Your guide to a seamless website launch

A new website launch is very exciting, but it can also be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you want to ensure it’s optimised for SEO right from the start. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is crucial for driving organic traffic and improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. 

To make sure your website gets off to the best possible start, you need a comprehensive website checklist. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through our website launch checklist for launching your website with SEO in mind.

1. Keyword Research and Selection

Before you dive into the website creation process, the first step on the website launch checklist is to do some keyword research. Find the keywords and phrases relevant to your niche or business. 

Tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you discover valuable keywords with high search volume and low competition. This is vital for SEO down the track.

Choose primary and secondary keywords for each page on your website.

2. Design and Development

Designing and developing your website to ensure a successful website launch involves several key considerations:

1. Responsiveness: Make your web pages adaptable to different devices, such as phones, tablets, and computers, for a consistent user experience.
2. User-Friendly Navigation: Keep menus and labels clear and easy to use to help visitors find what they need.
3. Page Loading Speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix speed issues before your new website launch. Compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimise HTTP requests to improve loading times. 
4. Functional Elements: Check that forms, buttons, and interactive features work correctly.
5. SSL Certificate: Secure your site with an SSL certificate to protect user data.

Addressing these aspects will help you launch a website that provides a great user experience, ranks well in search engines, and ensures data security without compromising on performance.

3. On-Page SEO Optimisation

Once you have your keywords, incorporate them into your website’s on-page SEO elements.

Title Tags

Create unique, descriptive, and keyword-rich title tags for each page. Keep them under 60 characters to ensure they display properly in search results.

Meta Descriptions

Write compelling meta descriptions that include keywords and encourage clicks. Keep them around 160 characters in length.

Header Tags

Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content. Include keywords in your H1 tag, and use others to organise your content logically.

URL Structure

Create user-friendly and SEO-optimised URLs. Use descriptive words and hyphens to separate words in URLs, rather than random strings of characters or numbers.

4. SEO Tips For Your New Site

When launching a new site, it’s important to keep SEO in mind. Below are some of the main aspects you need to implement. 

High-Quality Content Creation

Content is king in SEO. Ensure your website offers valuable, relevant, and original content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. Use your chosen keywords naturally within your content, but avoid keyword stuffing.

XML Sitemap

Generate an XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console. This helps search engines crawl and index your site efficiently.

Robots.txt File

Create a robots.txt file to guide search engine bots on which pages to crawl and index and which to avoid.

Canonical Tags

Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues, ensuring that search engines understand which version of a page to index.

Schema Markup

Implement schema markup to provide search engines with structured data about your content, such as product details, reviews, and events.

5. Google Analytics and Google Search Console Integration

Integrating Google Analytics and Google Search Console is an important aspect of our crucial for understanding and improving your website’s performance. Google Analytics helps you track user behaviour, conversions, traffic sources, audience insights, and real-time data. 

Google Search Console monitors search performance, indexing issues, mobile usability, and security concerns. Together, these tools provide a complete picture of your website’s performance and search visibility so you can continue to improve your site.

6. Social Media Integration

Linking your website to social media is important for getting more people to see your content.

Add buttons that let visitors easily share your content on social media. Encourage people to interact with your site on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This way, more people will discover your content, and your website will become more well-known.

7. 301 Redirects for Old URLs

If you are migrating from an old website, ensure you set up 301 redirects to transfer links from old URLs to new ones.

These redirects help pass the power of old web links to new ones, so you don’t lose any of your website’s credibility. It’s like making sure your mail gets forwarded when you move to a new address.

After the Launch

Following the launch of your website, it’s crucial to check your site regularly to catch and fix any issues, ensuring a seamless experience for your visitors. 

You should also update your site with fresh content on a regular basis. This not only keeps your website relevant and engaging but can also improve your search engine rankings.

Pay attention to user feedback and analyse website analytics. User feedback provides insights into what your audience likes or dislikes about your site, while analytics data helps you understand user behaviour for better performance. 

By staying on top of things, updating, and listening to your audience, your website can adapt and meet the evolving needs of your users.

Get Help Optimising Your New Site

Let White Chalk Road take the stress out of the process and create a seamless website launch for your business. 

We understand that launching a new website can be a daunting task, with numerous technical and strategic considerations to juggle. That’s where we come in. 

Our seasoned team of SEO experts is here to not only optimise your website for search engines but also to ensure that every aspect of your new website launch goes off without a hitch.

Contact us today for more information about how we can help with your website launch.