How To Launch A Website On Google With Checklist

Launching a new website can be a tedious task but you can alleviate some of the stress by using this comprehensive website launch checklist.

If you are just getting started on your first website then here is a comprehensive checklist that can help you streamline your process.

As professional website builders, we admit that launching a new website can be stressful and even so for the most seasoned digital marketers.

Websites are complex and sophisticated arena of the digital world. There are so many things that are easily overlooked such as a broken link or a misspelled word and of course – a handful of things could go exceptionally wrong.

For instance – what if you forget to test an important data capture form that loses out on generating new leads or what if you forget to set up website redirects which gives valuable search engine visitors – a page not found message?

It would be much easier to have a comprehensive website checklist to run down before every website launch rather than worry about the uncertain.

At Best-Digital Marketing – we have created just that. Keep reading to learn everything you need to do before launching a website and it is one that you could use for enterprise websites, microsites, landing pages and everything in between?

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What Should You Do Before Creating Your Website Design

Whether this is your first website that is being built from scratch or you are doing a website redesign, there are a few steps that you should take before hiring a web designer like Best-Digital Marketing or diving in yourself.

1. Analyse your existing website

In order to make good decisions, you must first understand where you have been. This means starting with your existing website if you have one. Ask yourself:

What is the purpose for my new design or overhaul?
What have not accomplished with this existing site?
How will my new design serve my new business?
What does it lack to reach my full potential?

The answers to these questions will help you identify your gaps which will then confirm your goal setting for the new site.

2. Crawl existing site and document its structure.

You can get an idea of your site’s existing structure, pages and assets by using a crawling tool such as Screaming Frog, SEMrush, Deep Crawl or Sitechecker.pro.

This is an absolutely necessary step in creating your website development plan because you will have a concrete view of what pages existed before, what redirects are in place and what the Meta data currently looks like.

Further Reading: How to Improve SEO Rankings

3. Compare new and old website for benchmark data and confirm testing procedures.

Here you want to compare how your new site is performing compared to the old one and continue to identify gaps that will provide data-driven insights to help your with your new strategy.

Ultimately you want to confirm testing procedures. The sooner you begin testing your website to make sure all the different components are working, everything flows and there is a system for tracking bugs and enhancements – the better.

Use a more streamlined form such as Google Forms instead of asking consumers to email their thoughts so the feedback-gathering process is well organised. Finally get one person in charge of choosing which bugs to prioritise and filter all the creative feedback you receive through the form.

4. Identify your goals for the new design.

Once the above gaps have been identified, you can now begin to craft your goals for the new design. You may come to conclusions such as:

The current site is cumbersome and difficult and we need ease of use.
The current site no longer trendy – so we need a visual refresh.
The current site does not perform, so we need a more SEO-friendly structure with a better UX.
And much more.

Whatever your goals are – you will want to understand exactly how a new site will help you achieve them so that you can craft its implementation accordingly. You need to know how to achieve them and how to measure its success.

Further Reading: How to Increase Website Traffic Using SEO

5. Define and list action items, roles and responsibilities.

Draft and create a project management checklist for the website.

What content needs to be written?
What calls-to-action need to be created?
Make a master list of the things you need for your website
Add deadlines for when they should be completed.
Assign each action item to an individual or team. It usually takes a lot of people to launch a website.
You have marketers writing the content; designers choosing images and laying out the overall look and feel; a technical team doing all the back-end development.

To ensure everyone is on the same page with no role confusion, you need to lay out a comprehensive plan for what each team or person is responsible for.

A great way to do this is by using the DARCI Decision Making Model that stands for Decision Maker/s, Accountable, Responsible, Consulted and Informed.

This is a powerful model or tool that will help everyone understand:

✓ which individual is responsible for completing which action or item

✓ which individual/s or group/s need to be consulted before any final decisions are made and

✓ who needs to be consulted once a final decision has been made or an action has been taken.

6. Prepare for worst-case scenarios.

Question and poll everyone involved in your website launch on their concerns about what could go wrong and devise a few backup plans for what to do when and if somethings go wrong.

Further Reading: Get Traffic to Your Website Fast

7. Choose a Reputable and Solid Content Management System - CMS.

If you have never launched a website before then the exhaustive list below may help you. If you have already built your website then you might have already gained some experience using a CMS.

A Content Management System or CMS often allows you to design a website from a pre-created template, optimising your content for SEO and editing content after it has been published.

If you are in the process of building a website – one way of going through this checklist in less time is by building your pages on a CMS that already does a lot of the work for you.

There are a few alternatives that you can test on CMS platforms however the most popular one is WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Woo-Commerce, Wix, Elementor and much more.

8. Develop a consistent brand.

Always decide on a consistent brand message and tone – one that you are committed to present consistently across all digital presence and social media. This will make you look more legitimate, credible and memorable.

Understand your value proposition.
Choose a mission statement, vision statement and tagline that represent value for your brand identity.
Choose colours and fonts that convey your brand identity well.
Decide on the type of images that you want to further convey your brand identity and messaging.

Further Reading: What is SEO Friendly URL Structure

9. Create your technical SEO strategy.

Take some time to ensure that your website is given a solid foundation for Technical SEO success. From site architecture and content hierarchy to Meta data and XML sitemaps, do not leave any stone unturned.

Perform SEO keyword research and decide what you want to rank for.
Create a content strategy that satisfies those keywords.
Understand how your existing pages can be adjusted and which pages will need to be created new.
Determine which pages are no longer necessary.
Map out where unnecessary pages can be redirected to using a 301 redirect.

10. Strategize your conversion paths.

Once you have an understanding of the primary pages that will exist on your website – you need to figure out what actions you want users to take and how are you going to capture their information which includes:

What top-of-the-funnel offers are needed?
What middle-of-the-funnel offers are needed?
What bottom-of-the-funnel action will be presented on main pages?
What forms need to be created?
What landing pages and thank you pages need to be created?
How conversions will be tracked?
What actions will take place after a website visitor converts – email responder, etc.

Further Reading:Create Engaging Content for Social Media

11. Set up your analytics software.

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of website data to understand and optimise web usage. Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research and assess and improve website effectiveness.

There are a few website analytics tools to use such as Google Analytics, Open Web Analytics, Wix Analytics, Chartbeat and much more.

Choose which analytics platforms you will be using on the new site.
Decide if any previous analytics tracking scripts will be used or if new accounts/scripts are needed.
Set up new accounts where applicable.

12. Set a launch date.

When you have an idea of what needs to get done before the launch – pick a feasible launch date. Give yourself at least a month.

Best-Digital Marketing plans for 2 to 3 months of research, design and development and we also cater for more immediate request if required.

Further Reading: What Is Video Marketing?

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Before you launch, it is absolutely imperative to review all of the content on your website that means page content and premium content. From data -driven content and downloadable documents to rich media such as videos and images – you want to make sure everything is in place, working properly and looking beautiful.

It is important to set up a staging site to prepare your new website before going live. Staging sites are exact copies of your website on a private server that are used to prepare and proof content and code changes before they go live.

The staging site is a place to edit, amend and play around with updates in an environment that is identical to the one that will be going live. This is so you do not have to worry about crashing your site or messing something up when you make a change.

Later on you will sync content and templates between the staging environment and your live website via your Content Management System – CMS. It allows you to generate a preview of the entire site so you can click around and test things in context.

1. Ensure text is error-free and accurate.

✓ Site content has been proofread for spelling and grammar.

✓ Company contact details are accurate throughout the website.

✓ Generic content such as lorem ipsum has been properly removed and replaced.

✓ All premium content such as case studies, e-books and whitepapers have been proofread. Spelling and grammar are correct.

✓ Copyright date in the footer includes the current year.

2. Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs.

On occasion, a website designer may use a placeholder image if they did not have the correct asset at the time of the page’s creation. It is up to you to make sure each page is picture-perfect.

3. Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.

✓ The text has been copy-edited to ensure consistent brand voice and style.

✓ All company tag lines and mission statements are up-to-date.

Further Reading: Ways To Create Quality Backlinks

4. Check all styling preferences have been implemented.

✓ Paragraphs, headers, lists and other formatting are correct.

✓ Brand colours have been implemented correctly including link and button colours.

5. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.

✓ Scripts, images and CSS are optimised across web pages.

6. Images, fonts and other content rights have been properly cited or licensed.

Even if you outsourced the design to a web designer/developer, the responsibility falls on you to ensure there are no copyright licensing issues.

Otherwise you could end up with a unavoidable infringement settlement on your hands.

Further Reading: How to Write Good Title Tags for SEO

7. Test the site for User Experience - UX.

Website pages are compatible across browsers and devices.
Images, videos and audio files are in the correct places, formatted and working on all devices.
Social media share icons are associated with the correct accounts.
Company logo is linked to the homepage.
All premium contents such as case studies, e-books and whitepapers are stored in their proper libraries/databases and working properly.
Internal links across web pages are working properly.

8. Check the conversion paths have been implemented correctly.

All necessary forms are present.
Landing pages and thank you pages have been implemented.
The correct buttons and call to action – CTAs are present in the proper locations.
Everything is linked together appropriately.

9. Create your site backup strategy.

You can prevent loss of data and protect against malware and other damages by properly setting up site security and regular backups. Check that:

Backup schedule has been created.
Backup location has been identified.
A plan for implementation is set to be put in motion after launch.

Further Reading: How To Increase Conversion Using Video Content Marketing

10. Store passwords and credentials in a secure place.

Many individuals may have been involved in the website launch up until this point so ensure that passwords are reset when the time comes and proper password etiquette is followed.

You will be able to amend, change or delete any existing content that does not serve your target audience and refine future content to provide better outcome.

11. Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors.

Pages have unique page titles and appropriate Meta descriptions.
Each page has a specific purpose and pages meant to rank organically are optimised around a single keyword or set of keywords.

12. Carry out a stress test.

In a website redesign scenario, it may not be 100% necessary to do a stress test because the traffic spike may not overrun your server’s capacity. However a stress test – also called a load test is a must for any company that plans for a large influx of visitors during specific times such as the holidays or after a major press event.

This will help you figure out how much simultaneous traffic your website can handle by simulating up to tens of thousands of simultaneous virtual users from different locations around the world.

Stress tests simulate virtual users and does not totally replicate a real-life scenario so you need to find a load test that will bring you as close to reality as possible.

Load testing usually identifies:

The maximum operating capacity of an application.
Determine whether the current infrastructure is sufficient to run the application.
Sustainability of application with respect to peak user load.
Number of concurrent users that an application can support, and scalability to allow more users to access it.

Load testing is a type of non-functional testing. A load test is a type of software testing which is conducted to understand the behaviour of the application under a specific expected load. Load testing is performed to determine a system’s behaviour under both normal and at peak conditions.

At Best-Digital Marketing, we recommend using Apache JMeter. This is a pretty technical tool that is not ideal for someone who is new to the concept.

Make sure to notify your host or provider that you want to perform a stress test before you actually do one. Otherwise your test might look like a DDoS -Distributed Denial of Service attack on your provider.

User Experience – UX is a key aspect of how they view your business so testing your website before it goes live will bring more confidence to your visitors whilst pleasing them with your services or offerings.

Pre-Launch Website Checklist

Ensure Text is accurate and error free.
Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs.
Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.
Check all styling preferences have been implemented.
Make sure your design is aesthetically pleasing.
Ensure all rights to images, fonts and other content have been appropriately cited or licensed.
Test the site for User Experience -UX.
Check the conversion paths have been implemented properly.
Create your site backup strategy.
Store passwords and credentials in a secure place.
Audit the Technical SEO implementation for errors.
Conduct a Stress Test / Load Test.

Further Reading:How to Set Up a Facebook Business Page – A Comprehensive Guide

Website Post-Launch Checklist

Let’s say you have completed the website and the button has been pushed – the domain is pointing to the new site and you are about ready to tell the world……. that you are here!

But hang on just one minute because you still have things to check for now that your site is officially live.

1. Test the site for user experience again.

Just in case there was an issue at the implementation stage, you want to ensure the experience is consistent with what you reviewed before it went live.

Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across browsers and devices.
Ensure CSS/HTML is properly validated.
CSS styling is rendering properly.
Favicon is in place and rendering properly.
Internal links across web pages are working correctly.
External links across web pages are working properly and opens in a new tab.
Social media share icons are working correctly.
Feeds are working properly such as RSS, news, social media and so forth.
Company logo is linked to the homepage.
404 Redirect pages are in place -page-not-found.aspx.

2. Test your conversion path's functionality.

Take some time to test and validate all of the different features on your website. Lead generation forms, CRM integration and any other technology should work flawlessly across your website.

Forms are submitting data properly.
Thank you message or page displays after form is submitted.
Form data is being emailed to a recipient and/or stored in a company database.
Auto-responders are working correctly -if applicable.

3. Check integrations that third-party tools are running smoothly.

Integrations such as your CRM, E-commerce software and/or marketing platform link to your website and help you run your business.

If there is a potential issue that can cause data loss, you do not want to find out later down the line.

Further Reading: How to Do Keyword Research: A Comprehensive Guide

4. Copy the final website for backup purposes.

Now that everything is in place and finalised, you want to have a clean, clear and defined copy of it should you experience data corruption or loss.

5. Make sure backups are running correctly.

Now is the time to check the implementation of your backup strategy. Check that ongoing copies of the website are being created and stored on a regular basis.

6. Ensure your site is secure.

24/7 monitoring scripts are installed.
There is a plan in place for updating plugins – if applicable.
Ensure that all applicable parties are aware of your businesses password etiquette policies.
Purchase an SSL certificate – if needed. An SSL certificate can take up to two weeks to purchase and set up so ensure you have it prior to launch.

An SSL certificate will ensure your website is encrypted so hackers cannot intercept any of your data and you will put your website visitors at ease too. It will also boost your website’s SEO since SSL is now part of Google’s search ranking algorithm.

Further Reading: How to Create Video Marketing Strategy For Businesses

7. Comply with relevant applicable laws.

Ensure your website complies with any and all applicable laws and regulations. Internet law can be diverse and each industry has its own set of rules to follow.

Hence it is best to consult with your legal counsel to make sure you are not missing or breaching anything — this post is not legal guidance.

Here are a few you might need to know about:

Web pages offer accessibility for users with disabilities –WAI-ARIA.
Web pages announce if the website uses cookies which may be required in some countries.
Website is compliant with usage rights for purchased or borrowed code, images and fonts.
Terms and privacy policies are visible to website visitors.
GDPR compliant if you are planning to offer services to EU countries.
Website is PCI compliant – if you are planning to store and process debit/credit cards details.

8. Crawl the site to highlight errors prior to launch.

Compare the crawl to the previous crawl and see if you find any inconsistencies that were not intended. You also want to ensure that all pages have the proper search engine indexing settings.

You also want to check for formatting consistency where sometimes font codes get dropped into a page by accident so you want to scour your site for any of these weird formatting errors.

Make sure all your formatting are consistent and any unwanted blips are mitigated from your copy.

9. Check technical SEO components for errors.

Page titles, Meta descriptions and URLs are all present and match the original technical SEO strategy.
Load time for site pages is optimised.
A dynamic XML sitemap has been created.
The XML sitemap has been submitted to search engines.
Page URLs consistently reflect site information architecture.
301 redirects are in place for all old URLs – if applicable redirecting old and outdated pages to new pages.
rel=”nofollow” tags are in place on applicable links and pages.
Images on the website are properly compressed to help with load times.

10. Optimise your Metadata.

Metadata is correctly in place for any content in an RSS feed and social media sharing content.
Spelling and grammar are correct in all Metadata.
Alt tags have been added to every image.

11. Set up analytics.

Make sure your website is set up to capture web data and analytics. This valuable information will allow you to continually improve your website going forward so make sure to get this optimised.

Your website analytics codes and tracking scripts have been inserted on website.
Relevant IP addresses have been excluded from analytics tracking.
Funnels and goals have been correctly created in your analytics software – if applicable.
Google Webmaster and Google Analytics accounts have been correctly synced.
Google Ads accounts have been correctly synced – if applicable.

12. Start a post-launch enhancement list.

The website you launch should be functional, well-designed and well-positioned. However it may not be everything you hoped and dreamed on the first go and you certainly do not want to spend months of effort designing a website that consumers will not react well to.

What if your clients do not like it? What if conversion rates fall? This could add up to lost time, money and effort.

Well there is a solution! – how about publishing a solid website then testing and building on top of it — a website creation approach known as Growth-Driven Design – GDD.

Create a document that lists out all the things you were unable to get done for the launch but want to add in the future and add features and elements to it as you discover more about how users interact with your website.

Post-Launch Website Checklist

Test the site for user experience again.
Test your conversion path’s functionality.
Check and ensure all third-party integrations tools are running smoothly.
Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes.
Ensure that backups are running properly.
Ensure your site is secure.
Comply with all applicable laws.
Perform a crawl check on the site to ensure no errors happen on launch.
Check the technical SEO components for errors.
Optimise your Meta data.
Set up analytics.
Start a post-launch enhancement list.

Further Reading: What Are the Different Types of Digital Marketing

Launching a Website Announcement

You did all of this work so far for the benefit of your website visitors, prospects and existing customers.

Your next step is to tell the world about your new website design.

Here is how you do it:

1. Build anticipation teasers before going live.

Launching a new product, a new movie or a new website all requires marketing before the actual release date. Think of the last movie you watched in the cinemas. Did you see the trailer before you decided to buy those movie tickets along with popcorn and coke?

Teasers for your website launch can only help to build anticipation and get users wondering what the new experience will be like and this can build buzz and interest once you finally break the news.

2. Create social media strategy for the announcement.

Decide what social media channels you want to promote the news on, how will you make the announcement and how long the promotion will last.

As you create and craft your messaging – remember to focus on new features and how they benefit your audience.

Further Reading: How to Fix Http 503 Error – A Complete Guide

3. Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site.

For users who are not involved in your brand, a new website launch might not seem like a big deal.

Your goal is to provide an exclusive offer for the first users who visit the site or create a contest that promotes engagement with the website’s new features.

Whatever you choose, make sure you make it fun and interesting.

4. Email to your existing database.

You may want to give existing leads and customers a head’s up about your new design especially if it will cause any confusion when they visit the next time.

You can break the news as a matter of courtesy but also sneak in ways to underscore the value you are providing.

You can also alert all stakeholders of the redesign and ask them to spread the word of the new website.

5. Promote the launch for a month or More.

Just because you post about your new website once on social media does not mean that your audience will drop everything to visit your website in their thousands.

Make your launch a big deal and keep the new functionality top of mind so that your audience is prompted multiple times to check it out.

Once your website is launched – do remember to resubmit your XML sitemap to all major search engines.

Launching a Website Announcement

Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live.
Create a social media strategy for the announcement.
Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site.
Send emails to your existing customer database.
Continue to promote the launch for a month or so.

Wrapping Up - Always Check When You Have Built Your Site

When you have chosen a CMS, built a website and ready to launch – here is a list of things to check before going live.

Do feel free to copy, edit and make your own based on the software you are using to launch and host your website.

Here is a list of the most important highlights from each section:

Complete Website Launch Checklist

Pre-Launch Website Checklist

Ensure Text is accurate and error free.
Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs.
Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.
Check all styling preferences have been implemented.
Make sure your design is aesthetically pleasing.
Ensure all rights to images, fonts and other content have been appropriately cited or licensed.
Test the site for User Experience -UX.
Check the conversion paths have been implemented properly.
Create your site backup strategy.
Store passwords and credentials in a secure place.
Audit the Technical SEO implementation for errors.
Conduct a Stress Test / Load Test.

Post-Launch Website Checklist

Test the site for user experience again.
Test your conversion path’s functionality.
Check and ensure all third-party integrations tools are running smoothly.
Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes.
Ensure that backups are running properly.
Ensure your site is secure.
Comply with all applicable laws.
Perform a crawl check on the site to ensure no errors happen on launch.
Check the technical SEO components for errors.
Optimise your Meta data.
Set up analytics.
Start a post-launch enhancement list.

Launching a Website Announcement

Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live.
Create a social media strategy for the announcement.
Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site.
Send emails to your existing customer database.
Continue to promote the launch for a month or so.

We have grouped items based on pre-launch and post-launch making sure to touch on page content, design, functionality, SEO, branding, analytics, security, and compliance.

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Further Reading: 31+ Creative Ways How to Drive Traffic to Your Website

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6. Images, fonts and other content rights have been properly cited or licensed.

How To Launch A Website On Google With Checklist

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