There are certain times of year, in particular January and September, when our thoughts naturally turn to the next chapter for our business and part of this might require you to refresh your website.
You make your changes, hit the publish button...and sit back to relax.
But before you relax... how can you make sure website updates are noticed?
I've recently made a large number of changes to my own Wix website recently and it got me thinking about the things I do after I've hit the publish button to ensure that the changes reach my ideal audience. And a lot of this is about getting Google on board with my mission.
I've decided to share some of these things with you today.
There is a little bit of tech in here...but please don't feel overwhelmed. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible and my door is always open if you have any questions relating to any of this.
Make sure you're on Google Search Console
First things first, if you're not already registered with Google Search Console then you'll want be.
Log in with your Google account and check whether your website is associated with your account. If not, navigate to Add property under the top left dropdown and follow the instructions to verify your website ownership.
Then follow the following steps
Check your search engine optimisation settings for your new page in your Website builder
On your website - before you flag up content to Google, you want to make sure your search engine optimisation is looking ship shape.
Head into your SEO settings for your new or updated pages and ensure they're all complete and include a sprinkling of your keywords. Those keywords should also appear in your content and on-page headings.
I'm not heading into the detail here as this is such a huge subject which I can't even scratch the surface of today, and not the intended purpose of this post.
Submit a new site map.
Back in Search Console.
If you've added new pages to your website, you'll want to make sure they get found. By using the Sitemaps functionality in Search Console you're making Google aware of the existence of these pages. Simply fill in the following field with sitemap.xml
Request a reindexing of your site
While you're in Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool to get your new content indexed. You can wait for Google to crawl your site organically, but it's better to request this and you can also trouble shoot any pages that are not available for ranking.
Type in your domain or the specific URL for you new page in the URL Inspection browser:
Google will then do its thing to retrieve data from Google Index and let you know whether you're indexed or not.
My pages have been indexed so I get the green tick, but I can still force through an indexing request by hitting that link on the bottom right...
Write a blog post linking to your new page or content
Back on your website now. Google absolutely loves internal links between pages because the crawl bots can follow links to access your content. Creating a blog post or series of blog posts highlighting your new service / content / page is a great way to help Google to help you.
Share your new content on Google Business / Maps.
If you haven't already realised, Google has provided us with an epic tool for communicating with them and our customers.
Your Google Business / Map profile is one of the most important tools in your marketing toolkit and it shouldn't be ignored.
You want your profile to be attractive and complete and then you want to be posting regularly in order to keep ahead of your competition.
Share your new content on your social networks.
Again, the idea here is to create backlinks to your site that will create AUTHORITY for your website, so post about your new content with links wherever you have a presence.
I hope that's been useful and might help next time you hit publish on some website changes.
If you've recently launched your website for the very first time, you might be interested in the steps that I recommend to my clients in the first few weeks after hitting publish to encourage traffic to their sites.
If you're not yet set up with your website and would like a supportive female-first approach to your build, head on over to read more about my Wix website design services.
About Lucy:
I'm a brand designer, photographer and Wix website designer based in Dorset. I help female business owners and career changers build their brand and online presence through photography and web, brand & human design, so that they can turn their passions into the business they dream of.
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