What to Look Out for When Launching a New Site
Launching a new website in 2024 is a major undertaking that requires careful planning and preparation. Following a comprehensive New Website Launch Checklist 2024 can help ensure your project goes smoothly and successfully.
A website launch represents a pivotal moment for any business to revamp its online presence. Your website serves as your digital storefront, portfolio, and sales engine. With a website re-launch you can overhaul the design, improve site performance, add new features and content, and establish the technical foundation for future growth.
However, a botched launch can mean downtime, lost traffic and sales, and reputation damage. Having a detailed 2024 website launch checklist allows you to map out all critical tasks, from technical audits to pre-launch testing. Executing each step methodically reduces risk and positions your new website for maximum impact.
Key Takeaways
- Launching a new website provides huge opportunities but also risks if not done properly.
- Follow this comprehensive guide and checklist covering the entire launch process from planning to post-launch.
- Focus on design/development, content migration, technical setup, thorough testing, and post-launch monitoring.
- A successful launch requires meticulous planning, testing, and execution at each phase.
Pre-Launch Planning
The planning phase is the most critical to launching a new website without issues. Thorough planning sets the trajectory of the entire project and helps avoid costly delays or mistakes down the road.
Set Goals
Start by clearly defining the goals for your new website. Ask yourself:
- How will this site improve upon the old site?
- What new features or functionality are required?
- What technical hurdles need addressing?
- How will it align with our brand?
- What new opportunities will it create for our business?
Document specific, measurable goals so you can evaluate performance post-launch and determine if the initiative is a success.
Build a Project Plan
Next, build out a detailed project plan and timeline. Identify all required tasks and dependencies from start to finish.
- Allow enough time for design/development cycles, content migration, and rigorous testing.
- Assign roles and responsibilities for all team members.
- Build in buffer room before the go-live date in case delays occur.
Having a well-defined scope and timeline will keep all stakeholders aligned throughout the project.
Choose Your Platform
You’ll need to make an early decision about which web platform or content management system (CMS) to build your new site on.
Some popular options include:
- WordPress: Open source CMS used by over 40% of websites. Extremely flexible and scalable. Has the largest theme/plugin ecosystem.
- Shopify: Leading ecommerce CMS. It is simpler than WordPress but less flexible. It is better for sites focused on selling products.
- Squarespace: All-in-one platform for building sites without coding. It is very user-friendly but needs to be more customizable.
- Webflow: Visual web design tool allowing you to build responsive, modern sites without coding knowledge.
- Custom-built: For advanced custom sites, hiring a developer to build fully custom on a framework like Laravel, Django, or Ruby on Rails is an option. Much more complex.
Consider your business needs, level of customization required, available resources/skills, and budget when choosing a platform.
Create Wireframes and Site Map
Before design starts, create simple wireframes showing the basic layout and structure of key pages. This helps visualize how site elements (header, footer, sidebar, etc.) will be organized.
Also, develop a site map illustrating the site architecture and how pages will interlink. This map will guide both information architecture and technical considerations, like redirects, later on.
Select Design Theme
Whether you’re building on an established CMS like WordPress or creating a custom CMS from scratch, you’ll need to choose a design theme or layout as a starting point.
Consider options like:
- Purchasing a premium theme for expanded features and design flexibility
- Using a free theme with customization options
- Building a fully custom design system matched exactly to branding
Settle a visual style and layout options early so the design can commence.
Design & Development
With planning completed, it’s time to start actual website construction. Carefully execute each step of the design and development process for the best results.
Gather Brand Assets
Provide your design team with all required brand assets, including:
- Brand guidelines documenting color schemes, fonts, image styles
- Logo files in vector and raster formats
- Product/lifestyle photography
- Company icons
- Approved graphics, illustrations, or patterns
This allows designers to produce on-brand web and graphic assets quickly.
Start Design Work
The design phase is when your new site will start taking shape visually.
- Designers create page templates matching brand style.
- Various templates are made for inner pages, blogs, product pages, etc.
- Site-wide elements like navigation, footers, and sidebars are designed.
Provide feedback on initial design drafts. Allow for multiple revisions until designs are pixel-perfect.
Develop Custom Features
Many websites require custom features beyond what the core CMS platform provides out of the box.
Work with your developers to scope and estimate any needed customizations like:
- Integrations with other software platforms (CRM, marketing, accounting, etc.)
- Complex calculators or configurators
- Advanced online appointment booking or sales flows
- Custom data visualizations
Development work will commence once the designs are approved.
Optimize for Speed
Site speed and performance should be a top priority. Slow loading times hurt conversions, SEO rankings, and user experience.
- Minify code and compress images
- Implement browser caching
- Enable GZIP compression
- Use a CDN to distribute assets
- Lazy load of non-critical resources
- Streamline web host configuration
Continuously monitor speed during development and optimize.
Make It Mobile-Friendly
Over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Your site needs a responsive, mobile-friendly design.
- Use relative vs fixed widths
- Size content to viewports
- Implement fluid grids/arrays
- Avoid heavy mobile scripts
- Design touch-friendly navigation
- Check designs on actual devices
Mobile optimization is necessary for reaching today’s multi-device audience.
Conduct Quality Assurance Testing
Thoroughly test the site prior to launch across:
- Different devices (desktop, tablet, mobile)
- Browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc)
- Operating systems (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android)
Check that:
- The site is visually consistent on all device/browser combinations
- All functionality works as intended
- Forms submit properly
- There are no Javascript errors or crashes
Bug fix and refine the site until testing passes all criteria.
Content Migration & Optimization
Your content makes up the meat of your actual website. Properly migrating and optimizing it is paramount.
Audit Existing Content
Start by auditing your existing site content, including:
- Blog posts
- Product pages
- Category/taxonomy pages
- Static content pages (About, Contact, etc.)
- Images/media
- Documents/downloads
Document the types and quantity of content to be migrated in a content spreadsheet.
Update Existing Content
Please go through all existing content and update it wherever necessary.
- Fix any outdated information
- Improve page titles and meta descriptions
- Enhance content formatting for readability
- Update old imagery and graphics
- Expand thin content with more detail
This is a good opportunity for an overall content refresh.
Create New Content
With a new site, you can better cater content to your users’ interests.
Create new pages and posts around topics like:
- Your products/services
- Industry knowledge and trends
- Common customer pain points
- Keyword-driven guides/tutorials
- Location pages if serving a local customer base
Focus on intent-driven topics that attract and convert your target personas.
Optimize Content for SEO
Use best practices to optimize content for search:
- Include target keywords in headers, body content, titles, and metadata
- Improve page speed scores
- Format content for maximum readability
- Use semantic HTML markup (headers, lists, etc.)
- Include relevant internal/external links
- Insert alt text for images
- Follow on-page SEO best practices
Properly optimized content will help pages rank well in search and drive qualified traffic to your new site.
Set Up 301 Redirects
To avoid losing SEO value during the migration, set up 301 redirects from old URLs to the new location of that content.
There are a few ways to handle redirects:
- Use a redirect plugin if on WordPress or other CMS
- Add rewrite rules to your .htaccess file
- Configure redirects through your web host
Redirects pass link equity to new pages and avoid broken links for return visitors.
Migrate Images/Media
When migrating a site, you’ll need to transfer existing media like:
- Product images
- Blog photos
- Videos
- Downloadable files (PDFs, docs)
Options for handling this include:
- Using a migration plugin to transfer media directly
- Manually re-uploading all required media
- Referencing media from the old host if on the same domain
Technical Setup & Testing
With content and basic site construction complete, it’s time to handle the technical details and integration work.
Install Essential Plugins
If using a CMS like WordPress, plugins extend functionality. Install best WordPress plugins for:
- Enhanced SEO (Yoast SEO)
- Security monitoring (Wordfence)
- Performance optimization (W3 Total Cache)
- Sitemaps and robots.txt (Google XML Sitemaps)
- Contact forms (Contact Form 7)
- Backup (UpdraftPlus)
Choose plugins carefully to avoid bloating the site.
Integrate Analytics Platform
Install your analytics software, like Google Analytics, on the new site.
Track key events like:
- Pageviews
- Referral sources
- Time on site
- Clicks/taps
- Form submissions
- Ecommerce transactions
Accurate analytics are crucial for monitoring performance post-launch.
Set Up Webmaster Tools
Register your site with various webmaster platforms like:
- Google Search Console
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- Yandex Webmaster Tools
This allows you to monitor site health, request indexing, and resolve technical issues if they arise.
Submit XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap outlines every page on your site for search engine crawlers.
Generate a sitemap and submit it to search engines through platforms like Google Search Console.
This facilitates proper crawling of new site pages.
Configure Server Environment
Work with your hosting provider or IT staff to optimize the server environment your site runs on.
- Install an SSL certificate for HTTPS security
- Enable CDN and caching features
- Set up proper HTTP compression (gzip, deflate)
- Configure DNS settings and subdomains
- Set memory limits and timeout durations
An optimized server setup prevents crashes and improves site speed.
Conduct Performance/Load Testing
Automated tools are used to test new site performance under heavy load.
This helps identify maximum capacity limits and potential bottlenecks like:
- Running out of memory
- Maximum concurrent users
- Slow database queries
- Bandwidth limitations
Address any weaknesses uncovered to improve stability.
Bug Fix and Refine
Once your full site is up and running, fix bugs, refine flows, tighten up content, and implement the final touches.
- Fix broken elements from testing
- Improve confusing navigation
- Shorten overly long content
- Insert missing images or media
- Update incorrect information
Launch Checklist
Once testing is complete, it’s gone time! Follow this launch checklist to transition your site live without issues:
- Test site once more across devices and browsers
- Enable caching plugins/functionality
- Switch on CDN and compression
- Load balance across servers if expecting heavy traffic
- Clear out caches and local storage in browsers
- Backup current stable site version just in case
- Turn off maintenance mode so the public can access
- Monitor real-time analytics dashboards carefully for any problems
- Check pages are indexing properly in search engines
- Announce launch on social media channels
- Send launch announcement emails to customers
- Pop champagne to celebrate!
Post-Launch Monitoring
You’ve done it…your shiny new website is officially live! But the work continues. To ensure your site meets its goals, carefully monitor the following areas post-launch:
Check Site Performance
Monitor site speed and server infrastructure to confirm the site is running stably. Watch for:
- Sudden drops in page speed
- Spikes in bandwidth usage
- Increased database/server load
- Platform crashes or restarts
Proactively address any degradation in performance.
Review Site Analytics
Check your analytics platform regularly to understand site usage and visitor behavior.
Track metrics like:
- Bounce rates
- Pages per visit
- Conversion rates
- Top referral sources
- Form submission trends
Continuously optimize based on how visitors navigate your new site.
Monitor SEO Progress
Keep an eye on search engine visibility and keyword rankings in platforms like Google Search Console.
Look out for:
- Crawl errors blocking pages from indexing
- Changes in rankings for target keywords
- Impressions and clicks from organic search
Optimizing ongoing SEO will take time but will drive results.
Check Sales/Leads Data
If your website generates sales or leads, pull reports to spot trends and correlations with the new site launch.
Watch for:
- Sudden changes in sales volume or lead flow
- Variance across traffic sources
- New landing pages producing conversions
Attributing increases/decreases will inform ongoing optimization.
Solicit User Feedback
Actively gather feedback from customers on their experience with the new website.
Ways to collect feedback:
- Send post-visit surveys to site visitors
- Monitor social media for feedback mentions
- Engage users proactively on community forums
- Incentivize feedback via giveaways or discounts
Final Thoughts
Launching a new website is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning and execution. Following the steps and best practices outlined in this guide will set you up for a successful, stress-free launch.
While it takes diligence and attention to detail, the payoff of a high-performing website optimized for your business goals makes the effort well worthwhile.
Once your site goes live, the process continues. Monitor its ongoing performance closely across key metrics, soliciting user feedback to guide future optimization efforts.
With a detailed launch plan and checklist, your new website can drive tangible business growth and become a valuable online asset for your company.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to launch a new website?
Launching a new website typically takes 2-6 months. The timeline depends on factors like project scope, technology used, design/content needs, team size, and testing time. Make sure to build in the buffer room.
What are the most important technical steps when launching a site?
Critical technical steps include installing analytics, setting up webmaster tools, performing performance testing, enabling caching/CDN, submitting XML sitemaps, configuring the server environment, establishing redirects, and testing integration across browsers/devices.
Should I migrate all my old content to a new website?
Focus on migrating high-value content with significant traffic or engagement. Then, create fresh, optimized content to complement it. Redirect old URLs to preserve SEO equity. Audit first to ensure that updated or redundant content is migrated.
How can I minimize risk when launching a new website?
Conduct extensive pre-launch testing across devices, follow a structured launch checklist, implement redirects for continuity, back up the current site version, monitor performance in real-time after launch, and have a rollback plan just in case major issues occur.
How do I drive traffic to a newly launched site?
Promote a launch through social campaigns, email announcements, PR outreach, paid ads, influencer partnerships, link building, and content marketing. Focus on the core pages you want visitors to see first. SEO efforts will also improve rankings and traffic over time.
