Launch
Making the final edits to a website about to go live is very exciting! Everything looks fresh and clean — the result of weeks of collaboration, copywriting, design, and coding.
Two common questions I often hear are:
- “Do you handle making our new site live for us? We’re not quite sure how that works.”
- “We need to switch website hosts. Can you help us with that?”
The answer to both is “absolutely!” As part of the launch process, we take care of everything for you.
For example, when we redesigned Kays Engineering’s website, the launch process was completed in less than 24 hours and included:
- Migrating from their old web host to WP Engine. Stephen and Rachel recommend WP Engine for its numerous benefits, including the built-in SSL security (HTTPS).
- Updating the domain name settings in their registrar, GoDaddy.
- Seeing the new site go live shortly after. Yay!
Website Launch Tasks
To ensure go-live success, Stephen, Rachel, and I oversee several critical tasks before, during, and after launch.
- Redirects — Stephen and I ensure your current URLs redirect to new URLs where applicable. He also checks Google’s search index for any old pages that are no longer part of the website; I create redirects for those. Additionally, since Google treats HTTP and HTTPS as separate URLs, he implements HTTPS redirects when needed to ensure secure access.
- Configure web host — If you’re changing web hosts, Stephen handles the setup of the new host and ensure everything is ready for a seamless migration.
- Go live! — Once everything is ready, Stephen move the website from the development server to the live site. Within minutes, it’s live for the world to see. We love this moment. Break open the champagne! 🎉
- Comprehensive User Guide — Stephen provides a written guide explaining how to make changes, add content, etc. to your website. We’ve had many people, with zero WordPress experience, take the guide and do their own website updates.
- Training — If necessary, Rachel will provide one-on-one WordPress training via video to show you how to make changes, updates, etc.
- Minor updates within two weeks of launch — I and/or Rachel make small adjustments or tweaks as needed in the hours or days following the go-live.
- Analytics goals — If you decide to hire me for Ongoing Marketing, I’ll create conversion goals in Matomo Analytics, ensuring I can track the key metrics and conversions for your website.
Basecamp: Our project management tool
We use Basecamp to manage the many changes, messages, tasks, and files involved in building custom websites.
Basecamp allows you to easily view tasks assigned to different team members (including yourself), see conversations between our team and you, and track progress on the work being done.
You can also communicate with anyone on our team. Whether you have a design question for Rachel Cunliffe, or your IT team has a technical question for Stephen Merriman, you can ask directly versus going through me. Saves a ton of time.
My team and I work really hard to keep things super simple for you — so you can focus on running your business!
