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How to go about launching a digital product

Male wearing a blue, white and red checkered shirt is standing in his kitchen looking at his phone and making a coffee

To launch a digital product, it’s very helpful to have a digital presence. You can create this digital presence in one of several ways. You can do it through social media, online advertising, or you can do it by publishing a blog. But the thing that underpins all of these methods and makes it easy for interested parties to be aware of your digital presence is a website. A website is a place to tie it all together and express yourself with your customers.

Your website is your digital presence

A digital product is an online representation of a product or a service in the virtual world. Or in easier terms, this us what you do or sell – but online. Launching that digital product or service is all about raising awareness of its existence. But if you first use blogs and online advertising through social media or virtual directories to awaken public interest, in order to receive and action orders for whatever it is you are offering, you will need a website. A website helps you finish it all up, make payments and more!

To launch a digital product successfully, creating a website has to be your starting point. A website is your digital presence. It announces your existence to the virtual world and shows potential customers where to go.

How to create your first website

You could hire a bespoke website designer to create a website for you from scratch, but most product launches start off in a small way through a small business. Small business owners need to keep their costs down and hiring the services of a dedicated website designer can be an expensive undertaking.

So, to help entrepreneurs to get started affordably, we here at Go Sitebuilder came up with the modular website design concept. It empowers users to create their own professional websites a section at a time. Most importantly, you don’t need any website building experience. It works just as well for novices as it does for geeks.

By building your website in sections, you can make it as small or large as you require and add or subtract from it as your needs change. But whatever you do, thanks to the user-friendly programmable templates we have, you can customise your own unique website with ease. It will look and perform as good if not better than if you had employed the services of a bespoke website designer at many times the cost.

The complete website package

All of the websites you can create through Go Sitebuilder are available with a personalised domain name chosen by you, and five unique, business email addresses. The websites are compatible for mobile use, and you can access them via any device from anywhere to modify the site, process orders or do any other sort of maintenance as you see fit.

Ready for launch

With your website up and running, you will then be in a position to launch your digital product or service. You now have that all-important anchor point and can set about updating social media outlets, publishing blogs and instigating email marketing campaigns.

Anyone who wants to know more about the product(s) you are offering or who wants to go ahead and make a purchase will know where to go. You are on your way.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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Launching a new website – should I use .com or .co.uk?

should I use .com or new .co.uk

Where are your clients from? This question will help you get to the answer quickly. All .co.uk websites show that the business deals with customers based in the United Kingdom. All .com websites show that a company deals with customers on a global scale; therefore, they may lack tailor-made services for local customers. Sites with country codes like .co.uk command the market in their respective countries but have little to no effect in others. This article is here to break down whether you should use a .com or .co.uk domain extension.

Pros of using a .com extension

A .com domain extension is the most widely used website extension. Its market is wide as it does not incline to users from a specific area. Therefore, a business that wants to reach the global market can use the .com extension. In the worldwide market, a .com website extension seems more authentic and legitimate. Potential customers from diverse areas feel that the information or services offered are tailored to a global audience. Therefore, your website can reach more people globally if you choose .com as your website’s extension.

Pros of using a .co.uk extension

Knowing your target market is the first step in realizing the best website extension for your website. All website extensions with country codes are best for businesses that operate within that specific country. Therefore, the most clicked websites in the UK have the .co.uk extension. 

Having a website with a country code like .co.uk proves to be more authentic in the United Kingdom when compared with other extensions. If your site has a country code in its address, its legitimacy may only be recognized in the specific country. Long story short, if you’re a local business with your clients close to you, such as a plumber, tutor, painter, etc., this is the way to go. 

Finding the right extension for you

Using the pros and cons we have listed above, you can now make an educated decision on which extension is the best for your business. If you are a small to medium-sized company located in the United Kingdom, then it would make sense for you to use .co.uk. If you’re wanting to draw in a larger audience, then choose .com, as it is recognized worldwide. Alternatively, you can purchase both domains, but you’ll need to make sure they direct to one single place for search engine optimisation.

Decided on the right domain extension for you? At Go Sitebuilder, you can create a stylish website with a unique domain and up to five email addresses with no previous knowledge in web design. Try out our 14-day free trial today and see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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How to launch your new website the right way

Young, male entrepreneur using his mobile phone to launch his new website

How you launch your new website is important and we want to help you do it right. Your launch can impact on how many people visit your site, and whether they return in the future. Here are some effective strategies to get your website launch on the right path to success.

Timing

Timing is key when you’re about to launch a new website. You’ll need to let people know about your upcoming site, but when you do this is also important.

Ideally, let your audiences know as soon as possible that you’ve got a new website on the way, but if it won’t be out for several months or more, you’ll need to remind people nearer the time in case they’ve forgotten about it.

Create a schedule of updates and news posts in the run-up to launch day, so that you can firmly get into the minds of your target audiences. Whenever you do post a new update, make sure to include it on all of your social media feeds and other relevant places that your target audiences will get to see.

Announcing your launch

It’s not just when you announce your website launch that matters, but where you do this is crucial too. You should have an idea in mind of your target audiences. When you make announcements about your launch, do so in places where these groups will see it.

You want to make sure you’re speaking to your target audience. This is the best way to direct your time, effort and money. This approach is also more likely to be successful!

How you say it

People will need a compelling reason to visit your new website so don’t just let them know you’ve got one coming. Think of how you can entice them to visit your site on launch day and keep coming back for more.

Engage with your audiences as soon as you start your website launch campaign. Ask them for feedback, such as what they’d like to see on the new website. Create competitions or promotions, like offers or discounts for the first number of customers who purchase from your site. You might even wish to ask for relevant user-generated content from audiences to build anticipation and excitement for launch day.

Be honest! Don’t make any exaggerated or false claims about your website prior to launch day, this is key to running any business or relationship. Make sure to only launch the site once it’s fully operational and there’s sufficient content on it to inform and entice visitors while leaving enough to keep them coming back for more.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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What is the best day to launch a new website?

Male business owner reviewing some paper work in a stylish, light office with exposed brick work

Launching your new website is a grand event. Some people choose a day that resonates with them while others maybe don’t have any idea at all. However, if the website aims at targeting increased traffic, the day of the week matters a lot. When setting the launching day of your site, you need to be aware of the schedule of your clients. In most cases, sites depend on employed people. Therefore, you have to understand their common behaviour in terms of workload, personal time, and attitudes towards the days of the week.

Monday

Launching a website on a busy day for your customers is an ultimate miss. The potential clients are not just about to stop their busy schedules to look at your site. Mondays are known to be very slow days; most people are yet to adjust to the working environment from a fun and busy weekend. The workload is very high when employees deal with stalled tasks from the previous week. On Mondays, people do not have time even to visit their social media pages, and therefore it is hard for them to visit a newly launched website.

The weekend

For most people, weekends are there to be enjoyed. It is during this time that they move out of town to refresh. Most people have physical conversations with friends and families. With the current trends of technology taking over human connections, some people prefer to keep off from the internet. On the weekend, there are very few people to share with the trending issues as families do not have the best environment to discuss emerging issues. Weekends are not the best time to launch a new website as it may not get optimum traffic.

Mid-week

Most people who recommend news are workmates and colleagues. However, this happens when they have some free time. Employees are trapped in their jobs over the weekdays, and this is the best time to launch your new website. However, Mondays are extremely busy and dull for people to have free time. Similarly, Fridays are extremely hyper as employees look forward to the weekend. In this regard, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the days with a conducive environment for the launch of a new website. If a website goes live on Tuesday, people have all day to not only discuss it but visit. For the people who fail to know about the new website, there is Wednesday and Thursday for the word to spread. Before the end of the week, the website will have become popular with many potential clients.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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How can I achieve success in digital marketing?

Achieving success in digital marketing

Digital Marketing is important in today’s world, but it needn’t be daunting. There are some simple ways to use it to make your products and services more successful. People love a good story, so use a website to tell the story behind your business. Be personal and talk about how you were inspired to start up, people will feel they can understand and relate.

Pictures that tell a story

Images are a great way to share your journey, particularly if there’s an interesting reason behind how your business started. Social media can be great for this and allows you to add hashtags to reach people who may be interested. While it’s important to let people know what you have to offer them, it helps not to be too “salesy”. And even on occasion, allow them to see a little of yourself or your company; such as social outings as a team or celebrating a colleague’s milestone birthday.

Adding personality to your brand

Potential customers like to feel that they know your brand or at least understand why they might need what you’re selling. Simply posting an image of your product and a link to buy, isn’t good enough. It offers no reason for people to part with their hard-earned money and it gets caught up in a sea of other adverts all doing the same thing. Describe your products well and add an ‘About page’ to your website so your customers can get to know the brand they’re buying from.

Reaching your customers the right way

A website that is memorable and includes something which sums up what you do is a fantastic way of ensuring people can find you. Linking your social media accounts to your website also makes it easier for people to get in touch and follow your progress and successes. To appear more professional, add forms to your website so people can reach out directly. Including a news section or adding a blog is useful for keeping people informed and engaged with your business.

Optimising your content

To ensure you attract the right people to your website, SEO can important and so is the ability to incorporate social media and YouTube videos. Many people respond better to videos. They are a great way to keep people’s attention for a longer span of time. As mentioned, you’ll also want to add contact forms to your website. This makes it easier for customers to get in touch, as not everyone finds using email or social media to be an easy task.

If you haven’t started building your website yet, or you’re still looking for the right tool for you, check out our free trial of Go Sitebuilder. Go Sitebuilder has been created with busy small business owners in mind so you won’t need any previous website building experience. Try it today and see just how easy it is!

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How do I get my new website noticed?

Male looking at mobile phone whilst holding reading glasses. He is working from home and his young daughter can be seen eating at a table in the background.

Building a new website is an exciting time for any business, and getting it live on the internet for people to see can be just as fun. But how do you make sure people are seeing it? If you want your site to really stand out from the crowd and achieve its greatest potential, it needs to be as visible as possible. We’ve compiled some tips to get your new website noticed.

Pay attention to keywords

Getting your new website noticed involves being easy to find when people are searching online. It’s helpful if your brand name appears as near to the top of search listings as possible. In order to achieve this goal, you’ll need to find out what keywords people would use to search for your business. There are different tools you can use online to get an idea of what these keywords might be. But, whatever keywords you choose to represent your business, try to find words that are as relevant and specific as possible. Use for keywords that are less frequently used and not just single words. Long-tailed keywords or keywords with more information will help you drive more traffic.

Once you’ve identified keywords, embed them naturally in your website. Keywords should be used within your content, along with your tags and picture titles.

Start blogging

Blogging about your business, your products, or subjects you think your website visitors will enjoy reading is a great way to get your new website noticed online. So, if you haven’t set up a blog already, now is the time to get writing! Including blog content on your site is also a favoured SEO strategy, which could help you to rank higher on search engines like Google.

Each time you publish a blog, let your followers know by posting a quick message on your social media pages. It’s also a good idea to send an email out to your mailing lists. In order to gain attention, and to keep attracting visitors to your website, provide unique content that puts a fresh spin on what might already exist online. Mix things up a bit and publish different styles of posts, such as how-to guides or even video tutorials. Encourage readers to like or share your content, so that it gets promoted even further.

Get listed

Get your name noticed by making sure that your website’s address and contact details appear on relevant online lists, directories and indexes. This is an especially useful strategy for those who rely on local custom. In particular, adding your details to Google Maps could also improve your local search ranking.

Think about relevant sites where your target audiences might search for a business like yours, or seek related information, and make sure your name gets added in those places.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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How much does it cost to launch a brand?

Young, female florist writing out the costs of launching her new brand in her flower shop alongside her laptop. She is wearing a black and white striped top.

One of the main starting points of any new business or new product or service launch is to create a ‘brand’. This will form the foundation of the website you use to attract and retain customers, and any other sales and marketing tools you use. You’ll use your branding as a fun way to stand out from the crowd. But, how much does it cost to launch and promote your brand? This can depend on how much you’re willing to take the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach!

Firstly, let’s explore what is meant by brand.

Creating a brand identity

Some people think that “brand” and “logo” are interchangeable words. This is not the case! Your brand is the complete identity of your company, product or service. For example, what are your Unique Selling Points (USPs) and where does your business stand in the marketplace? This will end up revolving around the benefits you offer your customers. Is it the cheapest? easiest to use? most reliable? or perhaps the most innovative? The answers to these questions will help you start developing your brand.

When you have worked up a detailed brand profile, you then translate that into a brand identity. This includes the fonts and colours you can use to best illustrate and express yourself. For example, deep blues are often associated with reliable financial and professional firms, whereas yellows and oranges often portray tech and futuristic companies. All of that being said, you can use whatever colour resonates with who your company truly is.

So now you’ve covered the nitty-gritty, the “who am I” stage. The next step is to find a logo that sums up your brand identity. Many include a tag line to reinforce USPs (for example, ‘Just Do It’ – Nike or ‘Because You’re Worth it’ – L’Oréal).

Using your brand in your website design

Now that you’ve worked up a brand identity and clear statements about your company or product, you’re ready to create your own website. You can use your chosen colour palette as the basis of page design, varying shades and intensities to draw attention to calls to action and other important features.

It’s highly recommended that you keep your brand consistent across your website. This includes avoiding reversed logos as web design features or introducing colours that aren’t in your chosen palette. This will help solidify the look and feel and stop your site from confusing or distracting its users.

What budget is needed?

Creating and launching a brand can cost a massive amount of money – IF you’re a big company with deep pockets and global ambitions from day one. However, it can also be done on a shoestring if your goals are more manageable!

You could create your brand identity and statements yourself, perhaps using a local graphic artist to build a high impact logo for you. Though there are free online tools for DIY logo creation. Once you have your logo and all its support information, you can use Go Sitebuilder to create a professional website that dovetails brilliantly with your fabulous new brand!

If you haven’t started building your website yet or you’re still looking for the right tool for you, check out our free trial of Go Sitebuilder. You won’t need any previous technical knowledge as Go Sitebuilder has been created with busy small business owners in mind – you can even build it right from your mobile phone!

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How to get the most out of a new website launch

Close up of a woman's hands typing on a mobile phone.

There is nothing more exciting than having a website that is ready to share with the world. With all of the design, thoughtful content and hard work you’ve put in you’ll want to start showcasing it straight away. But how do you make the most of your launch? There are a few steps you can make to get the most out of this time, and the best part is, we’ve already written it down for you!

Choose the right date

Pick your website launch day with care. You’ll want to make it a day where the most number of visitors possible will take a peek at your website, but also if there are any last-minute tweaks or changes to make that you’re on hand to remedy them.

Quick tip: avoid launching your website on a Friday, weekend, bank holiday or other major holiday dates! People are most likely enjoying the festivities and not browsing the web.

Engage with audiences

Don’t make your website launch a one-way communication process. Naturally, you’ll have a lot to say to your new site visitors, but give them the opportunity to interact with you, too! This can boost engagement and may provide you with useful information about your audiences and what they want from your business or content, which may help to steer your website towards future success.

Remember you can also use your social media pages to chat with your audiences both before, during and after launch day.

Consider your rankings

It’s important that audiences are able to find your new website easily, so using effective search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies is important to help improve your search ranking and reach more people.

Whenever you publish any information about your new website launch, utilise your content so that every piece of communication has the potential to boost your search profile. For example, include relevant keywords naturally in any news or update posts, and vary the style of content you produce to mix things up a bit. If you’re an SEO newbie, take a look at our beginner’s guide to SEO over on our blog

Use some of the same tactics that you used to create all of the content for your new website, including writing about a variety of different styles: from blog posts, videos and beautiful photos.

Add analytics

How will you know if your website launch has been successful? In particular, how many people have visited your new site, which pages they looked at and what their profiles are? It’s super simple! Just make sure you get signed up with Google Analytics before launch day.

The beauty of Google Analytics is that it will also tell you whether viewers just looked at the landing page of your site, or whether they explored further. You can use this information to your advantage, to ensure your content is enticing and leaves people wanting more. You can also use this data to see what pages are popular, what devices people are using, what time of day they’re visiting and so much more.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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How Can I Make My Website Famous?

Nine people stood in a line, leaning against a brick wall and using their mobile phones

As a business owner, you’ll want to ensure people are finding and viewing your website. A website is a powerful, essential marketing tool you can use to raise your profile and increase your sales, but if no one is actually visiting it, it’s never going to achieve the results you want. Luckily, there’s plenty you can do to change that, and while making your website famous might be a bit of a stretch, you can certainly drive more traffic with just a few simple steps. Here are three of the easiest, tried and tested methods for you to try.

1. Don’t underestimate offline marketing

While a good website will attract a new and potentially profitable audience, it should also be a place for your existing customers to visit as well. You can provide them with an opportunity to learn more about your company and even make their purchases online. But remember, they can only do this if they’re aware of your site’s existence. 

Try making an effort to increase your visibility in the places your target market lives and visits. This means that from business cards to billboards, newsletters and even simply answering your phone, it’s a good idea to include information about your website and social media platforms in these new places for your audience to see it.

2. Mention your website online (and do it on a regular basis)

Don’t be afraid to share a shameless plug here and there – it’s your website and you should be proud of it! The internet essentially functions as a giant map, pointing users in the direction of relevant information, which means it’s key to have your site featured on it. The best way to do this is by mentioning it as often as you can, whether it’s by sending your products to bloggers and having them add a link to your website or by publishing press releases. You can also join online communities, like relevant Facebook pages, and share your website when people ask for similar services or products that you provide – just remember not to spam anyone!

3. Educate yourself on SEO

Last but not least, spend some time familiarising yourself with SEO and how it works. It doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve created a quick guide for beginners over on our blog if you don’t believe how easy it can be. Standing for ‘search engine optimisation’, SEO is the method used by companies to ensure that their website ranks as highly as possible when people run searches on search engines like Google. The idea is that consumers are most likely to click on results at the very top of the first page, so by focusing on including certain keywords in your content, you can improve your position and make yourself much more visible.

When it comes to boosting the popularity of your website, there are lots of methods you can try. If your website isn’t online yet, why not try a 14-day free trial with Go Sitebuilder and see just how easy it is to create your dream website without any technical skills!

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What is a website launch checklist?

A female of dual heritage is sat in an office meeting room wearing a casual denim shirt creating a website launch checklist

Before you launch your website it’s essential that you have completed all the necessary steps ensure that everything is working properly. No one wants to go to a website and see that something is missing or that a website address is broken! Creating and using a website launch checklist will ensure that everything is up and running as it should be before you invite the rest of the world to look at your site.

Take a look at the quick checklist below to make sure your website is ready to go come launch day…

1. Proofread

When creating amazing content, you’ll need to make sure you’ve taken the time to fix any typos. Customers will notice them and it may be distracting or even impact their perception of your business. Just take a few extra moments to go through your site’s pages and proofread your content to make sure it’s accurate. You can always ask friends and family to give your copy a quick read through as well – it’s always best to have a second pair of eyes on it!

2. Optimise content for user experience

You’ll want to make sure your website is set up to be user-friendly and easily accessible by as many people as possible. Going for a standardised font and size makes the content easy to read for your site users. You’ll need to make sure your menu bar is easy to use and that people can get to where they’re going. If you want to go the extra mile, use a contrast checker to ensure that someone with vision impairments can read the copy on your website.

If your website features audio and video files, you may want to consider transcribing them, then take a quick moment to check these work properly too.

3. Optimisation for search engines

Check that everything works as intended to ensure your web conversions and overall SEO scores are high. Go through your site and click all the clickable links, including images to see if they link through to the desired pages. You’ll want to make sure you have alt-tag descriptions on any images as well, so the search engines can “see” them.

If your website accepts payments, you should also do a test payment, going through the whole process to make sure everything is working as it should do.

4. Check for mobile users

With more and more internet users accessing websites through their mobile, it’s essential that your website is compatible with phones. Grab your own mobile phone and go through every web page, ensuring the text is the correct size, that images are properly spaced, and that all buttons work as they should. It’s also handy to get your friends involved too. The more phones you test on, the better the experience will be.

This isn’t a step you need to worry about if you have a Go Sitebuilder website as all sites are instantly responsive!

5. Do compatibility testing

If your website has been built using plugins, it’s advisable that you run a compatibility test to check against any glitches or conflicts between your site builder and the plugin. It’s just another way of ensuring your website is running smoothly when it comes to launching!

Again, if you have a Go Sitebuilder website this isn’t something you need to add to your list – although we always advise you check all links and forms work before sharing your website. At Go Sitebuilder we have built-in all features and funcationality from the ground up, so you don’t have to use risky third-party plugins.

If you’re still considering the best way to get your website up and running, why not check out our 14-day free trial? No credit cards or previous website building experience needed, so, what are you waiting for?