Imagine someone hears about your project or company and wants to find out more. He enters your web address and… Nothing. An empty field or an error. You don’t have time to take care of the new website right now.
That doesn’t look very professional, does it? Even if you’re not ready to launch your full website yet, a simple “under construction” page or, even better, a digital business card, will at least give your visitors confirmation that they’re in the right place and bring a few more benefits.
The key to a new website: Your contact details
The be-all and end-all of such a page is your contact details. Many visitors actually come to websites just to find a telephone number or an e-mail address. This means that even if you opt for a very minimalist site, you could already serve many customer inquiries with just this information. Make sure that this information is clearly visible and easy to find.
- Branding: Incorporating your logo, corporate colors and fonts gives your visitors a sense of professionalism and a first impression of your brand image.
- Contact information: This is the centerpiece! An e-mail address, telephone number or even a simple contact form are essential. You might be surprised how many inquiries or business relationships can start with such a simple gesture.
- Short description (optional): One or two sentences describing the purpose or theme of your future website. This way you give visitors a little foretaste.
How you can implement the new “mini website”
- Wix & Weebly: Both offer simple drag-and-drop tools to create a new website with your contact details within minutes.
- WordPress With the CMS you can use plugins such as “Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd” to create a simple new website in no time at all. If you already have hosting, you can probably install WordPress with just a few clicks.
- HTML templates: If you are a bit tech-savvy, there are numerous templates for simple “under construction” or contact data pages on the Internet.
- Wundernetz: We have our own web construction kit system. Learn more about Baukausten for websites.
Why early announcement of the domain makes sense for Google ranking
Before we get into the technical details, let’s talk briefly about why it makes sense to publicize your domain early on:
- Building trust with search engines: Search engines like Google need time to trust new websites. By getting your domain online early, even if it’s just a simple “business card”, you start to build that trust.
- Avoid “sandboxing“: Some SEO experts believe that new websites end up in a kind of “sandbox” in which they do not rank as well for a certain period of time. The sooner you start, the sooner you will get out of this phase.
- Collecting backlinks: Even if your website is still under construction, other websites could link to your domain if it contains relevant content or information about future offers. Backlinks are an important ranking factor.
Basic SEO measures to get started
Here are a few basic tips for the right SEO measures for the new website.
- Title tag & meta description: Even if your page has little content, make sure that the title tag and meta description are relevant and descriptive. These are the texts that are displayed in the search results. A short description of your company is sufficient.
- Structured data: These are special codes that you can add to your website to give search engines additional information about the content of your page. For example, contact information can be highlighted with structured data.
- SSL certificate: Make sure that your website runs via HTTPS. An SSL certificate is not only important for the security of your visitors, but is also preferred by search engines. Is usually integrated in the hosting and only needs to be activated.
- Mobile optimization: Your site should also look and function well on mobile devices. Google attaches great importance to mobile optimization.
E-mail setup
Your own domain is not only useful for a new website, it can also be the backbone of your professional communication. An e-mail address that ends with your own domain (e.g. [email protected]) radiates professionalism and credibility.
Advantages of your own e-mail domain compared to free providers
- Professionalism: An email from [email protected] looks more professional and credible than one from [email protected]. It shows that you have invested in your brand.
- Flexibility: You can create as many addresses or aliases as you like, e.g. support@, verkauf@ or [email protected].
- Control & data protection: With your own domain, you have full control over your email accounts. In addition, the data protection guidelines of professional email hosting services are often stricter than those of free providers.
- Improved spam protection: Many professional email hosting services offer advanced spam filters and protection measures.
- Branding: Every time you send an email, you present your branding. Having your own e-mail domain is therefore also an important marketing tool.
Voilà. This puts your new website on the road to success without spending a lot of time.