Checklist before going live

While it has been said that every site is a work in progress (in other words you should be continually improving and updating your site), it is a good idea to check that you have these points covered before 'Going Live' and letting the world see your creation.

There are 2 checklists here, one for considering your content and design completion, the other regarding the actual accounts process to go live.

Check List for Content/Design

1. Having a Call to Action
Is the most important "call to action" visible on your home page and preferably on the footer of every page? Is there a link from that call to action to purchase the product or to complete your membership form or inquiry form?

2. Relevant Keywords
Are your most relevant and generic keywords used on your home page, most importantly in the title and first paragraph?  (e.g. if you sell shoes, use the word shoes.)

3. Visible Contact Details
Have you put all your contact details on your home page?  People like to know who they're buying from, the more information you provide, the more the customer is reassured.

4. Making it personal
Have you included a photo of yourself  your staff and your "bricks and mortar" store, your vehicles on your contact, about us, or home page?   You will make more sales with this, as gives a sense of familiarity - people don't like to trust businesses they can't visualise.  If you are a new brand, this is very important.

5. Is the important information at the top?
Is all your most important information at the top of the page? It's ok to scroll if people get interested, but all your "hooks" should be at the top of the page.

6. A second opinion
Have you asked your friends to review your website?  Ask people with very little knowledge of your business.  Following their review, ask them if they knew what your website's primary aim was... eg to join, to buy, to inquire.

7. Shopping Cart check (if you have one)
If you have a shopping cart.... have you included a refund/returns policy? Have you detailed what payment methods you accept? It is a good idea to include Visa/Mastercard etc logos in your website footer.

8. Useful information for your customers
Have you provided FAQ or information pages explaining the products you are selling to your customers?  It's a good idea to provide information pages explaining which products your customers may require and why.  Provide information based on your customer's perspective.

9. Make it easy for your customers to buy
If you have a lot of products, have you detailed the most common products or configurations that people generally purchase?  Make these products the most easy to purchase with buy links from all your information pages.

Final steps.
Then, ASAP after going live, submit your website directly to every directory and search engine on the search engine pages from within our CMS.

Check List for Technically Going Live (Account Status)

1. First check you are on the correct hosting plan, if you have MP3, PDF downloads or other heavy media on your site, then consider selecting a higher hosting plan.
2. If you don't yet have a domain name, please register one. If you do have a domain name, and need to transfer it, then begin that process via our CMS, but do not complete it until step 3 has been completed. (eg do not enter UDAI/Authorisation code as this may cause your old website/email to go offline prematurely, or cause an outage of up to 48 hours)
3. Pay your first months hosting fee, including GST, and send an email to our support desk requesting they make your website live.
4. If you have an existing live domain name to transfer, then make sure you have now setup new email accounts (if applicable) and waited for our confirmation that your account status is live. At that point, you can now enter the UDAI or authorisation code via our system. After 48 hours later, you can cancel your old hosting account with your old provider.
5. Press publish at anytime after making your website live to remove any under contstruction banners/messages.
6. You can now submit your website to search engines.