Have you set up your website relaunch to be out of this world or utterly unimpressive?
Checking up on your website relaunch success? Download the checklist that will make your website relaunch rock here
Take one small step for re-launch success and one large leap for your business’ bottom line with our re-launch infographic: Download the full infographic (PDF) now!
Preparing for a Website Relaunch:
Preparing for a Website Relaunch:Get Bumper to Bumper Protection to Ensure that your Relaunch Revs up your Online Presence …Rather than Resulting in a Major Malfunction
Major Tom, Manage your Migration
Check to ensure all of your pages have been migrated. Use Google analytics to verify you haven’t lost any landing pages. If you’re going to change domains, leverage redirects so that
your pages don’t get lost in digital space.
Houston –We Do Not Want Problems
During a site relaunch, elements of your navigation may become compromised. Triple check that your site architecture is intact, and that you have not created orphan planets …err pages.
Don’t Discard URLs to the Dark Side of the Moon
Preserve your URLs. If you can’t, use 301 redirects to ensure that search engines and potential customers find the right page on the first click. 301 redirects are used to change the URL of a page as it is shown in search engine results. The “301 status code” means that a page has been permanently moved to a new location.
Power Up your Re-launch with Awesome Analytics
Every website and every page needs analytics. Otherwise, you will miss out on essential marketing insights that will fuel future success. Be sure that analytics are in place to ensure that you can see whether your website audiences are in proper orbit.
Prepare for Landing
If URLs change, immediately update
your PPC landing pages to avoid a missed conversion opportunity.
Search for Signs of Life
Prior to launch, crawl your new site for any 404 errors. If search engines or potential customers encounter 404 aliens, they will be exponentially quicker to abandon your enterprise.
Measure the Force, or Lose the Force
Create an analytics benchmark to measure the effect that the relaunch may have on your online marketing potency. Add an annotation in your analytics dashboard to remember what may have caused unusual traffic trends. If you experience a drastic drop, take immediate action to identify and remedy the engine failure.
One Small Step for SEO; One Giant Leap for Online Marketing
Once your re-launch is complete, submit your new xml sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. In doing so, you enable Google to properly categorize your site and increase its crawlability.
Fuel Up your Meta Data & Check for CMS Debris
Make sure that your page metadata has been preserved. Be careful: Your new CMS may auto-generate duplicate data and descriptions. Revamp any metadata that may mislead travellers or search engines out of your world.
Mission Brief
Don’t boldly go where many misled businesses have gone before. Make sure that your SEO stars align before relaunching your site. You don’t want to realize that there are holes in your strategy after you’ve already blasted off. If you feel uncertain, hire a team of experts who will safeguard your site against the perils of faulty relaunch practices. Be strategic, be cautious, and may the force be with you.
