The Ultimate Website Design & Launch Checklist
Create & Launch a Successful Website
All brands and businesses deserve a unique and results driven online presence. I have broken down the main components that are involved in creating and launching a successful website and I hope the following comprehensive checklist can aid in giving you a clear framework of what goes into a thriving website.
website design and prelaunch checklist:
Aligned business goals and website goals
Assuming that you have business goals, you will want these to align with your main website goals. (If you do not have business goals, drop everything right now and create these goals, or your website will have no direction).
Here’s an example:
Let’s say a monthly goal you have for your business is to book “x” amount of clients per month. Now, with the goal of booking more clients in mind, you will want to make sure that a booking feature is prominently displayed throughout your site and that these booking calls to action (CTAs) are plentiful and easy to act on.
Another example:
What if you have the business goal of increasing your social following and gathering more leads? How do you align this business goal with your website? You would simply make sure that your social links are highlighted on your site often and are visible in your website header and/or footer. You may also consider embedding a social feed onto your site where it makes sense and encourage visitors to follow you and add a newsletter feature for visitors to subscribe. Perhaps even a newsletter pop-up on each page would keep this goal super prominent.
Content
Content is king. It is the star of your website and the most important component of sharing your business with visitors and aligning to those site goals. Content consists of the text, visuals and any audio or video that will be displayed on your website.
For text, keep copy short and sweet. No one wants to read endless paragraphs of text, so the best experience for your users is to share the most important information in as little words as possible. The use of eye catching headers and titles, short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and icons, are the most visually appealing ways for users to digest information quickly.
Visual content adds aesthetic appeal to your site. When in doubt, it’s super recommended to use professional photos or have a little photo session with your iPhone. You want to share images that are relevant to who you are and/or what you do and you don’t want these images to be bad quality or “off-brand”. Stock images are also a useful option for adding visual appeal. However, just keep in mind that you don’t want an over abundance of cheesy stock photos competing for attention on your site, so also consider illustrations or the use of color to also add some visual appeal.
You can find resources for stock photos and ideal uses of content here: 8 Reasons Why Your Website Is Not Attracting Clients and Customers
Content organization—pages
The information you plan on sharing with visitors on your website needs to be organized in such a way that makes sense, flows well, and is easy to find. Organizing your content will help you estimate how many sections or pages your website will need. As a rule of thumb, it is best practice to be super simple with this. You don’t want a ton of pages or subpages that overwhelm your visitors. Most of the time a homepage, about page, services page, blog or portfolio page and a contact page are plenty.
Brand guidelines
Brand guidelines are your clearly stated brand standards to ensure that anything created toward your business is on brand. This keeps content and visuals consistent and can help make your brand easy to recognize and stand out. Think Target or Apple— these companies are well branded and easy to recognize. Your brand guidelines can be as simple or detailed as you like. At a minimum, these guidelines should include your mission statement, customer or buyer personas, brand colors, typography and how/when to use particular fonts, types of images, and tone of voice for copy.
Here is a great resource for thoughtfully choosing brand colors: Website Color Scheme for Your Business/Brand
Call to action/lead forms
Nothing can sink your efforts (and website) more than not having plenty of calls to action (CTAs) sprinkled throughout your site. These CTAs are often buttons or links that connect your visitors to the primary goal of your site, which is often to contact you, schedule with you, etc. You don’t want visitors having to hunt for a way to get in touch with you or take action. A lead form is also super imperative to be able to collect contact information from your visitors.
Logo
A logo can be an optional, but a highly recommended piece of your brand/business and therefore, your website. There are many DIY logo creators on the market, but if you are looking for something specific, original, and thoughtfully designed to your brand specifications, hiring a branding expert is a great idea. Need branding help?
Domain name
You will need a unique domain name to connect to your site. A domain name can be purchased relatively cheaply on many domain hosting platforms. As a rule of thumb, keep your domain name short and simple and as aligned with your brand/business as possible.
Web designer
If all of this seems overwhelming, over your head, and a lot of work, it’s because it is! While it is fully possible for you to build your own website, a professional website designer will be able to maximize your online presence. It takes skill, a trained eye, and experience to curate a results driven website that you can be proud of and hiring a web designer may make more sense to you, especially if you are limited on time. Considering collaborating with a web designer?
Angela
