Things To Do ( Checklist) Before Launching any Website

Are you preparing to launch a new website? Launching a new website is always exciting but at the same time, it is very stressful even for a seasoned Web Designer or professional. No one can deny this fact. Websites sometimes look very simple but the process of keeping all the components of the website to work as it supposed to can be a very daunting task. There are so many things that can go wrong and can be easily overlooked before the launch of any website like broken links, .htaccess file, webmaster tool, plugins, etc.

You have worked so hard on your website, its web-design, content, user interface, and what not and you are super excited and can’t wait to share your awesome work with the whole world but what if

something goes wrong. So instead of worrying about what if, it would be a much better idea to have a precise and comprehensive checklist. A  website checklist which makes sure that you have checked and tested all major and minor things before you launch your website.

We have put together a list of things and steps to do before you launch your website. Make sure that you go through every point and recheck all the points:

1.) Make sure all the URLs of your websites are live and function properly :

The first thing you need to check before and after the launch of any website is to check all the URLs of your website are working properly. If there are certain links that are no longer active or working properly, you must update them or remove them whichever process you think is best for you.

If users visit your website and found out that links are broken and they are not getting what they want from your website or web page. They will leave your website very early. This creates a bad impact in your  Search Result Ranking.  Search Engines like Google sometimes penalize websites by dropping their positions in search results if everything is not linked or working correctly. So make sure that you don’t want to get into that kind of trouble.

So, If you have a small website that has only a few pages than you can manually check all the website URLs, one by one to make sure that all things are perfect and working as they should be. If you have a very big website and it has hundreds of web pages and thousands of interconnected links than you can automate the process. There are many tools available in the market do the work for you.

2.) Make Your Website Responsive for  Every Device:

Responsiveness is the key feature of any website. As the majority of the internet users access the web and your websites via mobile devices like I pad or smartphones or tablets, so it’s very crucial for any website that it works flawlessly on any type of device or platform. The way the user interacts with your website on any mobile device is way much different than using the same website on your Desktop or laptop. Making your website as comfortable as you can for mobile devices is of utmost importance. In a mobile device where screen size is much smaller than any mac book or desktop screen elements like icons, images, paragraph structure, the menu needs to be accommodated in very small area.

So, it’s a must to do the thing that you make sure that websites every element is working properly, there should be no overlap between any element on any type of device and different types of browser. And if you find out any bug or problem make sure to fix it before you launch your website.

3.) Proofread, Spell Check, and Edit Content:

Content is everything on your website. Most of the time Users Visits your website is for content. A well written precise and on to the point content is very important. Whether it’s about any item or product review, any guideline or news article content is everything. Images, website structures, Videos comes secondary to content. If any visitor on your website finds problems or errors like spell ling mistake, grammar or sentence structure, or any other content related problem then it will definitely affect the users. The user might think that you are not paying any attention to your content and it gives a bad impression of your website.

You definitely want to avoid such a negative type of interpretation about your website and yourself, so always proofread your every article and every single line that you are going to post on your website. Check for spelling mistakes, Grammar, or try to concise your and write your article in a simple way so that everyone can understand what you want to convey through your content. If you are not good at those checks use any good online tool available in the market. There are many free and paid apps, websites available which can do the work for you like Grammarly is one such tool.

4.) Link Your Social Media Accounts:

Social Media now becomes an integral part of everyone’s life whether you like it or not. Social media accounts are very important nowadays because most of the people spend hours online on these social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. So, it’s a must thing to have for both your personal and professional benefits.

Before launching any new website make sure that you have connected most of your social media accounts with your website or at least provide links on your website which directs users to your social media handles or pages. For making an online presence in today’s world social media is one of the easiest and crucial platforms.  There are many social media plugins available for your website which can easily handle this task of connecting different accounts. Do some research before you choose any and find out which one fulfills your work.

5.) Create and Add Favicon to Your Website:

Favicon is one of the most important things that people often forget before launching their website. A favicon or favorite icon or website icon is an image or icon that appears on the top of any tab browser’s tab when you open any website. Favicon is a very good thing to have on your website its not just aesthetically makes your website beautiful but it has other important uses.

A Favicon helps to recognize users your website when any user opens multiple tabs and website on the browser, then its become difficult for users to come to your site with just one click. A favicon will help them to recognize users to find the right website they are looking for. If any user wants to save your website as a bookmark or on their home screen on mobile these Favicon images are stored as a bookmark or on there home screen. So always check and do make sure that favicons are implemented on your website and every page.

6.) Optimize your images :

Images are one of the heaviest elements on any website. Images consume a lot of data and can slow down any website performance to a large margin. And one likes slow websites, users will not wait for your website to load completely. Most of the time users move on to other websites rather than waiting for your website loading slowly. So you must optimize all your images and reduced their unnecessary size where possible. You can also use the latest WebP type format for your images instead of traditional, JPG or PNG format images. These modern format images are very web-friendly your pics will not lose any detail and they are also very small in size.

7.) Add Proper Caption and Alt text in all your images:

Alt Text and caption are very important in the case of websites. Alt-text is the text that is shown to users if the images are not loading properly in their browser window. Alt Text is also very useful for search engines, it gives a positive impression of your website. So always include proper alt text and image caption before you launch your website.

8.) Test the Buttons :

If your website has multiple buttons for different functions. Like if your website has CTA (Call To action button ) or Chat button or direct email button than you should always make sure that they all are working properly as intended without causing any error.

9.) Link Your websites` Logo to Homepage :

A logo link to the Homepage is a very important feature for any website. It`s a great feature for users, they can easily navigate to the Homepage or main Page of your website just by clicking on the Logo at any time.  So make sure to implement this feature on your website.

10.) Take Backup of your whole Website :

You must take a backup of your whole websites not just before launching the website but regularly after some time. Backup is very important in case something bad happens or some technical issue comes then you can restore your website completely without losing your data or information. In case you are moving your web hosting then you can use these backup files.

11.) Check your Basic SEO :

SEO is an important thing in today’s competitive world, So you should check all your details like Meta title, Meta Description, Alt text, Redirects, interlinking, Navigation menu. These things not only good for the user to understand your content but it gives a huge boost in your rankings, the Search Engines will understand more about the website if you have proper SEO.