Website Launch Checklist

This includes:

• Displaying company information such as the company name, company registration number and registered company address
• Cookie notice/preference settings
• Cookie policy outlining the cookies used on the site and the reasons for them
• Privacy policy
• Terms and Conditions

The most common analytics tool is Google Analytics. At the basic level, it is recommended that the following are set up:

• Live site profile - this allows traffic to be distinguished between development environments and the live environment. Check to ensure the live site code is using the correct profile.
• Filters - ensure filters have been set up on the live profile to remove internal company traffic to prevent the skewing of visitor stats.
• Event tracking - ensure actions that the users can complete on the website are being tracked, for example, form completions and button presses
• eCommerce tracking - if the site is an eCommerce site, ensure transaction and revenue tracking is set up and data is being collected in a way that provides useful business reporting
• Search parameters - if the site has onsite search functionality, set up the query parameters to ensure search data is recorded correctly

These are permanent redirects and are used to automatically redirect visitors from the original URL to a new destination URL. Any URLs that were on the previous site that no longer exist should be 301 redirected to the equivalent URL on the new site. These redirects inform the search engines that the old URL has permanently moved to the new URL.This helps to ensure that authority gained for those existing pages is passed to the equivalent page on the new site and prevents users from seeing 404 (page not found) errors. Over time, the search engines should start indexing the new URLs instead of the old URLs.

These are the URLs of the best representative page from a group of duplicate pages and is, therefore, the one that you want to be indexed by search engines. All pages should have a canonical URL even if this is the same as the page URL.

Check all content pages on the site to ensure they have unique meta data (title, meta description) that is written with SEO in mind. Specialist SEO software can be used to report on this and identify issues.

Open Graph data should also be included in the page source to identify which elements of the page you want to show when a page is shared on social media.

Ensure on page content has been optimised for the user and therefore SEO. Every page should have a unique H1 containing the key term the page is targeting. Check each page follows web content principles ensuring it:

• Is scannable
• Is concise but enough text to warrant being a indexable page
• Includes key terms and synonyms
• Uses headings (marked up correctly)
• Includes internal links
• Contains calls to action
• Is free from spelling and grammar errors

There are usually two types of sitemap used on a website; an XML formatted sitemap and a user sitemap.

XML sitemap
This should be automatically generated by your content management system (CMS). It should contain all indexable content in a structured hierarchy. It allows search engines to find all content on the site, allowing it to be crawled and indexed.

User sitemap
This is a useful addition to a site as it provides a user-friendly index of pages on a website. This is often used as a means of navigating a website by visually impaired users who can quickly tab through each link.

Test key pages and complete user journeys and main interaction points across all the major browsers as well as devices. Whilst it’s impossible to test every single device that’s out there, testing should be completed on as many real devices as possible rather than emulators to get the true user experience. Use Analytics data to see what devices/Operating Systems/browsers are the most commonly used amongst current website visitors to help narrow this down.

There are a number of browser plugins that allow various accessibility requirements to be tested. Things to check include:

• Access keys - this allows users to jump to key content areas using keyboard shortcuts. Ensure these are set up and working correctly
• Contrast - there should be good contrast between colours used and consideration is given to users with colour blindness to ensure everything on the page is readable. This is especially important to check when using text on coloured backgrounds
• Fonts - the font styles in combination with the size and weight should be clear and easy to read, especially on mobile devices
• Images - ensure all images have alt text/descriptions that tell visitors using screenreading devices what the image is
• Tabbing - content should be able to be tabbed through, check forms to ensure you can tab through fields in the correct order
• Dyslexia checks - check the wording used on key pages to ensure they can be read and understood by those with dyslexia

In the context of a website, the UI is the visual elements on a site and how the user interacts with them. The UX can be summarised as the overall experience a user has while using a website to complete their intended actions.

A fundamental principle of UX is ‘don’t make me think’. Can the target audience interact with the various elements in an efficient, obvious way? 

Usability testing, with users from the target audience, is a very useful process to undertake before launching a new site to identify where users struggle and how their journeys can be improved.