1. Have a plan for the content

Before starting, ask yourself a few questions.

Why launch it at all? What is it for? The answer may well change as you go.

Most people start a blog for one of three reasons:

- To share their experiences and give readers something to take away — a kind of diary in public. Many people simply want to set down what they think. This sort of blog tends to draw less traffic than the others.

- To write about what they love, with the prospect of earning from it. This is a popular kind, because writers narrow their subject and can then recommend places and products — a food blog, for example.

- Or the blog is a shop window for a business that already exists. This last one matters a great deal to any site that wants to rank well in search.

Your blog, then, should answer readers' questions, make your name better known and raise interest in what you sell. How? By showing readers, repeatedly, that you have something worth knowing — which is what turns one of them into a customer.

2. A good-looking site that is easy to use

The platform you choose matters — not only for how the site looks and what freedom it gives you, but because the wrong one brings trouble with connections and features. Several companies sell domains and hosting, and you are free to pick the plan that fits your budget and gives you the support you need. In Brazil, domains are all sold through registros.br, though you can also buy through a reseller.

At Manáry Digital we recommend the most versatile and the most intuitive to work with: WordPress. It makes life considerably easier for whoever is building the site, and it is free. You still pay for your own domain and for hosting. Having a Digital Marketing agency alongside you takes most of that worry away: they do this daily, they know how to improve the experience for the people using the site, and they are there when something else needs solving. One more thing: check whether the name you want is already taken on social media. People find you more easily when the web address and the handles match.

Making it yours

The site should look like you. A professional — a designer, say — helps enormously here, but that does not mean you cannot do it yourself: the WordPress theme directory holds a great many free ones, and a premium package buys more. Either way, keep an eye on a few things:

- Is it responsive? Does it behave the same on a computer, a tablet and a phone?

- Is there support, or a forum, where you can ask about the things that go wrong?

- Can it be customised and updated, and is it easy for a visitor to use?

3. Work out how people will move through it

First, know who the site is for. From there you can plan how to attract those people and decide what the site is meant to achieve — a message to the sales team, a purchase in your shop, a subscription to something like a course.

A good flow is worth drawing out. The diagram lets you lay out the path people will take through the site towards that goal. The path is made of many small steps: each screen offers a choice and the visitor takes one. So map the ways people can arrive:

Organic search: they arrive through a search engine, after searching particular terms.

Paid search: they arrive through an ad, from Google Ads for instance.

Social media: they come through a call to action, a link or a button on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Email: they were brought by an email campaign.

Direct: they type the address straight in.

4. Find a subject worth owning

This one arguably belongs at the top of the list, because it speaks directly to where your business stands. It also shapes the names and addresses you will use, and the domain, which has to sit well with the brand. So be honest and interview yourself:

- What moves you? What are you genuinely keen on?

- Which subject, service or product do you know a great deal about?

- What would you still be happy talking and writing about in five years?

- What problems do you intend to solve with the site, the blog or the business?

Narrow it as far as you can. Google ranks a post better when it speaks closely to a particular, well-defined subject (have you come across long-tail search?). Rebranding along the way is perfectly reasonable — but a wholesale change of subject is an expensive, laborious bet and rarely the right one.

5. Content, on the site and elsewhere

With a site of your own, the ideas can finally become something.

- Writing — publish the basic pages: home, about, contact, services. Write enough of it, and write it in a way that holds together and is worth the reader's time.

- Images — add them, and mind the quality, but pay particular attention to the metadata. This is worth knowing for organic ranking: it is what helps the crawlers understand what the page is about.

- A logo — one that speaks to the people you want and makes plain what the business does. Plenty of simple tools will help nowadays, and there are professionals and agencies who do nothing else (Manáry Digital among them 😉).

- Comments — whether to allow them is your call. Criticism will come; take it in good part. Either way it is one more channel, and one that runs both ways: praise, complaint, and conversation with your readers.

- Social — a presence there is worth a great deal, as you know. So go further: post video and images that pull your audience towards the site (remember the flow we described above?). Make things for social media proper, and connect them back to what you publish.

What Manáry brings to your growth

Those are the basics of launching well. Beyond them lies a whole set of tactics and numbers to follow once the site is live, which is where it pays to have someone who knows the ground. Manáry Digital specialises in Growth Hacking and can do a great deal for how you appear online. The method lets us measure a range of indicators, understand how people behave on the site and improve it from there. We also run campaigns on Google Ads and social media to raise traffic, conversions and sales. And beyond that we handle the brand side — logo design, posts for social media — and offer consultancy to lift the business and what it sells.

What are you waiting for? Fill in the form below, or reach us on WhatsApp and talk to one of our specialists.