Creating a website can be meticulous work: presenting your business well, describing and organizing all the products and services you offer, and above all, thinking about the experience of end visitors. To check if everything has been set up before publishing your site, we have prepared a list for you with the most important points that will help you not to forget anything.
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Re-read all the texts
Even if you feel like you know all the content on your site by heart, we strongly recommend that you do final proofreading before uploading. Try to concentrate and pay special attention to:
– spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typing errors
– consistency and ease of reading your texts
– the layout of the content (well-defined paragraphs, airy and aligned text)
If possible, have another person read your texts. When we are familiar with the content, we tend to miss certain details like typos for example.
You can also use automatic spelling and grammar checkers. However, the second human proofreading is highly recommended.
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Check the visual content
Go through all the pages of your website to check if the images, graphics, and videos are displayed correctly. Don’t forget to optimize your visuals so that the site can load more easily. We recommend that you use inline compressors such as OptimiZilla or Compress JPEG for example.
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Test the links
Remember to test all buttons and links located on your site. Open them one by one to verify that they link to the correct corresponding pages. When creating a new website, we often change our minds and implement improvements as we go. This is why it is not uncommon to end up with a broken link following a change of URL for example. Be careful to avoid these kinds of problems because they can frustrate your future customers and have a negative effect on your online reputation.
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Test the display on different browsers and media
After testing the site on your screen using your regular browser, you should make sure that all users will have a similar experience. This is why it is extremely important to check if all content is displayed correctly on different browsers. Open your site and test each page on Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera.
Remember that there are more and more users who prefer to browse on their smartphones or tablet. Even if your website is responsive, you need to make sure that the display stays the same despite changing screen resolutions. You can check this manually or by using specially developed tools to simulate and test the display on mobile devices.
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Check your title and meta description tags
Title tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) and meta descriptions allow you to better organize and prioritize your texts. Thanks to this, robots can orient themselves much more easily and spot important information on your site.
This check may not seem important, but it is actually a crucial element for the success of your website. The presence of title tags and meta descriptions are part of the SEO optimization of your pages: this means that they will help your potential customers to find you more easily via search engines.
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Test your contact forms
If you have contact forms on your site, don’t forget to test it one last time before going live. Check if you receive all emails on the intended inbox as it would be a shame to lose potential customers due to an email delivery problem.
If your website offers a customer account creation or a newsletter subscription, check that the whole process works correctly:
– test data entry
– make sure that a message is displayed specifying the reason for any input errors (for example password too weak, invalid phone number, etc.)
– check if a confirmation email is sent at the end of the registration
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Make sure your site is secure
Needless to say, security is extremely important to your website today. That is why, before putting it online, you must make sure that it is well protected. Verify that all of your pages have a valid SSL certificate. This will not only encrypt the sensitive data of your customers but will also positively influence your natural referencing.
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Optimize the speed of your site
In order for your site to be pleasant to navigate and to meet Google’s quality standards, you need to optimize its loading speed. To check the performance of your different pages, you can use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. Developed to analyze websites, it can also offer advice and tips that will allow you to considerably improve the loading speed of your pages.
Conclusion
Before your website goes live, take care of all the little details. Use our list to carefully check the different items and make sure everything is optimized and working properly!
If you need further advice regarding your hosting or the security of your website, do not hesitate to contact us by clicking on the button below.
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