In this episode, Pete and Jeff consider the elements you need to consider when preparing a website for launch.
Pre-requisites
We're assuming you already have:
- Built the site properly
- Browser-checked it the responsive layouts
- Populated it fully
- Figured out your caching
Pre-Live
- Unblock Search Engines
- SEO Plugins & Basic Set Up
- Business Details in Schema / SEO Plugin
- 301 Redirects of old URLs to new URLs
- Site Title / Tagline (remove "Just another WordPress Website", etc)
- Are Web and Home URLs updated to live site
- Remove standard posts / hello world content
- Make sure GA4 is installed
- Make sure tracking codes are copied over from the previous site
- Ensure all plugins / themes / wordpress updates are complete (even if they're not on a maintenance plan, you should hand the site over with 0 updates required).
- Run an SEO Health Audit
- Make sure there is only 1 H1 tag per page
- Run a full check for any placeholder text
- Make sure forms submit
- Take payment gateway of of Test / Dev Mode (if applicable)
- Check load times on all page templates are less than 3 seconds (absolute maximum)
- Check Social Media links are correct
- Confirm 404 page is set correctly
- Ensure Cookies and Privacy Policies are correct / up-to-date
- Install security plugin (like Wordfence of iThemes)
- Check all contact forms go to the clients email address
Post-Live
- Submit to Google Search Console (this might involved submitting a new (different) sitemap.xml URL
- Make sure SSL Certificate is installed
- Set up Instant Indexing for Bing and Google
- Set up maintenance plan (if the client has signed up)
- Send Website Owners Manual (with agreement for maintenance plan if they're not signed up already)
- Ensure all licensed plugins have the new (live) domain authenticated on them
