Launching a new website in the world wide web can seem analogous to a drop of water in the ocean. However, a simple checklist can mean the difference between a successful launch and a huge disaster. There is so much that is involved when it comes to birthing a new website besides just the technical matters of actually creating it. Following a simple yet comprehensive checklist would be enough to effectively launch a decent website. Wouldn’t you know it, we’ve published one for you below!
Aesthetics
This is the actual look of the website: colors, fonts, columns, layout, and everything else that makes up what the visitor sees. This may not be the first thing you consider when conceptualizing the website in the first steps, but this is one of the first things that a website visitor judges within seconds of entering.
Studies show that the first 15 seconds are the crucial time period wherein visitors decide whether they want to stay in a website. More often than not, that decision is driven by how the website looks.
Clean Visual Look That Aids Easier Reading
These days, there has been such an emphasis on the importance of visual aesthetics that design simply cannot be overlooked. Visual design can be greatly improved by using modern design themes such as the minimalist look that makes use of simplicity, cleanliness and straight lines.
High Quality Images
Also, the use of high-quality images should also be considered in order to greatly improve the entire aesthetics of the website.
However, it is counterproductive to bombard a website with just visual design without an appropriate amount of interactive or responsive elements. That said, a modern website has to use design to help visitors interact with the website intuitively.
Performance
The next factor to consider before launching your new website is definitely performance. Performance can be objectively evaluated through a battery of different tests. In fact, there are so many tests that can be done on a website prior to the initial launch.
User Testing
Usability can be tested through user testing, which exposes the website to willing participants or evaluators to check out how a user would interact with the website in the real world. Usually, these participants are given a number of tasks to achieve within the website and the developers can then learn from the users’ experiences and feedback.
Cross Browser Testing
Cross browser testing is a simple test conducted to see whether the website will function perfectly and equally when opened using various internet browsers (i.e. Chrome, Opera, Firefox, etc.).
Broken links testing is another simple test that can be conducted by anyone. It simply entails checking all the links being provided in the website and making sure that they are all working and actually redirecting the user to a working website.
Mobile Testing
Another test that should be done, especially in this day and age, is mobile device testing. As more and more people browse the internet through their mobile devices, websites are now conforming and developing mobile-friendly websites to suit their visitors more. Mobile device testing makes sure that the mobile version of the website is just as useful and provides just the same amount of services as the desktop version.
Content
Spelling and Grammar
Content is one of the simpler things to check prior to the launch of a new website. Checking content can just be as simple as proofreading the entire text provided in the website to make sure there are no misspelled words. Aside from spelling errors, any grammatical and punctuation errors should also be checked
Check for Test Filler Content
Another simple thing to do for a content check is to make sure there are no filler words left in the website. It is common for web developers to put placeholders instead of the actual content such as “Hello world” and “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…” These placeholders are supposed to be replaced with the proper content and sometimes, they can get overlooked in all the work done.
There are still so many things to check before launching a new website, but the main thing that should be clear before the launch is that the website should work. A checklist can make sure that the hard work done to develop the website will not be in vain and that the website’s debut to the world will proceed without a hitch.
If you need help with other parts of launching a new website, you should reach out! We’re happy to chat with you about your needs.