What Happens After Your Website Goes Live?

Going live is the start of the useful bit

A lot of attention goes into building a website.

Quite rightly.

You need to think about:

• What pages you need.
• What customers need to know.
• How the site should look.
• What services you want to promote.
• How people will enquire.
• What needs to work on mobile.
• How the pages should be structured for search.

But once all of that is done, the website finally starts doing the job it was built for.

People start visiting it.

Customers start using it.

Search engines start crawling it.

People start filling in forms.

And that is when you begin learning what works.

Check everything again after launch

Yes, even though you already checked it before launch.

Welcome to websites.

Once the site is live on the real domain, it is worth doing another proper check.

Look at it on:

• Desktop.
• Mobile.
• Tablet if possible.
• Different browsers.

Check:

• Navigation.
• Buttons.
• Contact forms.
• Telephone links.
• Email links.
• WhatsApp links where used.
• Maps.
• Images.
• Page headings.
• Internal links.
• External links.
• Legal pages.

Your website should make it easy for people to take the next step.

If the contact button does nothing, that rather ruins the plan.

Make sure enquiries are actually arriving

This one sounds painfully obvious.

But do not assume that because the form says:

that everything behind the scenes is perfect.

Test it.

Send an enquiry yourself.

Check where it arrives.

Make sure the right person receives it.

Check the confirmation message.

If you have more than one enquiry form, test them all.

A beautiful website that quietly eats enquiries is not particularly helpful.

Keep your business information current

Businesses change.

Services change.

People join.

People leave.

Prices change.

Opening hours change.

Phone numbers change.

Areas covered change.

Offers disappear.

New services appear.

But websites have an unfortunate habit of remembering the old version forever unless somebody updates them.

That can create confusion.

Imagine somebody calling about a service you stopped offering eighteen months ago because it is still proudly sitting on your homepage.

Not ideal.

Schedule a regular look through your main pages and ask:

Your services will probably change

This is particularly important for growing businesses.

The website you needed when you started may not be the website you need two years later.

You may have:

• Added services.
• Stopped offering something.
• Changed your ideal customer.
• Moved into new areas.
• Changed how people buy.
• Added a new team member.
• Created a new package.
• Started working with different types of customer.

Your website should reflect the business you have now.

Not the business you had when it was built.

Do not forget your photos

Images date a website surprisingly quickly.

Your team photo may contain people who left ages ago.

Your premises may have changed.

Your branding may have been updated.

You might now have much better photographs of your work.

Real photos are particularly useful because they provide genuine evidence of the business, the work and the people behind it.

If you have better material now, use it.

Keep your website technically maintained

This is the bit most business owners understandably do not get excited about.

Nobody wakes up thinking:

But websites still need looking after.

Kangaroo Connections offers website hosting and maintenance for suitable websites from £15 per month.

The aim is simple: keep website management easier and give the business someone trusted to help when something needs sorting.

For many business owners, that is preferable to discovering there is a problem at 8pm and suddenly becoming an accidental web developer.

You can find out more about website design, hosting and ongoing website support here.

Check the website on mobile

Most websites are designed carefully on a large screen.

Customers do not necessarily use them that way.

They might be looking at your website:

• On the sofa.
• In the car park before visiting you.
• While walking around town.
• During a lunch break.
• While somebody else is talking to them.

The mobile version needs to be simple.

Can someone quickly:

• Understand what you do?
• Read the text?
• Tap the phone number?
• Find your services?
• Get directions?
• Submit an enquiry?

If not, it needs attention.

Watch what customers keep asking you

Your customers will tell you what your website is missing.

Not deliberately.

They will ask questions.

Over and over again.

If you keep answering the same question, there is a good chance the answer belongs somewhere on the website.

That might be:

• A service page.
• An FAQ.
• A blog.
• A pricing section.
• A process section.
• A call to action.

Good website content should answer real customer questions, not simply fill space.

Keep improving the pages that matter

You do not need to redesign the whole website every month.

Please don’t.

But small improvements can be useful.

You might improve:

• A confusing heading.
• A weak call to action.
• A service description.
• A contact form.
• A page that feels too vague.
• An FAQ section.
• A photo.
• A testimonial.
• An internal link.
• A paragraph that nobody understands.

Websites often improve through lots of sensible little changes rather than one dramatic rebuild every five years.

Your website and social media should support each other

Your website should not sit in one corner while your social media does something completely different.

They should work together.

Social media can bring people to the website.

The website can explain services in more detail.

Blogs can give you useful content to share.

Customer reviews can support both.

Email marketing can drive people back to useful website pages.

Networking conversations can lead people to your website to find out more.

That is what joined-up marketing looks like.

Not every channel doing its own little dance.

Keep adding useful content

Not every business needs to publish something every week.

But useful new content can help keep your website relevant.

You might add:

• Answers to customer questions.
• Advice.
• Case studies.
• Project examples.
• New services.
• Customer stories.
• Business updates.
• Event information.
• Guides.
• Blog posts.

The important word is useful.

Do not create twenty thin pages because somebody once told you “Google likes content”.

Google also likes useful content.

Customers definitely do.

Review your calls to action

Your business may change faster than your website.

When the website was launched, perhaps the main action was:

Now maybe it should be:

• Request a quote.
• Book a consultation.
• Send us a photo.
• Check availability.
• Buy online.

The website should make the right next step obvious.

Do not make your customer solve a puzzle before they can give you money.

Check your service area

This matters for local businesses.

Perhaps you started by covering Hastings and St Leonards.

Now you cover Bexhill.

Or Battle.

Or Eastbourne.

Or Kent.

Or perhaps the opposite has happened and you no longer travel as far.

Make sure the website reflects the genuine area you serve.

Local wording should be accurate and natural.

There is little value in filling pages with dozens of town names you do not actually want to work in.

That is not clever SEO.

That is future inconvenience.

Keep your reviews fresh

If your newest review on the website is from 2022, visitors may wonder what happened after that.

Keep adding genuine customer feedback where appropriate.

Especially reviews that mention:

• The service provided.
• Communication.
• Reliability.
• The outcome.
• What it was like working with you.

Real proof usually does a better job than writing:

Everyone says that.

Customers saying it is considerably more convincing.

Do you need Google Analytics and Search Console?

For many businesses, having some visibility of how the website is performing is useful.

You do not need to spend your life staring at graphs.

You have a business to run.

But knowing things like which pages people visit, how people find you and whether important pages are being discovered can help guide future improvements.

The point is not collecting numbers for the sake of numbers.

It is spotting useful information.

How often should you review your website?

There is no need to perform a full website audit every Tuesday morning.

But it is sensible to have a quick regular review.

You might check important information every few months and review the wider website properly once or twice a year.

You should also update it whenever something important changes in the business.

Do not wait for an annual review if:

• Your phone number changed yesterday.
• You stopped offering a service.
• You launched something new.
• Your opening hours changed.
• Your team changed.

The website should keep up.

Signs your website needs some attention

Your website may need updating if:

• You cringe slightly when sending someone the link.
• Customers keep asking questions that should be answered online.
• Services are missing or outdated.
• Old team members are still shown.
• Forms are not being checked.
• Photos are several years old.
• The mobile version is awkward.
• Your branding has changed.
• You cannot remember the last time anyone updated it.
• Your business has changed significantly since launch.

None of those automatically means you need a new website.

Sometimes you just need to look after the one you already have.

What happens after a Kangaroo Connections website goes live?

Our website process does not end with throwing the site onto the internet and wandering off.

Once the website has been tested and approved, it goes live.

Kangaroo Connections can then continue supporting the website through hosting, maintenance and ongoing website support where required.

Our website design packages are built around helping businesses get found, build trust, explain their services clearly and make it easier for people to enquire.

Because a website should actually support your business.

Not simply exist.