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Things to Consider Before Launching a New Website |
By Mercedes Aspland
 Whether you are replacing an existing site or launching a new one there are a few things you need to think about before going live. The aim of this article is to give you some advice and tips to ensure your launch goes as well as possible.
1. Dont launch at peak times
It is not a good idea to launch your new website at a time when you are likely to get high volumes of traffic. The reason for this is that you will probably have some errors on your site that will not be discovered until people start using it. This may sound surprising but it does not seem to matter how much you test it in advance visitors will always do things you dont expect. If the volumes are really high you could find yourself with all sorts of problems.
2. Test on lots of browsers
Your web designer should do this for you however you might want to make completely sure yourself. The main browsers out there are Internet Explorer and Firefox. You might also want to
check on Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.
It is important to note that there are several versions of the browsers, particularly internet explorer. The best way to deal with this is to ask as many friends as possible to test it on their computers.
3. Test Usability
You may have had a beautifully designed site that you think is great and easy to use but what do others think. Ask your friends and family to go through your website and see what they think. You might find that they find something difficult that you thought was easy. The key to a successful website is that everybody can use it. Those people that cant figure it out will leave and not make a purchase.
Once you have worked out the things that need changing you will be able to work with your web developer to get the perfect site for your business.
4. Test Functionality
If you have a user login or purchases on your site you want to test all these functions. Make sure you do a test purchase and set up a test account. This will allow you to spot and errors that might be occurring before you go live. Again your developer should test this, but it is easy to miss things so you should do your own checks.
5. Check all the titles
All of the pages on your website have titles. You want to make sure all of the pages have relevant titles for SEO purposes. Make sure you go through this before launch and edit them. If you are replacing an old site make sure they are the same as the original site you had, if your SEO was good. You should also make sure the urls are the same if you are replacing a website.
6. Check links after launch
Once your website has launched go through all the pages and the links on them and make sure everything is working. This will enable you to correct any errors that may be appearing before too many people see your new site.
7. Monitor errors
Again once you have launched your site you want to keep a check of the website log for the first couple of weeks. This will allow you to identify any errors as soon as they occur and get them corrected.
Conclusion
When you launch a site you need to be very methodical before you go live and after. It is important not to worry if some minor errors occur at first as this will always happen. However staying on top of things will allow you to correct the errors quickly and have a perfect site in no time.
If you have found this article useful then you can get more information from Dazines - website optimisation, London UK.
Dazines - website design, web development, SEO Company London UK
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