The following article delves into the essential considerations outlined in a wow website launch checklist.
The excitement builds as your website design company delivers the final product, giving your business an official online presence. However, simply having a visually appealing website is not enough to make a lasting impression on visitors and drive business growth. The success of your website relies on numerous factors beyond its aesthetics.
A great website is one that doesn’t just look pleasing but practically works to make money for you. #websitedesign
Presented here is a concise website pre-launch checklist for those seeking clarity on the ideal timing for their website launch.
1. Web Copy
Thoroughly examining your website content is crucial, requiring a meticulous review of every page and word. Ensure that all elements are well-organized, visually appealing, and functioning seamlessly. Consider the following guidelines when scrutinizing your website content:
- Carefully proofread your text to eliminate any typographical or grammatical errors.
- Verify that headers, paragraphs, lists, and formatting are correctly aligned and visually appealing.
- Review your “about us” page to ensure that it contains the latest information and accurate contact details, which should be consistent throughout the site.
- Take a close look at micro-copies on ‘Thank you’ pages, auto-responders, and contact pages. Personalize the messages and include a clear call-to-action to encourage further engagement or connection on social media platforms.
- Avoid using generic content and ensure that all the information on your site is exclusive to your brand.
- Test and confirm that any videos on your website are loading properly and functioning on all devices.
- Verify that your images are relevant, original, properly placed, optimized for the web, and appearing correctly on all smart devices.
- Ensure that you have the appropriate rights or licenses for fonts, images, and other content used on your website and provide proper attribution where necessary.
- Check the copyright date, typically located in the footer, to ensure it reflects the current year.
- Check the overall consistency of your website’s tone and messaging. Ensure that the language and style align with your brand’s voice and values throughout all pages and sections of the site.
2. Design Aesthetics & Code
Give special attention to the design of your website, ensuring it is flawlessly crafted to make a lasting impression. Optimize your website for responsiveness, as the majority of users access webpages through mobile devices. Take into account the following factors of a wow website design checklist to enhance your website’s effectiveness:
- Cross-check the compatibility of your website pages across different browsers.
- Validate the HTML and CSS code to ensure proper standards compliance.
- Optimize images, CSS, and scripts for efficient loading on all web pages.
- Review and synchronize paragraph styles, including lists, headers, block quotes, and more, for consistent formatting and functionality.
- Check for broken links or missing content to ensure all pages are complete and accessible.
We also recommend reading How to Find the Best Website Design Company for Your Business.
3. Functionality
Don’t let your website’s features go to waste! Test them before you go live to ensure they’re working their magic. Here’s what demands your attention:
- Verify that form submissions are successfully capturing and submitting data.
- Ensure the Thank-You message after form submission is displayed correctly.
- Confirm that form data is securely stored in your company’s database and sent to the recipient’s email.
- Test auto-responders to ensure they are functioning properly.
- Validate and update external and internal links to ensure they are active and directing users to the intended destinations.
- Consider opening external links in new tabs for a better user experience.
- Test and optimize the load time of your web pages for faster performance.
- Set up proper 404-Redirected pages for any broken links.
- Check the canonicalization of your website to avoid duplicate content issues.
- Verify the integration and proper functioning of third-party tools, such as e-commerce software, CRM, and marketing platforms.
4. SEO
In the fiercely competitive online business landscape, a visually appealing website alone won’t guarantee success. To thrive, you must prioritize search engine optimization (SEO) right from the planning stage before website design and diligently verify its implementation post-development.
To captivate your prospects and increase visibility in search engines, meticulous attention is required. From content hierarchy and site architecture to XML sitemaps and metadata, every aspect must be finely tuned. Here are essential guidelines to enhance your SEO endeavors with the website launch SEO checklist:
- Craft unique page titles with embedded keywords, keeping them within 70 characters.
- Create distinctive meta-descriptions under 156 characters, incorporating relevant keywords.
- Strategically utilize keywords on each page, but maintain a reasonable limit (less than 10) based on your web copy and focus.
- Ensure proper placement of metadata for any content within an RSS feed.
- Thoroughly proofread metadata to eliminate grammatical and spelling errors.
- Assign Alt tags to every image, enhancing accessibility and SEO.
- Generate a dynamic XML sitemap and submit it to search engines for comprehensive indexing.
- Implement 301-redirects and establish page URLs that reflect the site’s information architecture, with appropriate internal linking.
- Prioritize valuable content that enhances user experience and includes relevant calls to action.
- Implement schema markup to provide structured data and enhance search engine understanding of your content.
5. Analytics & Tracking
Before launching your website, it’s crucial to ensure that it’s properly set up to capture web data and analytics. Understanding how your website performs in the online realm is invaluable for making informed decisions and optimizing its efficiency. Don’t hit that live button until you’re confident that your website will not only captivate visitors but also provide valuable insights through robust analytics.
- Verify that your website analytics codes are correctly inserted, including both Google Analytics and Bing Analytics for comprehensive data analysis.
- Exclude personal and frequent IP addresses from analytics tracking to ensure accurate data representation.
- Create goals and funnels in your analytics software to track conversions and measure the success of your website.
- Synchronize your Google Analytics and Google AdWords accounts to maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
- Utilize custom dashboards and reports to easily track and analyze key performance metrics relevant to your business goals.
We also recommend reading 6 Fundamentals to Create Websites That Bring Business.
6. Security and Backups
In the digital landscape, the allure of a visually stunning website can quickly fade if security measures are neglected. Safeguarding sensitive information, such as customer and financial data, is paramount to maintaining trust and credibility. Before launching your website, it is crucial to fortify its defences against malware, data loss, and potential damages. Don’t let security vulnerabilities compromise your online presence. Take these essential steps to protect your website and ensure peace of mind:
- Implement 24/7 monitoring scripts to detect any suspicious activities promptly.
- Establish a robust backup system that regularly creates copies of your website to prevent data loss.
- Keep a secure backup of your finalized website for added protection.
- Maintain a secure database to store passwords and other confidential website credentials.
- Install reliable malware protection tools to prevent unauthorized access and attacks.
- Enhance your website’s security by obtaining an SSL certificate, bolstering encryption and trustworthiness.
- Safeguard your content with a Copyscape copy protection badge, deterring content scrapers and preserving your originality.
- Regularly update and patch your website’s software, including content management systems (CMS) and plugins, to address any known vulnerabilities.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security, requiring users to provide a secondary verification method when accessing your website.
- Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify potential weaknesses and take proactive measures to address them.
7. Compliance
Before you unveil your website to the world, it’s crucial to ensure its compliance with relevant laws and regulations governing the online landscape. Don’t risk legal complications and potential penalties by overlooking this critical aspect. Collaborating with a legal professional can provide you with valuable guidance and peace of mind. Here are key areas to assess for compliance before launching your website:
- Ensure your website is accessible to users with special needs.
- Verify compliance with usage rights for borrowed codes, fonts, and images.
- Clearly communicate your website’s use of cookies to visitors.
- Make privacy policies and terms of use easily visible and understandable.
- Ensure PCI compliance if facilitating credit card purchases.
8. Live URLs
Thoroughly reviewing your website is crucial to ensure that your URLs are accurate and lead to the intended destinations. Paying attention to your URLs is not only essential for proper functionality but also for SEO purposes. Incorrect URLs can frustrate visitors, leading to a negative user experience, and may even result in search engine penalties.
- Conduct a comprehensive check of all the links on your website to ensure their proper functioning and accuracy.
- Devise a strategy for redirecting users in case there are changes to the URL structure in the future. It’s important to plan ahead.
- Implement a proactive plan to prevent, detect, and rectify any broken links on your website.
- Optimize your URLs by incorporating relevant keywords and maintaining a clear and concise structure.
- Leverage URL shortening techniques for lengthy or complex URLs to enhance readability and shareability.
We also recommend reading 6 Keys to a Brilliant e-commerce Website That Sells.
In the competitive online landscape, a visually appealing website alone is not enough. By diligently considering the pivotal elements highlighted in the wow website launch checklist plan above, you have the potential to craft a site that boasts not just aesthetics, but also seamless functionality. Testing and optimizing your site may require time and effort, but it’s the key to securing valuable leads and customers for your business. So, take the necessary steps to ensure your website is at its best, and set yourself up for success. Wishing you all the best on your digital journey!
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At Unusual Digital, a dedicated team of skilled designers excels at translating creative concepts into visually striking and exceptionally functional designs. Our expertise lies in crafting WordPress websites, e-commerce platforms, and blogs that seamlessly blend stunning aesthetics with substantial revenue generation. Prioritizing outstanding user experiences, Unusual Digital stands as the reliable ally for businesses aiming to elevate their online achievements.
