Six things to do before your Shopify site is launched

February 14, 2021
Steve Turnbull
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There are a lot of things you can consider even before your new Shopify e-commerce website is launched. Here we list just six things you can be doing in preparation of launch.

Click here to get started with Shopify, or read more about how we can help with your Shopify website.

Create a Coming Soon page

It's easy to forget about the default Shopify Coming Soon page (Shopify call this the Password page) while you develop your store. 

However, you're missing out on the opportunity to start bringing in prospective new customers who you can email once you launch your site.

The beauty of the Coming Soon page is that it allows you to share your website URL with the world in anticipation of your grand opening. Getting people to sign up will give you a big boost when you do launch.

Edit the design of your Shopify Coming Soon page

An example opening soon page
A coming soon page with a call to action so people can be notified when the website is launched

Most premium themes provide the option to edit the Coming Soon page, adding an impactful product or brand image as the background. The Coming Soon page can soon become a marketable page that attracts people to subscribe to your email list. 

If you're using one of the free Shopify theme's that don't offer an easy way to edit the Coming Soon page, then it will require a little bit of coding knowledge. But don't' worry, we can help with that if you get in touch.

Social Channels

As well as providing your website visitors with the option to subscribe to your business venture, your Shopify Coming Soon page also presents people with links to share on social media.

Make sure you have set up and are active on your preferred channels. Let's assume you are using Facebook to help promote your website and business. Make sure you have added some posts and configured your Facebook profile. This way, you can ask your Facebook followers to subscribe to your upcoming website by linking to your Coming Soon page.

It also works the other way round. You might be telling people about your new website and ask them to subscribe. The chances are they will see your Coming Soon page and as well as entering their email address they may well click on the social links, so their friends and followers know about you too!

Logo

Many people don't put the right amount of emphasis on their logo, but this is crucial to your long term business branding. Your logo will become instrumental in how people recognise you. Hence, it's vital to have this displayed on your Coming Soon page.

There are a lot of free logo-makers out there (Shopify even provide one). If you are serious about your business, we recommend investing in a professional designer who can discuss your business with you and provide you with options. As well as the 'design' of the logo, colour plays a crucial role. For example, specific colours look great on-screen but don't translate well to print media.

If you need a new logo for a new business, get in touch, and we can discuss the best options for you.

Domain (your www website address)

When you start out with Shopify, you are provided with a free domain. This is your website address, the URL, and will look something like this: www.yourwebsite.myshopify.com. 

Much better would be to purchase your own domain and get this added to your Shopify store as soon as you possibly can. You want to direct people to your website address because it looks much more professional and will help build trust.

If visitors land on your Coming Soon page, they are more likely to subscribe to what they perceive as a 'real' business, and your website address will go some way to convince them of that.

Install a Cookie App

Even the Shopify Coming Soon page might be storing cookies. Cookies are small snippets of text that a website installs in browsers. The EU GDPR directive states that you need to inform people that you are storing cookies.

GDPR is a vast subject and more than we can go into here. We recommend installing a Cookie Notice app from within your Shopify App store. This way a small Cookie notice bar will inform people you are using cookies and go some way to you keeping compliant.

It's interesting too that people have become accustomed to these rather annoying cookie notices. In fact, studies show that cookie notices actually improve trust.

Use a Cookie Notice even on your Shopify Coming Soon page
Use a Cookie Notice even on your Shopify Coming Soon page

Google Services

Last but not least is Google. Google provides three free yet critical services that you should tap into as soon as possible.

These are:

  • Google Analytics,
  • Google Search Console, and
  • Google My Business

I'm not going to talk about each service in-depth here suffice to say they provide you with incredibly useful data. 

These services provide you with details on how much traffic your website gets and where it's from, how people are finding you via a Google web search and help list your business within the Google ecosystem.

What has this got to do with your Coming Soon page? Well, it's a little bit indirect. It's essential to understand your audience to help with your long term marketing goals. Making sure these key Google services are set up from the outset means that you will be gathering this data even before your website is launched.

The first step is to create a free Google account dedicated to your business website. Once logged in, you can follow these links to create the various services:

  • Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com
  • Google Search Console: https://search.google.com
  • Google My Business: https://business.google.com

If you'd like some helpful advice, get in touch, and we can discuss how we can help you set these up and add to your Shopify store.

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