When to Take Action After Launching Your Website
You just finished cooking the perfect steak for dinner. It’s seared on the outside, seasoned perfectly, and hot and juicy on the inside. As any steak fan knows, before you cut in and enjoy, you have to let it rest for a few minutes. That short rest allows the juices to redistribute, making for a better and more flavorful steak for dinner.
When launching a new website, there is some debate if a similar “resting” period is necessary. Should you let a site sit live for 24 hours or more before making updates, optimizing for search engines, or promoting it? Or is it better to start driving traffic immediately? Let’s look at the benefits of waiting versus taking action right away.
Why Some People Wait Before Doing Anything
Just like letting a steak rest enhances the final result, there are very good reasons why web developers and small business owners might choose to let a site rest for 24 hours or so before actively promoting it.
DNS Propagation
When launching a new site to a new domain (such as a company’s first website) or after a migration (new website hosting partner), a DNS change will be needed. A DNS change needs to propagate or spread across the internet. This process can take anywhere from a few hours up to 72 hours. During this propagation process, some visitors might see the old version of your site, some might see the new version, and some might experience issues accessing it. Waiting until the DNS update has fully propagated can help avoid confusion and possibly updates being long.
Catching Post-Launch Issues
Even with the most thorough and detailed pre-launch checklists and testing, small issues can slip through the cracks. Issues like broken links, missing images, or formatting inconsistencies might appear once a site goes live. Giving your site a little time before starting a full promotional push can allow you to find and fix any of these errors before too many new users see them.
Initial Search Engine Crawling
Leading search engines such as Google typically start crawling and indexing a new site soon after launch. However, this initial indexing doesn’t index everything instantly. Some developers might prefer to wait and see how the initial crawl goes before making significant SEO updates or content changes.
Internal Testing & Service Integration
If your site connects to different third-party tools like payment processors, analytics trackers, or a CRM system, it would be advantageous to run multiple tests before driving large amounts of traffic to the site. Doing this can ensure that everything is functioning as expected and avoids frustrating user experiences.
Why You Shouldn’t Wait Too Long
While a short waiting period can usually be beneficial, delaying too long on key post-launch activities can also hold your site (and success) back. Here’s why you should start taking action sooner rather than later.
Search Engines Need a Signal to Index Your Site
Submitting your website to indexing tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools right after launch can speed up the indexing process. If you wait too long, search engines will likely take longer to recognize and rank your content.
Early User Engagement & Feedback
Getting a few visitors to the site early on can help you gain great feedback on the website and fine-tune the user experience. This review can come from internal team members, trusted customers, or beta testers.
SEO & Content Optimization
Many key SEO strategies, such as adding meta descriptions, optimizing images, and structuring internal links, should be done as early as possible (if not even before launching). The longer you wait, the more time you lose in possible search rankings.
Building Marketing Momentum
Once your site is live, it’s time to promote it! By using social media posts, an email newsletter, and PPC ads, you can drive traffic to the site early on. A slow start can delay customer engagement, potential leads, and overall success.
Full Scope Creative’s Approach: Let It Rest, But Not for Too Long
For the sites we build and maintain at Full Scope Creative, we like to let our sites rest for about 24 hours. As with so many things, there is an ideal balanced approach of letting it rest or starting to marketing right away.
- Right After Launch: Check for errors, confirm DNS propagation, test site functionality.
- Within the First 24 Hours: Submit the sitemap to search engines, monitor and review performance, and fix any issues that are found.
- Within the First Week: Actively optimize SEO, promote the site, and gather feedback for further improvements.
Like a Steak, Your Website Needs the Right Timing
If you cut into it that perfectly cooked and seasoned steak too soon, the juices run out, and you lose some of the flavor and juicyness. But if you wait too long, it will get cold and lose its appeal. Your website works the same way. By giving it a brief moment to rest, you can help catch last-minute issues and errors. But if you wait too long you can miss out on early opportunities. Take the needed time to review and test your new website, but don’t be afraid to start sharing it with the world wide web. The sooner people find your site, the sooner you’ll see the success. Ready for a nice steak dinner now?