20 Steps to Launching Your Website
The following is a list of twenty items that we came up with that will help you plan and achieve a successful website launch. We have launched over 100 websites to date and these tips are gleaned from years of experience. Learn from my mistakes and research, follow each step and you will be on your way to becoming part of the world wide web.
- Find a reputable web design firm
Do the homework here and you will save yourself many headaches down the road. Make the effort to do some background checking. Call some references. Call the better business bureau. Are they incorporated? - Find an available domain name
we like to use networksolutions for this. They have a nice tool to let you brainstorm and see what possible name combinations are out there and available. They are too expensive to use for registering though. Go to the next step when you find the name you like that is available. - Register the domain name
Do not let anyone register your domain name for you. It is vital that you register this in your name only! For registering domain names, you can't beat Dot You.com for this. Register here - Setup webhosting account
We offer webhosting in-house. We will take care of setting up your email accounts, setting up the domain name so your site will come up when it is entered into a browser. In general taking care of one of the most confusing parts of the web development process. Contact us about our hosting plans. Setup your account here - Modify name server information for the domain name to point to webhost
Your web designer should do this for you. If you have to do it yourself, log into domain name account and modify the nameservers for the domain name. If you are using our servers, they are:
ns1.mwwdesign.biz
ns2.mwwdesign.biz - Setup email accounts
Again, your web designer should do this for you. Send them a list of email accounts you need and they will do the rest. While you are at it, go ahead and sign up for Cloumark spam eliminator. This is the best program we have found, and we have tried at least a dozen that did not work. - Setup temporary homepage
Use your logo, or just use text to put a "coming soon" page up with your email address so people can still contact you while your site is being worked on. - Design logo
Work with your web design firm for this. We have helped many companies with creating their brand and identity. Do not ignore the importance of a good logo. - Design homepage layout
Work with the web design firm to get the look and feel you want for your business - Design inner page layout
Will be based on the homepage colors and layout - Develop photoshop layouts into html and web-optimized images
- Develop any backend database and programming
- Identify keyword phrases for the website
There are several tools out there to identify keyword phrases that are relevant to your business AND are bringing in the number of searches per month that makes sense. - Write text using keyword phrases and gather images for inner pages
This is about half the work of a website: getting the content together. Copywriters can dramatically reduce the amount of work that you will have to do. Your web designer can also pull together some stock photography that is available for purchase. - Combine content with programming and templates
- Test test test
we can't stress this one enough. You think you found all the errors, but look again. You will be happy you did. - Soft launch for friends and family to test
Get your friends and family to start working for you! - Hard launch to general public
This is where all the hard work pays off - Continue to add more content to website
After you launch, it never ends. Websites are living breathing things and you have to feed it at least monthly. - Search engine submission and reciprocal link exhchanges
Your web designer can help you in deciphering this part of the play.
By following these 20 steps exactly, we can assure you that your website project will go off without any problems. Give us a call if you have any questions and would like us to help you.
(212) 979-8562
Michael