You’ve just launched your new site or relaunched your redesigned site, so what do you do now?
Of course there are a million marketing, social media, ROI tips out there but since we like to simplify your life we’ve organized a list of four areas for you to pay attention to after your site rebuild.
Focus Areas
Q&A
Not everything can be caught during your site launch, it’s nearly impossible. Since there are so many different devices, operating systems and browsers, you must have a Quality Assurance process in play. Work closely with your webmaster to assure that any problem that arises can quickly be nipped in the bud, as well as hire a Q & A tester to scour every inch of your online store. The Q & A tester should keep a close eye on unexpected bugs, usually browser issues during the first 4 to 6 weeks after launch.
Specifically pay attention to customers who call or email that have a problem you can’t recreate, that’s likely something to dig into. Performing A/B testing on your pages can also help understand what is working and what is not. Also, incorporating the data presented in Google Analytics can help you get a better understanding of which pages are working and which are not.
Analytics
Dig into your analytics post launch. While you should keep an eye on it from Day 1, as long as there are no issues, let it run for 30 days and then do a deep comparison to the previous 30 days of your old site, with your new site.
Pay attention to Bounce Rate, Time on Site, Avg # of pages visited and ultimately conversions. Use your analytics to help you hone in on where you can fine tune your new site to increase sales.
Lastly, keep track of your customer activity using Google Analytics. Google Analytics provides essential statistics that will help you plan systematically for future promotions and site updates.
Google Webmaster Tools
You know how your customers see your site, but do you know how Google sees your new site?
Make sure you’ve got Google Webmaster Tools setup and configured. Follow their recommendations to make sure you get the most Google love out of your new site and to ensure that the search engine spiders are happy with it, which increases your ranking. Also, do yourself a favor and sign up for Bing Webmaster tools as well. More details on Google Web Crawling here: GoogleBot.
Get The Word Out
Your existing customers are more likely to come back if they know you have both a new site and new content. Don’t be afraid to tell them as well as promote your updates on social media, etc. The more you promote your new features, the more intrigued the customer will be. To keep the communications squeaky clean during this transition, have a contact form set up so users can provide feedback and ask questions. There is no better feedback than that of the customers that use your site. If you choose not to promote, be prepared for a number of questions and potentially confused customers. One of the most important and yet simple strategies is an email campaign. One email into the inbox of all of your client base and viola! You are keeping the consumer in the loop while reminding them of your brand. With that said, its a healthy habit to keep your graphics fresh and new. After all, a successful email campaign leads the shopper directly to your website, so updating your image content is crucial. Work with your marketing coordinator and graphic designer to plan for the future and get those promotional graphics changed out frequently.
Ship Shape
Finally, once you know everything is working as expected and you have 30 days of clean data, it’s time to start A/B Testing to help increase your sales. A/B testing compares your new site to the old site to assure that the new site design is producing greater conversions than the old. It is a sure fire way to validate the changes you are making to your online store with actual quantitative data. When running an online business, being able to say, “We know” vs. “We think” is the kind of confidence your business deserves.
Reinforcement
The Internet is an ever evolving technology and so should your website. Change in a positive and captivating way, capture new traffic and provide a compelling reason for consumers to return to your online business. Whether you take the time to regularly update and maintain your website yourself or seek the services of a professional web development company to do it for you, remember it’s a vital part of being a successful ecommerce store on the web.
That’s it for our Site Rebuild Series, we hope you took valuable information that you can apply to you business’s short term and long term goals. Stay tuned for our next blog post – Social Media: Site Support, to learn some effective Social Networking tips from our in-house expert, Elisabeth Adkins.
If you missed 1 – 3 of our Site Rebuild Series, you can view them by clicking below.
Is 2015 the Year for a Site Rebuild?
Part 2 of our Site Rebuild Series: Steps for Success
Part 3 of our Site Rebuild Series: Technical Hurdles
Miva