Website Health

Your Website Just Went Live

You've completed the website-build phase and your website is now live. That has to be a great feeling. At this point, you can do things such as:

• • Share your site with friends and family
  • Share your website on social media
  • Create a link to your website underneath your email signature
  • Create business cards with the URL of your website under the contact info
  • Submit your website to online directories, and more.

Normally, that would seem like plenty of things that you were unable to do beforehand. This is one of the reasons why having a website for your business is so essential. 

There are other things to consider. Some could be categorized as “must haves” while others are personal preferences. We have created a handy list of things to consider or check off, now that your website is live. 

1. Get an SSL Certificate

It's the difference of your URL appearing from this: “http://www.etc..” to “https://www.etc..” It also displays a small “🔒” icon next to your URL. This is a symbol of “secure and safe.” This is what people want to be assured of when visiting anyone's website, especially if they are making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or any other sort of communication with the company. 

This is Also a Google Ranking Factor

Meaning that Google has openly announced that websites that are not secured with an SSL Certificate will unlikely be recommended by Google inside of Google searches. 

How to Acquire an SSL Certificate

To get an SSL Certificate, you have to sign into your hosting account. That is, wherever your website is hosted. This is not to be confused with where your “domain” is hosted. (although sometimes your domain and hosting are all under one roof, which is fine). Your hosting company should offer it. 

Pricing for an SSL Certificate

Most hosting companies offer one for free for the first year, and usually comes packaged with a new hosting account. Some don't though. Either way, after the first year, you're looking at around $98 a year. 

Installing your SSL Certificate

This should be left to a professional, if you want it done correctly. Many things can go wrong if not done correctly, such as having a “mixed content” error. This is when half of your site is protected, but half of it is not. If you need assistance in setting up your SSL Certificate, see our package here. 

2. Set Your Products to Renew Yearly

Inside of your hosting and/or your domain account, you will want to make sure you set your products to renew automatically every year. This will give you peace of mind, as you won't have to ever worry about your products expiring. This could lead to not only your website going down, but to losing your domain, which would make it available to the public.

It's also a good idea to set a reminder to update your credit card information on your account anytime your card is due to expire. 

While you're inside of your account, go to your account settings, and just make sure you have the option enabled to receive important notifications regarding your account. With this option activated, you will receive PLENTY of warnings before something expires. 

3. Get Yourself a Domain Labeled Email

A lot of business owners are still using emails such as “Gmail” or “Hotmail” or “Yahoo” for their business email. An example of this would be: “andyspestcontrol@gmail.com.” Where it could now be something like: “info@andyspestcontrol.com.” See the difference?

It's just not a professional look and it could be the difference of you being able to charge more for your services. Sounds like a stretch, but it's true. This is because you appear more established and professional. Below are some reason why some business owners are not willing to let go of their personal emails in exchange for one ending in their own domain, followed by a solution. 

1. 1. 1. 1. I don't know how to set it all up:
            • Go to your hosting account and just order it. It's like $3.99 a month per email account. Microsoft 365 is a popular option and it has loads of options, such as being able to check your emails from your phone or your Outlook Express
         2. I want to be able to check my mail using my Gmail
            • Gmail offers a great option to give you the ability to send and receive emails using your Gmail account. So do other email services. It's not the easiest to set up, but once it's done, you will never have to worry about it again. You can even create separate inboxes to keep it all organized. Don't know how to do all this? We can help. 
         3. I don't want to pay for it. Right now, I pay nothing
            • We can actually tell you of a little known hack of getting around this. You will have to make sure that your hosting offers a “C-Panel” aka, a Control Panel. A place where you have a lot of options at your disposal for your hosting. If you have a C-panel, (and you most likely do), you will have an option to create your domain emails for free. It's something that most hosting companies will never tell you about, yet there it is. 

4. Schedule Website Backups Regularly

I couldn't tell you how many times having a backup of my website saved my life, not to mention my time. There are so many things that could go wrong, so having a backup shouldn't even be an option. It should be mandatory. We tell you how to go about this below:

1. 1. 1. 1. Set it up via your Hosting Account
            • Your hosting account will offer website backups. We recommend that you back up your site every 3 days.
         2. Use the C-Panel “Free” Option
            • If you have a C-Panel hosting account, you will find an option to backup your website. This is especially the case if you have a WordPress Website. Under the WordPress settings, there is an option to set up backups as frequently as you wish. 
         3. Use a Plug-in
            • We love the “All in One WP Migration” Plugin. It has many benefits, but for this example, there is an easy way to backup your website on the fly. You install this plugin to your WordPress website. Once logged into your website's dashboard, zero in on your new plug-in. Choose the “export” option. Give it a few minutes, and the plug-in will create a file for you. You decide where to save it on your computer. So long as this plugin is installed, you could always use the new backup file to bring back your website, should something go awry. 

5. Get Alerts Anytime Your Website Goes Down

If your website were to go down, how would you ever know it? How bad would that be for business? More importantly, how unprofessional does it look when a client has to call you and tell you that your website is down. 

I've seen cases where a website has been down for weeks, before the owner caught it. No lie. Another negative impact it makes is that Google will make sure to stop showing your website in search results. This is because they do not want to bring their searchers to websites that don't work. Below is an easy way to avoid all of this.

Use UptimeRobot

UptimeRobot is the easiest way to monitor your website for downtime. Registering is free. Simply create an account. Once logged in, enter your website and adjust the settings to make sure it knows how or where to notify you should your website go down. Here is the link. 

Once you get an alert saying that your website is down, it's time to figure out why it's down. Contact your website designer or your hosting company to get it resolved. 

6. Fill Out Your Contact Forms Regularly

If your contact forms weren't working correctly, how would you know? Funny things can happen to websites. Sometimes doing maintenance updates on your theme, on WordPress or on your plug-ins can cause conflict with your contact form plug-in. When this happens, your contact form may no longer be working properly. 

Take the time to visit your website, and fill out a form. Be sure to check that you received it. If you haven't, be sure to contact your website designer so they can troubleshoot the issue.

7. Check For the Mobile Experience

Your website looks great and you are proud of it, but have you checked it on your mobile phone? Did you REALLY REALLY check it?

Most people are now finding your website via their mobile phones. Just because your website looks great from your laptop, it doesn't mean that the mobile experience is just as great. As website designers, we have to make sure that things “break down” properly once the screen size goes down. This is known as having a “responsive” website. Meaning, the website is responsive to any screen size. 

Visit your mobile website and go page by page. Click on buttons, navigate to other pages, fill out forms, click on buttons. You may just discover that something is not working as it should. Put yourself in the shoes of a customer. Is it easy to get the information they are seeking? Are the words easy to read? Are the images fitting within the screen? All these things can have an impact on your customer's experience. 

8. Protect Your Website From Malware

It's an everyday threat, and the weakest of websites fall prey to Malware. Malware does not discriminate, it has no idea who you are. It just goes from site to site hoping a website lets them in. Once the website is injected with Malware, you are unlikely to know right away. 

Malware can create new pages on your website filled with spam, and you will never know it. Malware can cause things to break, and detecting or fixing it can become very difficult once the damage has been done. 

For a yearly fee, your hosting company may offer a Malware protection plan. This plan offers a worry-free service, by monitoring for Malware, creating backups, and eliminating harmful files injected into your file folders. 

Use a Plug-in

Plug-ins such as Wordfence and Jetpack are great options to take care of your website. If you have reason to believe that your website is already infected, such plug-ins can scan your files for you and find them. The last thing you want is to have to deal with a virus in your website, believe me. 

9. Update Your Plug-ins, Your Theme and WordPress Regularly

If you have a WordPress website, chances are that there are a number of plug-ins that were used to build the site. Plug-ins are great. They solve so many problems and can really enhance the website experience for your viewers. But plug-ins are updated by their creators regularly, which means in turn, you have to update them once the creator has made changes. 

A lot of the updates that are given to WordPress users deal with site security. Since hackers are always finding ways to break into your website, developers have to find ways to prevent it. By not updating your plug-ins, you are leaving your website vulnerable to hackers and malware. The same goes for the theme/template used to build your website and for WordPress itself- all offer regular updates. 

Your website designer may offer affordable monthly maintenance plans, where they can make sure your site is always updated, amongst other things. 

10. Get Your Website Optimized For Search Engines

A large misconception is that once your website goes live, Google (And other Search Engines such as Bing and Yahoo) will somehow magically discover it and decide to bring your website to their search results, making it easy to find your website. It doesn't work that way. 

Many, many things have to be done just to get your foot in the door. There are so many things, that I will explain it all in another article. What's worse, a lot of website designers are not skilled in this area. Their main focus is on the design and layouts of your website. So you cannot leave this up to them. 

Another misconception is that optimizing your website should go hand in hand with building the website. Wrong again. Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short) is a science all in itself. Therefore, it requires a lot of work that is completely unaffiliated with the website build. 

As the saying goes, “What good is a website if no one can find it?”

After your website is completed, find yourself a reputable SEO agency or technician who has at least 5 years in the business. Make sure to ask them for examples of their work, and be sure to read their reviews. 

Stay away from agencies who offer contracts only, as you do not want to be locked in with an agency who does not deliver. 

Finally, be sure to understand what all is involved, how long it takes to work, and what the process is like. SEO is not an overnight service. There is no “instant gratification.” Your competitors took many years to establish themselves before they got to be number 1. You'll have to start where they did. If you have a reputable SEO agency on your side, you may get there faster than you think. 

Learn more about our Search Engine Optimization Services.