You hit publish, you refreshed it on your phone, and then you waited. The site is live. The number of people who know is one.
A new website does not announce itself. Here is where to say so, in the order that brings the most people for the least effort, with the one legal rule that applies to the email.
1. Your Google Business Profile
For a business with an address, this is the single most visited thing you own, and it is where "is this place still open" gets answered. Three edits: put the new address in the Website field, add a booking or ordering link if the site takes one, and publish an Update post. Google's help covers creating a post: Posts, Add post, Update, a photo and a sentence. Posts without a date range are archived after six months, so there is no harm in a plain "our new website is live, book online here".
If you have not claimed the profile yet, that comes first, and the first five free sources of visitors starts there.
2. The customers you already have
The people most likely to use the site are the people who already buy from you. One email, sent once:
- Subject: what is new, in plain words. "You can now book online" beats "Exciting news".
- One link, to the thing they can now do, not to the homepage.
- A sentence on what it means for them: book at 11pm, see the menu, check a gift card balance.
The rule that applies: a marketing email in the US has to follow the CAN-SPAM Act. No misleading subject line, your physical address in the message, a way to opt out, and opt-outs honored within ten business days. An email system built for campaigns handles the opt-out for you, and you put the address in the footer; a mail merge from your inbox does neither.
If you are sending to more than a handful of people from your own domain, Google's sender guidelines ask for SPF or DKIM on the domain and a spam rate under 0.3%. Set that up before the announcement, not after it bounces.
3. Your email signature
Every email you send for the next year carries the link. Put the address in the signature with one line about what the site does. The email signature generator makes one that survives Gmail and Outlook.
4. The counter, the van, the receipts
A QR code on the counter, on the receipt and on the vehicle sends people who are already standing in front of you to the page where they can book the next visit. The QR code generator makes a print-ready one from the link. Point it at the booking page or the menu, not the homepage.
5. Social profiles, once
Update the website field on every profile you have, and post once with a picture of something real: the booking page on a phone, the menu, a product. Then stop. A launch is one post, not a campaign, and the profile link does the work afterwards.
6. The people who link to you
Suppliers, the trade association, the local business directory, the venue that lists you as a vendor: each has a link to your old address or none. One message each, with the new link. These are the links that bring both visitors and search standing, and they are only ever sent by asking.
7. The old address
If you had a site before, every old link has to land on the right new page, and every old address has to redirect. Moving a website without losing its Google rankings covers the map and the redirects. Announce the new site after that is done, not before.
8. Measure what the announcement did
Use a tagged link in the email and on the QR code so that next month you can see which one brought people. The UTM link builder makes the set in one pass, with matching tags. Then read what to measure on a small business website when the first numbers arrive.
What not to do
Do not announce before the launch checklist is done; the first fifty visitors are the ones who find the broken form. Do not buy an ad to announce a site that is not yet on Google; why your new website is not on Google yet explains the wait. And do not send a second announcement email. The first one was the announcement.
Questions
How long after launch should I announce it?
A day or two. Long enough to place a test order and fix what it found, short enough that the site is still news to you.
Should I run a launch offer?
Only if the site can do something the old way could not, such as booking online. "10% off your first online booking" gives people a reason to try the new thing. A discount for visiting a web page is paying people to look.
Do I need a press release?
For a small business, no. A local paper runs a story about an opening, an award or an event, not about a website. If you have one of those, mention the site in it.
What if nobody visits after the announcement?
Normal in week one, and the subject of your website's first 30 days: what to check, fix and ignore while the site finds its feet.