Things to Test Before Launching a New Site

So, you’ve finally gotten your new website to the final stages before launching it. Don’t you feel accomplished?

 

Building a website can be time-consuming especially if you’re going at it alone. But you shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you’re close to completion, you can take your foot off the gas. There are plenty of things that still need to be considered toward the end of the website building process. A lot of these won’t be super obvious, so you’ll need to take great care to ensure you don’t overlook anything.

 

Here are something to test before launching a new site.

 

Test the Site Speed

Have you ever gone to a webpage and then been forced to wait a really long time before it opens? It’s pretty annoying, right? That’s not the sensation you want people to feel when they visit your site.

 

In fact, load speed can have a huge impact on how many people actually use your site. Think about the last time a page was taking a really long time to load. Did you stick around and wait for it? Probably not. About 40 percent of people will leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds to properly load. There are many sites out there that will let you test the speed of your website for free.

 

Make Sure Images Are Ready

Your images are what give life to otherwise text-heavy webpages. There are a few things you should check regarding your images before you launch your site. First, are they all there and loading correctly? If there’s something wrong with your images, it will make your whole site look a lot less professional.

 

To go along with the previous point, images play a huge role in site load speed. If your pages are loading very slowly, you might want to lower the resolution on some of your images or compress them. Just make sure you don’t lower it so much that they start to look grainy.

 

After all, you want your website templates and images to look clean and inviting.

 

Is Analytics Working?

You’re going to have a tough go at building a following if your analytics aren’t set up correctly. There are several options available that work well. A lot of people use Google Analytics because it’s built around the most popular search engine. Some website builders have analytics built in. These can work just as well as external options. Whatever you do, just make sure your analytics are working so you can collect data.

 

Make Sure Mobile Looks Good

You can’t overestimate the importance of your site’s mobile capacity. In the United States, about 60 percent of online searches are done on a mobile device. If your site only looks good on a desktop, you’re going to have some big problems. Most website templates today automatically account for this, and have built-in mobile responsiveness. Regardless, you need to click through your site on a desktop, as well as on a smartphone and tablet. Otherwise, you’re risking that some pages might not display properly on certain devices.

 

Is Everything SEO Friendly?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for anyone who wants to be relevant in organic search results. There are many places on your site that you should check for SEO:

 

• Content: Are you using strong keywords? You can test keyword viability by running them through a variety of free tools.

 

• Images: Ensure that the alt text and resolution of your images are SEO ready.

 

• Metadata: Website crawlers look through your entire site to make a judgement on how well it relates to search terms. Add as much relevant metadata to your site as possible in order to boost its ranking.

 

It’s reasonable to be extremely excited right before launching your new website. However, don’t let this excitement get the better of you. Test all these things before you launch a new website.