Design Business Website Launch Checklist

Are you struggling to launch or improve your design business website? If you're new to online marketing, you're not alone. Launching or redesigning a website can be daunting, especially if you are not working with an expert to help you get it done.

We recently redesigned our website and, even with the help of an expert website design service – it took forever. (Well, not quite forever.)

So, if your business website is new or going through fundamental changes, we offer this invaluable website launch checklist from the design and development pros at YourOnlineMarketingTeam.com:

A Website Launch Checklist

Please remember that the list below outlines the essential elements that you need to have in place to launch your business website.

• Page content – A business website should display a minimum of three pages: Home, About, Services/Products. Each should describe in detail your purpose, as well as the benefits of doing business with you. Beyond these three critical pages, you should also have a Contact Us page and a Blog.

  • Home page – This is the most important page on your website, with 60% to 80% of visitors landing here first and, since first impressions are so important, the copy you create for this page will be critical to your success. This is a great place to share your vision and mission, as well as your purpose.

  • About page – What makes you unique? What are your qualifications? Do you have specialized training? Why are you so committed to the path you’ve chosen to pursue? How have you helped others, and how can you help the reader? Answering all of these questions will go a long way toward generating interest from your target audience.

  • Services/Products page – Benefits, benefits, benefits… will be the key to selling your services or products. In other words, while sharing features and details are fine, you must also answer the age-old question of all consumers, “What’s in it for me?”

  • Video & Images – It’s important to remember that interior design is a visual realm and that video and images of your work will go a long way toward convincing visitors to your website that you have what they need in terms of talent and creativity.

  • Testimonials – Modern word of mouth advertising has evolved into testimonials and online reviews. This is especially important for a service business like interior design and, if your website is lacking testimonials – it’s time to add some – NOW!

• SEO – Search engine optimization is, and will forever be, a critical element to a successful launch, and there are a few crucial steps to consider:

  • Word count – While Google won’t necessarily ignore a page with little content, they will not consider it very important if you can’t publish at least 300 words. This is true of your pages and blog posts. If you can’t offer 300 words on a subject, what you have to say must not be very important.

  • Meta data – Your page titles, Meta descriptions, and tags should all be tailored to the content you publish. All should be descriptive and compelling to attract both the search engines and your target audience. Titles should be 60-70 characters, while descriptions should not exceed 156 characters (otherwise, it will end in ellipses in the search results).

  • Image alt tags – Hidden in the code behind the images you publish, image alt tags are hints of the image content to the search engines. They can typically be added in the same menu you use to edit or publish your images.

• Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (Courtesy of DreamHost.com)

  • A privacy policy is required by law if you’re collecting any personal data. This policy spells out exactly how any information (emails, contact information, and more) will be used.

  • Terms of Service (TOS) statements are not legally mandatory in most cases, but they can still be valuable. Your TOS states the ground rules for visitors who want to use your site.

• Set Your Site to Back Up Regularly

  • If your website crashes or is hacked, or if you install a plugin that causes a problem, having your files backed up regularly and automatically is a lifesaver.

  • There are many ways to approach this task, but one surefire way to keep things running smoothly is by using managed hosting for your website. That way, your provider can take care of restoring backups and automatically archiving them for you.

• Set up a Comprehensive Site Map

  • Sitemaps play a vital role in how search engines read and index your pages. While a sitemap won’t directly improve your rankings, it can help to ensure that your site is indexed correctly.

  • If you use WordPress, there are plugins available to help you generate and manage sitemaps. Google also has an established process for submitting your sitemap directly.

• Add Analytics Tracking to Your Site

  • Once your website is up and running, you’ll need a way to measure how well it performs. That’s why it pays to set up an analytics tracking solution before even launching your site.

• Connect Your Social Media Accounts

  • Promoting your site on social media can be vital to reaching your target audience. Providing icons so your visitors can easily find your social media pages is one of the best ways to do that.

• Check for Responsiveness on Mobile Platforms

  • Whether you’re writing a blog post or operating a Shopify store, it’s vital that your site looks good and performs well on devices of all sizes. One easy way to check your website’s mobile responsiveness is with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

While this is not a complete list of all that needs to be done to ensure your website is ready for launch, these are the minimal steps that must be taken to reach take-off (so to speak). If you're unsure whether you can handle all of that, we can introduce you to a website design team that can help. Get in touch with TD Fall today.