In this post you will get a website checklist that shows you exactly what to have in place in order to be launch ready!
If you’ve ever wondered, how do you launch a website?
There are some things you need to have in place before you launch a website! Not only are we going to make sure you have all your BTS stuff like tech, settings, domain connection ready to go. This website checklist will also include everything you need to have a fully functioning/strategic and optimized website! Including things like your branding, styling, images, etc. In this post I’m sharing a website checklist so you can easily launch without second guessing if you missed anything!
Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s take a moment to celebrate if you’re just about ready to launch the site! It’s honestly a really big deal! You’ve been working hard behind the scenes designing and strategizing! It’s really important to take a moment and acknowledge all of the work you’ve already put in! Now we just want to make sure we have all of the little things in place for a smooth website launch.H3: Continue reading to get a complete step-by-step checklist for a website launch!
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Showit Website Checklist: Everything you need to launch a website
- Branding & Design
- Content – Images and Copy
- Blog
- Basic SEO
- Legal & Terms
- Tech setup
- Final touches and testing
Branding & Design
This is how you really make your website feel like your own! Whether you are designing a custom website from scratch or you’re customizing a pre-designed template. Adding your branding and adjusting the design to meet your brand aesthetic is the key to an aligned website!
Add the following branding elements to personalize your website:
- Add your color hex codes
- Upload and set your fonts
- Add your logo + favicon
- Branded graphics and icons
Adjust your website design to truly represent your brand
- Have consistent styling across all pages
- Be sure to mobile optimize every page
- Adjust elements to match your brand aesthetic (ie. rounded buttons and images to add a softer feel or remove unnecessary elements to give a minimal feel, etc.)
Content – Images and Copy
This is the heart of your website. Having images that truly reflect your brand and show who you are. Plus copy that connects with your ideal clients and encourages them to book/buy. I highly recommend writing your own website copy and do not rely on AI tools for this! If you want your website to be optimized for SEO and to attract organic traffic overtime; it’s important to have original content in your own voice!
Images
- High quality images (not blurry!)
- Your images reflect your brand
- Resize your images – I recommend sizing them anywhere between 1500px and 3500px width. If you’re using an image as a background that spans across the entire screen it should be 3500px.
- Compress all images to be under 500 kb – my favorite tool to compress images for free is tinypng.com
Copy
If you’re not familiar, ‘copy’ is the text on your website! When you’re writing your website copy remember that most people don’t read every word on your website. Most people are going to skim your web page and read more of a section they’re interested in. Because of this use headings to capture readers attention so they can easily find what they’re looking for and read more!
- Written in your brand voice
- Write skimmable text
- Write clever headlines that captures the readers attention
- Be sure you have updated all the copy on your template (if you’re customizing a pre-designed template)
Blog
Not every website will have a blog but if yours does then you want to be sure it’s ready to launch with your website! This website checklist for your blog is specific to Showit websites!
- Write a minimum of two blog posts that are ready to publish at the time of your website launch
- Work with the Showit customer support team to set up your blog. You will either: request a new blog set up or request a blog migration.
- Create a content calendar to stay consistent with posting.
Get access to my FREE ClickUp Blogging Content Calendar here!
Basic SEO
SEO is Search Engine Optimization and it’s the way people are going to find you in Search Engine search results! We’re not going to go in to too much detail here – because there’s a lot we could get into! But there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success with SEO. And here they are!
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- Image alt text
- HTML text tags
- Naturally distribute SEO keywords throughout website copy
- Set up Google Analytics + Google Search Console to track data
I have a blog post that shows you exactly how to do this on your Showit website: Showit SEO: How to Add SEO to Your Showit Website the Right Way
Legal & Terms
These are things that can often get missed when launching a site but they’re extremely important! I will not be getting into the details of what you need for which region you live in. I do recommend you look into what is required where you live or what’s required if you have an international business and have clients all over the world!
Here’s the legal stuff you need to add to your website based on your region
- Privacy Policy – linked in footer
- Terms and Conditions – linked in footer
- Cookie banner
Tech setup
There are a few tech things you need to set up to make your website launch to make it functional!
- Connect your domain
- Apply SSL security
- Add integrations: email marketing platforms, schedulers, shop etc.
- Connect and test contact forms
- Link buttons and text
Final touches and testing
At this point, you are basically ready to launch the site! But before you do, you need to test everything to be sure it’s functioning correctly. You also want to view the design on both desktop and mobile to make sure it flows and looks good on both! Here are some final things to review before you hit publish and celebrate!
- View on desktop
- View on mobile
- Proofread your copy
- Test buttons and links
- Test contact forms
- Test integrations (email marketing platform, scheduler, shop etc.)
And finally, be sure to celebrate!
Launching a website is a BIG deal!! I hope this website checklist was helpful! And now, after all of the work you just put into it I want to make you take some time to celebrate!! Pour that glass of champagne or, if you’re like me, pour a hot cup of tea and pull out your yoga matt to decompress and relax! You deserve it!!
You’ll also love…
What I Learned After Designing 10+ Showit Website
The Beginners Guide SEO: Simple Steps to Start Showing Up on Google
My Journey From Showit Website Designer to SEO Strategist for Introverts
Showit Website Templates for Coaches (That You Can Launch in a Day!)
