Launching a brand new website is a big moment. Something you’ve been working will be released to the world. If you want your website perfect and to shine brightly you need to check everything carefully. You don’t need bugs, which will distract users and cause problems. The secret of success lies in patience. If you were building a website for months, you also need a careful final check. Haste is not an option here!
So, checklist. Before launching a website you need to prepare a list. What is necessary to be on the list, and how you can simplify the process. We’ll talk about in this article.
1. Check your Website’s Usability
First of all, all functional aspects of your website should work as intended. Website usability is very important. If your website works properly, you’ll have more conversions, particularly if you have an e-shop. As a result, your website will be better SEO optimized. Furthermore, you want to be better ranked on SERP, which you need. How to efficiently see what doesn’t work? Easy – look at each element as a visitor would look at it.
Images need optimized for speed
Images at large resolution could drastically slow down your website, so compressing is the best option. They’ll be smaller at size but the resolution will be the same. Use online programs, or PhotoShop if you’re a pro.
Check your hosting provider
A good, reliable hosting provider that accommodates your website is essential. A good hosting solution for long-lasting performance is beneficial. The hosting solution must be appropriate for the size of your website and must answer all your requirements in case of any problems.
If you’re still looking for a reliable hosting provider, check Hostinger – it has the most affordable solutions for all kinds of websites. Don’t try to economize, but choose the best solution because it will pay off in the future, just check if it answers all your requirements. Think today, so you don’t have a headache tomorrow.
Does your website theme follow its purpose?
The theme of your website should follow it. Someone will say the simpler is better, and sometimes it is. Try to choose the theme that is pleasing to the eye, with a font that is easy to read.
Speed check
One more important thing. You should check the size of your website’s pages and load time speed. No internet user will wait for a web page to load more than 2 seconds, according to the latest research. Make sure everything works like a Swiss watch.
2. Delete Unwanted Plugins
Unwanted and unused plugins can cause your website lots of problems, usually slowing down the page loading speed. Many themes come with predefined plugins which don’t always have a purpose. If you don’t use them, delete them. Also, don’t install unnecessary plugins that you may someday use, but probably won’t.
3. Website’s Context
As we said earlier. If you check the website, you need to think like a user. Read all content one more time asking yourself: Why would I visit this page? Is the content giving me all the relevant information? Does the website address me personally?
Sometimes the small things are important and can give you more conversions, so be critical until everything is perfect.
4. Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile-friendliness is crucial if you want your online business to grow. Nowadays people are usually in motion. As a result, the mobile phone is the best friend and a powerful researching tool. Also, Google is focusing on mobile-first indexing so it’s one more cause to check carefully before the website’s launching.
The point is that everything must work on a mobile phone as well and pleasant as on desktops: text must be easy to read, the content could be the same on both versions (of course), spacing, navigation button must be easy to find, etc.
5. Browser Compatibility Check
Always keep in mind that users worldwide don’t use the same browser. Something you see perfectly on Chrome doesn’t look the same in Safari, for example. You need to check how your website will look on the most popular browsers, such as Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, etc.
You can check manually, but the good news is that you can also find free tools that will do that instead of you. Once you’ll find out how everything’s working, you’ll know what you eventually can improve.
6. Social Media Integration
Where you’ll better find customers than on social media? Making profiles on relevant social media will make it easier to spread your mission and advertise your product, so be sure that everything works properly. Also, make sure that social media buttons to visit your profiles and sharing content are working properly and that are transparently placed.
7. Legal stuff
Honestly, this is convincingly the most boring part of this checklist but you need to check it, and you need to do it very carefully so later you wouldn’t have legal issues.
Make sure you have licenses for all images, plugins, fonts, themes, etc. Also, ‘Terms of service’ – you can’t launch a website without it. Cookie warning is a requirement almost everywhere so make sure popup works. If you are about to launch an e-commerce website, you’ll also need a comprehensive ‘Terms and conditions’ section.
You can’t legally collect any data without a Privacy Policy explanation, so check it out.
More requirements are depending on your website’s purpose, these are just the most common ones.
Conclusion
As you don’t want to ruin your big moment, use your patience, and check twice everything that may potentially ruin it. One or two days delay of launching to put everything finally in its place is unmeasurable when once launch it and you don’t have problems from the very start. Remember – the pursuit of perfection is always fashionable. Cheers!