February 27, 2023
You’ve got questions– like what makes a website a good checklist. Give yourself a pat on the back for navigating to a marketing site blog– because we’ve got answers! While each checklist will look different depending on the nuances of your company’s needs, there are plenty of tasks that should be present on every list to create a great site.
Launching a new website can be exciting, but don’t jump the gun and overlook important features or leave errors for users to discover– you’re better than that! Make your list and check it twice before you go live.
Mobile-friendliness
Mobile-friendliness is not just a suggestion, it’s crucial, as the traditional desktop is becoming a thing of the past. Mobile devices now account for more than half of all website traffic, a stat that simply cannot be ignored. Ensure that your mobile site is running correctly to ensure higher conversion rates, amplify visibility, a site that loads quickly, and confirm that your customers are able to contact you easily with clickable options.
Check out this tool for an easy way to see how mobile-friendly your site is!
SEO
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most imperative subsets of digital marketing, as your digital presence is reliant on users searching for products or services related to your business. Understanding Google's algorithm equates to more organic traffic to your website and more overall visibility. Performing an SEO audit before launching your site is always a good idea.
An SEO audit should include a thorough check for:
- Technical SEO issues
- Website structural issues
- On-page SEO issues
- Potential off-site problems
- User experience issues
- Content gaps
Crawlability and Indexability
If you’re not brushed up on what crawlability and indexability means, we get it! Crawlability refers to a search engine's ability to access and “crawl” content on a page, with spiders moving through links between pages.
Indexability refers to a search engine’s ability to analyze and add a page to its index. Only indexable pages have the ability to come up in search results. No organic search traffic can be driven to your site without indexation. Remember 60 seconds ago when we were talking about how crucial mobile friendliness is? Crawlability and indexability are on the same wavelength, so make sure you’re not overlooking anything in this department.
UX
UX, or user experience, refers to all aspects of human interaction within a company’s online presence, its services, and its products. When it comes to UX, the goal should always be to provide the customer with an overwhelmingly positive experience (duh!) that will potentially turn a sporadic customer into a lifetime loyal one.
If a customer has a bad experience using your site… kiss their business goodbye. A site with excellent UX will provide a user with varying internet skills and abilities to complete their intended tasks and have a pleasant experience while doing so.
When checking your site for UX elements, ensure that your site is all of the following:
- Valuable
- Useful
- Useable
- Findable
- Credible
- Desirable
- Accessible
Set up Google Analytics
You can't win if you're not keeping score. If you’ve yet to set up analytics, you’re not yet winning in this game we call marketing. Grab your checklist and move “set up analytics” to the very top priority. Using Google Analytics and more importantly, GA4 (the newest version), is the most important tool that can be leveraged for a website.
Understanding which KPIs are important to your business creates opportunities to measure success and identify drop-off points to strategically re-engage users. Ensure that you move your tag manager container and/or your Google Analytics tracking to your new site so no downtime exists when measuring traffic from your various traffic sources.
Creating an annotation in Google Analytics marking the launch of the new site so there is a reference point when comparing data MoM (month over month) or YoY (year over year) is also pivotal. We’ve downloaded the data and from our end…it looks like you’re almost ready to launch your site! Just one more step...
Test the site
No one likes a broken link or a bug. Make sure you double-check links, publishing, navigation, and functionality ahead of a site launch. You’ll need to ensure that your content is explicit and easily understood with all website functionalities intuitive for users and that your site is both bug and error-free.
Now that you have your checklist in hand and are knowledgeable of what to look for ahead of a site going live, scour over everything, then- ready, set, launch!
