Written by mallorywhitfield Congrats on launching your new Carrot website! We’ve taken care of a lot of the initial work for you in the initial site setup.
Want to see long-term marketing success and lots of leads coming in through your website? Our data has shown that Carrot members who dive into content creation and SEO tools (like Keyword Explorer) within their first few weeks see the most success using our platform.
Here’s our guide for what to do when getting started with your Carrot website:
1. What to do ASAP
As soon as possible after launching your new site, here’s what you should do:
- Attach your domain name – This important step makes it so people can find your website on the internet using your domain address, such as
AwesomeHomeBuyers.com. If you don’t own a domain yet, we recommend Hover, which is integrated with Carrot so you can automatically connect it to your website. - Explore the core pages we’ve created for you – Dive in and start exploring the pages we created for you! Check that any text or images we’ve auto-generated are accurate. Explore the Content Overview and start by taking a look at your new Homepage and About / Our Company page. If you want to start editing, you can use our Visual Editor and Blocks to customize your website’s pages and make them your own.
- Join us for a Group Onboarding Call – Our most successful members take advantage of these live sessions where we’ll give you a tour of the Carrot website platform and answer your questions! Click here to schedule your call!
ℹ️ Purchasing a Domain: Where and Best Practices!
2. Continue to personalize your site
After you’ve attached your domain name, started exploring your site, and connected with our onboarding team, here’s we suggest continuing to personalize your site and make it your own:
- Add testimonials – Testimonials are a great way to inspire trust and build credibility for your business! Once you add Testimonials, they’ll be available for you to easily insert throughout your Carrot site.
- Upload your logo & select your brand colors – Your website is your online business card and should reflect your brand’s personality. You can easily do this by uploading your company logo and selecting your brand colors and fonts to be used throughout your website.
- Add credibility elements – Are you a member of the Better Business Bureau? Have you been featured on local television? You can showcase logos from these kinds of credibility elements via our drag and drop Block Patterns or Credibility Bar. Simply add your favorite block pattern and swap the templated images and text to fit your brand!
ℹ️ Learn our favorite ways to “Differentiate with Design”!
3. Get ready for incoming leads!
Next, you’ll want to make sure you’re ready for when all of those leads start rolling in:
- Personalize your auto-reply messages – When someone fills out a form on your site they immediately receive a message from you. You can (and should!) customize the messaging that gets sent to leads so that it matches your unique brand and helps you seal the deal.
- Set up your CRM – Your CRM helps you track your leads from website inquiry to closed deal. Our recommendation, of course, is Carrot CRM but we integrate with other options as well.
📺 WATCH: Meet the All-New Carrot CRM!
4. Dive into content creation & SEO
Our data confirms: Carrot members who dive into content creation and SEO tools like Keyword Explorer within their first few weeks with us see the most success, including more website traffic and leads!
- Get familiar with Auto-Location pages – If you’ve recently launched a new site and added secondary locations, we created a few Auto-Location pages for you. Go ahead and check them to make sure that everything looks good. You can start creating more Auto-Location pages or learn about our recommended location page strategy and how it can help you attract more leads!
- Start using Niche Authority Builder – Creating content about the specific ways you help people and the problems you solve for them can help you attract more of those people. Our Niche Authority Builder tool was designed to make this easy. It helps to position you as a trusted expert on a topic such as foreclosure or probate, and it executes a SEO-friendly internal linking structure automatically. Get started and publish your first niche topic page with supporting posts.
- Try out the Keyword Explorer tool – Carrot’s Keyword Explorer helps you find keyword phrases that people are searching for related to your business. By doing this keyword research, you can identify new topics for content creation and even see what keywords your competitors are ranking for.
ℹ️ SEO Basics: Learn more about Keyword Essentials
5. Start tracking your progress
With built-in tools like our Keyword Rank Tracker and Search Performance, you can get instant insights into how your website is performing without ever having to leave your Carrot dashboard. Be sure to set these up when you’re getting started so you can measure what’s working later:
- Add keywords to the Keyword Rank Tracker – With this tool you can track where your website is ranking in the Google search results for different keyword phrases. Add a few search phrases to the Keyword Rank Tracker and we’ll track them for you.
- Connect to Google Search Console – Our Search Performance feature will show you how your website is performing in Google search results, by pulling in data directly from the source. Connect your site to Google Search Console, so you can identify top-performing content and find opportunities to improve your SEO rankings.
ℹ️ Frequently Asked Questions about SEO
6. Continue building your marketing plan
Your Carrot website will be your online “Authority Hub” for generating leads, but your marketing strategy likely includes other efforts as well. Here are some of the main things our most successful members do:
- Set up PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads to generate quick leads – Running paid ads with Google Ads and/or Meta (Facebook) is one of the best ways to generate immediate leads, especially while you’re waiting for SEO to start generating organic traffic. Check out our Intro to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing if you’re new to paid ads, or connect with one of the recommended PPC & Facebook Ad providers in our Marketplace.
- Set up your Google Business Profile and citations – Citations are business listings for your site to build your credibility in the eyes of both search engines and your potential clients and customers. One of the main citations you’ll want to create is your Google Business Profile.
- Make a plan for other off-site SEO & backlink building – In addition to working on your website, you should plan for the marketing activities you’ll need to do to drive further awareness of your business. This could be things like creating a social media presence, getting backlinks, or trying to get press and publicity for your business. These off-site SEO activities can help boost traffic to your website and grow your business.
🥕 Want it done for you? Check out our Marketplace of in-house Carrot services and trusted vendors.
Conclusion
Carrot websites are optimized out-of-the-box for speed, conversion, and ranking in Google. Our built-in tools make it easy to create content, attract leads with SEO, and close deals with Carrot CRM.
Our team is here and ready to help. Be sure to join us for a Group Onboarding Call as you get started with your Carrot website. We’ll answer your questions and point you in the right direction for your business.
