15 Things To Check Before You Launch Your New Website

Every day tens of thousands of websites are launched with the majority of them being incomplete in one way or another, either because their webmasters do not know or because they have simply forgotten. The issue with this is that it can have a massive effect on both the websites credibility and also its ranking with Google and other search engines.

If you are a webmaster, designer, developer or small business owner looking to soon launch a website, be sure to keep this handy checklist by your side to check before you set your website live. By ensuring you have these checked you will ensure a smooth launch and better sales & conversion results.

Pre-Launch Website Checklist

1. Website Copy/Content

It is really important to have all content written and proofread before launching. Small mistakes in contact/copy, no matter how small, can remove all credibility of a website. This is extremely important if you are offering goods or services as you will instantly loose the sale.

Avoid publishing “coming soon” or “under construction” pages. Do not launch until you have all your content in place for important pages such as About Us, FAQs, and others.

2. Contact Details

If you are offering products or services then it is crucial that you have your contact details visible on the website. Phone numbers, email addresses & postal address are all important as it shows that you are a credible business.

Using a Freephone or local rate phone number can help increase sales inquiries and are easy to obtain using VOIP services such as Voipfone or even Skype.

3. Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions no longer play a significant role in search engine rankings, but they are what people see on search result pages. So, make sure to optimize your meta descriptions to include  descriptive but brief titles and descriptions.

4. Site Security

Each day there are thousands of websites that are hacked or compromised, and it doesn’t usually matter if the targeted site is a high-volume website or a new one. If you are not a web developer, be sure to have a professional check your website’s code for potential security flaws.

If you are using WordPress to build your website, then we highly recommend installing the WordFence Security plugin. It will notify you about changes in your website, it will block unwanted logins, notify you of the things you need to update (including plugins), and other important security details.

5. Legal Pages

Legal pages are pages like Terms and Conditions, Terms of Use, Terms of Service, Refund Policy, and Privacy Policy, whichever applies to you. These are really important pages as cover the legalities involved in people visiting and using your website, from copyrights, use of cookies, and information about your company.

6. JavaScript

JavaScript can bring a lot functionality to your website. But not every web browser handles it in quite the same way, and some people have JavaScript turned off for security reasons. Make sure that your website still displays correctly even if Javascript is disabled or your website may look like it’s broken or incomplete to visitors.

7. Backup, Backup, Backup!

Even though your web host will most likely keep a backup of your website, you should always ensure that you have your own. Some hosts will only restore a backup in the event of server failure, so if you delete a file by mistake they will not restore it. Make sure your backup file is local and not stored on your web hosts servers.

If you are using WordPress, there are lots of plugins that allow you to preform quick and easy backups. If your web host uses cPanel hosting then you can also use the backup option within your control panel to download full backups periodically.

8. Cross-Platform Compatibility

The biggest mistake of launching a new website is not to check that it functions and looks the same across several devices and different screens. Does it look good in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera? Have you tested all the latest versions of each? For this there is an easy and quick way to check using BrowserShots which provides a screenshot of how your website looks on each variation of browser and version.

9. Capture Leads

If your website is designed to capture sales leads, be sure to test that it is capturing all of the data you need. There is nothing worse than having your new website launched for weeks and then realising that your lead capture form is not working.

10. Defensive Design

Sometimes visitors to your website will come through to a page that no longer exists, perhaps they typed in the wrong URL or that link you posted was not quite right. Be sure to check that if someone types in a spurious page address that you display a custom 404 page instead of the standard server 404 page. You can use this to bring the visitor back into your site by providing a search option so they can find what they were originally looking for.

11. SEO

Content is king! Make sure your website content is great, and contains all of the keywords that you need to rank for in search results. This doesn’t mean churn out lots of keyword stuffed content as quickly as possible. Write useful, engaging content that people would like to read. Don’t forget to research the keywords you will use and place them within your website’s headlines and body, as well as your meta keywords & descriptions.

12. HTML & CSS Validation

Your SEO will be useless if your website fails to meet the standard HTML and CSS validation. Passing this standard is really important because this is how search engine crawlers read your website. If your site fails this validation then search engines will most likely rank your website low in the rankings.

13. Secure Certificate

If your website accepts payments or personal information from your visitors, be sure to use SSL protection. With website security being an almost daily news event it pays to show your users the padlock in their browser to show that your site can be trusted. SSL certificates can be installed by your website host and they do not cost a lot so it is worth having regardless.

14. Analytics

So your website is live and you couldn’t be happier with it but how many people are visiting? Make sure your website designer or developer adds analytics for you. Google analytics is usually the go-to option but there are others such as Piwik that can be used. With analytics you can see how advertising or promotions increase sales or conversions but also see where your traffic is coming from.

15. Favicon

Although this is not essential it is worth having a favicon so that when visitors bookmark your website they see your icon in tabs and bookmark lists.

It allows people to identify your websites bookmark easily in a long list and makes your site look that little bit more professional.

If you are looking for hosting for your new website then we provide Secure, Fast & Reliable Website Hosting without the technobabble!