Before you launch your website, there are 21 things you should do.

For many people, getting ready to create a website is an exciting time. It’s time to consider what needs to be reworked and to concentrate on style adjustments and possible design implementations. If you haven’t prepared a list to keep track of all the tasks, this can be a bit frightening.

To ensure that you don’t miss anything, we’ve compiled a list of 21 things to complete before launching your website.

Creating Your Own Website

When you’re getting ready to build a website, one of the most important factors to consider is the website design services. It’s only second to the quality of the content you aim to host in terms of importance, so make sure you get the design right.

When users visit your site, you want them to have a positive experience. That is what will entice them to return, allowing you to expand your user base. The following is a list of design components that you should concentrate on in order to make your website seem fantastic.

1.Pick colours for your website with care.

It’s tempting to take the easy way out and use the default colour scheme that comes with your website building software or theme when choosing colours for your site. That isn’t generally a negative thing to do, as long as the colour scheme complements your brand and message. If you’re unhappy with your colour choices, you’ll need to make some changes before the launch date.

Make sure you review and approve all of the colours on your site, that you stay true to your brand’s colours, and that you don’t use any colours that are too bright. Avoid using a high-contrast colour scheme or colours that aren’t artistically or functionally compatible with the aesthetics and layout of your website.

2. Select the Correct Fonts

The most critical part of your online presence is readable material on your website. That means you should make sure your typefaces are readable and appropriate for your website’s style and message.

Find a typeface that fits the tone and meaning of your message if you’re aiming to send a lighthearted message. A more classic, official typeface is usually the ideal option if you’re running a company site and need to convey professionalism.

Make sure your fonts are the same size and spacing, and that your phrases and paragraphs are well-structured so that the text is easy to read. If you use contrasted text against a strong backdrop colour, your visitors will find it difficult to read and will quit your site.

3. Concentrate on branding

Ascertain that your brand’s message is clear and well-represented. You shouldn’t have to leave it up to your visitors to figure out what you’re providing or selling. As soon as people view your homepage, they need to know who you are and what you do. Effective branding enhances the user experience while also bolstering your online visibility. It should begin with your initial interaction with visitors to your website.

4. Creating and Using Favicons

A favicon, also known as a website icon or tab icon, is a little graphic that appears in the browser tab next to the page title. Your site will look more professional with a favicon. It provides the impression to your visitors that you care about the appearance of your website and that you put a lot of time and effort into creating it. A tiny feature like a favicon can help make a great first impression, increasing the likelihood that visitors will return to your site and utilise your services in the future.

5. Integrate your social media accounts

Social media is here to stay, whether you like it or not. It has become an inseparable element of many people’s personal and professional lives. As a result, if you want to advertise your business, you should have a presence on as many social media marketing platforms as feasible.

You can choose which major social networks to link to, but a direct link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts is an excellent place to start. You may connect to the internet using a variety of website plugins and services, so do some research to determine which ones will work best for you.

6. Decide on a copyright expiration date.

When you first create your website, one of the most crucial items to mention is the current copyright date, especially if it’s near the end of the year.

If you use WordPress or Joomla, you won’t have to bother about manually altering this date too often. You should be warned, however, that if the copyright date is not changed, your website will appear neglected and abandoned.

Users will often avoid sites that aren’t updated on a regular basis, and an expired copyright date is a clear indicator of neglect. Copyright expiration dates might have an impact on your SEO ranking, therefore it’s important to keep them up to date. Remember to update the copyright date even if the modifications you make to the site are minor.

Content

As previously stated, content is the most important aspect of your website. Design is vital, but content reigns supreme. It’s what will either attract or repel visitors to your website. That is why, while launching your website, you cannot afford to have any errors in the material.

7. Edit, proofread, and spell-check

If you’re like most website owners, you understand the importance of well-written content, whether it’s an interview, a product review, or a news storey. Users will believe you aren’t paying attention to your material, or worse, that you don’t care about it, if they notice errors in syntax, spelling, and sentence structure.

Because misspelt words have the ability to detract from your message, spell check as thoroughly as possible. You don’t want to make a bad first impression, therefore proofread thoroughly before publishing on your website. There are numerous free online spelling and grammar tools available, many of them are WordPress and Joomla plugins.

Consider employing an editor or proofreader if you want to take your blog or news site to the next level. This will help you engage effectively with your readers by adding a professional touch to your writing.

8. Check the functionality of your website

We understand that testing your website isn’t the most enjoyable task in the world, but you must ensure that each individual aspect functions properly before launching. Check sure your contact forms, as well as any other functional aspects of your website, are operational.

If you know how to programme, you should think about writing your own automated tests, especially if you have a lot of elements and browser compatibilities to verify. Long-term, the initial investment of time and work might pay off handsomely. You can avoid manual testing by writing automated tests, which means you’ll have more time to focus on other important tasks.

9. Double-check your CTAs and put them to the test.

Although marketing and sales are not for everyone, if you want your users to do something, such as sign up for a newsletter, buy a product, or submit a query, you’ll need a Call To Action. Make sure it sticks out and is simple to implement for your users. You can’t expect your website visitors to do what you want if you make the procedure complex or unpleasant.

10. Reduce the size of the image

Your website must be visually appealing as well as functional. To do so, you may need to optimise your photographs to ensure that they are the right size.

You should expect your mobile visitors and folks with low bandwidth to have a worse than ideal experience if you employ large images and photos throughout your site. Rather, attempt to strike a balance between a quick load speed and high-quality photos. You can expect outcomes that not only look excellent but also make your website run faster with a little resizing.

Make sure that all of the content you’re utilising is yours, or that you have all of the appropriate permissions to publish it if it isn’t. This goes for all of your graphic content, so make sure you’ve got your ducks in a row before you start uploading photographs.

11. Make use of videos

Don’t worry if you haven’t come up with any video content to post on your website yet. If you have videos to include (or link to), you have a few options for how to do so.

Most websites no longer host their own video files. Instead, they enlist the help of video-sharing services to do all of the heavy lifting.

You can host your content on sites like YouTube and Vimeo by creating a channel. This enables you to link to your videos using a simple URL or by embedding them into your website. This relieves your website of a significant amount of processing load, saving you money on the expense of hosting large video files.

Put Your User Interface to the Test

When it comes to user experience, the interface of your website is crucial. It should strive to make browsing as easy as possible, with straightforward navigation and search. To put it another way, consumers shouldn’t have to think too hard to find something on your site.

12. Consider the Layout Factors

Testing includes carefully evaluating your site’s layout, but it’s one that’s worth reviewing. The more user-friendly your website is, the more effective it will be.

On the internet, users are spoiled for choice. If something on a website doesn’t work as it should, the normal user will look for another option. Remember that a large percentage of users would prefer go somewhere else than deal with a difficult-to-navigate website, so keep in mind that your visitors have lots of other possibilities.

Furthermore, people are unlikely to aid you with problem reports and troubleshooting, so you must complete all of the testing well before visitors arrive on your site.

13. Add a link to your homepage with your logo.

Even though it is quite simple to build, a logo homepage link is a crucial feature that some older websites do not have. It’s a brilliant concept because it allows visitors to return to the home page by clicking on your logo. A logo homepage link is an important component of every website, so be sure to include one.

14. Examine the Buttons

If your website has several functions, there’s a strong chance you’ll have buttons linked with them. They all have different functions and purposes, so you’ll have to test each one to make sure it does what it’s designed to do without creating any mistakes.

Plan your SEO strategy and execute it like a pro.

15. Double-check your hyperlinks

It’s difficult to get SEO perfect on the first go, but you should make sure you’ve covered all of the bases. If you want to reap the maximum benefits of SEO services, your links to other websites and resources must be operational at all times.

If any of the links are no longer operational, you should either remove them or replace them with new ones. If you don’t clean house once in a while and make sure everything is linked and running properly, search engines will punish your site, so it’s definitely worth the effort.

16. Do some keyword research

The keyword component of your SEO strategy is crucial. If your content is too keyword-heavy, your website will be penalised and will appear in search results less frequently, if at all. This implies that your content must be balanced.

You’ll avoid burying your main point in poorly built, keyword-packed phrases if you employ the correct quantity of keywords. Nobody likes to read such kind of thing, and search engines will penalise you by reducing the number of people who can find your page online.

17. Include alternative text for images

Another crucial aspect of SEO services is alt text. The text is related to your photographs, and if utilised appropriately, it can assist search engines in determining the appropriate context for your image when generating search results.

Another advantage of Alt text is that it will provide a hint as to what should be displayed if a picture is absent. However, the biggest benefit of using Alt tags is that they improve your SEO services. The tags provide crucial information to search engines about the photos on your page.

18. Defend Your Domain

Your domain name was most likely chosen early on in the website building process. If your host provider is in charge of registering your name, be sure they have access to all of your domain information. It’s also possible that you put it up in-house. Before you go live with your site, whoever is in charge of your hosting service should supply you with all of the relevant domain information.

19. Additional SEO Services configurations

There are a plethora of extra SEO settings to explore, so make sure you’ve set all of the relevant ones for your site. Here’s a wonderful post that goes through SEO in greater depth. It goes over the aspects that can help you increase the amount of traffic to your website.

Mobile Devices and Responsiveness

At this moment, no one is surprised by the prominence of mobile browsing. People nowadays use their phones for a variety of tasks. Ignoring this feature risks alienating a large portion of your website’s traffic and maybe losing clients.

20. Make Your Website Mobile Responsive

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are used by the majority of internet users. Because these devices are touch-enabled and lack a mouse cursor, users interact with objects on the screens differently than they would with a typical keyboard and mouse.

When it comes to designing a website for phones and tablets, everything like paragraph structure, icons, and menus must all fit on a much smaller screen and operate with a less precise touch interface.

Your site should be mobile-friendly, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test it on a desktop or laptop as well. In fact, testing your website on as many devices and browsers as possible before launch day is a good idea. You’ll be much better off if you can detect and repair any flaws before your site goes live than if you have to do changes or redesigns after users begin to visit.

21. Incorporate collapsible menus into your website’s design.

The mobile internet experience includes a lot of collapsible menus. They preserve screen real estate and make it easier for users who would otherwise have to zoom in to understand little menu items.

You must ensure that all of your menus function properly and open and close as expected. The links within the menu must also function, and they should be spaced so that a user can touch the desired menu item without touching the one next to it.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a variety of things you can take to guarantee that your website’s most crucial elements are operational prior to launch. However, we’ve just scratched the surface; there are many more tweaks and optimizations you can do.

You may always do something extra to help increase your visitor counts. You can transform the way your website attracts and retains visitors with a little effort and a few tweaks here and there.