Whether it is your first time or 1,000th, anyone who knows how to launch a website knows it takes a strong, detailed process to have a smooth launch. Making sure your tags are installed correctly, things look good for mobile and desktop are just a few examples of what to consider.
Want to have the best website launch possible? Use our Master Website Checklist for a smooth, website launch! This is a high level checklist. Your website plan should review pages to create or edit, copy and the to-do items to get from beginning to end.
1. Review Website Plan
Before you start your web project, create a plan. It can be simple! This plan should include stakeholders and approvals: does compliance need to review copy? Should sales audit the lead form for correct inputs to the CRM? Who tests the forms or purchase flow?
Using this plan will ensure a smooth launch process that involves all necessary parties and avoids the “I didn’t get to see that!” comments before launch. Having a plan is the best advice on how to launch a website. This plan should include any copy and creative needs, the project outline, resources, and goals.
2. Set A Launch Date
Communicate your launch date to all parties ahead of time. This allows everyone to prepare for the launch and support if things go wrong. Try to set a launch time after hours: before work starts or in the evening. When website traffic is the lowest is best. Some teams opt for a midnight launch, which isn’t always necessary unless you have a very high traffic site.
Once your launch date is set, communicate and then communicate some more to all parties and departments involved.
3. Installing Code – How To Launch A Website
Depending on the setup of your website team, there will be ongoing code installation needs. We love using the free Google Tag Manager to manage all pixels, codes, events and other tracking on your websites. Why? It helps minimize code by allowing you to pause or activate certain pixels as needed and allows you to install new code without a developer or having to push a new version of your site to production.
Over the months and years, it is easy to forget that campaign pixel that is installed, or where code is installed, creating drag on your precious load times. Google Tag Manager provides a clean view into all the code and tracking for your site so it is easy to manage and audit.
Here is baseline recommended analytics to start with but will vary depending on your needs:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Bing Webmaster
- Shopping or eCommerce code
- Vendor specific tracking
- Social media pixels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest & more)
4. Testing Website Usability
When all the copy and creative is loaded, make sure to avoid the “why doesn’t this look good on my phone” or “why can’t I click here” comments with usability testing. Many CMS platforms like WordPress or Wix have this built in. If you use Elementor, for example, you can preview each page in Desktop, Tablet or Mobile view.
Try a free tool like BrowserStack to get testing in multiple browsers, apps and devices. Or you can manually test multiple devices using Developer Tools in your Chrome Browser. Click on links, or what appear to be links. Try sending to friends and family for feedback too!
This is a good time to set your support guardrails if you have a large site. Set how many devices, browsers and versions you and your team plan to support. Will you support Internet Explorer and if so, how many versions back? What about Edge? Chrome? iPhone 6? Android? Using this list you will know exactly what to check for when launching your site and any subsequent launches.
5. Permissions Review
Who has access to edit your website? At what levels? This is the time to decide who has access and what they can change, if anything.
Understand your launch flow as well, not just for the initial launch but subsequent launches. If copy has to go through compliance, create a process and workflow that ensures copy or edits go through the proper approval channels. This may mean only one person has the “go live” button access, or that a project manager or senior director must give the direction to anyone with admin privileges.
6. Securing Your Site
Securing who has access is one step in website security. Hackers or just anyone bored may try to access your site. You want to review your security options and backup procedures before you launch your site to prepare for the future.
WordPress can be notorious for hackers using the default /wp-admin that comes with WordPress sites. One option is to move your login screen to something customized so it is more difficult to even try to break in if you use WordPress.
Get with your web team or web development agency on how to secure your site and database. This will largely depend on what your website does, how data is transmitted and what tools or services you use. Many hosting providers have options for security.
Backing up your site is important in case hackers or back actors do get in. This happens even to the most secure sites. Depending on the frequency of updates or size of your site, you may want to back up monthly or even multiple times a day. Make sure to discuss this as part of your process and seek advice specific to your needs. Knowing how to launch a website involves planning for securing and backing up your site.
7. SEO Review
There are some great tips out there for auditing your on-page and technical SEO. These can be used to start your pre-launch review, but make sure to check other areas port over correctly before launch. Redirect files, XML sitemaps and any URL changes, for example.
Here is a great SEO checklist from SEMRush to cover more in-depth SEO checks for breadcrumbs, canonical pages and more.
For an existing site launch:
- Compare your previous sitemap and URLs with the new site. Any new links should be added to your XML sitemap. Any updated URLs for existing pages need to have redirects added
- Update your XML sitemap post launch in Google Search console (if needed) or initiate a recrawl of your site
- On-page SEO such as title tags, H tags, meta descriptions etc. Yoast SEO is fantastic if you need help optimizing your existing content
For a new site launch:
- Set up your accounts for Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools (mentioned above)
- Generate your XML sitemap and ensure it is crawled / indexed by the major search engines. This can be done in GSC or Bing Webmaster
- Create your meta descriptions
- Add a favicon to your page title so it stands out in a browser tab
8. Final Review & Audit
Now is the time to get the team together for one final review. Get as many hands on board for a final review as you can, but limit the decision making group to a few for what changes need to be addressed.
Create a shared doc in Google or a project in Microsoft Teams, for example, so everyone can note edits together and minimize redundant comments. Setting a review meeting to walk through the site is a great way to show to approvers who are busy, or those stakeholders you want to discuss questions with before launch. This is how to launch a website the right way.
This is the time to document what is a deal-breaker or a post-launch activity. Deal-breakers will stop the site launch until it is addressed. An example may be a page not rendering well in mobile. A post-launch activity may be adding more copy or clarity to an FAQ page, or a better image.
9. Go Live
Time to show to the world! Once your site is launched, review again internally: test links, open up your phones and try to break things. Take your notes and address any issues quickly or add to your post-launch list. Congrats!
10. Post Launch To-Do List
Prioritize your post-launch checklist to tackle. Try to focus all changes or updates into one or two additional launches, or if you have regular monthly updates add to that list.
Finally, set your process for updates to your site. Find tools and resources that let you operate and update your site with as few new pushes as possible. This includes using plugins to manage content or code. If you minimize pull site launches, you’ll minimize issues and potential breaks. Ensure you are maintaining your site and any plugins or updates needed to keep things secure and working.
Conclusions- How To Launch A Website
Congrats on launching your website! We hope this helped you learn how to launch a website. As a note, this is a guide. Every site is unique and you and your team should review your process, tools and resources needed for your specific situation.
If you need support or help with your website process or advice on how to launch, contact us for a free consultation.
Download The Checklist Here!
