If you’re a lot of people, you probably looked at the title of this article and thought, that’s ridiculous, building my website was a great step toward my business’ success. You’re right. I can’t argue with that. But, I’d like to point out the most significant words of that thought. “A great step.”

I cannot even begin to explain how many times over the past several years we have built or redesigned a website for a client and when it goes live, they are ready to pop bottles of champagne and celebrate because they can check it off their to-do list as finished. This celebratory moment is often around the same time when many business owners start to become complacent because there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what truly just happened.

So what did just happen? As you may have figured out by now, you unfortunately didn’t reach the finish line, in fact, you just lined up at the starting line. By building or redesigning your website you have now have thrown your hat in the ring with thousands of other companies just like yours.

What Now? A New Mindset

By now I am sure you are wondering, if I am not finished, then what should I do. I think the most important thing that you can do immediately is to change your mindset. It is extremely important to understand that a successful business is one that is always keeping up with and often surpassing the current trends. No matter what industry you are a part of, there is something that will be changing and evolving. By building or redesigning your website you have, at best, put yourself slightly ahead of your competition for the time being. If you become complacent or start thinking “my work is done here” it won’t be long before you find yourself behind the eight ball again. With your competition surpassing you again online.

How Do I Stay Ahead?

Once you have an understanding that there is always work left to do, start figuring out what the next steps are. In this case, now that you have a new website you need to start thinking how you can get potential customers there. Are you going to promote your new website on Social Media? Perhaps you will list it in Chamber Directories or go out and tell people about it through networking, or maybe you’ll create a Pay Per Click campaign on Google. Whatever you are considering, MAKE A PLAN. Do not try a little bit of everything and hope something works. Do not sign up for every marketing thing presented to you. That will destroy your digital marketing budget. Do your homework, find out what works in your industry, and make a plan that hits your goals.

If you don’t have time to grow your website or traffic after you build it, don’t sit back. Remember, complacency is your enemy and your competition’s friend. There are plenty of local marketing companies with varying marketing services that can help you. We especially love talking to businesses about their goals and then building plans to help the business achieve them. Hopefully you have found this article helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.