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Website Launch Checklist

At FHOKE we’ve been through it all, from perfect launches to ones that have turned into complete nightmares! Through our experiences we’ve compiled a list, in no particular order, of a process we go through before we launch our sites.

This won’t cover everything, but should give you a quick overview of what you could be doing or adding to your own checklist.


Successful Launch

After having invested a lot of time in a project, launch day will be in sight. Before you get there you’ll still have important issues that need addressing to achieve a successful launch, get these right and both you and your client will be happy.

Remember, before you show anything to a client make sure the site matches the original spec, is pixel perfect to the designs you presented and fulfills their original brief.


Content

Get a small team together and go over the content of the site with a fine tooth comb - make sure you get this right. Good content is the cornerstone of a great site.


Functionality

Does it work? This might seem an obvious question to ask, but above all else this is the most important part of a project. You might have everything else in place but if the site doesn't work correctly what’s the point in launching it?

Minor bugs may appear when visitors use the site for the first time but making sure it works at near 100% will ensure a successful launch.


Standards & Validation

These two things should be considered throughout the design and build to make every users experience on your site as good as it can be. Points to consider:


Sitemaps

Make sure you include sitemaps. These help search engines correctly index your website during the crawling process.


Performance

A faster site is a better ranking site. You’ll also lower bounce rates on pages if you can reduce load times - who wants to wait for pages to load?


SEO

Great SEO will mean your site will work harder and achieve greater success than a site that uses little or bad techniques. Get your research right and the rest will fall into place.

This list is by no means extensive and if you want to learn more then we recommend reading more from these recent articles Search Engine Optimization FAQ and A Web Designer’s SEO Checklist.


Analytics

No matter how small a site is, having web analytics running will gather you valuable information on how to improve your website going forward..


Security

You may have a lot of things you do not want the world to know about. For example; user-uploaded media, or shoppers' Credit Card details.


Hosting & Backups

Finding a web hosting provider can be hard and knowing what you need can be even harder to understand. There are many options and pricing plans to choose from but make sure to choose a provider that meets your needs, not one that offers more than you need to pay for.


Legal

Before you start any project a signed contract should be in place. The contract should clearly outline the project deliverables and processes so both parties are 100% clear on what will be achieved as an end result. As part of that contract make sure the following has been agreed to cover any unforeseen circumstances.


Deliverables

In the project contract clearly explain what the client will physically receive once a project is complete. The following is what we’d recommend.


When to Launch?

Remember: never hand over a project or files without sign off and any outstanding payments settled. You will have no come back at this point if you do without either of these. Handing over a project without payment is the equivalent of a shop owner letting a customer walk out of a shop with a trolley full of goods on the promise that they will ‘pay you later’.

Now everything is in place you are ready to launch. But when should you? We try our very best to never launch a site within two days of a weekend. Sometimes this practice has to go out the window on occasions but we always try and aim for a Monday to Wednesday launch slot. This will give you the opportunity to iron out any live bugs that surface during a working week. Trying to fix these during a weekend when either you or your developers are not around will only cause you headaches when you have a client who needs their site to be fully functional. Trust us, you will only learn the hard way if you don’t adopt this approach.


Ongoing Maintenance

So you’ve launched the site, it’s working great and the client is happy, now what? You need to make sure that it continues to run without a hitch. Things can go wrong or get missed, server security compromised, or it could fall over. Make sure you’re ready for every eventuality.


Let us know your launch checklist recommendations on Webdesigntuts+