The 3 most important steps after creating your first website

After you create your first website, you may think you're done, but a website is an ongoing investment of time and effort to get the most out of it. Think about how you keep your website updated, drive traffic to your website, and many other activities that keep coming back. With these 3 steps, we want to challenge you to take the right steps to build your website right away. That way, you're more likely to break through and make your website a success! And that it won't just serve as a business card. Let's get started!

Step 1 Start collecting statistics and data from your website.

With a website, you naturally assume that visitors will land on it, so you should be aware of which pages are the most popular. And what you could do differently on the less popular pages, it's important to keep an eye on your website's statistics. And it's best to do this as early as possible, of course. After you have completed your website and filled it with content, you should start gathering statistics.

There are many different tools and software available for you to accomplish this. Some tools can also be installed locally in your area, and there are also the familiar options of Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. It's up to you which you prefer to work with, Google Analytics is still considered the de facto statistics tool. This can also give you further insight into Google Search Console and related Google tools.

For example, check out previous blog posts or our knowledge base for more information. We have already described many alternatives and steps for you here.

Filter out your own IP addresses to avoid pollution.

Especially in the early stages, it is important to filter out your own IP addresses from the results, as you are often still making changes or visiting your website more often than usual. This will cause contamination in your statistics and may result in you getting incorrect numbers.

Step 2: Establish and protect your brand.

Establishing and protecting your brand can be understood in a number of ways, but in the world of website marketing, it often means registering your usernames on social media. And to be on the safe side, register direct misspellings of domain names. Capturing your usernames on social media ensures that your brand remains more protected and that you can communicate under your own name.

This is often easy to do with just an email address. Of course, you can use this immediately with your new domain name. The same goes for capturing your YouTube username, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. And whatever else you want to use.

Step 3 Create a weekly calendar entry.

With a website set up once, the work, such as content creation, may be done. However, most businesses, freelancers, and other hobby websites need more content. Content in the form of new pages and products, more relevant or up-to-date information, developments in your business, or simply a blog post should be published from time to time. For your users and website visitors, fresh content from time to time is not a bad thing. But it also gives search engines a slight advantage in ranking your site over others.

So plan on not only updating your website every week, but also making sure that some news appears on your website. After a year, you could already have 52 new pieces of content on your website. This can only increase the value of your website and your domain name.

So challenge yourself and put something new on your website every week! With today's software, this is incredibly easy, as WordPress is particularly good at publishing content. The same goes for Umbraco.