You’ve researched and vetted B2B web design agencies. You found the right fit, brought them up to speed on your company and what makes you stand out from the competition. You’ve reviewed B2B web designs and copy. You’ve seen the test site. But now it’s finally time to flip the switch on your new B2B website and you’re getting cold feet.
It’s normal to be a little nervous. But if you’ve done your due diligence throughout the process, then be careful you aren’t just psyching yourself out.
Check out our B2B web design FAQ.
If you’re getting the pre-launch jitters, remember—
Just because you launch it, doesn’t mean you’re going to get a slew of new visitors immediately.
Yes, the goal of your new B2B website is to bring in new visitors and more leads, but that doesn’t mean that the second your new website goes live, thousands of people will flood it. Even a well-optimized website doesn’t shoot to the first place on Google overnight, especially depending on how much competition you have in your industry.
We typically recommend our clients hold off at least a couple of business days before they announce their new B2B web design to their current clients. That gives everyone a little breathing room—if something does come up that needs to be fixed, you have more time to catch it.
Because, if you’ve chosen the right website design agency…
It’s easy to change stuff.
Maybe you notice there’s some terminology on your website that you wanted to change, but you forgot during the website review process. Does that mean you need to take the site down to fix it? Definitely not!
It’s easy to log in to WordPress and tweak things, especially text. Even if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yet, your website team is often able to help pretty quickly, especially if you notice it shortly after launch.
Even as you’re going through and making tweaks, it can be difficult to remember that…
You’re more critical of your B2B website than anyone else is.
We once had a client tell us that the slider broke if the user clicked to the third slide, and then back to the first, then clicked on the sixth, and then the fifth slide. Is this an issue that should be fixed? For sure. Should it delay the website launch? Probably not as a user won’t engage with the website in that particular way.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be meticulous about your website. After all, it will likely be the first experience your leads and clients will have with your brand.
But sometimes you need to ask yourself…
What’s the worst that can happen?
Okay, B2B website launches can go bad. An inexperienced agency may do the wrong thing and take down the old site without putting the new one up. Or you could lose all of your search engine rankings. That’s why you need a plan.
If you have serious concerns about launching your new B2B website design, make sure your agency gives you a fallback plan. It can be as simple as pointing the domain back to the old site if there are too many issues.
Read more: Essential tips to prepare for a B2B website launch.
You should also find out who is monitoring what in the days and weeks after the website launches. For example, at Bop Design we have a post-launch checklist that at least three separate people go through, step by step. It includes making sure the site is open to search engines, the forms are working, the proper image is being pulled onto Facebook if someone shares the link, and a number of other items. We also check Google Analytics at least once a week to make sure there isn’t been a big dip in traffic. Then there’s Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, which shows 404 (page not found) errors that have cropped up for the site. Trust me, they will also show up, no matter how thorough you are about redirects before launch.
But the most important thing to ask yourself if you’re hesitating to launch your new website…
Is your current B2B website much better than your new site? No? Then why leave the old one up?
Sure, maybe you haven’t quite figured out the perfect phrasing for that headline on the third services page, or maybe there are a handful of images you’re not crazy about. Does that mean the site you currently have is better? Probably not.
You’ve invested so much into building this new B2B website design, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t launch it.
Your website will probably never be perfect. And that’s okay. After all, B2B marketing is about continual improvement and adding more valuable content for your prospects and clients. Just remember: perfection is the enemy of progress.
