9 Crucial Steps Before Announcing Your Website Launched

1) Proofread Your Entire Website

There’s no easier way to lose credibility than to have grammar and/or spelling errors appear ANYWHERE on your website. Always read over what you have written several times, and then get someone else to read it for you. You will be surprised to learn just how easily errors sneak by you when you’re busy writing.

2) Check Links

Test EACH and EVERY link to make sure they are working. Make sure to have a method of checking for dead links as part of the ongoing, regular maintenance of your website. If you use WordPress, you might find Broken Link Checker plugin a handy addition for reporting broken links. If you have HTML web pages, consider using Xenu’s Link Sleuth which is software that performs verification on normal links, images, frames, backgrounds, and local image maps. It’s easy to use... and it’s FREE software!

3) Title, ALT and META Tags

Title, Alt and META tags are part of basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), of which the Title tag is THE most important element. Titles let a website visitor know what to expect on a web page, and so your title must relate to your page content. An example of Title tags is as follows:

An Alt tag is a text alternative for an image or an object on a web page and should always be concise and accurate. The Alt tag is meant for blind internet users who have browsers that read the page text aloud. When their browser comes to an image, if there is no Alt tag, the browse cannot add to the user’s experience. It’s only fair that visually impaired users be able to understand the images like all other users would. As a side note; it has been said that when used properly, Alt tags can help to get your website ranked higher in search engines. An example of an Alt tag is as follows:

Two types of Meta tags are keyword and description. Always make sure your description Meta tag accurately describes your website’s content. The keyword Meta tag, though it is said to be unimportant to the MAJOR search engine, it is still important to other search engines. Make sure you NEVER “stuff” keywords. Examples of keyword and description Meta tags are as follows:

4) Cross-Browser Compatibility

If you have ever completed a web page designed exactly how you want it to look using your preferred browser, only to see it look vastly different when viewed in another popular browser, then you have already discovered what cross-browser compatibility means. Your website doesn’t necessarily need to look EXACTLY the same in every browser, but it does need to look acceptable in the most popular browsers ...providing you want your website to rank high in search results.

An easy way to check your website for being cross-browser compatible would be to use Browser Shots or simply do an internet search for “test browser compatibility online” and select one to use from your search results.

5) Device Compatibility

If you want to gain customers, your website should be easy to view and to use from the most popular web devices in use today. With the introduction of responsive design, businesses no longer have a need for two different types of websites (mobile website and regular desktop/laptop website). Updating your website just became easier!

6) Test All Forms

Check, check and double check all of your website forms. There’s nothing more frustrating for a website visitor than to have a form half filled in (in some cases ALL filled in), click the Submit button, and then to discover the form doesn’t work properly. Have friends test your forms to see how easy they are to use, make any necessary adjustments, and then test again. Also, make sure that any email addresses that should automatically open a user’s email reply form actually work.

7) Make Sure You Have the Right to Use Those Images

When using ANY stock photo, make sure you read the small print! Never use images without proper permission having been granted for your use.

8) Fast Loading Pages

Combining several images into a single image, having your background images referred to in your style sheet, and compressing your images, each helps to make your web pages faster to load for a better user experience. For more information on this issue, please refer to: https://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

9) Add a Sitemap

Adding a sitemap.xml file to your website’s root directory allows major search engines to easily index your website. This file points their software spiders to all of the pages on your website. If you have not got a file by this name on your website already, then please refer to https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ for help in creating one FREE. They also offer clear instructions on how to create, save and upload this file. For those using WordPress, you can install Google XML Sitemaps plugin which will also notify all major search engines every time you create new content.

A more complete checklist to use BEFORE launching your website can be found at: http https://www.boxuk.com/upload/2014/02/Ultimate-Website-Launch-Checklist-5.0.pdf