A major task on a business’s checklist is creating and launching the official website. If you are new to the process, it can be daunting but with this checklist, you can keep everything organized and ready before going live.
Initiating Your Website Efficiently
Checking Website Functionality
Quality assurance is always a vital step to ensure that all the data being collected and analyzed does not have any issues. This includes forms submitting data accurately and interactive features, such as drop-down menus or options and images that have hover effects applied to them, are performing up to standards.
Reviewing Content
This should be at the top of your list, and not at all be done last minute. All sections should be checked and rechecked. Grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and readability should be the first priority, as users will judge the business based on this. Descriptive content is appreciated by search engines and those viewing the website. So get your writing gloves on and produce the best quality content for your site!
Viewing the Website from all Browsers
Users can access sites through many different kinds of devices, which can range from an old phone to a newly updated laptop. Different phone and tablet screen sizes also need to be taken into account when previewing your website. All browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox etc. need to be checked to see if all designs and visuals are consistent.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ensuring an enhanced presence on search engines is essential when launching a site. You can either hire a professional SEO team to take care of that section for you, or even make simple adjustments to optimize search engine presence, which really makes a huge difference. The key is to have at least five to ten keywords on every page, and your line of work and the audience you are targeting can determine those keywords.
Website Security
The software used to create the website, alongside any modules or plugins that are used, should be updated to their latest version. Checking if SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates are updated and not omitting any crucial information is also essential in order to secure your website against data breaches.
Checking Website Speed Loading Time
Search engines such as Google, rank websites according to the speed of the website. Thus, it is important to check whether your website loads slowly, and what might be causing the slowness. Tools such as PageSpeed Insights that Google runs, Pingdom and many more online services can help you enhance speed.
Support Staff
Before going live with your website, it is important to ensure that support staff is available through phone, email and live chat, in case of any queries or suggestions by users.
Tracking Website Performance
It is important that your design and development team have put in codes that help in tracking and analyzing site statistics, gathering data on how well the sit is performing and whether it is being marketed properly to gather the right audience to visit your page.
If you have followed this general checklist of important things to make sure of everything before launching your site, you will be worry free and successful! Good luck!
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