by Sarah Santacroce
picture courtesy of Salvatore Vuoto
When you are through changing, you are through. ~Bruce Barton
I think every small business owner would agree that change is a good thing and necessary in order to succeed. Well, my own little business is also going through some change right now, let’s say it’s “growing up”. After a year in business I have redefined my objectives and decided which areas I really want to focus on. This needs to be reflected on my website and my business logo and name. So you see, some big changes coming up (hint: “Simplicity” will stay, even though everybody has trouble spelling it :-)
But, in this post I don’t want to just talk about my upcoming changes, I want to share with you some things I have learned during this experience.
This post will focus on switching websites and what kind of things you need to look out for when going through that procedure.
- Finalize website
Of course you want to be sure that your website is finished and will impress people at first sight. - Test website
I recommend you test all the links, forms, downloads and videos on your site before going live. - Decide on a weekend to switch website
It is best to switch sites on a weekend. This way there’s less interruption for potential site visitors. - Redirect old domain to new domain
It is very important to have your developer use 301 redirects to tell both people and search engines that the site has permanently moved to a new URL - Leave a “trail” in the meta tag description and keyword of the old site
Make sure your meta tag description and keyword section mentions your old site name - Update your listings in directories
Take the time to update your directory listings such as Google, Google Places, Yahoo, Yellow Pages etc. - Update all Social Media Accounts
You will have to make a list of all the Social Media tools where you have an account and go in there and update your information. And there’s more than just Facebook and Twitter. Best idea is to do a Google Search for your company name and see what kind of listings come up. Every site where you have submitted content needs to have an updated profile with the new web domain. Here are a few that I came up with: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Scribd, Slideshare, Ezine Articles, Youtube, Xing etc. etc. - Update your e-mail signature
Don’t forget to update your e-mail signature ! - Update your Autoresponders and Newsletter settings and links
Go into each of your Autoresponders and check if you need to update your links. Especially the ones to download your free offers. People would be quite upset if they subscribe to your list and then get a 404 Error message when they try to download your e-book ! - Write a press release and host it on your website
Since this is a major milestone for your business you will want to write a news release about it and send it to online press release directories (such as PRWeb.com or pitchengine.com). Also host it on your own website of course. - Send out an e-mail to your list
Last but not least inform your subscribers that you have switched websites and give them the new RSS feed and a sign-up form to receive your blog posts by e-mail.
What did I forget ? Has anyone gone through this experience as well and can share some more tips with us ?
