Your new website just went live. You're excited. Your developer says "congrats!" and disappears. You're sitting there thinking "okay... now what?"

Nobody really talks about what happens after launch. Let's fix that.

Week 1: The honeymoon period

Everything's new and exciting. You're sending the link to everyone you know. Your team is showing it off. You're checking Google Analytics every hour.

What you'll notice:

Traffic is all people you know. Your mom, your friends, your team, that guy from the networking event who asked for your website.

You'll find typos you missed. Always. Doesn't matter how many times you reviewed it, you'll find one within the first week.

Something small will be broken. A form might not work on one specific phone. A page might load slowly. An image might be the wrong size.

What to do:

Keep a list of everything you notice. Don't panic. Small issues are normal and quick to fix.

Week 2-3: Reality check

The initial excitement wears off. Traffic drops because you've run out of friends to send it to. You're wondering "where are all the customers?"

Here's the truth: A new website doesn't magically bring customers.

It's like opening a shop in a back alley. The shop looks great, but nobody knows it's there.

You need to actually tell people about it. SEO takes months. You'll need to do marketing.

What to do:

Start telling people about your site:

Email your existing customers
Post on social media
Update your Google Business profile with the new link
Tell people in person
Consider some ads if you've got budget

Your website is the destination. You still need to drive traffic to it.

Month 1: The learning phase

You start getting real data. Real visitors who aren't your friends. You see how people actually use your site.

You'll discover:

People don't read as much as you hoped. Those three paragraphs you wrote? Most people skim the first sentence.

The page you thought was most important gets ignored. The page you barely thought about gets all the attention.

People use your site on phones way more than you expected. If it's not perfect on mobile, you've got problems.

Your contact form gets spam. Lots of it. "Dear sir, I am interested in SEO services for your website..."

What to do:

Look at Google Analytics (you did install that, right?). See where people go, where they leave, how long they stay.

Add spam protection to your forms. Your developer can help with this.

Make changes based on real data, not assumptions. If everyone's bouncing off a certain page, fix that page.

Month 2-3: First improvements

You've learned what works and what doesn't. Time to fix things.

Common improvements:

Making the homepage clearer about what you actually do. Turns out people were confused.

Adding more obvious call-to-action buttons. You thought they were obvious. They weren't.

Simplifying navigation. That menu made sense to you. Not to visitors.

Speeding up load times. You notice people bouncing if pages take more than 3 seconds.

Budget for this: Most developers include 30 days of minor tweaks after launch. After that, you're paying hourly.

Typical cost: $500-2,000 for first round of improvements based on real user data.

Month 3-6: Content and SEO

Your website works great. Now you need Google to actually show it to people.

The SEO reality:

It takes 3-6 months before Google really starts ranking you. Sometimes longer if you're in a competitive industry.

You need content. Blog posts, case studies, updates. Google ranks active sites higher than static ones.

You need backlinks. Other websites linking to yours. This takes time and effort.

What to do:

Start a blog if you haven't. Post once or twice a month minimum. Make it actually useful, not just "we're the best!"

Get listed in directories. Google Business Profile, industry directories, local Singapore business listings.

Ask happy customers for testimonials and case studies. Put them on your site.

Fix any technical SEO issues your developer flags. If they tell you to add alt text to images or fix broken links, do it.

Month 6-12: Maintenance and updates

Your site is working. Traffic is growing slowly. You're getting leads. Life is good.

What you'll need:

Security updates: Websites need updates. WordPress, plugins, dependencies... something needs updating every month.

Hosting: You're paying $10-100/month for hosting depending on your setup.

Domain renewal: That's another $10-50/year depending on your domain.

Content updates: Prices change, services change, team members change. Someone needs to update the website.

Bug fixes: Something will break eventually. A plugin update breaks something. A browser update changes how something displays.

Budget: Plan for $100-300/month for basic maintenance, or $2,000-5,000/year if paying annually.

What breaks and when

Immediately: Things you didn't test thoroughly. Forms, payment processing, mobile display.

After 3-6 months: Third-party integrations. Your payment gateway updates their API, your integration breaks.

After 12 months: Technology gets outdated. That plugin you're using releases a new version with breaking changes.

Random: Hosting issues, server problems, your domain name expires because you forgot to renew it.

The "set it and forget it" myth

Some people think websites are like kitchen appliances. Build once, use forever, never think about it.

Not true. Websites are more like cars. They need:

Regular maintenance: Updates, backups, security checks

Occasional repairs: Fix things that break

Content fuel: Fresh content to keep Google happy

Improvements: Based on how people actually use it

Protection: Against hackers and spam

Who does all this maintenance?

You have options:

Option 1: Your developer

Most developers offer monthly maintenance packages. $200-500/month typically.

They handle updates, fix bugs, make small changes, keep it secure.

Pros: They built it, they know it best Cons: Costs money every month

Option 2: You handle it yourself

If your site is simple (like WordPress), you can learn to update it yourself.

Pros: Free Cons: Takes your time, easy to break things if you don't know what you're doing

Option 3: Pay as needed

Only call your developer when something breaks or you need changes.

Pros: Only pay for what you use Cons: Things break at the worst times, emergency fixes cost more

Start with Option 1 for the first year. Let your developer handle it while you focus on your actual business.

After a year, you'll know your site better. If it's simple and stable, maybe switch to Option 3. If it's complex or business-critical, keep the monthly maintenance.

Common surprise costs

Adding features you didn't know you needed: "Can we add a booking system?" Sure, that's $5,000.

Content that takes longer than expected: "Can you write our blog posts?" That's $300-500 per post.

Third-party services: Payment processing fees, email service costs, analytics tools.

More storage/bandwidth: If your traffic grows a lot, hosting costs go up.

Redesign after 2-3 years: Trends change, your business changes. Most sites need refreshing every 2-3 years.

How to avoid disasters

Keep backups

Your developer should be backing up your site regularly. If not, set that up. When (not if) something breaks, backups save you.

Don't edit production directly

Have a staging site for testing changes. Change things there first, make sure they work, then push to the live site.

Making changes directly on your live site is how you accidentally break things during business hours.

Monitor uptime

Use a service like UptimeRobot (free) to alert you if your site goes down. You want to know immediately, not 3 days later when a customer tells you.

Keep your developer's contact info

You'll need them. Keep their email, phone, contract somewhere you can find it.

Real story: What we see after launch

One client launched their e-commerce site with us. Here's their first year:

Month 1: Found 3 small bugs, all fixed within a week. Got 8 spam form submissions, added captcha.

Month 2: Realized their product descriptions were too long, nobody read them. We shortened them based on analytics data.

Month 3: Added a feature they didn't think they needed (saved cart for logged-in users). Turned out to be huge for conversions.

Month 4: WordPress updated, one plugin broke, we fixed it within 2 hours.

Month 6: Traffic grew, upgraded hosting plan. Extra $30/month but site stayed fast.

Month 9: Payment gateway changed their API, had to update the integration. $1,200 fix.

Month 12: Major design refresh of product pages based on what they learned about their customers. $4,500.

Total first-year costs after launch: About $6,000 for maintenance, updates, and improvements.

Their revenue from the site: Over $200,000.

Worth it.

The bottom line

Launching is the beginning, not the end.

Budget 10-20% of your build cost per year for maintenance and improvements.

Plan to actively market your site. It won't magically bring customers just by existing.

Expect to learn and adjust. Your first version won't be perfect, and that's okay.

Stay in touch with your developer. You'll need them.

Need help with maintenance, updates, or just figuring out what to do next? We can help with that.

About &7: We build websites and web apps for Singapore businesses, and we stick around after launch. Maintenance, updates, improvements... we've got you covered for the long haul.