Are you going to be launching a site in the near future? Do you already have a site but it could use a bit of tuning up? Take a look at the list below to learn what we think is necessary to make a successful site go live:
Planning & Strategy
• Define purpose
• Define audience
• Elect project manager
• Audit competition
• Team Briefing
• Set near and long term goals
• Define size and scope
• Appraise of existing Web site
• Review marketing objectives
• Conceive marketing plan
• Establish interactivity objectives
• Define roles and responsibilities
• Define budget
• Discuss timing
• Draft Web marketing plan
• Domain registration
Information Architecture
• Conceive information architecture
• Define categories and sub-categories
• Flowchart of navigation paths
• Map interactions
• User testing if necessary
• Review initial test pages
• Develop Wireframes
• Make search and tag plan
Site Technology Needs
• Appraise of existing IT systems
• Hosting and maintenance
• Servers needed?
• Server software
• E-commerce vendor
• Define response needs
• Mirror sites
• Applications development
• Supported browsers
• Development systems
• Blog CMS
• Management processes
• Technical standards
Look and Feel Development
• Create mock ups
• Outline image needs
• Define programming needs
• Browser specific style sheets
• CSS for printing and phones
• Produce templates
• Secure all photography rights
• Create error pages
• Create a favicon
Writing & Editing:
• Write all content
• Get legal sign off
• Check punctuation
• Check consistency
• Check typography and layout
• Check for widows/orphans
• Spelling and grammar
• Capitalization
• Tense/style of writing
• Treatment of bulleted lists
• Ensure no test content on site
Standards & Validation
• Accessibility
• HTML validation
• JavaScript validation
• CSS validation
• Check in all versions of browsers
• Customize style sheets
Testing
• User testing
• Check CRM
• Response forms/scripts
• Check all bespoke functionality
• Check search functionality
• Check all variations of browsers
• Check multiple screen resolutions
• Test all forms
• Test response emails
• Test without plug-ins: JavaScript, Flash, etc.
• Check that links are valid
• Check e-commerce functionality
• Check user feedback functionality
• Load test
• Check image optimization
• Check total page size/download time
• Compress static JavaScript, HTML, CSS files
• Optimize CSS
• Check video and plug-ins
• Check correct database indexing
• Check Server, database, CMS configurations
• Configure/Test analysis tools
• Coherence/consistency checking
• Transaction testing
• Check how important pages print
Security/Risk Assessment
• Security penetration test
• Configure backup schedule
• Test recovery from backup
• Protect administration area
• Use robots.txt where necessary
• Turn-off verbose error reporting
• Check disk space/capacity
• Set-up email/SMS monitoring/alerts
Marketing & Analysis
• Marketing tools
• Internet promotion
• Ad banners
• Link negotiation
• Set-up PPC/Google Adwords
• Response mechanisms
• Entries in search engines
• Off-line promotion
• Research and feedback
• Data collection stats and analysis
• Analysis
• Analysis processing
Search Engine Visibility
• Apply SEO techniques
• Page titles and relevant keywords
• Create metadata descriptions
• Check for target keyword usage
• Make unique tags for each page
• Check URLs
• Set up Analytics, FeedBurner, etc.
• Create an XML sitemap
• Configure Google Webmaster Tools
• Configure Yahoo! Site Explorer
• Configure Bing Webmaster Center
Maintenance
• Monitor and respond to feedback
• Content update release plan
• Commission new content
• Update blog
• Link maintenance
• Check analytics for problems
• Extracting lessons
• Periodic strategic audits and reviews
• Marketing
• Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
• CRM
• Staff
• Training
• Ongoing roles and responsibilities
• Documentation
• Process Descriptions
• Set quarterly budget
• Update marketing plan
We hope this gives a good idea of what you should consider as you build out your site or contemplate re-designing your existing site. Please contact us for a complimentary evaluation meeting.