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Domain and conquer: how to launch a new website design

Fay Roe

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. A well-designed, strategically launched website can be the difference between converting visitors into customers or losing them to competitors. Whether you're refreshing an existing site or building from scratch, launching a new website requires careful planning and execution. Here's how to ensure your website launch delivers maximum impact for your business.

Planning your website launch strategy

Understand your website's purpose

Before diving into design elements or development frameworks, define what you want your website to achieve. Are you looking to generate leads, sell products, provide information, or build brand awareness? Digital Presence, a leading web design agency in Christchurch, begins every project by understanding these core objectives to ensure your website serves your business goals.

Know your audience

Your website should speak directly to your target audience. Understanding their needs, pain points, and online behaviours will inform everything from design choices to content strategy. This customer-centric approach is what sets professional web design services in Christchurch apart from DIY solutions.

Set a realistic timeline

A comprehensive website launch typically takes 8-12 weeks, depending on complexity. Working with Digital Presence means having a structured timeline with clear milestones, ensuring your project stays on track without compromising quality.

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Essential elements of a successful website launch

While DIY website builders promise quick solutions, they have a habit of falling short in terms of uniqueness, functionality, and conversion optimisation. Professional web design services in Christchurch provide:

· Custom designs to reflect your brand identity.

· Responsive layouts that work flawlessly across all devices.

· Intuitive navigation that guides visitors toward conversion.

· Performance optimisation for fast loading times.

· Technical expertise to implement complex functionality.

SEO in website design

Search engine visibility is crucial for driving organic traffic. All website designs created by a web designer should have an SEO-optimised website structure:

· Search-friendly URL structures

· Proper hierarchy of information

· Strategic keyword placement

· Schema markup for enhanced search results

· Technical SEO fundamentals like site speed optimisation

The Digital Presence team includes Christchurch SEO specialists who build search engine optimisation into the foundation of your website as a standard feature, not as an afterthought. Every detail on the website design is included with intent – to get your website seen by your target audience.

SEO content written for the user, not just the search engine

Even the most visually stunning website designs needs compelling content to succeed. The copy you publish has the power to transform your digital presence by creating clear, benefit-focused messaging that resonates with visitors. SEO-optimised content that not only ranks well in search engines also converts visitors into customers. A consistent brand voice across all pages with strategically placed calls to action guide users towards conversion. Most importantly, if your content directly addresses customer questions and concerns, it builds trust and encourages engagement with your business.

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Testing, testing and more testing of the website’s capabilities

This is the most important step before launching a new website. Before announcing your website to the world, thorough testing is essential to ensure a flawless and efficient website user experience. This critical phase includes:

· Cross-browser compatibility checks to verify your site works perfectly across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

· Mobile responsiveness testing to confirm optimal display on smartphones and tablets.

· Comprehensive functionality tests to examine all forms, interactive elements, and checkout processes.

· Link verification to prevent dead ends and the dreaded 404 page.

· Page load speed optimisation to keep impatient visitors engaged.

· Security testing to identifies and resolve any vulnerabilities that could compromise your data or reputation upon launch.

Launching your website: timing and execution

Although you may be itching to get your website live and active, like everything in digital marketing, a strategy is required. Timing your website launch strategically is crucial. From our experience, launching during lower traffic periods (typically evenings or weekends) provides the best opportunity to identify and address any issues before peak visitor times. Avoiding major holidays or busy seasons for your industry ensures your launch doesn't get lost in the noise or strain your systems during critical business periods.

Having technical support available during and after launch allows for immediate troubleshooting of any unexpected problems. Planning for a soft launch before wide announcement gives you time to test with a smaller audience and make final adjustments before your grand reveal.

Don't forget to:

· Make a final backup of your existing website

· Complete domain and hosting configuration

· Install SSL certificate for secure browsing

· Update DNS settings and allow for propagation

· Set up 301 redirects for any changed URLs

· Integrate analytics tools to track performance

· Implement post-launch technical monitoring

Once your website is live and you’ve double checked it’s working correctly, it's time to spread the word, maximising its impact with strategic promotion. Send email announcements to your existing customer base highlighting the improvements. Launch coordinated social media campaigns showcasing your new features and design. Targeted paid advertising such as Google Ads drives immediate traffic to your new site, ideal for special launch offers or promotions to encourage visitors to explore and engage with your refreshed digital presence right away.

A group of people are looking at a computer screen together.

Post-launch strategies for continued success

While you may be on teetering on the edge of sanity at this point, the work doesn't end after launch. Now is the time you really set to work. Your website is a gold mine of data that can be exploited to fine tune your website design into a lead generating sales machine.

It’s time to set up comprehensive analytics tracking to capture visitor insights and establish baseline metrics to monitor user behaviour and conversion paths to identify bottlenecks. By studying the metrics any usability issues that emerge from real-world use can swiftly be identified.

The metrics you select help track search engine rankings to measure visibility progress and guide you to the ongoing optimisation tweaks you need to make for success.

Or there is a stress free alternative – partner with Digital Presence for all your website needs

Launching a new website involves numerous moving parts and digital marketing expertise – and who has time for all that? Collaborating with Digital Presence means you do not have to worry about the technical aspects of website development and the strategic elements of digital marketing, we take care of that.

We offer monthly website subscription packages that include website management, technical expertise across design, SEO, and digital marketing, and ongoing support after launch. We monitor the metrics and translate them into English through a strict no jargon policy.

Digital Presence combines web design services in Christchurch with comprehensive digital marketing capabilities, so your new website not only looks great but performs as a powerful business tool.

Whether you're launching your first website or reimagining your online presence, the right partner makes all the difference. Contact us today to for a no obligation free home page mock up. Don’t just take our word about how we can transform your website design, see for yourself!

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