You've decided to build a website for your business. It's a smart move: All companies, big and small, benefit from an Internet presence, but a significant number of small businesses across Canada either lack a website, or they have no strategy for their online properties. In this four-part, weekly series we'll take you through the initial planning and setup phase, to launch and maintenance.
Part 4: Launching and Maintenance
At this point we break the construction metaphor used by previous articles to talk about the launch of your website. This is more like a countdown at NASA mission control following months of testing and preparation. You should test your pages, test your links, check your spelling, check your security, test any shopping cart or e-commerce functions to make sure they work.
1. Countdown to launch
When you think your site is almost ready to launch, ask your staff, friends and family to visit the site and provide feedback about what works and what doesn't. Leave time to make changes if necessary based on their suggestions. The launch of your site may be part of a larger marketing push for your business. If desired, you could use other advertising to drive people to visit your site to complete a transaction, print a coupon, enter a contest or sign up for an e-mail newsletter. If you want website visitors to return frequently, your site should offer content that changes regularly and provides opportunities for them to get involved in the site. This can be something as simple as a weekly contest, a discussion board, or a blog with a comments section. On the other hand, it may suit your business to have a simple, static website that rarely changes. In that case you may decide that the added work and cost of interactivity is unnecessary.
Tell people about the site. The easiest way to promote your new site is to publish the web address everywhere. Your domain name should appear on your letterhead, on your business cards, in your press releases and advertising, on your company car, and yes, on your products. You and your staff should update your e-mail signatures to include the domain name, so every e-mail you send gives people an opportunity to visit your site as well.
Traffic and analysis. Each time someone visits your website, information about their visit is captured in a log file. Your web host can provide tools to help you monitor this traffic. The logs will show which pages on your site get the most traffic, so you can update or add content on those pages accordingly. You may find that visitors come to your site after performing a specific Google search, or that they leave to go to a competitor's website. You can use this information to improve your site and make it more effective. Google Analytics is a free tool that offers a similar service with even more detailed information.
2. Maintaining your site
Now that the website is built, it's time to think about ongoing maintenance. Make a plan now to avoid surprises later. You need to decide how often the site will be updated, who will maintain and update the site, and what your budget will be. If your site includes dynamic content like a blog or a Twitter feed, you need someone to watch over the site to ensure that it's up-to-date.
Regular checkups. Every website, even a simple online brochure, should be reviewed and updated every few months. The following is a list of some things you should check regularly.
Contact information. Are the phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses listed on your site still correct? Names and dates If your site has a staff directory make sure it's up-to-date with correct names, titles, and contact information. Beware of dated references: when writing the company history say "in 1995" rather than "15 years ago."
E-mail addresses and forwarding. Send test message to any e-mail addresses published on your site to make sure they're working. Make sure the messages are forwarded to the right person or department. If your website sends automatic responses when visitors contact you, test those systems and review the text of the outgoing messages.
Check the links. Test all the links on your site, especially links that point to other sites, to make sure they work as expected. If you have a contact form on the site, send a test message and review any automated response you receive. Try making deliberate errors and see if you can 'break' the site.
Security. If you use passwords to limit access to some parts of your site, change the passwords regularly. Make a note of the expiry date of your domain name(s) and plan to renew your domain name services before the deadline. Check with your registrar at least once per year to ensure that your contact and payment information are correct. Pruning Review your traffic logs and remove website pages that are not used. Add or change pages based on suggestions from your customers or partners, provided they make sense based on the purpose of the site.
Review. Do you need to update or redesign the look of the site? Does it reflect your business? Does it match the other marketing materials you're using? You should also periodically review the decisions you made in part 1 of this series. The purpose of the website may change with your business, and the target audience for the site may change as well. Make sure you review the purpose and audience for the site regularly to ensure that it's meeting the right targets for your business.
Building a small business website requires careful thought, research and planning. The domain name is important, as is the web hosting company you choose to use. There are many tools available to help you, and more decisions to make along the way. At the end of the process, you can finally launch your site and enjoy the benefits to your business and its customers.
Special to The Globe and Mail
Earlier stories from this series can be found on the Web Strategy section of Your Business.