Nobody wants to launch a website to just get ignored by Google and bring 0 customers. Sometimes the deadlines come quicker than expected and you just want to push it to live. But, what if your customer or client finds a mistake on the live website?
For a quick checkup of your website, here is your 100% mistake-proof website launch checklist.
Go through each point and validate your website.
1) Consistency in Branding: You have heard many times that people can recognize Coca-bola by its bottle, Domino by its colors, and Nike by its tagline. All these are elements of their brand.
And, each element is consistent across social media, public events, sponsored events, ads, products, marketing collaterals, and everywhere. Therefore, the first item in our website launch checklist is having the same brand colors, fonts, shapes, and messages on every page.
2) Hero Section Design: Do not design like the below website. Hero Section is the first section your visitor can see. You need to make it look clean, but have one simple purpose for it and achieve it.
3) Images & Text Optimization: Here, I am talking about the size of the text on your website and dimensions of Images. Let me tell you that 94% of people create first impressions of the website with its design. Images should not be stretched or cropped. The size of Images should be < 300 KB to ensure low loading time.
For text, don't put it in a very small size. Use medium or large size text. Don't design text in a monotonous manner. Make sure it is supported through designs or icons.
4) Responsiveness: More than any device, mobile is and should be your important screen. Check your website on desktop, mobile, and tablet mode.
Test every section and see if it is responsive. You can find a responsiveness checker online through a simple google search.
5) Boring CTAs: You are developing the website to get more leads and customers. What if they are not clicking on the most important part? The CTA.
Make sure that CTA is designed corrected, has more contrast than surrounding elements. Also, the Text should not be boring like "Learn More", "Read More". It should be actionable like "Give me my FREE Ebook" "I want this FREE strategy Session". Long and actionable CTAs increase clicks by 33%.
6) SEO Optimized Content: Starting with Meta Description & Meta Title, you should never leave your content without keywords. It becomes useless for Google. And, whatever becomes useless for google is useless for this world. (Not joking :p)
Research Keywords, Create a keyword strategy and use them in complete web content. Try using them in H1 headings to enhance the impact.
7) Answer Pain Points: While writing the web copy, remember that it's for your customer. Talk about their pain points and show the benefits of working with you.
Don't write it like a blog, if it's getting boring, hire a copywriter and get the copy done. A good copy can increase the retention time by 6 seconds for a website. It's huge.
8) URL Optimization: This is one of the most ignored parts of a website launch. The first thing google notices about your website is your URL. Use URL Generator and try using keywords in the URL.
9) Google Search Console: As I told you earlier, anything ignored by Google is ignored by this world. So, let's show google that you exist.
The first step to do that is setting up Google Search Console. You can submit your site here and google starts to index it. Creating an XML sitemap and submitting it to Google is another step that brings your site to more visibility.
10) Optimize the Loading Time: If your website is not completely loaded inside 3 seconds, you are losing the game. Visitors are special guests. They need proper treatment and not ignorance.
Check your loading time with the page speed tool of google and know the factors impacting it. Work on it if it is > 3 seconds.
11) SSL Certificate: That's one super important feature to have in this website launch checklist. What people can see definitely impacts the credibility of your website and your brand.
Without SSL Certificate, your website URL looks like HTTP: and with SSL, it looks like HTTPS:
It ensures the basic safety of the website and users visiting it.
These were the 11 top items to have on your checklist for a website launch. If you just check them and tick them off, you will make your website in the Top 1% of the Internet.
