Necessary web site resource checks before official launch
So your website has been developed, your are happy, it looks great…Wait! There are often many other little details that are simply ignored or forgotten that you should consider before you become too eager to announce it to the world. We’ve compiled some important and necessary website resource checks before your websites official launch.
Proofread
Read it, read it again, then read it again, and then have someone else read it and then read it again. Keep your text specific and reduce the amount of texts. Have clear headings and break up large amounts of text.
Favicon
A favicon brands the tab or window in which your website is open in that users’ browser. When the user saves your page in their bookmarks, it saves the favicon as well thus allowing the user to identify your site quickly.
Titles and Meta Data
The title is the most important element for SEO (an acronym for Search Engine Optimization – which is a process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines, thus increasing traffic to your website). This lets users know what’s on the page. Meta description and keywords should relate to the pages content as often search engines will display the search results in the description of the search.
Functionality Check
Always check and test your website to make sure everything is functioning properly such as a contact form. Test a copy for yourself and see that it functions the way it’s supposed to. Get family and friends and neighbors test your website. You will be surprised how others interact with your site which could be completely differently then you.
Links
Never assume that all your links will work. Test and test some more. You may find that some of your links don’t work. It just may be that there is a spelling mistake in the hyperlink which may be causing it not to work. Another thing to consider is how you want that link to work such as how they open up in the browser when clicked. Do they exit from your web age or does the link open in a new window? Never, ever underline text that is not a link. This will only confuse your users, especially to new users.
Validation
Validation is the process of checking your website against standards such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for HTML and XML derived web documents. The benefits of validating eliminates things such as browser correction which slows down the loading times of your pages. Browsers will auto-correct your code but each browser deciphers and corrects code differently , for example, if you forget to close a tag, in one browser it may ignore it and load the page, but in another browser, it may show up as a broken link or page. When your code is valid, it take less time for the browser to think, thus quicker loading times. Search engines prefer valid code, as they will pick up and index your site with the valid code over the rest of the website. If your website has valid (X)HTML you are preparing your website for future technologies.
404 Error Pages
This happens when a user requests a page that doesn’t exist. This happens for a variety of reasons such as a website linking to a page that no longer exists, or a page that has been removed, or there is error with the validation. This is the most commonly overlooked element.
Cross-Browser Checks
It is very important that your website works across all browsers. Just because you use Firefox, and your website looks and works fantastic, doesn’t mean that it will work in Internet Explorer, this is because different browsers and different operating systems use different browser techniques (i.e. Windows vs Mac.) to decipher your website.