So, you’ve decided that it is time to invest in a new website or drastically upgrade your existing website – that’s great, however there are some best practices when it comes to Internet marketing that you might not have thought about that you should consider before you go live.
One of the biggest mistakes that Internet Marketing Consultants notice from clients who launch new websites is that they completely forget to check their organic positioning and the existing pages that have managed to place well in the organic search results. Chances are good that your new website will not have the same file names for web pages. When the search engines “bots” come back to look for an old file name like “blue-widgets.asp” and it no longer exists, they will remove that page from their index and with it any organic positioning that it managed to achieve. The fix is simple, have your designer use 301 redirects to the appropriate new pages. Better yet, if the old page has placed well for important keywords, I would recommend copying the text and other page elements as close as possible and keeping the same file name. It’s amazing to me how few web design companies actually bring this to their client’s attention. Take charge and make sure you don’t lose any hard earned organic positioning.
The second common mistake is forgetting to notify your pay per click Management Company to update your ads with the correct new page locations or URLs. There is nothing worse than having a brilliantly designed new website with well targeted landing pages go live only to have your sponsored search campaigns still point people to old page names. The often embarrassing result is that you pay for clicks that lead people to error pages. You not only lose money on the clicks, you fail to gain new visitors, and subsequently lose leads/sales. Remember, it is not your marketing person or pay per click management companies responsibility to constantly check destination URLS. It is the responsibility of the company to update any necessary individuals or companies to the new landing pages.
Sure, these concepts seem obvious; however you would be surprised how many people fail to consider either situation before launching their new website.
I always recommend that BEFORE you even start to design your new website or landing pages, that you contact your Internet Marketing consultant and ask for their input. Often, very basic landing page elements and Internet Marketing “best practices” are forgotten in new designs, and your fancy new website could become an expensive step backwards. Unfortunately, while many web design companies tell you that their websites are “SEO Friendly” or “take Internet Marketing into consideration”, almost all of them fail in this regard.
Your Internet marketing consultant should be kept in the loop during the entire build process. His/her advice can make a huge difference in the conversion rates of your new design.