If you have ever launched a website, you know that it can be a nail-biter. It’s thrilling to see the site go live after the many weeks or months of planning, design, and development. But there are also many things that could go wrong. There could be misspellings and punctuation errors that you didn’t pick up on. Links could be broken. The layout may show up differently than you pictured. Even thoroughly vetted sites could end up with unanticipated problems.
(Pixabay / rawpixel)
Before you push the figurative red button, take a moment to consider the following.
- Sit back and relax – Lower your expectations. Expect a few glitches, and don’t panic when they hit. Jump into action, but don’t let the snafus dampen your spirits.
- Do a dry run – This may sound contradictory to the first tip, but before launching your website, test its functionalities to make sure that everything works as expected. Yes, hiccups are likely to happen, but who says you can’t try to be proactive. Your designers and developers have used their tools to ensure a smooth rollout, but it’s better safe than sorry to double check or do some fine-tuning before you go live.
- Keep content in the wings – Don’t launch your site, then scramble around trying to generate content for the next several weeks. Create at least a couple months worth of content and have it waiting in the wings. We recommend creating a 6-month or one year calendar for blog topics so that you’re not racking your brain every week. Keep your website fresh and relevant by adding blog articles regularly.
Don’t overthink your website’s launch or go into perfectionist mode. You can waste hours micromanaging every last word or image of your website. When you have taken the basic steps to launch the site, move forward and focus your efforts on gathering feedback. Your users will let you know what they like and don’t like, and your or our web designers can help you perfect your website over time.