Websites can take a long time to put together. Between designing a look-and-feel and writing your content you’d be well justified to think the hard work was done when you launch the site.

Time and time again I see websites left alone once they’ve been launched. It’s understandable but there’s a lot more to be gained from treating your new site as an ongoing project.

Here’s six things you can do to ensure your new website remains an effective and useful tool for your organisation.

1. Let Google know

The majority of web users start their search on Google so you should make sure Google knows your website exists.

The easiest way is to visit their Add your URL page and submit your website’s address.

A much better a option is to create a sitemap to submit to Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com. This helps them create a more accurate listing for your website and ensures the search engines are kept it up-to-date.

Ask your technical team to look into sitemaps – they are easy to create. For websites using WordPress I recommend the Google Sitemap Generator plugin.

It can take a while for search engines to start listing your website so it’s worth doing sooner rather than later.

2. Announce your website

Tap your existing network to spread the word. Consider sending an email to clients, partners and friends announcing your website – here’s the one I sent

Exchange links with other websites and encourage blog owners to write articles about your organisation. Visits to johnstonnorth.com jumped when it was kindly featured on Smashing Magazine and cssmania.

3. Promote your website

Advertising online is a quick and cost effective way of generating traffic to your website. Google Adwords is one of the best places to start. Adwords allows you to advertise on the right-hand side of Google’s search results, amongst other places.

If you opt for Adwords don’t just sponsor the obvious keywords – they tend to be expensive and less effective. It’s better to strive for quality over quantity of visitors. For example, I don’t sponsor “web design” instead I pay for adverts against very specific phases that cost a lot less but I know that people searching for them are more likely to be looking for the services I offer.

4. Keep adding content

Copywriting is hard and there are no shortcuts. Regular visitors and Google love fresh content. A stale website will soon lose its rank on search engines. Keep your content succinct and readable. Jakob Nielsen’s guide to writing for the web is a great place to learn more.

Adding a blog to your website is a good way of creating a space for new content. It also provides a useful way to engage with visitors.

Tweaking existing content is also important to make sure it stays on message and up-to-date with changes in your organisation.

5. Understand your visitors

You can learn a lot from your visitors but you need to be able to see what they’re doing on your website. Google Analytics is a free service from Google which provides excellent intelligence about your visitors.

I also use Mint to capture statistics about visitors to johnstonnorth.com. It costs $30 but provides real-time information about visitors.

Both can tell you

• which pages your visitors are looking at
• how long visitors are spending on your website
• which websites your visitors are coming from
• where your visitors are located

Mint requires a some technical know-how to setup but Google Analytics is very easy to install.

Studying the information generated by Mint or Google can help you identify where to target your efforts. For example, if you’re getting lots of traffic from a particular country you might consider creating a page targeted for those visitors to help convert them into customers.

If you’re running a blog pay attention to the comments visitors are leaving. Be sure to respond courteously and listen to their feedback.

6. Start thinking about the next phase

Your website should continue to grow and change to stay in step with your organisation. Making larger changes to your website can take time so plan ahead. Start talking to your development team now about where your website needs to be in 6 months, a year and beyond.

In conclusion…

There’s plenty to do but don’t feel overwhelmed. Regularly spending 10-15 minutes keeping your website fresh and relevant will help sustain it as an effective, powerful tool. In fact, from an search engine optimisation perspective, it is better to be making small, frequent updates than a lot of changes all at once.

In summary, your organisation is constantly changing – your website should be no different!

If you need any help or advice getting the most out of your website do not hesitate to get in touch.

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