8 Things You Should Know Before Launching Your Website

Launching a website can be a stressful stage no matter your experience level. It is not as simple as it seems because of the numerous things you need to take into consideration before going live and this process can easily make people go crazy.

At this point, it is normal to feel some fear and uncertainty, especially if you are new to this, but keep in mind that we can’t always make sure things won’t go wrong and our goal is to be prepared to prevent as many errors as possible before going live. Following these tips will help you accomplish your website launch with no rush.

1- Choose The Right CMS

Nowadays they are several methods on how to build a website, but if you are looking to have total control over your content, products, or sales, a CMS (Content Management System) is the way to go, the main benefit is that it allows you to manage your online marketing in a single place.

The most popular and widely used CMS platform today is WordPress. Millions and millions of individuals and businesses are using it. If you are new to this, you may find it a bit difficult to figure out, but it’s still the top platform to use for web design.

2- Check Functionality

The biggest part of your launch plan is testing your entire website over and over. It is highly recommended to add enough time to review all the elements to your development process agenda because there is a high chance that something unexpected will come up that needs fixing, and it is always best to do it sooner than later.

Some of the main element to review can be (but not limited) :

Try breaking up these tasks over a number of days instead of doing everything at once, it can be overwhelming and tiring. You may also consider asking your peers for their honest opinion to see if it still needs a bit of improvement and tweaking.

3- Be Prepared for the Unexpected

There is no way to prepare for sudden errors so setting a few days aside for you and/or your team to handle any technical issues that might present is probably a good idea. If you are lucky enough not to encounter any technical difficulties, then you’ll have some days on your hand to relax and celebrate all your hard work!

4- Setup Analytics

Once your website is live, you want to know how your website is performing, there are tools out there such as Google Analytics that you can start using to gather data from the moment of your big launch. Google Analytics is one of the most popular platforms to acquire this information from your website traffic. It is also important to mention that it is free, so you really have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

5- Optimize Your Website with SEO Techniques

Effective SEO (search engine optimization) should be a must for any website and it should be a part of your marketing launch strategy. Now that your website is up and running, you need to look into the little things needed from title tags, meta descriptions, keywords in your content, and other essential SEO to guarantee that it is on the first page of the search results of search engines.

6- Back Up Your Site

Finally, before launching a site, make sure to prevent any loss of data by regularly running a back up.This can also help in case of hackers attempting against your site. Ensuring that copies of the website are being created and stored regularly gives you added peace of mind izzn case something goes wrong.

7- Setup Security

Your #1 priority when getting ready to launch any website is security. if you choose WordPress as your CMS you can find a wide selection of tools, plugins, and practices available to increase your website security.

A hacked WordPress site can cause serious damage to your business. Hackers can steal user information, passwords, install malicious software, and can even distribute malware to your users, so this should be of huge importance for every website owner.

8- Maintenance and Continuous Improvement.

The only thing that is consistent in the digital world is change. Having the site up and running is not enough, for this reason, your website should cater to new trends, changes, and updates. This is crucial to ensuring that your website is secure and running at full capacity.

Just like cars or a house, website maintenance is important for all organizations big or small to operate properly. Regularly maintaining your site will improve performance, boost traffic, and provide a safe and secure environment for your visitors.

Conclusion

A website is a serious project that can transform your company or business. Keep in mind that there are plenty of things that can go wrong before your big launch but the most important thing here is to be prepared to fix every glitch and technical difficulty that may arise.

Originally published at https://www.hitedigital.com on May 28, 2019.