Having your website come online can be an exciting time for your business. More exposure, a platform for your visitors to get to know you, and a place to make your products and services known in the industry. Yet, this is not something that you should rush into. Instead, there should be a series of calculated steps that lead to the launch of your website. No matter how small or how large your website is, it would be best if you did not take shortcuts. Launching a website is a process that a carefully planned “website launch checklist” can help achieve.
Even the smallest changes on a website can have a catastrophic effect on the whole website.
This article strives to create a basic blueprint for business owners to follow when launching their website. Note that there is no concrete formula that will lead you to success. Instead, these steps should be catered to your business. Some business savvy will be required, but it could be worth the pay-off. Testing is a vital part of this whole process and should never be discounted. Even the smallest change on a website structure can have a catastrophic effect on the entire site. For this reason, we at rvResortScout test everything to make sure our website and our client’s websites are working perfectly before going live.
Launching a Website Checklist
To successfully launch a website, you must follow a series of steps. Let’s break this article down into five distinct sections that will allow you to focus on each of these separately. You must take all of these components into account before the launch of your website. While all of these sections will intertwine with one another. We suggest tackling one section at a time as you run through the checklist. This will allow you to check the same section of your website multiple times. Not only does this help catch mistakes, but it can also produce new ideas to help improve the content.
Content’s Roll in Launching a Website
If there are mistakes on your website, they will most likely be in the content. They usually come in grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and writing that is just in the wrong section. Or worse, sections that have not been changed still have the generic “Lorum Ipsum” instead of your own unique content. The truth is only a detailed look at your website will help you discover all of these mistakes. Having grammar checkers such as Linquix will help, but nothing replaces proofreading. Proofreading by you and a trusted partner, spouse, family member, or team member will all do the trick. Just make sure they are honest and are willing to critic your writing.
Be open to criticism and test your content before pushing it live.
I know having someone else read your writing can sound intimidating. But it really is the only way to know with 99.9% certainty that your content is accurate, mistake-free, and ready for the public. Notice I said 99.9%. There’s always someone out there that will end up finding a tiny mistake you and your proofreading partner overlooked. Be open to criticism and test your content before pushing it live. This will save your reputation and having to make additional changes in the future. If you’re interested in learning how to write great content, check out this quick write-up on that topic.
Readability
Writing to the appropriate level of your reader is extremely important. Knowing your target audience and writing content geared towards them can play a major role in the success of your website. Your audience needs to clearly understand what you are writing and telling them to do. If there is a disconnect, you will lose your audience, and simply put, they will leave your website and head over to your competitors. Selecting your target audience is something you should have covered before you even thought about launching a website. On the off chance you haven’t, this is the perfect time to drill down into who your ideal customer will be.
Examples of questions you need to be asking yourself when writing content and checking for its readability:
- Is my copy clearly communicating my thoughts?
- Is the font that I’ve chosen easy to read?
- Are my headlines short and to the point?
- Is my copy generic or narrowed down to a specific audience?
Images The Overlooked Step When Launching a Website
Images and videos are often an afterthought when you are launching a website. People assume it’s as simple as insert an image and let it do its thing. In reality, images need to run through optimization software, placed in the correct location, and tested before you can push them live. Make sure these tests are taking place on both mobile and desktop platforms. What works on one may not work on the other. Even something as simple as swapping out two images for one another can lead to design problems on your website. Testing to ensure these issues do not arise is the only surefire way to keep your website running smoothly.
rvResortScout offers a website audit for website owners interested in ensuring everything is running as it should be on their website. We do a thorough review of your images, content, and more to help diagnose any issues that may be present on your website. Here is a free tool that you can use to begin compressing images. Compressing images leads to higher quality images, a faster website, and better SEO scores.
Responsiveness
Having your website optimized for mobile, tablets, and desktop is a vital step in launching a website. In reality, this section deserves a checklist of its own, as there are so many components that need to be checked. Every button on your website needs to work as intended, they should all be easy to click on each device, and all websites should easily display menus. Testing the responsiveness of each button can be time-consuming, but it is a necessary step in the process.
Test, test, and more testing is the only way to work out all the kinks.
To keep this section as short and to the point as possible, I will leave you with this. Test, test, and more testing is the only way to work out all the kinks. An easy way to do this is as follows. Give your family members or work partners access to your website. Allow them to test your website for responsiveness on their tablets, phones, laptops, and desktops. Any issues they find they need to report to you. You can even make it a fun game and offer a $10 reward for each mistake they find. Just be sure to test it yourself first, so you don’t end up breaking the bank.
Launching a Website: What About the Links
Links connect your website and need to be in working order. Imagine a highway with no exits and no clear indicators of where to go next. Broken links work similarly. They are the exits and entrances to getting to new web pages. Broken links lead to 404 errors which are then reported to Google. These errors lead to SEO issues and the appearance that your website is not being maintained.
Test that each link takes the user to the intended location. If it does not, immediately fix it and report the fix back to Google. This helps keep your SEO ranking in good standing and allows for a more fluent experience through your website from a customer’s perspective.
If You Need Some Help
rvResortScout offers help in a few different ways when it comes to launching a website. First, we offer an extensive website audit that combs through your website, looking for any mistakes you may have missed when you launched your website. In specific we look for 404 errors, misspellings, slow-loading content, and useability issues. We will then report these issues back to you, and you can either fix them or enlist our help to get them all squared away.
Second, we offer a complete website redesign. If creating a new website seems overwhelming, or maybe you are just short on time, we are here to help. Website creation is one of our passions at rvResortScout. We specialize in driving traffic to our customer’s campgrounds by creating stunning websites our customers are proud of. If a complete web design is in your future, you can begin by checking out our webpage on this topic. Or, take it a step further and talk to one of our specialists who will help you plan your website redesign, discuss cost, and begin the process should you choose to partner with rvResortScout.
