What Needs to Be Done Before You Launch Your Site
You can rush to have a site up and running, but preparing for a site launch can help propel a site along.
An ill conceived site can be a detriment to your business, so having a plan in place to make the site worth a visitors time from the beginning can leave a great first impression. “This site under construction” does not appeal. Having only one post up and other pages left blank can be frustrating to your visitors. Basically, your website is the first step in building an identity on the web. Anyone can claim to be an expert, but if your site cannot back up your claims, you have lost opportunities. You do not need a perfect site for all to see. Site owners, webmasters, are always changing elements, trying to improve the user experience, but you do want to have some elements in place before the world sees what you have to offer.
Content is king. You will read this mantra on many a blog about making money online. Before you send your site out into the world, you should write some content for it. Then edit that content. Reread it. Have someone else give their opinion on it. I make the mistake myself of posting a piece that I did not edit, and I can kick myself for missed chances, so I have to go back to edit. You will want at least five pages:
An “About Me” page- this page is like your resume. You want to sell your visitors on who you are, and why they should trust your site.
A “Contact” page- they need to know how to contact you. Give them various options: a form to fill out, an email, a phone number, or even your Twitter or other social networking account information. This page could have a list of your services and prices.
A “Home” page or an opening post- WordPress can be used as a CMS, which means that visitors can go to one standard home page. When being used purely as a blog, the landing page will contain the latest posts. Your home page is your sales pitch arena. You want to help direct visitors to parts of the site that will help you make the conversion from visitor to client. An opening post helps this idea and it can be turned into a page if you want, but it does help to begin your blog with a post that helps define your mission for the site.
The last two pieces of writing should be posts or pages that contain articles which will help the visitor who may be considering your product. For example, a “Links” page can have a collection of sites that help provide data on clarifying your service or items that you sell. With my focus on real estate, I have pages that link to other professionals who help a home buyer with the transaction. I also have over two hundred pages describing aspects of my job. Showing a client what you do, can convince them that you do it better than others.
Study what your competitors are doing. They will be studying you, and they will use their sites to counteract your marketing. By understanding what they have done, you can work on developing a site which better addresses the consumer.
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