15 recommendations before launching a website

It is no secret that many websites appear on the Internet every day. Many of these newcomers have a large number of flaws. Either because of the inexperience of the one who was developing it, or because of the laziness, again, of the one who developed it. Such shortcomings can adversely affect the future fate of the web resource. We invite everyone involved in the development and launch of the site to review 15 points that, in our opinion, are important and should be taken into account even before the launch of the site.

1. Content

It is important that articles are written and posted on the site even before the launch. You also need to check them for errors - such things can cause mistrust among users.

It is also important not to publish pages without relevant content. It is also not an option on such pages to write "in development", "we are working on it" or something like that. Do not leave a resource without information on pages such as "About the company", "About us", "FAQ" and similar pages.

2. Page with contacts

If the task of your site is to sell, do not launch it without detailed contact information: phone numbers, addresses, location on the map, email, Skype, Viber. In general, list all available means of contacting you. I would like to emphasize the word “available”, because if a person calls one of the phone numbers, and it is unavailable, the person’s trust may be lost.

3. Meta tags and descriptions

Meta tags describing the site are more likely to play an indirect role in promotion than a direct one: they are visible to visitors in search results, and if the descriptions do not attract attention, a person will not go to the site. Optimize your site so that each page has a description and a title.

4. Security

Thousands of websites are attacked every day. And it doesn’t matter what you do, and how promoted your resource is. The financial information of you and your clients may be at risk. If you are an inexperienced developer, involve someone who can check the site you are launching for vulnerabilities. If you have enough experience to cope with this task, check the code for vulnerability to popular hacks, XSS vulnerabilities and SQL injectors, hacking programs.

If your site is written in Wordpress, install WordFence Security. In the event of outside interference, this module will notify you, and you will be able to react in time to protect the site.

5. Legal information

Perhaps, few people attach importance to such pages of the site as "Terms of Use", "Terms of Cooperation", "Privacy Policy", etc. Just these resource pages are important in order to ensure the legality of your activities and protect the rights of visitors. In Wordpress, the Auto Terms of Service and Privacy Policy plugin is responsible for this. In extreme cases, you can make a list of rules yourself.

6. Work site regardless of JavaScript

Using JavaScript on the site, you can implement interesting functionality. At the same time, JavaScript files are quite lightweight, which allows you not to overload the site and not slow down its work. But, unfortunately, not all browsers are able to display JavaScript elements correctly, and in some this function must be activated separately. Not every user knows about this and, seeing that not all elements are displayed, they may think that the site is working with errors or is simply unfinished. Therefore, you need to provide an alternative way to open such elements.

If you are sure that everything is set up correctly, disable JavaScript support in the settings and see how the site loads. Fix anything that doesn't display correctly.

7. Backup

Most likely, your hosting plans to back up files at certain intervals, but you should not rely on hosting alone. There are many examples where hosting did not cope with this task, even despite the considerable subscription fees of customers.

You can install a Cron scheduler. By making certain settings, it will back up once a week or more often if you so need. Copies will be saved in the location you choose. This will allow you not to depend on the hosting in case you need to restore the site.

For Wordpress there is Dropbox Backup which. The plugin downloads the website database at a specified frequency and saves it to Dropbox storage.

8. Cross-platform

Not checking the website performance on different screen resolutions and in different browsers is a common mistake for beginners. If you see that your site works great on your browser, it doesn't mean that it will work just as well everywhere. The BrowserShots service will help you with this. It will help to check the site for the suitability of work in different browsers, including different versions.

9. CRM integration

If your site should not be easy to hang out on the Internet, but is aimed at attracting customers, take care of choosing a CRM. The site system should allow automating some processes in working with clients. For example, you can use the mailchimp service to automatically send messages to subscribers. It will send a message to all those who have subscribed to the mailing list. And if the person replied to the message, the system will assign a high priority to the letter and notify you.

By the way, many sites have not yet implemented this functionality and are losing a lot of customers.

10. Page 404

No one is immune from failures. Users may be taken to non-existent or deleted pages. They can also accidentally end up on pages they shouldn't have access to. Take care of setting up and designing a page with a 404 error in the design of the site (with the ability to return to the main page).

11. Search Engine Optimization

The content on the site is amazing. But if you plan to promote the resource in search engines, take care of competent SEO optimization. Carefully select and use keywords for the site wisely. Also, don't forget about meta descriptions and keywords in them.

12. Validity of the code

No matter how carefully the work on SEO optimization is carried out, but if the layout rules were not initially observed, the search engine will not be able to index incorrect pages, after which it will assign them a low priority. And after that, you can not even think about the successful promotion of the resource. Google is especially picky about code validity.

13. Safety certificate

If payments are made through your site or it is involved in the processing of other equally important information, enable SSL protection. Many users still understand the value of SSL and HTTPS and will be more disposed towards the resource.

14. Analytics services

Do not forget to connect it to analytics services before launching the site. Otherwise, how can you evaluate the effectiveness of the project? Site traffic, geography and interests of visitors, engagement and bounce rate - these and other indicators are very important in evaluating the effectiveness of a resource.

15. Favicon

It may seem to someone that this small icon does not carry important information and, in general, does not affect the functionality of the resource. Despite this, the favicon helps the user quickly navigate among other sites, both in the search results and in bookmarks, and find the right one exactly by this small picture near the name.

Conclusion

Follow these simple guidelines and you'll be able to get your site up and running without a hitch. Of course, in the course of work, more gaps and shortcomings will appear, but this is more a pattern than a flaw.