should have a scheduled workflow associated to it. If not – I guarantee you will never check your web analytics, produce regular content, or find time to participate in your community. Set aside time for your web strategy. Add it to your calendar. Trust me – this will make you more productive and allow you to keep a well-oiled website.

5. Seed your Site with Content
Don’t launch a website without content – and please, please, please, please don’t launch with a “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” image on your site. Nothing will deter future visitors more than being 100% underwhelmed on their first visit. Before you publicly announce your site be sure there is sufficient content to keep people there once you announce it. We recommend having at least five blog posts along with your traditional “about” and “contact us” content.

What do you recommend? Let us know in the comments

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What is Web Strategy?

by Andy Brudtkuhl on February 2, 2009

Web Strategy is simply, strategic planning for your website. It’s a combination of Technology, Business and Community and how these affect your website. We focus on core aspects of Web Strategy planning, including Technology, Content, Community, Marketing, and Analysis.

Technology

Obviously the technology you choose is an extremely important part of the long term strategy planning of your website. You need to choose the right hosting, platform, analytics, plugins, etc, etc. This is something you should definitely research a lot up front. We are here to help you make the right decisions on what technologies to choose based on your specific needs.

Content

Content is, well, King. Content drives traffic and user engagement. The content you produce is a key element in your ongoing web strategy planning. Not only will content make your website engaging – it helps to increase your findability. Effective content marketing through syndication and creating content outposts is key to driving traffic – and conversions to your website.

Community

If content is king, than community is the queen. I’ve said it many times – a website is only as good as the community around it. Not only will your community visit your site – if engaged properly they will become evangelists. You should constantly be interacting with the community you build around your topic or niche – through Twitter, blog comments, FriendFeed, etc.

Marketing

Marketing is key to creating awareness and driving traffic. There are three main website marketing strategies: Internet Marketing, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. This includes everything from Search Engine Marketing, PPC, AdWords, Content Outposts, Syndication, etc, etc.

Analysis

Analysis is key for optimizing your websites using analytical data from visitors to bounce rates. Analytics allows you to measure the effectiveness of your content, community, and marketing and is essential for determining the ROI of Web Strategy.

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