Is Your Website Ready for its Big Launch?

Building a website is an exciting time for any company. It can be tempting to click ‘go’ when you think your new site is up and ready – but have you gone through all the checks? Are you sure that you aren’t publishing a half-finished site that will only serve to give a bad impression of your company rather than something that will make you more sales and build your business? Don’t get ahead of yourself, and go through some basic checks to make sure everything is exactly how it should be.

The Plan

No matter what your website is about, or what service or items you are selling, you will need to have a solid plan in place before you begin building it. Speak to someone about SEO (search engine optimisation) and make sure that the right keywords are in place. Plan how many pages you will need, and what content will be on them. Ensure that your links all work. It may sound like a little thing, but it is these little things that can turn people away from you, and onto a competitor site.

Domain Name

Your domain name is all-important, so taking the time to choose the right one is worth it. This should be the first thing you consider because once it is all in place, it is usually too late to change it. Your domain name can be linked to whatever it is you are selling (whether that is trailers for sale, clothing, food, business coaching or anything else), or it can be something entirely different, but it needs to be memorable. Your domain name is your foundation stone; it’s how people will know you online. Making your domain name SEO friendly will also boost your rankings, and therefore your sales.

Meta Descriptions

For your website to score well when it comes to SEO, you will need to have meta titles and meta descriptions on each webpage. Including the right keywords in these descriptions is paramount. If you aren’t sure how to find these useful keywords, you can search on Google for the same kind of product or service that you sell, and discover the kinds of phrases that people use to find them.

Proofreading

Sending out a great looking site that gives all the information and details of what you do, telling potential customers how to buy from you and where to find you, a great website that ranks well on Google is wonderful. If, however, there are spelling errors and grammatical mistakes all over the website, then it doesn’t matter how good it looks or how much information it gives – people will find it off-putting. It will give people the idea that you aren’t precise and careful in what you do, and that is never good when it comes to business.

Sitemap

Finally, don’t forget that you need a sitemap to make your website fully optimised. A sitemap means that your website can be indexed by search engines, and will point the crawlers to where they need to go to push your rankings even higher. In some cases, a sitemap will be created automatically (if you use WordPress, for example) but in other situations you will need to do it yourself – or ask an expert to do it for you.