5 Things To Check Before Launching a Website

When it comes time to launch a website, it can be a very frantic time. And it is easy to forget to do some basic things which can greatly affect the initial success of your website.

Here is a list of the five most important things that we check before launching websites.

1. Do all links work? It is always important to make sure that your visitors can find the information that they are looking for. And it isn’t a good idea to disappoint them by sending them to pages that do not exist. So prior to launch, manually check the links in your website to verify that they point to the right pages.
2. Does site allow access for search engines? During development, it is common to restrict search engines from crawling a website. After all, it isn’t a good idea for search engines to index any dummy content. However, when you launch, it is important to make sure that search engines are not being blocked.
3. Has website content been proofread? This is probably one of the most common mistakes with websites. When adding content, be sure to proofread for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
4. Have titles and meta tags been implemented? It is important to create custom meta tags for each web page. See our article Are Meta Tags Important For Search Engine? for reasons on why titles and meta tags are crucial to your website’s success.
5. Does the website look the same in all browsers? Cross-browser compatibility is very important. Before launching, verify that your site is accessible to people using all of the major browsers. One tool that we like to use is Browsershots which takes snapshots of your website across a wide array of browsers, operating systems, and screen resolutions.
   

Some other things that you might also consider include:

• Error pages. Even though your site may be well-linked, it is inevitable that some visitors will enter a wrong url or be referred to your website via an inaccurate or outdated link. Custom error pages help to maintain a consistent user experience and help users find what they are looking for. Click here for a tutorial on creating error pages.
• Favicons. Favorites icons, bookmark icons, or those little icons that you often see at the top of a browser window are great finishing touches for any website. To learn how to create one for your website, click here.
• Site map. If your website is large, and especially if you don’t have a website search engine, you might consider adding a site map. Site maps enable visitors to easily find what they are looking for. Additionally, they also ensure that search engines can reach all pages. (You might also consider creating an XML site map.)
• Valid Markup. Verify that all XHTML and CSS used in your website adhere to web standards. Websites with standards compliant markup often outrank websites with invalid markup.