Whether it’s for a brand new business or a new look for a current one, launching a new website is exciting!! You’ve spent all this time working on every detail, and now you get to introduce it to the world. Unfortunately, many business owners find these launches disappointing. They launch the new site onto the internet, only to be met with crickets. This doesn’t have to happen to you!! You can promote your new website to make sure it gets the attention it deserves. We have some great tips to help you do this.

Create Buzz About Your New Website Before it Launches

What do you see before a new brick-and-mortar store opens? At the very least, you should find a “Coming Soon” sign outside the physical location saying what will be there. The new business owner may also create buzz about the new business with print ads, social media, and more.

If your business already has a site and you plan to launch a redesign, find ways to create excitement about the new site before it launches. Provide sneak peeks, status updates, and more so people start to feel excited about the coming redesign. Recently, I did a redesign for a large pediatric practice. Because of a break with a contingent of other practices, the group ended up without a website for a time. While I built the site, we placed a landing page on their domain offering their contact info, directions to their offices, and a link for patients to pay bills. Additionally, we had a form for people to fill out if they wanted us to notify them when the new launch. Landing pages saying what users will have in store for them can be hugely effective at creating buzz to promote your new website!

The bottom line? A brick and mortar store doesn’t just open and expect people to show up. You can’t do that with your website, either.

Promote your Website with Effective SEO Techniques

Not too long ago, I published a post about getting Google to notice your brand new website. While Google won’t find your brand new site immediately, I offered a few SEO tips you can employ to help that process along a bit. If Google or other search engines can’t find your site, then your audience can’t either. I won’t rehash all those techniques here, but I did offer an infographic that I’ll share again. You can click on it to enlarge and be able to read it better.

We also have a free SEO email course that will help you learn how to improve this aspect of your site. Get the Free SEO Course Here

Try a Soft Launch

Much like the restaurant industry, a soft launch allows you to go public without telling people right away. This practice gives you a chance to launch before your “grand opening” to work the kinks out. Restaurants can give their staff a chance to train with real customers without a huge crowd, allowing them to be better prepared for the crowds brought by a widely publicized event. Once the big opening comes around, they have their systems in better place and have kicked the tires, so to speak.

Similarly, doing a soft launch of your website involves going ahead and putting the site out there without making a big deal about it yet. As a result, you get a chance to see what works and what doesn’t. Does that form go to the right email address? Do all the images show correctly? Do you get the right alerts when someone orders a product? It’s much easier to fix these things with only a few visitors to the site than it is once you have a huge crowd.

Offer Value for Visiting Your New Website

I absolutely cannot emphasize this enough. You can post all over social media that you have a brand new website, but if you don’t give people a reason to visit, they just won’t. Here’s what Megan, a marketing contact on Twitter, had to say about this when I asked for input about promoting a new site:

Plan and prepare. Don’t expect people to visit your website just because it’s newly launched. Give them an incentive and capitalize on their visit as much as possible. I see so many sponsored ads that say “newly launched site – check us out!” and nothing more.

— Megan (@markupmegan) February 17, 2021

So how do you offer value to your visitors? Offer them something that they can only get by actually going to your site. Some ideas:

• Coupon
• Sale
• Free Download
• Contest
• Limited Time Offer

Pro tip: each of these should serve as a lead magnet… people should give you their email address in order to get this. That way, you grow your email list in the process!

Use Social Media to Promote the New Website

Does this seem obvious? Maybe. But you can (and should) use social media throughout every step of the website process. When you first start work on the site, post how excited you are to be underway on the project. Then keep reminding people to expect the new site by offering sneak peeks and updates about the site’s progress. (See “Create Buzz” above in this post.)

Once you decide the value you will add, promote the living daylights out of it on social media. Tell your audience what’s coming and get them excited about it! You can use countdowns, updates, and all sorts of fun ideas. Be creative!

When the site is ready to launch, you should have an audience that’s primed and ready. Make a big deal about it being live and promote, promote, promote the value you’ve decided to offer.

Leverage Your Email List

See all the stuff I said to do during the process using social media? Do the same for your email list. Send updates, sneak peeks, and create excitement. DO NOT rely only on social media for this. People take breaks from social media, but nobody says they’re taking a break from email. You absolutely cannot rely only on social media to get the word out.

Use Paid Ads

Now, not everyone has the budget for paid ads. I get that. If you do, however, a brand new site launch offers the perfect opportunity to set aside a small budget for this. Promote the new site using ads on social media and Google. As Megan said above, don’t just tell people to come to your new site. TELL THEM WHY and what you offer that they can’t miss.

Listen, the “Field of Dreams” if you build it, they will come approach does not work to promote your new website. It takes some preparation and some thought. So shout about your new site from the virtual rooftops, and keep swimming along!