Congratulations!

So your new website is ready to go up and live!

But before we launch, we go through the following checklist to make sure that your site is working beautifully and up to scratch in a competitive market place.

Preparation

We want to brand the client consistently throughout social media, Google  and other website integrations. To do this we typically need: 

A selection of graphics: 

• A square logo version
• A longer thinner logo version
• A "cover image" (a flexible graphic that represents the brand and can be displayed at different sizes / resolutions)
• Some photos of the client's premises, or shots of the work they've done, for the "photos" section of various profiles

A selection of texts for the "tagline" and "about" profile sections: 

• A brief summary of the company (max 500 characters)
• An abbreviated 160 character statement , highlighting the key elements of the above
• A super-abbreviated 120 character statement for Twitter
  

The longer statement should highlight the company's selling points and the products / services offered. 

The 160 character version fits within the limits of most social media platforms. It's also a nice "one liner" that is easy for any viewers to read, digest and remember.  

Where possible, these should list the services / products that the company provides so that viewers can identify if this company is providing what they're looking for. 

Set Up a Google Account

We'll set up a Google account for the client if they don't have one.  We can use this for a Google Analytics account and a Google My Business profile. It can also be useful if we're using Google Maps, AdWords, or other Google services for the website.

Because we set the account up in the client's name, we need to make sure they add us as Admin  Users on the accounts. 

Tools and Analytics

Analytical information about the site an usage will be vital going forward. 

The default analytical tools we use are Google Analytics and Crazy Egg. 

Google Analytics provides us with some pretty detailed info about our visitors, what pages they visit, how they found us, how long they spend on each page, etc. 

Crazy Egg generates heatmaps - a graphical representation of how visitors are interacting with your pages. For example you can see how often users scroll down the bottom of your page, and how often they click on each of the links. 

Both of these tools require an account setup. And they both give us a small piece of JavaScript to include on every web page. 

Live Chat

Does the website require a live chat feature?  If so we need to set up a ZenDesk Chat account. 

That gives us a small piece of JavaScript that we add to the website pages.  

We also set up appropriate branding on the Live Chat Widget - customising the colours, adding the company name, etc. 

Social Media

If we already know what social media accounts are required, we go ahead and set them up. 

If we're not sure, here's what we do:   

• Browse competitor accounts to see what's typical for your industry 
• Create a list of required accounts
• Make a list of the best ideas
• Set up the accounts on the respective sites / apps

To brand the SM accounts we typically need:

• A square logo 
• A longer thinner logo
• A "cover image" (a flexible graphic that represents the brand and can be displayed at different sizes / resolutions)
• An "about" statement (a short summary of the company's selling points to use on profiles)
• An abbreviated "about" statement (some profiles limit the section to 120 characters, so it's handy to have a very short version pre-prepared for this)

Once the accounts are set up, to get the ball rolling we:

• Create some initial posts / activity, try to include at least one image
• Integrate the accounts into the website (either a feed of recent posts, or just adding links from the website to the platform)

Social Media - Advanced

We may need to set up company and personal accounts on LinkedIn and Facebook. 

If it's suitable for the client and they're active on social media, we may also set up groups on both of these platforms. 

Each of the above will also require graphics / icons and a little bit of branding work. 

Email Security

When setting up the email accounts initially we will have made sure that they all have secure passwords. We don't want any accounts getting compromised and used for sending spam.

Then, before launching, we add an "SPF" record to the DNS, to help with deliverability. This reduces the likelihood of our own emails getting caught up in a spam filter.

How the SPF record is set up may vary slightly from host to host. But here is a general guide:

https://www.pair.com/support/kb/adding-an-spf-record-to-a-domain/

Double Check Contact Forms / Information

There are so many other points to consider when launching a site, that this one can be easy to overlook. 

We double check that all the contact forms work properly, along with any phone number links, email links, live chat links etc. 

We also double check that there aren't any mistakes or typos in contact information - phone numbers, addresses, emails, company numbers, etc!

We always store contact information for the website in a single file, so we only have one place to check, and we can be sure that the information is displayed consistently throughout the site.

Meta Tags

We go through each page to make sure that it has the correct: 

• Meta Title
• Description
• Image Information

We also check that the right information / images show when sharing on social media (see below). 

How Do Pages Share?

Do pages have the correct images / information when shared on social media?

Most platforms provide a tool to inspect how your page will look when people share it. For example, you can check your pages using these tools: 

• Twitter: https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
• Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/inspect/
  

MailChimp

If a MailChimp account is required, we set one up here: 
https://login.mailchimp.com/signup/

If the clients wants to segment contacts we'll create "groups" for this purpose.  If creating groups, make sure to not down the "group code" as this will be used when setting up MailChimp on your site. 

Now We're Ready to Rock 'n' Roll

With all  of the above in place, we're ready to don our web-gear and enter the internet jungle. 

“That's a wrap!“

My name is Martin and I've been your host for this article.

I am by no means a strong writer, but I hope you found it of value.

If so, why not sign up to our newsletter?

It's sent once a month with our latest tips and advice. We don't spam, share your info, or any such sort thing.

Small Business Website Help

I also run a Facebook group called Small Business Website Help. It does what it says on the tin.