Creating and executing a website launch checklist is a key step in ensuring the success of your e-commerce website, whether you are introducing a re-design or a completely new website. Before going live with any project at eMagid, we perform a thorough QA process guided by our website launch checklists and recommend you do the same, regardless of website size.
You can divide your list into 3 categories:
1. SEO
2. Design
3. Functionality
Each category is crucial to your success in e-commerce. Today, in Part 1, we will start with SEO. Planning for SEO well in advance of your launch date will help you meet anticipated project timelines. Strategic decisions made to support SEO often impact website design and functionality and should ideally be considered while design and development are still in process.
Even if you don’t plan on executing a full SEO campaign post-launch, you can help your website perform well in SERP rankings through an initial onsite optimization. This setup includes keyword selection, meta data (page titles and descriptions), h tags and alt text on images. Local businesses should also use micro formats to define their location and confirm their business with Google My Business.
You’ll also want to run a check for existing issues like broken links, 310 errors, etc. Many SEO tools have free trials that you can use to crawl your website and find these problems. Popular tools include, SEOMoz, SEMrush.com, WooRank.com and Raven Tools.
Finally, when you are ready to go live, you can use A/B testing and post marketing tools to capture user behavior on your site which will help you understand and improve the site after you launch it.