So you’re launching (or perhaps relaunching) your website. You can surf around the internet and find countless checklists to guide you on your way to launch success. That said, we’re going to take this in another direction and address some common mistakes to avoid. Let’s make your launch day a little bit easier. Onward!
And make sure they work.
One of the last things you’re going to do when launching is update the DNS settings (name servers and A records, among others) to point to your host server. But one of the first things you should do is make sure you have the correct login credentials for the registrar of the domain where you plan to launch your site. Especially the CORRECT registrar. Nothing is worse than getting to launch day and having to scramble to find the right login credentials to the right registrar. No one needs an extra hour of stress making phone calls, sending emails and/or participating in various “Forgot Password” shenanigans. It’s already a stressful time as is. Get this out of the way in advance so you can focus on your launch.
Often times plugins are downloaded during the development phase to assist in building out a new site. These might include sitemap generators, database importers or some other tool to help transfer a lot of information from your old site into your new one. But there is no need to leave dormant plugins hanging around. The extra code will only negatively impact your site loads. It also adds to your upkeep time, and additionally gives those pesky hackers another potential window to jump through. So do yourself a favor and deactivate and remove any unneeded plugins.
This is an easy one to overlook. After all, you’ve been spending weeks and possibly months designing and building pages that you intend to exist. But this is the one page you need to cover all of those pages that don’t exist. Don’t forget it.
Again, this is easy—as long as you remember. Make sure your SSL certificate is installed correctly and working. The last thing you need is for users to be deterred by a security warning when trying to visit your site. The Google and Bing crawlers won’t like it either. Play it safe and go secure.
