SEO Steps To Consider Before Launching Your Website
By Erin Grady
Purple Trout SEO Editor
Launching a brand new website means more than choosing a designer, explaining your vision and sitting back to wait for the final product. You can ensure your target audience finds this big investment by thinking about it strategically. From your content and Meta tags to XML sitemap, there are a number of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aspects you need to consider before “flipping the switch” on your new website.
Content and Style
Content is one of the most important aspects of your website. Putting good, keyword rich content on every page of your site is vital to SEO efforts. When the content is on your website, make sure everything – especially keywords – is spelled correctly. Nothing will turn off a potential customer more than glaring misspellings or grammatical errors.
If you have an SEO firm, send the content to the firm before launching the site. Your SEO firm should evaluate your content before the site is live, which saves valuable time. When search engines crawl the site for the first time, the site is already keyword rich. It is always helpful to have a second – or third – set of eyes evaluate your content. The SEO firm will also ensure the right keywords are on the right page. Optimizing a page for a keyword that does not make sense will not help your website rank in search engines, and it will frustrate any searchers who end up on this page.
After the content is returned from the SEO firm and posted to the site, do not forget to give the content a final once-over before the launch date. This last look will help you find any test content that still needs to be removed and will catch any errors that may have been missed.
Search Engine Visibility
Meta Tags & ALT Tags
Meta tag codes are another part of your SEO efforts. Meta Titles should reflect the keywords used in the content of the page. Do not force a keyword that does not make sense or does not appear in the content, this will not help your SEO efforts. If you are writing Meta Titles and realize there are no keywords in the content on that particular page, take this opportunity to add a few appropriate words!
Meta Descriptions both describe the content on the page and incorporate the keywords used in the Meta Title. The description should be considered a mini “pitch” about why the searcher should click on your page. This description appears below a clickable link to your site in search engine results. Take this valuable opportunity to sell your company to the searcher.
While Google doesn’t consider the Meta Keywords tags as part of its search engine rankings, you should still consider completing this tag. Use five to six keywords that appear within the Meta Title, Meta Description or the content on the web page. This area offers one more place to feature keywords on your website, however as with the Meta Title, the Meta Keywords must reflect the keywords featured on your page. Stuffing keywords in this section will not help your site rank higher in search results.
ALT Tags should be created for every image and graphic on your website. While humans appreciate a website full of interesting images, search engines do not. Without ALT Tags, search engines see your images as blank space. ALT Tags should be used to give the search engine a clue about what is on the page and as an opportunity to massage an extra keyword or two onto your page.
Domain Issues
An XML sitemap is an absolute must for any website. This sitemap is not seen by humans; instead it instructs search engines about how to crawl your site. A website without an XML sitemap is worthless. Your SEO firm should generate and post the sitemap for you.
Canonical domain issues must be fixed when a website is launched. These problems exist when there are two versions of a URL, for example http://yoururl.com and http://www.yoururl.com. In this instance, search engines see two sites – one with a “www” prefix and one without. This is problematic because it is seen as duplicate – or mirror – content which search engines will count against you.
Check your site for broken links or 404 errors. These errors give users a “Page Not Found” message, which can be very frustrating for anyone visiting your website. These errors can be common in new sites when the designer is creating links between pages, but the errors are very simple to fix. Your SEO firm should be able to help you find the errors and your designer will be able to fix them. While working with your web designer to fix the errors, consider asking for a custom 404 error page. The page can display your logo and custom wording that will help direct the visitor to more information. As your site evolves and changes, 404 errors can happen quite easily. Custom error pages are the best way to deal with the problem until the link can be permanently fixed.
If you are redesigning an old site, instead of launching a brand new one, make sure you redirect pages on your old site correctly. This means your old “Contact Us” page should direct to your new “Contact Us” page and so on. This is especially important for customers who bookmarked your old web pages, as you want those users to find the new page easily.
Standards and Validation
Validating your website on a number of different platforms is an important part of debugging the site and helping it be found in search engines. While it may seem like an unimportant extra impediment to launching your website, it is in fact an imperative step.
HTML Validation
The HTML validator will be deliberately harsh and unforgiving about your website, but this will help your site in the end. A validator understands the rules that govern HTML and other software tools, and it will help your site comply with the necessary guidelines.
JavaScript Validation
JavaScript is used to validate data in HTML forms that a visitor fills out before the content is sent to a server. The script will check whether the user left a required field blank, entered a valid email address, entered a valid date or entered text in a numeric field. JavaScript validation is perfect for sites that offer a newsletter sign up area or a contact form.
CSS Validation
CSS validators check your site to make sure it corresponds with CSS standards. It will also let you know which CSS features are supported by which browsers. There are numerous different validators from which you can choose to check your site.
Metrics
Google Analytics is the best metrics system you can choose. It will not only measure the traffic coming to your site, it will let you know where in the world that traffic is coming from, how people found your website and much more. Google Analytics gives you invaluable insights into how your audience is reacting to changes you make on your site. Your web designer will easily be able to put the Google Analytics code on your website and your SEO firm will help you track your progress.
Functionality
This section is all about making sure the website basics are working before introducing the new site to the public. This step is increasingly important as more people will be finding your site through different mediums.
Make sure your website looks the same on all browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. The site should look the same on all platforms as well, such a Windows-based operating system versus an OSX-based one. If you have different versions of your site for mobile phones and computers, make sure both are working properly and able to be viewed.
Check all your external links. Just as visitors will find it frustrating to click on a broken link that should lead to another page in your site, they will be equally frustrated to click a non-working link that points to an external page. Depending on the broken link check you run, it may or may not catch these linking errors. To be safe go through your site and check each of these links manually. It is unlikely you will have a lot of external links, so this should be a relatively quick process.
Performance
Google and other search engines are starting to place more and more weight on your website’s performance, including its download time and page size. As more users are navigating to and viewing your site on mobile devices, load time is an increasingly important part of the equation. Your web developer and SEO firm will be able to help you determine your page size and download time as well as help you fix any problems there.
Following this checklist will help your website launch be a successful one! Introducing a new website to the public can come with a few bumps in the road, but paying attention to the details – content, search engine visibility, validation, metrics, functionality and performance – ensures a positive launch experience.
