8 things to consider before launching your website
Friday 05 June 2009
TAGS: Usability | Web design
You think your website is finished? It looks great and you are happy with the content, so surely it’s time to launch your website? Or is it? Neil M Hancock gives his top 8 tips to consider before launching your website.
Whether you are developing a website yourself or you are getting a web design agency to build it, you need to make sure you check your website is working perfectly before officially launching it.
1. Cross-Browser checks
There are many different browsers which users can use to browse the Internet. All of these browsers render information differently, which can result in your website appearing differently in each browser. Your website doesn’t need to look perfect in every browser, but it should work correctly and the user’s interaction shouldn’t be prohibited. The most common browsers to check are Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 (MSIE 6, 7 and 8), Firefox 2 and 3, Safari, Opera and Chrome. You can check how your website views in many browsers using BrowserChecks, a free cross-browser checking website.
2. Proofread your copy
I can not overestimate the importance of reading your content and then re-reading it, and finally getting someone else to read it. It’s amazing how many small errors you will find; even when you think you have proofread it all.
Also, if you or your friends are getting bored when reading through the copy, it’s not a great sign about how interesting your copy is. You should look at splitting some of the copy up into more easily digested sections.
3. Check all your links
You must check all your links, it is very easy to misspell a pages URL or forget to include the http:// on external links. Some links you might prefer opening in a new window, have you checked they do?
You should ideally check all your links manually, however this may take all day if your site is very large, instead you can use a link checking tool, which will return any broken links it finds, Xenu Link Sleuth is a free link checking tool that I highly recommended.
4. Check your forms and shopping baskets
Have you checked that all your forms work and the correct information is sent to the correct people? Data capture is an important aspect of any website; the correct user’s information must be sent to the relevant users. Run a test, make a fake enquiry and then check with all the users that they received all the information they required.
Can you enter incorrect information into fields in your form? Can you submit your form without entering all the required fields? You should test your form validation to remove any incomplete emails being received.
If the site is an eCommerce site, create a 1pence product and purchase the product, did all the required steps proceed as predicted?
If you can create an account, can you log in successfully and access the require admin areas?
Finally check the user experience of interacting with your website, was the site easy to interact with? Was it obvious when your interaction was complete? Were you taken to a thank you page?
5. Installing analytics tracking software
Would you like to know how many visitors your site is getting? Where these visitors are coming from? And what they do when they are on your site? To track all this information you need to install an analytic tracking software program like Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tracking packing from Google but unlike the traditional ‘you get what you pay for’ saying, Google Analytics is an extremely advanced and powerful analytics package.
6. Adding an XML sitemap
If you are unaware what an XML sitemap is and why you need one, read my ‘XML sitemap walkthrough’ article. If you are aware of what an XML sitemap is, then you must upload one, and then submit it to Google Webmaster Tools.
If you are using WordPress you can install the Google XML sitemaps plug-in, which will automatically update your sitemap when you create new posts, categories and pages.
7. Customised 404 pages
The most commonly overlooked aspect of web development is the 404 page. This is the page that the user sees if they try and access a page that doesn’t exist. It is the standard white page with ‘The page cannot be found’ text. This page can be modified to contain your standard layout and navigation, with a personalised ‘page not found’ message. This is useful to retain as many wayward visitors as possible.
8. Validation
Although making your site validate is not of major importance, approximately 80% of all websites do not pass current validation criteria. However it should still be checked to find out if any major errors could be affecting your site. Some errors could even stop the search engines from accessing your pages, which in turn would stop your site from appearing in the search engines. You can check if your pages validate at the W3C Validator.
Neil M Hancock is the Search Marketing Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your marketing objectives through an SEO and Link Building campaign; please contact our resident SEO expert using one of the following.