What to keep doing after your website launches

After a website launches, there are five main things to keep doing: update the content, run regular technical check-ups, maintain visibility in search and AI, review the data, and keep security and backups in order. Many websites look great at launch, then a year or two later the information is out of date, pages are slow and the site can't be found. The cause is usually not poor design but that nobody looked after it after launch.

Below, we explain what each of these five involves and how often to do it.

1. Content updates: keep the website in step with the business

As the business changes, the website has to change with it. New products, new case studies, a new scope of services, changes to the team and contact details should all reach the website as soon as possible.

A practical approach is to set a rhythm: add case studies and news monthly, review service descriptions quarterly, and go over the company profile every six months. Ideally the marketing team makes content updates themselves in the content management system, without calling in developers each time. Plan for this when the site is built: how easy the back end is to use determines whether the website can be maintained after launch.

2. Technical check-ups: speed, compatibility and links

Over time, websites tend to suffer from images that keep getting larger, pages that keep getting slower, old links that break, and layouts that fall apart on new devices or browsers.

We suggest a technical check-up every quarter:

• Loading speed of the homepage and main pages on mobile;
• Whether pages display correctly in major browsers and on common devices;
• Whether internal links, forms, maps and videos all work;
• Whether images are compressed, and whether large files slow down loading.

3. Search and AI visibility: be found, and be understood

More and more people learn about a company through search engines and AI assistants. For a website to be found and cited, the keys are to state clearly who you are, let crawlers in, put content in the page itself, keep dates and URLs trustworthy, and have each page answer a specific question.

After launch, the ongoing work is to publish articles that answer real questions, check whether new pages are being indexed, and watch whether search engines and AI assistants describe the company accurately. An inaccurate description often means the website is missing a page that states the facts clearly.

4. Data reviews: see where visitors come from and where they leave

Installing analytics is only the first step; what matters more is looking at it regularly. Once a month, check which channels visitors come from, which pages get the most views, which page visitors leave from, and how many enquiry forms were submitted.

This data points straight to next steps: which kinds of articles are worth writing more of, which page needs a redesign, which entry point needs to be more prominent.

5. Security and backups: recover quickly when something goes wrong

Domains and certificates need renewing before they expire, servers and software need timely updates, back-end account permissions need regular clean-ups, and content and data need regular backups. None of this is noticeable day to day, but when something goes wrong, the website may simply stop loading. We suggest keeping expiry dates and owners in one spreadsheet, with reminders a month in advance.

Prepare for "after launch" when you build

Whether these five things keep happening is largely decided when the site is built: whether the back end is easy for non-technical colleagues to update, whether the page structure makes it easy to keep adding content, and whether the technical architecture supports performance and search optimization.

FIM's design and development services cover information architecture, web design, front-end and back-end development, performance optimization and SEO, and we plan how the site will be maintained after launch as part of the build. Leave us a note at fim.com.cn and tell us where your website is stuck right now.