Launching a website is the virtual equivalent of opening the doors of your business. It requires the same amount time, effort, and attention to detail. Not to mention, you dare not launch until your website has been primed and perfected for the people.
Whether your business is a “newbie” to the market or you have simply decided that your company’s website needs a makeover, there are many things that must be taken into consideration throughout the design and development process. Especially now that search engines are so particular about how they crawl your site and assign it a ranking, it is even more imperative that you don’t launch prematurely.
Makin a site, checkin it twice!
Website design and development cannot be done overnight, regardless of how large and skilled your team is. Not only does the content have to be polished, but you also need to make sure all the codes are working properly. The final draft of the website should be user-friendly. In other words, it must be easy to navigate and easy on the eyes.
In order to ensure that lots of eyes view your site, you have to make it stand out among your competitors. Give visitors a reason to land on your website, and give them a reason to stay. Launching your website before it’s truly ready will only scare folks away and diminish its credibility.
Due to the many different components and features that a well developed website offers, it is easy for things to go overlooked. To ensure that nothing slips below the radar on YOUR domain, follow the checklist below.
1. Blog – Prior to launching your company website, you can create a blog to update visitors about your business and the official site launch. Once your domain is live, an offsite blog is still beneficial, but you may choose to bring it on site. Either way, a business blog is an essential part of an SEO strategy.
2. Compatibility – Multi-browser rendering can be very demanding, which is why most website development teams hate doing it. However, it can help you get the most visitors to your site so it is in your best interest to download a couple of common web browsers and make sure that the pages render well in each of them.
3. Simplify – In regards to website design, website does not necessarily mean boring. Users like short paragraphs, bullet points, lists, and visuals. Most people only scan a website before deciding whether or not they are going to dive deeper into it.
4. Content – The content that you publish on your site is critical because it must satisfy your visitors as well as search engines. Make sure that all the pages on your site are readable. That means no spelling or grammar errors, aesthetically pleasing fonts and colors, and quality information.
5. Navigation – Test all your links and menus. If possible, create a search box somewhere near your main navigation bar.
6. Certificates – If you have an e-commerce site, check on your certificates the day of the launch. This also applies to websites that use encrypted pages to protect their visitors.