When small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) build their official websites, they often focus on homepage design, product display, and contact information, believing that the website is complete once it goes live. However, after actual operation begins, they realize that some details overlooked during the initial phase make content updates, SEO optimization, and daily maintenance troublesome. This article, from an operational perspective, lists details that are easy to overlook during website construction and provides specific operational suggestions.
1. Overlooking Domain Email Planning
Many enterprises only focus on whether the website is accessible during construction, but forget to plan for an email address that matches their domain (e.g., yourname@yourdomain.com). While free email services (such as QQ Mail or 163 Mail) are convenient, they appear less professional when sending emails externally. More importantly, if you switch email service providers in the future, all accounts and contact information bound to the old email will need to be migrated, which is costly.
Recommendation: When building the website, also apply for a corporate email that matches your domain. Even if you don't need it immediately, set it up and bind it to common business contacts. This way, in future external communications, the email itself becomes part of your brand presentation.
2. Page Titles and Descriptions Not Set Individually
Corporate websites typically include pages such as homepage, products, news, and about us. Many website building systems use the same title and description for all pages by default, or only set them for the homepage. This results in search engines displaying titles like "Home" or "Untitled" for internal pages, and descriptions that are identical, making it difficult for users to judge page content from search results.
Recommendation: During website construction, set unique titles and meta descriptions for each main section and important content page. The title should summarize the core content of the page and include keywords, but without stuffing. The description should be a sentence that attracts users to click, not a simple list of keywords. For example, a product page title could be "Product Name - Company Name," and the description briefly explains the product's features.
3. Arbitrary Image File Naming
Many enterprises upload photos directly from cameras, with file names like "IMG_20230405.jpg" or "WeChat Image_20230405123456.jpg." This naming method has no impact on the website itself, but when the number of images increases, it becomes difficult to quickly locate corresponding images during later maintenance. Moreover, search engines' image search also reads file names, and non-standard naming is not conducive to images being found.
Recommendation: Before uploading images, rename files to describe the image content in English or pinyin, such as "red-dress.jpg" or "chanpin-zhanshi.jpg." Additionally, fill in the Alt attribute of images with a brief description, which is part of SEO optimization and helps screen reader users understand the image content.
4. Old Website Content Not Properly Handled
If an enterprise has an old website, during a redesign, they often only focus on the design of new pages and neglect the migration of old content. Valuable articles and product materials may be directly deleted, causing previously accumulated search engine indexing and external links to become invalid. Even if content is outdated, users may still access via old links, and if they see a 404 error, the user experience is poor.
Recommendation: Before redesigning, export a complete URL list of the old website and evaluate the value of each page. For content that is still useful, migrate it to the new site and set up 301 redirects. For pages that are truly useless, it is also recommended to set up 301 redirects to relevant new pages rather than deleting them directly. This preserves existing external link weight and avoids users encountering dead links.
5. Backend Column Structure Not Considering Operational Needs
When building a website, many enterprises only set up columns based on current product categories, without considering future content expansion. For example, under the news column, they may need to publish both company news and industry updates. If these are divided into two sub-columns from the start, later maintenance will be clearer. Additionally, some columns may lack content updates for a long time but still occupy navigation positions, affecting user experience.
Recommendation: When planning columns, first list the types of content that may be published in the next year, then design the column structure. For instance, set up two separate columns for "Company News" and "Industry Updates" instead of placing them all under "News Center." If certain columns cannot be updated consistently in the short term, consider not putting them in the main navigation until content is available.
6. Ignoring the Usability of the Website Backend
Many website building companies deliver backends that are complex or have unclear operating logic, leading enterprise operators to be reluctant to use them, and ultimately the website content is not updated for a long time. For example, some backends require manually filling in multiple fields such as publish time, author, and summary when posting an article, without default values, requiring repeated input each time.
Recommendation: Before the website goes live, have the staff responsible for updates test the backend to check how many steps are needed to publish an article, whether batch operations are possible, and whether image compression and automatic watermarking are supported. Choose a website building system with an intuitive interface and support for common functions. If the website is already built, you can request the building company to optimize the backend process, such as setting default templates and simplifying fields.
7. No Custom 404 Page or Sitemap Prepared
A 404 page is a prompt page displayed when users access non-existent links. Many corporate websites do not have a custom 404 page, so users see the default "Not Found," which appears unprofessional. Additionally, a sitemap is a file that helps search engines crawl website links. Many website building systems automatically generate one, but if it is not submitted to search engines, it may affect indexing efficiency.
Recommendation: During website construction, have the building company design a friendly 404 page that includes a link back to the homepage and a search box, so users can find their way even if they get lost. Also, confirm whether the website building system automatically generates an XML sitemap. If so, submit it to Baidu Search Resource Platform and Google Search Console to help search engines discover new content faster.
Although these details may seem trivial, each one affects the operational efficiency after the website goes live. It is recommended that enterprises list these issues as a checklist during the website construction process and confirm them item by item with the building company to avoid rework later.
