How to Launch a New Website Like a Pro
You are creating your own website and it's almost ready. You’re about to hit the ‘publish’ button. But before your site goes live, it’s a good idea to take a moment and make sure that you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all your t’s. First impressions are important, and you’ll want to be sure that you’re making a big splash and in the best way.
Follow these guidelines for a polished and professional site, and your launch will be a smooth one.
Choose the right website template
When you make a Wix website, you can either start from scratch or choose the right template to suit your needs. There are over 500 to choose from in the Wix Template Collection, so you won’t be strapped for choice. If you come across one that you really like but aren’t sure that a certain element works for your own site, don’t sweat it.
With a simple website template you can change all the colors, elements and more to customize the template to look the way you want it to. We suggest you choose a template that’s set up in a way that will suit your needs best and has a layout that won’t need a major overhaul.
Customize it in line with your brand
Once you’ve got your template, it’s time to make it yours! Go to town customizing your template to make it unique to your business and brand by adding your own photos, fonts, logos, color palette and more. We suggest you pay special attention to the layout (make sure it’s clean and not distractingly busy) and the navigation (your site shouldn’t have to come with an atlas). Go over everything with a fine-tooth comb and triple check for any and all typos, broken links and other web design mistakes that can seriously hurt your site’s professional factor. Doing some research on web design tips and trends won’t hurt, either.
If certain aspects of your site just aren’t ready yet, you can either hide these elements or just be honest about it by putting up a website under construction page. Once you’ve said this, however, make sure that ‘soon’ doesn’t turn into ‘next year’.
Make sure you’re mobile ready
There’s no denying it: the number of people surfing the web on their mobile phones is on the rise and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. With that said, making sure your website is optimized for mobile is a must. Don’t worry though – the Wix platform’s mobile editor is just as user-friendly as the desktop version.
Get feedback before you go live
If you’ve been working on your new website on your own, it’s important to get a fresh pair of eyes on your site. Get feedback from your trusted friends, family and coworkers - they may be able to find trouble spots you might not have noticed on your own. Don’t be shy! Ask people to take a look and encourage them to be [even brutally] honest!
Upgrade to awesome
If you want to make a proper splash, you’ll want to upgrade to one of Wix’s premium plans for the full branding bundle. Upgrading not only gets you more storage and bandwidth, it also let’s you connect your own custom domain (a must for small biz) and fun extras like a personalized favicon (an extra branding bell). And, with access to Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see all of your site’s performance stats – a big leg up for any website.
You can also the pros and cons between creating a static vs dynamic website for maximum impact.
After your site is live
You’ve gone through your website launch checklist and you've hit publish! Congratulations, your site is now live for all the world wide web to see. What now?
Make good use of Social Media
While this may be obvious to some, it’s still very important that it gets jotted down on your official launch list. Decide which social media channels your biggest audiences are on – and make a real effort to be active on them. Get the social word out there: your website is live and open for business!
Utilize Email Marketing
Spread the word that your new site is live by sending out beautiful branded email newsletters. Wix's email marketing feature is the perfect compliment to any website launch, and remains a great tool throughout your business’s and website’s lifecycle. Anytime you have an update, big or small, that you want people to know about, send out a newsletter to make it known.
