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10 Tips for Successfully Re-Launching a New Website
An old/outdated website sends a message that you aren’t up on the latest trends. There comes a time when every radio station needs to revamp and re-launch for better impact. For example, older websites might not be optimized for speed. You can’t afford to keep a bulky, outdated website that doesn’t look great or load fast on mobile devices.
The general recommendation is that you redesign any website every 2–3 years. Much like fashion, web design has trends, and things can just start to look … old or retro.
Relaunching your site might seem overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some simple rules of thumb you can follow that will make your re-launch not only easy but successful.
1. Benchmarks: Before you launch your website redesign, be sure to know your site’s traffic, bounce rate, average time on site, and other stats so you have an accurate picture of how successful — or unsuccessful — your re-launch will be.
2. Goals: Take a look at your competitors. Do some research through sites like SEORush.com to know what keywords other stations near you are ranking for (like local sports, weather, news, online listening, etc) as well as their most visited pages.
3. Research/Revamp Your Content: You can’t just set it and forget it on any website. You’ll need to update, modify and add new content regularly to stay relevant.
- What do we want visitors to do when they visit? Lose the slider in favor of call-to-action?
- Fresh look at what on-air content can be re-purposed for online?
- Importing new external content?
- Add audio/video components? Podcasting?
4. Make a plan for SEO: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps people find your website using keywords through Google, Bing and Yahoo! searches. If you provide local news of any kind, you want that to be visible when search for things in your area (events, news, etc).
5. Give Your Current Visitors and Advertisers a Heads-Up: If you have lots of traffic, let your visitors know that you are revamping your website. Send a short note to your mailing list and social media followers. Let them know you are in the process of redesigning and when they can expect to see the new look. Also, inform your website advertisers in case banner ads need to be resized or updated. This is a great time to sell new upcoming features that might be added or offer special incentives to be included on the site during the major re-launch promotion.
6. Create a Digital Inventory List: Make a plan for selling the new website and where banner ads and special sponsorships will be located and how much those placements will be so that sellers have everything need on day one.
7. Test Different Browsers: Ideally, just before you launch your new site, you should test how the site performs across different browsers and screen sizes. There are many services online that allow you to do this for free or a small fee, such as BrowserStack and Browserling.
8. Plan for launch promotion: If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. So, plan how you and your talent will promote the re-launch on-air, on social, e-mail blasts, etc. This will be a great time to renew your imaging and sweepers as well.
9. Check/Update Your Branding: How does the look of your new website stack up to your branding on other platforms? The colors and designs should repeat no matter where they are.
10. Listen to Your Site Visitors: Once you re-launch your site, take the time to gather feedback from your visitors and advertisers.
Relaunching your station website is an important marketing tactic when you’re looking to keep your content fresh, exciting, and new.
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By Jim SherwoodAn old/outdated website sends a message that you aren’t up on the latest trends. There comes a time when every radio station needs to revamp and re-launch for better impact. For example, older websites might not be optimized for speed. You can’t afford to keep a bulky, outdated website that doesn’t look great or load fast on mobile devices.
The general recommendation is that you redesign any website every 2–3 years. Much like fashion, web design has trends, and things can just start to look … old or retro.
Relaunching your site might seem overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some simple rules of thumb you can follow that will make your re-launch not only easy but successful.
1. Benchmarks: Before you launch your website redesign, be sure to know your site’s traffic, bounce rate, average time on site, and other stats so you have an accurate picture of how successful — or unsuccessful — your re-launch will be.
2. Goals: Take a look at your competitors. Do some research through sites like SEORush.com to know what keywords other stations near you are ranking for (like local sports, weather, news, online listening, etc) as well as their most visited pages.
3. Research/Revamp Your Content: You can’t just set it and forget it on any website. You’ll need to update, modify and add new content regularly to stay relevant.
- What do we want visitors to do when they visit? Lose the slider in favor of call-to-action?
- Fresh look at what on-air content can be re-purposed for online?
- Importing new external content?
- Add audio/video components? Podcasting?
4. Make a plan for SEO: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps people find your website using keywords through Google, Bing and Yahoo! searches. If you provide local news of any kind, you want that to be visible when search for things in your area (events, news, etc).
5. Give Your Current Visitors and Advertisers a Heads-Up: If you have lots of traffic, let your visitors know that you are revamping your website. Send a short note to your mailing list and social media followers. Let them know you are in the process of redesigning and when they can expect to see the new look. Also, inform your website advertisers in case banner ads need to be resized or updated. This is a great time to sell new upcoming features that might be added or offer special incentives to be included on the site during the major re-launch promotion.
6. Create a Digital Inventory List: Make a plan for selling the new website and where banner ads and special sponsorships will be located and how much those placements will be so that sellers have everything need on day one.
7. Test Different Browsers: Ideally, just before you launch your new site, you should test how the site performs across different browsers and screen sizes. There are many services online that allow you to do this for free or a small fee, such as BrowserStack and Browserling.
8. Plan for launch promotion: If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. So, plan how you and your talent will promote the re-launch on-air, on social, e-mail blasts, etc. This will be a great time to renew your imaging and sweepers as well.
9. Check/Update Your Branding: How does the look of your new website stack up to your branding on other platforms? The colors and designs should repeat no matter where they are.
10. Listen to Your Site Visitors: Once you re-launch your site, take the time to gather feedback from your visitors and advertisers.
Relaunching your station website is an important marketing tactic when you’re looking to keep your content fresh, exciting, and new.