Founder and CEO of FAV Solution, Adrien Levinger is an e-commerce expert with over ten years of experience scaling brands online.
Launching a website for your business can be a mountainous undertaking. There are many factors to consider in building a website that will serve your business, from content to SEO and, of course, making sure everything works together.
After you’ve done all that work, the last thing you want is to have to go back and fix what wasn’t done right the first time. So I have compiled a list of things that you should absolutely take care of before your website goes live to save yourself a headache in the future.
1. Choose the right content management system. Will your website be more content oriented or e-commerce oriented? Will you build it yourself or use an agency? What traffic and volume are you expecting in the first year? Your answers will determine which CMS is best suited for your website framework. Choosing the right CMS in the beginning will save you endless frustration and even a complete rebuild of your website later.
The difference between a content-oriented CMS and an e-commerce-oriented one is as stark as buying a dump truck versus a race car: They’re just made to do different things. A content-oriented CMS makes it easy to add and manage content, while an e-commerce-oriented CMS makes it easy to add new products, make sales and track inventory. Decide the ultimate goal of your website before you start building, and you’ll set yourself up for ease of use later.
2. Activate Google Analytics 4. Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google Analytics. It is replacing the current Universal Analytics, which will go down in July 2023. Any data collected by Universal Analytics will not transfer to GA4, so if you are launching a new website, go ahead and install GA4. That way, you start collecting user data as soon as your website goes live, and you don’t have to deal with making the change later.
3. Optimize for search engines. SEO is what drives users to your website when they are searching the web. But this does not happen by accident. Implementing a solid SEO strategy from the start helps Google understand what you offer and send users to your website when they search for a certain word or phrase.
If you have the budget for it, hiring an SEO expert to optimize your website can save you a huge amount of time and deliver faster results. But if hiring an expert is not in your budget, you can learn to do SEO yourself with proper study. There are many online courses that can help.
4. Make sure everything is well organized from the beginning. In the rush to get your website live, you may be tempted to upload something as soon as possible and tweak it later, but this is a strategy for future pain. So many things about websites are very difficult to fix later, and you will save time and stress by doing it right rather than doing it twice.
Some things you will want to pay special attention to because they are difficult to fix later include:
5. Make sure your website is ADA compliant. Did you know that your website is required to be ADA compliant just like a brick and mortar business? Ensuring your website is ADA compliant from the start is a good way to avoid learning an expensive lesson when you are served with an ADA compliance lawsuit.
The ADA’s web content accessibility guidelines require that your website contain features that allow people with visual, mobility and neurological impairments to use it optimally. These features may include:
Many other features are required for your website to be considered ADA compliant. You can find out more on the Americans with Disabilities Act website.
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A Little Extra Work Now Will Save You Stress Later
It’s easy to think you’ll have more time or money to work on your website later. The problem is, “later” never seems to come. By setting up your website right the first time, you can avoid a future of frustration and set yourself up for website success right away.
The Forbes Business Council is the largest growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
From the perspective of server-side website deployment, there are two types of web pages: static and dynamic.
What are the 11 steps to create a website?
How to plan and create the Perfect Website in 11 Steps
- â Write down the goals of your website.
- “Write down the features you would like to implement on your own website.
- Basic points to consider when planning the navigation menu:
- Below are some examples of criteria used for content guidelines:
What are the 3 examples of website?
A website (also spelled website) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipedia.
What is a website by example? web page. A document that can be displayed in a web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Edge, or Apple’s Safari. They are also often called just “pages.”
What are the 3 levels of web?
First of all, there are three levels to the internet, “Surface Web”, “Deep Web” and “Dark Web”. Each one is different and used for specific things.
What is the top level domain? In the DNS hierarchy, a top-level domain (TLD) represents the first stop after the root zone. In simpler terms, a TLD is everything that follows the final dot of a domain name. For example, in the domain name ‘google.com’, ‘.com’ is the TLD.
Is .com a top-level domain?
On the Internet, “com” is one of the top-level domain names that can be used when choosing a domain name. Usually, it describes the entity that owns the domain name as a commercial organization.
Is .com a root level domain?
Root domain Examples of root domains include: moz.com.
Is .com top-level?
The .com domain name is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). Added in early 1985, its name comes from the word commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.
What is the most essential in website?
The most important part for any website is the content. Without content, your website is nothing more than an advertisement, which is not an effective online marketing strategy.
What are the 4 principles of web design?
Space: In web design, this is often called "white space," or the area between the elements. Hierarchy: The importance of some elements in relation to others. Contrast: How different elements can create a more cohesive composition. Scale/Proportion: The relationship between the size of the elements.
What are the four basic principles of web design? Space: In web design, this is often referred to as “white space,” or the area between elements. Hierarchy: The importance of some elements in relation to others. Contrast: How different elements can create a more cohesive composition. Scale/Proportion: The relationship between the size of the elements.
