7 Critical Factors to Launch Your Website Successfully

Launching a new website can be a daunting task. There are so many different things you need to juggle. If you want to keep your sanity in the process, you need to have a plan. Following this plan will allow you to get a great website up, running and working without pulling your hair out.

Here are seven tips for doing just that.

1. Start with a Stellar Domain

Any good website starts with a great domain. The best domains are one word domains that end in .com. The word can either be a real dictionary word, like “dictionary.com,” or it could be a made up word like “Google.com.” Either one works just as well.

If you can’t get a single dictionary word domain, go for a longer two word domain. Try to avoid .net and .org if you want to build a real brand. They’re fine for building mini-sites or temporary sites, but not for building a real business.

2. Get a Rock Solid Web Host

Your webhost is the backbone of your company. It’s what keeps your website up, even when the traffic surges.

A great web host should have at least 99% uptime, 24 hour support and up to date technologies on MySQL, PHP, ASP.net and any other languages you might use.

They should have solid anti-spam mechanisms on their servers so that your site won’t get blacklisted for spamming if someone else on the system is doing illicit things.

Work with a host that has a solid reputation. Don’t work with any brand new hosting companies.

3. Choose the Right CMS

Your content management system (CMS) is a choice you need to make in the beginning of your website’s life and more or less never chance. Yes, it’s possible to switch, but it becomes an engineering nightmare that’ll cost you a lot of time and money.

Instead, just make a good pick in the beginning. One simple to use system is WordPress. Drupal is another common choice. Some people even go as far as to build their own CMS.

If your site is brand new, you usually want to stick with simple and proven systems rather than anything too complicated.

4. Good Design and Usability

There’s a common debate over whether design is more important or usability. You really need to have both.

Do a few mockups of how the site might look before settling on the final version. Once you’ve got the final look complete, have a professional designer turn it into a reality for you.

Talk to other people about how usable the site is. Do they know how to navigate throughout the site? Does the site convey what it wants to convey quickly? Get feedback before you launch.

5. Spread the Word on Social Media

Before you launch, get people talking. People should be interested in your site before it even hits the web.

When people think marketing, they often think of complex strategies like SEM or PPC. The reality is, you already have a network of several hundred friends – All of whom have a network of several hundred friends. You can reach hundreds of thousands of people and promote your site through your social network.

Start letting people know what you’re up to early on. That way, when you launch the site, you’ll have a following right off the bat.

6. Setup the Fundamentals

Setting up a site involves getting all the fundamentals down. While it’s not the end of the world if you miss some of these things, it’s definitely not ideal.

Start by setting up Google Analytics or an equivalent system. You need to be able to track your traffic statistics right from the get go.

Setup your favicon. Having a favicon people recognize helps add brand and credibility.

Build a custom 404 page. Again, this helps improve your brand if anyone happens to land on a broken page.

Setup your htaccess file. This helps with SEO as well as with security.

Finally, secure your site as best you can. Make sure your permissions are set properly on all your folders and make sure all the software on your site, including your CMS and all your plugins are up to date.

7. Getting Feedback

Launch your site. In the early days of the site, ask for feedback constantly. Ask your friends, ask your family and ask your visitors. Put a form on the site that encourages people to let you know what they think.

If you follow these seven tips, you’ll be able to launch a site much more effortlessly. Launching a new site doesn’t have to be stressful if you know what all the important steps are.

This article has been written by Sameer Panjwani, founder of Maximizer e-Services. His company helps webmasters around the world through two dedicated services – Directory Maximizer & Social Maximizer. Directory Maximizer specializes in building good quality links thorough manual directory submission and Social Maximizer offers affordable social bookmarking services.