Launching a website for your business can be a mountainous undertaking. There are so many factors to consider to build a website that will serve your business, from content to SEO and, of course, making sure it all works together.
After you’ve done all that work, the last thing you want is to have to go back and fix what didn’t get done right the first time. So I have compiled a list of things you should absolutely take care of before your website goes live to save yourself headaches in the future.
1. Choose the right content management system. Will your website be more content oriented or e-commerce oriented? Will you build it yourself or leverage an agency? What traffic and volume are you expecting in the first year? Your answers will determine which CMS is best suited for your website framework. Choosing the right CMS in the beginning will save you endless frustration and even a complete rebuild of your website later.
The difference between a content-oriented and an e-commerce-oriented CMS is as stark as buying a dump truck versus a race car: They’re just made to do different things. A content-oriented CMS makes it easy to add and manage content, while an e-commerce-oriented CMS makes it easy to add new products, make sales and track inventory. Decide the ultimate purpose of your website before you start building, and you’ll set yourself up for ease of use later.
2. Activate Google Analytics 4. Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google Analytics. It is taking the place of the current Universal Analytics, which will sunset in July 2023. Any data collected by Universal Analytics will not transfer into GA4, so if you’re launching a new website, go ahead and install GA4. This way, you start gathering user data as soon as your website goes live, and you won’t have to deal with making the switch later.
3. Optimize for search engines. SEO is what drives users to your website when they’re searching on the web. But that doesn’t happen by accident. Implementing a solid SEO strategy from the beginning will help Google understand what you offer and send users to your website when they search for a certain word or phrase.
If you’ve got the budget for it, hiring an SEO expert to optimize your website can save you an immense amount of time and deliver faster results. But if hiring an expert isn’t in your budget, you can learn to do SEO yourself with proper study. There are lots of online courses that can help.
4. Make sure everything is properly organized from the beginning. In the rush to get your website live, you may be tempted to get something up as fast as possible and tweak it later, but this is a strategy for future pain. So many things about websites are very difficult to fix later, and you’ll save time and stress by doing it right rather than doing it twice.
Some things you’ll want to pay special attention to because they are difficult to fix later include:
Naming your images correctly for SEO and ADA compliance. Correctly named images are key to both SEO and ADA compliance. It is a time-consuming headache to go back through your site and rename every image after your site has launched. Instead, name your image files correctly when you save them, and input the correct alt text as soon as you add them to your website.
Input meta descriptions and titles correctly the first time. These are not necessarily visible on the front end, so it’s easy to forget until you’re served with an ADA compliance lawsuit.
Create organized SKU numbers. Don’t wait until you have 1,000 products to realize you need SKUs that identify release date, colour, manufacturer and other identifying information you will need later for tracking, inventory and management. Create a naming convention that helps you identify and sort items from your very first product.
5. Make sure your website is ADA compliant. Did you know that your website is required to be ADA compliant just like a brick-and-mortar business? Making sure your website is ADA compliant from the start is a good way to avoid learning an expensive lesson when you’re served with an ADA compliance lawsuit.
The ADA’s web content accessibility guidelines require your website to contain features that allow people with visual, mobility and neurological impairments to use it at an optimal level. These features can include:
Keyboard navigation for those with mobility issues who may have trouble moving a mouse
Appropriate text contrast so visually impaired people can easily read your website content
Descriptive alt text on images so a screen reader can describe images to a visually impaired user
A Little Extra Work Now Will Save You Stress Later
It’s easy to think that you’ll have more time or money to work on your website later. The problem is, “later” never seems to come. When you set your website up right the first time, you can avoid a future of frustration and set yourself up for website success right out of the gate.
Founder and CEO of FAV Solution, Adrien Levinger is an eCommerce expert with more than a decade of experience scaling brands online. Read Adrien Levinger’s full executive profile here.
A blog can also be a low-cost way to elevate your small business’s reach and also build credibility with your followers, making it a win-win situation. Here’s how to start a blog for your small business.
You’ve probably never envisioned yourself as a blogger. After all, you’re a small business owner, and probably not a trained writer. But you don’t have to be the perfect wordsmith to write compelling and engaging posts. Creating a successful blog really just requires being passionate about a certain topic — a characteristic you already possess as an ambitious entrepreneur! A blog can also be a low-cost way to elevate your small business’s reach and also build credibility with your followers, making it a win-win situation.
Another benefit of blogging is your posts are “owned content,” meaning you have complete freedom to create your blog as you please without relying on third parties. All the material on the site will be within your control, ensuring the tone and style of your blog are consistent with your brand values. Building a blog from scratch takes some work, but this article will help you get set up with the basics, while also providing insight into the various ways other businesses blog.
Why start a blog for your small business?
When thinking about the content you want to include on your blog, the 80/20 social media rule is useful to reference. This popular social media tenet dictates that while it’s acceptable for businesses to devote up to 20 percent of their marketing strategy explicitly promoting their products, the remaining 80 percent of posts should be entertaining and helpful for your audience.
The idea is that instead of bombarding customers with promotional ads, you should enrich their experience through interesting, edifying, or educational content. You probably want to add value to your customers’ lives in some way, and a blog is a perfect channel to do just that! Sharing this content will not only attract more customers, but it can also open a dialogue with your existing followers, creating a stronger online community. Blog posts can also be repurposed on social media — generating more content for your business.
Here are some reasons blogging is a good investment:
Highlight your knowledge
Customers want to know that the brands they’re buying from are dependable and trustworthy, and blogging can be a great way to relay your expertise in your field. Through blogging, CEOs, founders, and other employees can also dive deep into thought leadership by expressing their learnings from their own career journeys.
Expand on your brand’s values and goals
Oftentimes, Twitter threads or Instagram Stories may not feel like the right platform for when you want to write a deep dive into your company’s mission. Blog posts, however, are the perfect medium for an in-depth look into your company’s principles as you can expand about your goals and aspirations as an entrepreneur.
Document and share transparently
Running a business is no easy feat, and recording the ups and downs of the journey can be a beneficial experience for both business owners and customers alike. Sharing some useful content to include would be a timeline of company milestones, quarterly reviews, and a post honestly depicting the obstacles in running your business and how you overcame them. Individuals who are building in public have seen many positive returns, like finding community and gaining brand exposure. Readers will also appreciate this candidness and it may even help them see the humanity behind your brand instead of just viewing it as another company.
Include keywords in your post
By writing blog posts that contain keywords relating to your products and services, you can start driving more traffic to your site. This is an efficient way to build up the organic search for your brand. Just know that it will take some time for your posts to rank high for SEO. Still, if you consistently generate solid content that is crafted with search engines in mind, your articles can eventually start ranking higher on Google and similar sites. If you are interested in learning more, here are some SEO tools that can help.
How to start blogging
Setting up a blog is fairly simple, but there are some logistics to figure out before you begin writing.
Choose a Content Management System
There are a ton of content management systems you can pick from for your blog. Here are just a few options:
WordPress — WordPress is used in 41 percent of websites, and for good reason. The platform is simple to use while also offering more advanced features for those who need it. The basic version of WordPress is free, but most brands and businesses will probably require a plaid plan.
Tumblr — While Tumblr may be known as a social media platform, the user-friendly interface is perfect for writing blog posts. It’s also a great choice if you want to infuse your posts with trending memes and a more casual tone. Best of all, Tumblr is free.
Blogger — A free Google product, Blogger has been around since 1999 and has been credited as being a game-changer in the online publishing space. Blogger provides simplicity, easy-to-use templates, and can be linked with all of your Google accounts. A plus? Google Adsense can also be integrated into your site.
Ghost — At Buffer, we use Ghost for our blog and appreciate its intuitive dashboard, built-in SEO features, and the platform’s commitment to centering content at the forefront. Ghost Open-Source is a free version of the site, while the more advanced Ghost Pro starts at $9 per month.
Make editing easier
A blog post that is filled with typos and grammatical errors can be jarring for readers, which is why it’s important to ensure your content has been reviewed. Grammarly is a great editing tool to use, especially if you’re an ambitious team of one. While there is a premium version, a free Grammarly account should take care of most major grammar and spelling errors.
Implement a content calendar
Similar to how one would set up a social media calendar, you can also make use of a content calendar for your blog. The calendar would include pitches and blog post ideas, the timeline for completing each post factoring in the outlining, drafting, and editing process, and the publish dates for each piece. This will give you an organized look into your blog and ensure you’re staying up to date with your posts.
Generate Ideas
You may have a few top-of-mind ideas for your blog, but are wondering how to churn out content on a regular basis. Feeling unsure of what to post is common, but there are several ways to develop new topics to write about. Getting your followers’ input on the content they’d like to see is always a good option as they can bring up important customer pain points they’d like addressed. Asking the rest of your team for pitches – even if their role isn’t directly tied to marketing or communications – can also provide an insider’s perspective on the blog. And finally, creating a mind map of relevant topics and doing other brainstorming exercises can allow you to think outside of the box.
Running a blog can feel like juggling multiple tasks at once, but eventually, you’ll settle into a good rhythm of creating content. Getting started is the most important part, and remember, you can always adjust your blogging strategy along the way.
How other small businesses approach their blogs
The great part about writing a blog is that you can be flexible in the type of content you share. If you want more ideas for getting started, these examples from other small businesses can give you a jumping start.
Documenting their journey
Blogs offer the perfect medium for customers to catch up with important news and updates from brands.
Scotch Porter
Scotch Porter — a black-owned business that makes hair care products for men — has a variety of posts on their blog aka The Scotch Porter Journal. But their core focus seems to be sharing company milestones like announcing their launches in both Target and CVS. And when they were featured on Nick Cannon’s talk show in late 2021, they dropped the exciting news via their journal.
Scotch Porter updates fans about exciting company milestones on their journal
Buffer
While it’s always nice to highlight your accomplishments, it can be just as rewarding to open up about the challenges and obstacles your business has faced. At Buffer, one of our core values is defaulting to transparency, which is why we document important learnings on our Open blog. In these posts, we don’t shy away from difficult topics but instead, get candid about areas we need to improve on and the steps we’re taking to do just that.
Glamnetic’s blog contains trending beauty news along with product highlights
Passion Planner
Passion Planner similarly writes blog posts that tie back to their main products: journals. Their blog includes tons of ideas for customers who’re interested in journaling, like 42 planner ideas to give your schedule the glow up it deserves and The 7-day self-love challenge. Instead of focusing specifically on their passion planners, however, the tips in the blog posts could work for any journal or agenda. This makes Passion Planner’s blog feel less like another marketing ploy but instead a solid resource for readers.
Passion Planner’s blog includes helpful tips for journaling
Flow Club
Flow Club, a virtual coworking space, highlights their product a little differently by including user testimonials on their blog. In this article entitled, “How Hustle Fund co-founder Elizabeth Yin beats procrastination with Flow Club,” they hone in on one customer’s experience with their product, providing direct quotes and personalizing the service a bit more for readers.
Flow Club uses their blog to highlight customer experience
Demonstrating expertise
You know your stuff, and blogging about your experiences and knowledge is a perfect way to educate your readers about interesting topics related to your business!
Pacific Cookie Company includes baking tips and other cookie related posts on their blog
Passion Planner
Along with writing posts revolving around journaling, Passion Planner also blogs about self-care and empathy. These principles directly relate back to their company’s mission statement as part of their business’s goal is centered around helping people fulfil their dreams and feel their best.
Passion Planner also blogs about their core values
We hope this article gave you insights into how blogging can add all kinds of value to your brand, like connecting with your audience on a deeper level. Once you have your first few posts under your belt, the writing process should become smoother, and running your blog will become a part of your regular routine!
With so many providers on the market, each promising countless different functionalities and capabilities, how do marketers decide which content management system (CMS) or enterprise management system (EMS) is right for their organisation?
It might be one of the most important tech investments your business makes.
But with so many providers on the market, each promising countless different functionalities and capabilities, how do marketers decide which content management system (CMS) or enterprise management system (EMS) is right for their organisation?
First things first: what is a CMS, and how does it differ from an EMS? Fundamentally, a CMS is an application that lets an organisation manage, store and deliver content or documents.
Broadly speaking, though there are differing definitions of the term, enterprise management systems have the same functionalities as content management systems, but on a grander scale, so they can support the needs of larger businesses. An EMS might also be a system that is tailored to an organisation’s particular needs.
So what should enterprise businesses look for in a CMS? Of course, every business is different, and so it depends on what you’re looking to achieve. But we’ve brought together seven features that are most important for marketers in particular.
1. An intuitive UI, and ease of use
A good CMS is easy to get to grips with, and a pleasure to work with. If the system is too complicated, or proves frustrating to use, your people will vote with their feet, defeating the purpose of investing in a new system entirely.
Ask yourself whether the CMS is intuitive for everyone in the business who is using it, from the tech-savvy to the not-so-much. If your organisation requires a more specialised system with more complex capabilities, weigh up whether it is worth investing in staff training or considering a different system.
2. Content and user management capabilities
If your business creates a lot of digital content, including web pages and emails, you need a CMS that allows you, and any other content creators in your organisation, to easily update text and images, or make edits on the fly. A WYSIWYG interface that allows easy uploading of multimedia, such as video, is essential for businesses to remain reactive and relevant.
It’s also worth checking if it is possible to manage access to the system. If your business has many content creators who are uploading content on the CMS, this feature allows a nominated admin to manage the users’ access to the system, and the privileges they have.
3. Scalability
Given the size of your investment, it’s important to consider the future needs of your organisation before you make your CMS selection. How flexible is the CMS? How will it cope with any changes to the business model, should they happen?
4. Ease of integration
Is your current infrastructure capable of running the CMS? Is your IT team ready for the maintenance and upkeep it might require? Make sure the system can integrate with your marketing stack, and that it will get along with your server.
5. Good SEO
After taking the time to install your new content management system, and getting to grips with its marvellous content editing capabilities, it would be a shame if your SEO takes a hit because of how it generates new web addresses, or doesn’t allow you to create suitable, informative titles for the pages you create.
Check how adaptable the system is, and after you’re satisfied it’s right for your business, you’re definitely going to need…
6. Performance tracking
See whether it’s possible to integrate any other SEO tools you might be using into the system, and how it works with web analytics tools like Google Analytics. If you don’t have the ability to track key performance metrics, how will you know whether you made a good investment?
7. Security and support
Content management systems represent a goldmine of vast amounts of data, and so it follows that they’re prone to attacks. Ask what security features are in place, and how easy it is to install security patches. Can your IT team take this on?
Server problems do happen, and if there is ever an outage, you need that peace of mind that support is at hand, 24/7/365. If you’re an international company, make sure support is available in every language spoken across your offices.
Download our CMS Vendor Selection Pack for more information about how to select the best web CMS for your business.
