Effective Website Launching Strategy

Project Planning

Website launching requires a well-organized marketing plan and a step by step plan of actions that will predetermine all stages of the website launching. The first point in this process is to make sure that a new website can be easily found by the potential viewers. If one cannot find this website during seven seconds or less, than this website is not ready for launching. The right conditions of a successful launching include the time of seven seconds and the right language (Chang, Chen, Hsu & Kuo 2012, p. 920). When one talks about right language, he/ she predetermines the key words that a viewer uses to find necessary information and visit a particular website. Hence, a new website should contain key phrases that will be used by a potential viewer.

The second point is the existence of the required materials. On the launch day, one should have much information that he/ she can introduce on his/ her website. One post is not enough; there should be extra content that can be downloaded in advance. According to this fact, one needs to fill his/ her website with the required content, additional content and have some extra information in order to download it when needed.

The third point is quality of the content. When the website is launched, there should not be any materials that are marked as drafts or raw information. Everything that one downloads on the website should be already well-written, analysed and edited. On should not find any lexical, grammatical or any other types of mistakes. If visitor could determine that information on the particular website is not credible or it does not correspond to the general idea of the website or it is too personal and does not contain any specific or relevantly new information (Fan & Tsai 2010, p. 1149).

The next step includes a well-designed website and concerns, first of all, the visual performance. Design is a presentation of a website and, thus, it should correspond to its general idea. For instance, if a website is dedicated to technologic, scientific or other similar kind of information, then the design of this website should not be fancy or entertaining. On the other hand, if a new website contains information the goal of which is to entertain people, then an overly strict website design will have a negative impact on its development. Hence, one may state that a design of a website should be done according to its demand and it must include details that will illustrate the general idea of a new website.

First impression is very important for website because a visitor during the first ten seconds decides whether it is worth to visit this website or it is better to find another. Hence, a clean website, which contains only required information and does not include any off topic posts is what a visitor needs (Meenan 2013, p. 50). A clean website is easy to navigate because one should not spend much time searching the necessary headline or watching ad. The branding elements should consist of the website’s logo, graphical elements and tagline.

One should also find ways to share his/ her website after the launch. For instance, it may be a share page which visitors may use to share some interesting information with their friends. Nowadays, social networks play a significant role in people’s everyday life and thus, the usage of social network resources may be viewed as a good step of achieving this goal.

Before the launching of a website, it is recommended to make a coming soon teaser. This way, one will advertise his/ her website before it will be available to the wide audience. The teaser page will include general information about a new website which will soon be available. Hence, when the website will be launched, one will receive at least some number of visitors from the very beginning. Moreover, one may indicate the category of people which is more interested in a website before it is launched and make some corrections or improvements in order to attract also other categories or enlarge the number of possible visitors (Chow, Bridges & Commander 2014, p. 255).

Another significant point concerns the off-site audience and it is necessary to do before the website is launched. One may create a page on Facebook or build a community, where he/ she will promote his/ her website and search for fans and followers. Moreover, one may also use forums or blogs for this goal where he/ she may include a link to a teaser page of a new website.

Project specification is oriented on the following of the presented step-by-step strategy (Prabhakar 2005, p. 59). One also pays especial attention towards the project promotion before launching. This task includes choosing of domain, links and referrals, map current URLs to a new website, unique title tags & Meta descriptions and implementation of Google analytics tracking.

These specifications are necessary to provide the effective website performance since its first day of launching. The choice of a right domain means the technical name of the website. For the majority of visitors this point means nothing, but those people who design websites can easily determine the direction and abilities of a particular website.

Links and referrals are used more to introduce website to a wide audience. In fact, these methods simplify the process of sharing information among users. No doubt, a visitor may use copy paste the URL address of the website and send it to another user. However, the existed links make this process easier and more comfortable and hence, one receives the status of a website which cares about the wellbeing of its visitors.

Unique title tags are used to differentiate this website from another that has the similar content. In fact, nowadays one will not find that will be unique and will not have any similar websites which contain the same ideas. Hence, unique title tags will give an opportunity for a visitor to find this particular website and do not confuse it with another.

Google Analytics implementation is an important way of trickling scripts. The help of Google Analytics can increase the performance of one’s website. For instance, Google analyses the principles of script placement and may advice to set them before the closing <head> section, rather than at the bottom of the website. Google analytics also demonstrate the number of visitors and the statistic since the first day of launching.

Monitoring & Control

One believes that the hardest task is to prepare a website for the launching and after that one only needs to control its workability and refresh content. However, when a website is launched, one faces another challenge – communication. This procedure includes the ways of communication which are acceptable between users and website owners. The first thing one should do after the launching is to create the email list of subscribers. Due to this list, one may establish the constant contact with his/ her subscribers and inform them about the latest news on the website (Henley 2013, p. 39). Moreover, one may also include a link with a share page in order to advertise the website to other users.

Besides a list of users, one should also have another list which will be dedicated to blogs and forums. One recommends creating a list of two hundred bloggers and forums which will share information from this website.

One also should not forget about those who helped or participated in the process of creating the website. For this goal, one may create an easy copy-paste link that can be shared via social media platform.

Visitors are the key for the further development and prospering of the website. Hence, one should value every visitor; otherwise, the website will lose its popularity and respect. Administrators should control that every comment is answered. In this way, one supports the communication on the website and attracts new visitors who may also take part in this conversation.

One may also post some local news on his/ her website. Sharing the local news may attract more visitors because people who live in a particular region always want be aware about the last events. Hence, one should choose the most interesting stories or events that will be desirable for the visitors (Cyr, Head, Larios & Bing 2009, p. 539).

The more content is produced, the more efficiently the website will work. One should always continue producing more and more contents and this tendency should also increase. One should not limit its opportunities if there is such a necessity of providing more information than it usually does, and then one should use it.

Risk Management Analysis

Despite the fact that one has a well-organized plan of actions and a step by step strategy, one should realize that there are also human factors that may impact on the website performance. According to this fact, one should develop a risk management analysis that will introduce the main threats and weak points in the existed system (Huff & Kneuer 2007, p. 37).

Risk management analysis is oriented on prevention of possible risks that may arise before, during or after the website’s launching. Hence, the analysis predetermines the following points:

• Staff qualification and skills. The risk of hiring low-qualified staff is quite high because one will never know it before they start working. Unfortunately, if one notices that staff is not good enough for this work, he/ she can hire other employees, but one loses time and it ruins the plan of actions. One should check the professional skills of his/ her employees and propose them to create a page in order to find out their tempo of work and quality of performance.
• Backup plan. Backup plan is an essential requirement which helps to cope with the critical situation. One may also have two, three or more backup plans; the only thing is to use them in an appropriate time (Fisher, Schluter & Toleti 2005, p. 908).
• Technical problems. This situation may happen at any stage of designing a website and one should be ready to accept the fact that it can be a durable process. Nevertheless, the similar situation swill occur form time to time even after launching a website. Hence, it is necessary to develop a strategy on the early stage which will help to cope with this challenge.

Evaluate Project Management Issues that May Affect Your Project

The project may be affected by various management issues; among them one may outline those which are connecting staff and those with the technical origin. The first category to which the human factor belongs is hard to estimate because it totally depends on the quality of performance among employees. Hence, one should establish a high-qualified leader who will able to not only to manage his/ her employees, but also take responsibility in challengeable situations (Bram 2013, p. 22). To the risk situations one may refer such factors as a necessity in trainings and skill-improvement, hiring and education of new employees, cooperation with other websites and blogs.

Another category includes the technical issue that may arise before, during or after the launching of the website. The technical issues should also be taken after the strict control; even the smallest details must be observed with special accuracy. The smallest mistake may lead to disability of website for few hours or even days. As a result, one loses thousands of visitors and his/ her rates go down.

Blogs, forums and social pages may also cause difficulties in managing. The effectiveness of these sources of information depends on high-qualified workers who use these sources for promotion of a website (Miller & Washington 2014, p. 417). The constant control and the renewing of information are necessary if one wants to have a well-organized team. According to the introduced materials, one may make a conclusion that project management issues depend on the top managers and a leader. These people develop the plan of actions and are responsible to make sure that everything goes according to the plan; in other cases, there should be a backup plan which predetermines the possible changes and their solutions.