How to launch a website and develop it effectively?
Have you become the owner of a new website or are you just thinking about creating one? What to do next? How to launch, promote and keep your online resource up to date?
Let's play association. Imagine that you have purchased a brand new car. The only difference between the image and the subject of our association will be that the car needs to be directed to the goal, and targeted traffic needs to be driven to the site.
First of all, decide on the location of your representative office on the Internet and choose a name for it. Hosting provides the necessary storage space for your website's files and databases, making it accessible to everyone 24/7. The domain is responsible for the online address. Here it is: “Whatever you call the boat, that’s how it will float”...
Как choose a good hosting and choose the right domain name, read our blog.
So, your car is safely parked at an address you know. What needs to be done so that he can start moving? That's right, fill up with fuel. And fill the site with content. To promote, a car needs roads, and an Internet resource needs traffic. To keep both the first and second in working condition, maintenance will be required. Well, and tuning, where would we be without it 😉
Now let’s talk in more detail about the main stages of development, promotion and support of online business projects.
- Quick launch and gradual increase in functionality.
- Filling with content - do you need a content manager?
- Promotion or where to get visitors?
- Improvements, technical support and updates.
When can you start promoting online?
Let's tell you a little secret: many online retail monsters once started with a small website. As their trading enterprises grew, their virtual representations on the Internet also increased. Small sites grew in structure, content increased (products, etc.), new functionality was added, design changed, and subsequently the site was completely rewritten, and its replacement with a new one was carried out unnoticed by users. And the promotion was already working all this time, because it was launched at the initial stage.
This approach is rational when launching startups: first, an MVP (minimum viable product) is created - a minimum viable product with functionality sufficient for the first sales. The main task is to receive feedback to test your idea/product and form a hypothesis for its further development, following which the functionality is increased. Starting with an MVP saves you time and money, since the income from your first sales can be used to fund yourself.
The level of MVP development in competitive niches is higher than in niches with weak competition, of which there are few left. In most niches, just a website on a template is no longer enough for successful sales. We actively use the MVP approach in core development to quickly launch projects. And we took it a little further, taking into account that for each goal the MVP in the same niche will be different. For example, if your goal is to become a leader in a niche, then this will be a site with a higher level of development than for a site that will simply sell.
To start, the site does not need to immediately have all the desired functionality. It can be increased gradually. But at the development stage, it is important to take into account the goals and objectives of business development for about 3 years in advance, so that it does not lose relevance in a year.
There are many modules to expand almost any online resource. There is a temptation to use them all in a row right from the start. But don't rush, because more in this case does not mean better. Otherwise, thoughtlessly increasing functionality can lead to the opposite effect - “draining traffic” due to the user’s lack of focus - the more steps he needs to take before making a purchase, the lower the conversion. Therefore, the site should only have the functionality the user needs to help make a purchasing decision.
For example, for an online store this could be the “abandoned cart” functionality used to bring the client to a transaction. “Smart Cart” is used to set up dynamic remarketing, which returns the buyer to the product left in the cart if he left the site without placing an order. For the user it looks like magic: “How do they know that I want to buy this product?” Often visitors return to abandoned goods and buy. This increases the profitability of the online store by approximately 20%.
Both in the cart and on other pages of the online store, for example, in the product card, these can be extensions with marketing modules for additional sales (Cross-sell) - “You may also be interested”, “Related products”, “Together cheaper" and others.
Online stores also use modules to increase the sales receipt (Up-sell), modules with elements of Virtual Try and gamification are used - gaming approaches that are widespread in computer games for non-game processes. This increases customer involvement in the process of selecting products and services and strengthens their loyalty.
Configurators for automotive and furniture websites allow you to raise receipts both in online and offline sales. For example, you can see car configurators on the corporate websites of most manufacturers such as Land Rover и Audi.
We have implemented a similar module in product cards for upholstered furniture websites Zlatamebel и Dommino. The extension gives the user the opportunity to play with the product and choose their ideal package (material and color, other options), for which they would not mind paying a lot of money. This often distinguishes a manufacturer’s website with a configurator for its model range from a reseller’s website. And it attracts the opportunity to order directly, since now “from the manufacturer” is a very strong trigger, it is associated with “without intermediaries” and markups, even if the dealer gives the same price.
When choosing modules to expand your online store, trust professionals who act on the basis of knowledge of usability principles; their experience in different niches allows you to avoid common mistakes and choose the right, effective functionality as correctly as possible.
How to fill the site with content?
Let's return to our association. The type of engine in your car - gasoline, diesel, gas, electric - will determine the availability and cost of refueling.
In the same way with websites, the convenience and speed of filling depend on its engine (CMS). Therefore, it is very important to choose a suitable content management system (CMS) at the design stage. In our practice, we were faced with a situation where a previous developer made an inexpensive website for a customer, now our client, on a rarely used engine.
Filling with content and maintaining such a resource cost our client a pretty penny. It is very difficult to find content specialists to work with unpopular CMS; they are constantly busy, and therefore their services are expensive. The client had to abandon this project, despite the money already spent on development, as the Internet resource turned out to be unviable.
Fortunately, the Customer learned about us and our approach to choosing a CMS, which allows you to fill the site even without the involvement of an external content manager. Therefore, they ordered the development of a project on WordPress from us. Two weeks after the completion of its creation, the corporate website MC “Mama” was successfully filled with the product through the efforts of the Customer’s internal manager and started.
A full-time employee (in-house) will more quickly make all changes to product items and price lists on your online trading platform, keeping it up to date. An internal content manager lives the life of his company, understands the intricacies of the niche better than anyone, but are you ready to pay him full time? Or is it easier to outsource content filling?
It all depends on the nature of the project: its scale - the number of goods/services and articles, how often the product line is updated - regularly or one-time at the start, and then point-by-point. For example, according to our projects for a medical center MC "Mama" and logistics company Pearl Logistics LLC ― filling was carried out by the client one-time independently, and then periodically as necessary (upon updating information on the price list, range of services or its expansion). But in such large projects as "Zlatamebel" и "dommino" Full-time content specialists work.
For large projects with regularly updated content (range and prices), it is advisable to use solutions that simplify content. For example, for online stores this could be a special filling module in the admin panel on the catalog home page without going to individual products, or uploading a price list from a spreadsheet file or an accounting system like 1C and the like. Sometimes upload modules from other sites, such as Prom and others, are used.
“Filled the tank”? Let's start promotion!
Continuing the conversation about associations, we note that at this point of comparing a car and an Internet resource, exactly the opposite happens. The driver himself chooses the road to the goal, and the site owner is looking for how to “deliver” visitors to his online site.
There are a great many such ways. Don't try to use them all at the same time. But we don’t recommend stopping at just one; comprehensive promotion works better. Different business niches use their own set of tools. Let's briefly list the main promotion channels:
- Contextual advertising in search engines;
- SMM and advertising on social networks;
- Advertising on Youtube;
- Dynamic remarketing;
- E-mail newsletters;
- SEO promotion;
- Price aggregators and marketplaces;
- Notice boards;
- Offline advertising;
- Other.
Contextual and targeted advertising, attracting potential customers through chat bots in messengers most often have the goal of “landing” LEADS on a landing page - landing page, but is also suitable for other types of sites (online stores and corporate sites with catalogs). SEO methods are rarely used in promoting one-page websites. But the complex of all these marketing tools works well for promoting online stores.
Let's take a closer look at SEO promotion. There is a common belief that “SEO is dead.” But don’t rush to “bury” him. It’s just that search engine robots are becoming more and more intelligent, they no longer care about the number of keywords and phrases per square centimeter of text, the trend is readability and benefit for visitors, relevance, completeness and novelty (uniqueness) of information.
In order to effectively develop and promote a website in 2021, it is necessary to analyze competitors, since search engines compare sites from the same niche (for one key query) and take into account all the advantages and disadvantages, displaying those that are better above. In our blog you will find a description of services for independent competitor analysis.
Compare your site with your competitors. Bypass them for each page based on loading speed, compliance with key queries - uniqueness of content, length of texts and relevance. Search robots love unique content - photos, videos and articles. Texts should be detailed and understandable with a clear structure and a good level of expertise. They must work with objections and answer basic popular questions from visitors.
Don't forget about local search. Register on the Google My Business platform. Companies registered on this platform are displayed in Google search results and on Google maps not only by country and city, but even by district and individual location. Users find what is closest to their location. This is especially important for local businesses - the service sector and stores with offline offices.
Start creating video content now - it's the future. Over the past year, the amount of time visitors spent on Youtube has increased by 60%. And this trend continues. Experts predict that already in 2021, 80% of all traffic will be occupied by video content. According to Alexa Rank, Youtube is the second most popular website in the world today. People are lazy to read, so take advantage of this weakness and provide video content about your product/service or company. Video advertising on Youtube is now very popular and effective.
But another human weakness—putting off making decisions “until later”—is necessary and can be fought. Dynamic remarketing will help you with this. This tool is used in different types of advertising and aims to return the visitor to the site that he left at different stages of decision-making. Competently advanced projects such as "Rozetka" or our project "dommino" catch up with visitors who left without purchasing through the “abandoned cart” functionality. It's interesting how it works - come in and try it yourself.
Place your products and/or services on price aggregator sites and marketplaces. Potential buyers like to compare products from different sellers in terms of price and quality, so they often visit such sites. Don't ignore message boards either. These tools are especially relevant for companies with a cost advantage.
In this article, we only mentioned the most popular methods of promoting Internet resources. When selecting the effective tools you need or a set of them to promote your website, do not forget about offline advertising. Indeed, due to great competition, the most obvious sources of Internet traffic may turn out to be unprofitable. And offline advertising in highly competitive online segments, when many competitors simply do not use it, sometimes gives unexpectedly high profitability of sales, as our practice shows.
All methods of online promotion need to be tested for each type of business individually. You can never tell in advance what exactly will work in your project. Of course, the more touches a potential customer receives along the way, the higher the likelihood of a purchase. But you shouldn’t be scattered across all channels in search of traffic. Only a competent omnichannel marketing model will be useful for both tactical work to attract traffic and strategic work on brand awareness, which increases trust in the Internet resource.
The service will help you choose an effective online promotion model SimilarWeb. By providing links to the websites of leaders in your niche, you will find out where your competitors are getting traffic and customers from today. These promotion channels can be effective for you too.
Why do you need technical support and website updates?
The answer to this question is simple if we remember our association with the car. Without regular technical inspection (MOT), replacement of consumables and worn-out parts, and minor repairs, your car will not drive for a long time, and it is not safe to use such a vehicle. As one of our major clients said: “It’s strange when they think that a developed high-quality website does not require support, like any other. If my Range Rover needs to be maintained to run smoothly, then the site needs support and maintenance to run perfectly.”
Similar to machines, sites without technical support - bringing search engines, php versions to current requirements, updating plugins, and, if possible, a site management system (if the CMS requires this) over time may not only stop working correctly, but even lose their security and viability. This happens because search engines like Google constantly update their requirements, changes periodically occur on the hosting side (for example, php version updates), engine versions (CMS) are regularly updated, and maintaining and refining older versions sometimes becomes more problematic and labor-intensive, and correspondingly more expensive.
The importance of technical support cannot be underestimated; if the site is not kept up to date, then failures may occur even on a normally working site, and the likelihood of infection with viruses increases, because in older versions of engines, hackers identify gaps for attacks. Interruptions in website availability negatively affect the experience and trust of visitors.
We recommend spending a small amount of money and time so as not to lose all the funds invested in development, and most importantly, the trust of the target audience. To ensure correct and secure operation of a medium-sized website, at least 10 hours a month will be required for technical work. For larger scale projects - from 16.
Is it enough to make a high-quality design once and for all? In the modern world of rapidly changing technologies, it is important not to get lost among web resources with outdated interfaces, with growing user requirements, so you need to change periodically.
To redesign a website, you need to re-analyze your business and its online positioning, which will allow you to better understand your target audience, its expectations and preferences.
After all, even a new Mercedes doesn’t seem so cool after 3 years, and user interest in the site decreases over time, and, therefore, conversions are reduced. The “novelty effect” will help return visitors’ interest in the site. This is achieved by improving the design and testing new marketing tricks. This often allows you to increase the conversion received after the start by 2-3 times or even more. Such work for medium- and large-scale projects takes about 30-40 hours per month.
So, let's sum up:
Creating and launching a website is just the beginning of your online business journey. It is a mistake to think that having once invested money in development and content, you can let the project take its course. To ensure its vital functions, constant development and support is necessary:
- Filling with content and regularly updating information.
- Constant generation of a flow of visitors - traffic to receive leads (applications/orders).
- Maintenance and updating for search engines.
- Revision (improvement) for the “effect of novelty” in order to maintain and increase conversions.
Do you need a comprehensive solution to the problem of starting your business online or taking it to the next level? We will be happy to help you with the launch of your Internet project - from development to filling the site with content and promoting it to the TOP!
