{"id":7282,"date":"2018-10-29T10:06:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T10:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/?p=7282"},"modified":"2022-02-21T16:19:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T14:19:01","slug":"10-quick-tips-on-how-to-launch-a-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/10-quick-tips-on-how-to-launch-a-website\/","title":{"rendered":"10 tips to launch a website with the biggest impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dont_you_want_to_get_the_most_value_for_money_for_your_website\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #828d37;\">Don&#8217;t you want to get the most value for money for your website?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You&#8217;re about to tell the whole world about your shiny new website. It&#8217;s exciting, it&#8217;s fresh, you finally have a site that represents your vision and professionally communicates your products and service. Great, let\u2019s go!!<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><strong>No! stop, take a breath, and let&#8217;s consider a quick strategy to get the best value out of your investment.<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/span>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/10-quick-tips-on-how-to-launch-a-website\/#Dont_you_want_to_get_the_most_value_for_money_for_your_website\" >Don&#8217;t you want to get the most value for money for your website?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/10-quick-tips-on-how-to-launch-a-website\/#Part_1_Soft_launch\" >Part 1: Soft launch<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/10-quick-tips-on-how-to-launch-a-website\/#Part_2_Hard_launch\" >Part 2: Hard launch<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Part_1_Soft_launch\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #828d37;\">Part 1: Soft launch<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>1) Send&nbsp;the website to a few friends for some honest feedback<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check basic text and grammar. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go through the website with a fine-tooth comb.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make use of the free online writing tool;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.grammarly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grammarly<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Ask for suggestions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-7393 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Untitled-design-5.png\" alt=\"Send the website to a few friends for honest feedback\" width=\"939\" height=\"581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Untitled-design-5.png 939w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Untitled-design-5-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Untitled-design-5-768x475.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px\" \/><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>2)&nbsp;Check your web hosting server and web hosting traffic capacity<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The worst thing that could happen is launching a website and it doesn\u2019t load because your web hosting server capacity is too low. We monitor quite a few of our clients&#8217; sites (using&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/uptimerobot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Uptime Robot<\/a>) and you&#8217;d be surprised to know how often websites go down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your best bet is to ask your webmaster or web host for more information. Alternatively, you can set up a CDN such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cloudflare<\/a> to help split the flow of traffic, and keep the website up!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you really want reliable, super-fast, secure WordPress web hosting, we strongly recommend moving your hosting to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siteground.com\/web-hosting.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SiteGround<\/a>. Furthermore, their customer support is world class.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>3) Website speed and cache<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your webmaster if he has taken your website through the <a href=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/sss-speed-security-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SSS process<\/strong><\/a>; Speed, Security, and SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many things we can do to make your website load faster, thereby improving your users&#8217; experience, and Google page ranking. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>A few&nbsp;quick speed and security optimisations you can make are:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Install<\/span>&nbsp;a cache plugin. We recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-fastest-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WP Fastest cache<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Install an image compression\/optimisation plugin such as <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-smushit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smush<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/shortpixel-image-optimiser\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ShortPixel<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/ewww-image-optimizer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWWW<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Remove any unnecessary plugins.<\/li>\n<li>Install a security Plugin such as <a href=\"https:\/\/en-za.wordpress.org\/plugins\/better-wp-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iThemes Security<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordfence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WordFence<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/sucuri-scanner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sucuri<\/a>. Also, make sure your username and passwords for WordPress logins are complex and lengthy.<\/li>\n<li>To test your website speed, you can run speed tests with <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/pagespeed\/insights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Developer Page Speed Test<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/gtmetrix.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GT Metrix<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>4) Ensure a great smartphone user&nbsp;experience. Statistically, that&#8217;s where most people will view your site!<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gs.statcounter.com\/platform-market-share\/desktop-mobile-tablet\/africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">48% of the web is<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;accessed on a smartphone (57% in Africa) so you need to make sure that your user experience on a smartphone is just as good as it is on a laptop. Make sure your web developer or designer has taken the time to truly optimise the mobile experience of your website.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>5) Set up Google Analytics to start tracking use of your website for future improvements.<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having data on your website usage will help you make decisions for improving your website in the future and will tell you a lot about your business and your target audience you may not have known.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some of the cool insights you will be able to access:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7379\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Analytics-2.jpg\" alt=\"Google Analytics Screenshot\" width=\"989\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Analytics-2.jpg 989w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Analytics-2-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Analytics-2-768x438.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 989px) 100vw, 989px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Part_2_Hard_launch\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #828d37;\">Part 2: Hard launch<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><\/h5>\n<h5>6) Tell Google and rank higher.<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, Google will discover your new site and may even start displaying your domain for certain search queries. But why wait for Googles bots to notice you? There\u2019s a lot we can do to ensure our visibility and compatibility to Google\u2019s standards are optimal, thereby increasing our chances of our website being seen by potential customers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Very quickly, here are some of the steps you should take:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Submit your website &amp; sitemap to <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Search Console<\/a>. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create a free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en_za\/business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Business Profile<\/a>&nbsp;making sure to verify your address. For this, you will need a Gmail email address (e.g.&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"mailto:Weaverbirdmarketing@gmail.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weaverbirdmarketing@gmail.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your business friends to include links on their website that link to your website, or perhaps of your blog post.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7402\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Business-Profile-Mobile-View.jpg\" alt=\"Google Business Profile Mobile View Screenshot\" width=\"714\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Business-Profile-Mobile-View.jpg 714w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Google-Business-Profile-Mobile-View-300x232.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>7) Create a post on all your social media accounts for max exposure<\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Firstly, create business profiles on Facebook, Instagram (if relevant), LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube (if relevant) to your organisation. Complete these profiles with as much information as possible ensuring contact details and website links are accurate and consistent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Invite your friends and family to like or follow your business page. This can feel like shameless promotion, but think about it this way, if your friends truly care about you, they will support you!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, create a post on all these profiles about your new website, then share that post on your personal social media profiles. This is absolutely key because your social media business profiles probably won&#8217;t have many likes or followers which means at the start, anything you post there will receive very little views. <strong>If you share your business post to your personal profile, your WHOLE network will see the post!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7440\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share.jpg\" alt=\"Social Media Advertising\" width=\"714\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share.jpg 714w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-140x140.jpg 140w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Blog-Post-Body-Share-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>8) Change your WhatsApp and Skype status to your website link.<\/h5>\n<p>This is a nice subtle way to inform your network, whether personal or professional, that you have a business, and it is a big part of your life. It&#8217;s a nice little nudge to say, &#8220;Hey, come and see what we do&#8230;&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>9) Email signature with links to the site.&nbsp;<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Between 2014 and 2018 the average office worker received about 90 emails a day and sent around 40 business emails daily. If you don&#8217;t have your website in your email signature, you are missing so many opportunities to promote your website and potentially let new business slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n<p>A quick tip for a successful email signature, in this multi-device age, is to ensure all information and contact details are live, clickable text, and that the design works just as well on a smartphone as it does on a laptop. To ensure this, make sure it&#8217;s a narrow design.<\/p>\n<p>If you need help setting up a professional email signature, feel free to get in touch with us on <a href=\"mailto:info@weaverbird.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">info@weaverbird.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7401\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Email-Signature-Website-Link.jpg\" alt=\"Email Signature Website Link\" width=\"715\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Email-Signature-Website-Link.jpg 715w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Email-Signature-Website-Link-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>10) EMAIL EVERYONE you know!<\/h5>\n<h6><strong>People who like you will like to work with you or recommend you!<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, and probably most importantly, you should send an email to your entire personal and professional network informing them of your new website and the solutions your organisation provides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can send a standard email through Outlook or Gmail or you could set set-up a beautiful, traceable, free new email campaign with <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchimp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MailChimp<\/a>. With MailChimp, you can craft visually engaging HTML emails with an easy-to-use, quick-to-learn drag and drop layout builder. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The biggest benefit of Mailchimp is that you can see who opened your email, how many times they opened it and what links they clicked. &nbsp;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">See example below:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-7407 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/123-Anywhere-St.-Any-City-ST-12345-123-456-7890-hello@reallygreatsite.com-www.reallygreatsite.com_.png\" alt=\"mailchimp\" width=\"714\" height=\"552\" srcset=\"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/123-Anywhere-St.-Any-City-ST-12345-123-456-7890-hello@reallygreatsite.com-www.reallygreatsite.com_.png 714w, https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/123-Anywhere-St.-Any-City-ST-12345-123-456-7890-hello@reallygreatsite.com-www.reallygreatsite.com_-300x232.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t you want to get the most value for money for your website? You&#8217;re about to tell the whole world about your shiny new website. It&#8217;s exciting, it&#8217;s fresh, you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-careers","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weaverbird.co.za\/en-au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- This website is optimized by Airlift. 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