Being a part of a world going digital faster than anticipated, owning a website is something unavoidable – no matter what you do. A website is your introduction into the world of codes, images, and interfaces, and like everyone, you too want yours to be immaculate.
The primary conception is that the real work starts when the site is launched, but, like many other common conceptions, this is not entirely true. There is an extensive list of essential tasks that are supposed to occur when you are building a website and before its launch. Here, we list 10 of the essential things you might want to do before launching a website.
1. Reduce the size of all code files
Once the website is out of the development phase, the CSS and JS code files are converted into a readable format to make modifications in the future. There might be a lot of white spaces in these files, which increase their size.
Before going live, make sure to remove all those white spaces. This will make the site run faster and will reduce its total load on the server.
2. Load all JS files at the end of the page
Nowadays, timing is everything. No one wants to stay on a site that takes ages to load. When it comes to your website, this happens when the HTML files containing texts, images, and the main interface load after the JSS files.
Make sure to load all your JS files at the end of the page. This will make your site respond faster to all the user requests, and our generation with little attention spans and high restlessness won’t have to wait to get what they want.
3. Secure your site
Being on the internet means being vulnerable to all kinds of security threats. The advancement of online security has motivated people to use secured sites more than unsecured ones. Browsers playing a major role in this security campaign with huge alerts for HTTP websites.
So, to give your site visitors the best of the content in the safest of the ways, get an SSL certificate for your website. This will ensure that the site visitors and the site, both are safe from any malicious act. Some IT experts can help you get the certification as well.
4. Review everything
As said, “Better safe than sorry,” one should be certain about everything on their website before launching it to the public. This means to check and double-check all the blogs, images, posts, buttons, forms, and any other thing that might exist on the website.
It is always better to get someone else to review the site and blogs for you. This will give you a second opinion, and there will be a lesser chance to leave anything out.
5. Check Functionality
Not having a website is better than having a broken one. Make sure to check that everything is working optimally before the launch. Check the links for any broken ones, see if the forms are responding and if the sign-up page is working.
This will only make you sure that everything is up and running and the website is ready to face the world with everything it has to offer.
6. Prepare Analytics
A website is all about impressions. Once your website goes live, you will want to get the analytical reports of impressions it makes on the audience.
Make sure that your tables, charts, and graphs are all working before the launch. This will help you track your record and will also save a lot of time.
7. SEO Optimization
Make sure that your website is SEO optimized before it goes out in the public. A website is all about clicks and impressions and what makes a website visible in the immense digital world are the SEO optimized keywords.
Make sure the keywords you are using are useful and will generate traffic to your site. SEO optimization is the only thing that will make your website accessible, and if not done right, no one will ever be able to know a site like yours ever existed.
8. Use Favicons
The small image or logo that appears on the browser bar with the site name is called a favicon. Make sure that your site has an impressive and eye-catching one.
These favicons will be the face of your site, and this is what the users will recognize you by. Make sure yours is the best.
9. Check Mobile Phone Interface Compatibility
The era we live in is of reduction and optimization. The devices are getting smaller and more convenient. People now do not like to stick to a desktop or a laptop to browse the net; mostly they use their phones to do so.
So, before the launch, check how your website’s interface looks on the mobile phone. Evaluate the position of every text box, image, bar and make any changes required.
10. Create Backup
No matter how error-free the technology becomes, it can never be trusted completely. There is always room for a glitch to occur and for all your efforts to go down the drain.
The wise thing to do in this regard would be to create a backup of the website. This will secure all your data and information in case the system or the server gets corrupted. With the help of this backup, you can build the website from scratch with no or less effort – in case anything goes wrong.
Final Words
This was the list of the things you need to do before launching your website. What should you do after the launch, you may ask? Well, that’s a topic for some other day. Till then, work to build your online presence because it is all that matters in the end.
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