What to improve in your website's first year

A website is at its least informed on launch day. Everything in it is based on what you expected visitors to do. Over the first year you learn what they actually do, and the best sites use that to improve steadily. This guide gives you a simple quarter-by-quarter plan.

The principle: small, measured changes

The temptation is to save up changes for another big redesign in a few years. Steady small improvements usually work better: each one is cheap, low-risk and measurable, and together they compound. For each change:

Note the number you're trying to move, such as enquiries from a page.
Make one change.
Give it time to collect data.
Keep it, adjust it or undo it.

Quarter one: settle in

Months one to three are covered in detail in Your first 90 days after launch. In short:

Quarter one

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Make sure forms, tracking and email all work.
Fix launch issues while your launch support window is open.
Tell your customers about the new site.
Collect the first real data and customer questions.
At the end of the quarter, pick two or three improvements.

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Quarter two: improve the pages that matter

Start where the evidence points.

Find your top landing pages. In Google Analytics, these are the pages where visits begin. They're your real front doors. See Understanding where traffic comes from.

Find pages with visits but few enquiries. These are the best places to improve. A clearer headline, stronger proof or a better call to action often helps. See Conversion fundamentals.

Improve your best service pages. Add answers to the questions customers ask before buying, plus real examples and testimonials. See Writing service pages that convert.

Shorten forms if people start them but don't finish.

Check speed on your key pages. See Measuring your speed.

Quarter three: build visibility

Once the important pages convert well, it's worth bringing more of the right people to them.

Quarter three

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Answer real questions. Turn the customer questions you've collected into useful pages or articles. See Writing SEO-friendly content.
Check Search Console. Look for searches where you appear but rarely get clicked. Better page titles and descriptions can help. See Page titles and meta descriptions.
Strengthen local presence if you serve a local area: Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent listings. See Local SEO basics.
Link your pages together so visitors and search engines can find related content. See Internal linking.
Add a lead magnet if visitors aren't ready to buy yet. See Lead magnets.

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Quarter four: review and refresh

Compare the year. Visitors, enquiries and conversion rate against your pre-launch baseline and quarter one.

Refresh dated content. Team pages, prices, case studies, photos, copyright dates and anything that mentions "this year". See Content freshness.

Check accessibility. New content can introduce problems: missing alt text, poor contrast, unclear link text. See Accessibility maintenance.

Review accounts and costs. Renewals, licenses and who has access. See Hidden costs to watch for and the Year-end website checklist.

Set next year's goals. Two or three, with numbers.

All year: keep it healthy

Improvements only count if the site stays up, secure and fast. That means software updates, backups, uptime and security monitoring, either done by you or through a care plan. See Why websites need maintenance and What to check monthly. If you're on a care plan, your report is a good monthly prompt: How to read your care plan report.

What not to do in year one

Don't redesign because you're bored of it. Your customers see it far less often than you do.
Don't change many things at once. You won't know what worked.
Don't chase every new trend or plugin. Each addition is something else to maintain.
Don't ignore small problems. A broken form or slow page costs enquiries every day it's left.

How to fit this in

If you have no one to own the site internally, block an hour a month in your calendar for the monthly check and one improvement. If that isn't realistic, an ongoing retainer can do the improvement work for you; Growth and Design retainers explained describes ours.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I budget for improvements in year one?

There's no standard figure. It depends on how much the site matters to revenue. Separate the two kinds of spend: maintenance keeps it healthy, and improvements make it better. Both are worth planning for. See What a website actually costs.

Should I run A/B tests?

Only with enough traffic. On a quieter site, tests take a long time to show a clear winner. Making one change at a time and comparing before and after is a sensible alternative.