Once your site is designed and ready to hit the web, you need to ensure that you’ve taken all the necessary precautions. This way you know that when the general public visits your site, they won’t have any problems while surfing, and also that your website does well on the search engine front.
Here’s a top 10 list of things you should look into.
1. Sitemap.xml and robots.txt file
The first file will allow search engine spiders to understand the structure of your site. The robots.txt file instructs search engines to visit the right pages on your website.
2. Analytics
It’s always good to know how many people are visiting your site. Google Analytics will give you an overview of the kind of traffic you receive and other vital stats. Link your website to Google Analytics and keep track of the traffic.
3. Uptime Issues
Are your sites always online? You need to know this, so make sure you sign up for a free app that lets you know when your site goes offline even for a minute.
4. Speed Checks
Faster sites mean better rankings and happier visitors. Use tools such as YSlow to find out about speed issues on your site.
5. Geo-Targeting
This way your site will reach out to those who can actually benefit most from what you have to offer. Targeting a particular group of people based on their location is a smart move for a new website to make.
6. Google Webmaster Tools
There are handy tools that allow you to check whether there are any indexing errors on your site and even keep a track of popular keywords. Set this up before making your site public.
7. Regular updating
There are a number of sites that are gathering dust on the web. Make sure yours is not one of them. Keep updating your site with content on a regular basis.
8. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Do both on-page and off-page SEO. Always keep a close tab on your search engine rankings. This will tell you whether your SEO efforts are paying off or not.
9. Proper Link Building
Stay away from shady ways to increase the number of times your link appears on the web. Have a few friends blog about your new site. Bad link building strategies attract Google penalty. The good ones attract new visitors/buyers.
10. Quality Content
Last but not the least; make sure your site has interesting content for visitors to browse through. This will help increase your popularity as a website. Make sure you don’t compromise on this tip.
At the end of the day, your website should not encounter any glitches as soon as it sets sail. You also need to keep a tab on a variety of things, so make sure you’re all set.
Having a little knowledge about SEO, Googlebot, analytics, etc. will go a long way in helping you take care of your website.