10-Step Website Checklist Before Promotion Launch

Whether you’re just starting your first website or are re-launching one that has been around for years, there are 10 key things to check before you begin your promotional launch. They include:

1. Update the copyright date on every page of your website and blog.Few things will be as quick to tell your website visitors that your content is outdated than having a copyright date from a previous year.




2. Proofread content you haven’t looked at in a while. A prospect was reviewing my site when she pointed out that I had a sentence half-written on one of my pages. How embarrassing. Proofread and then proofread again and then have someone else proofread.




3. Run your pages through a spell checker. Many HTML editor programs have this built-in or use this free web-based spell checker. Even if a bunch of people proofread for you, spelling errors will get through.




4. Run your pages through a link-checker. This will assure that all of your pages are linked together. Search engines hate when pages have broken links. Here’s a free link checker for you to try:
   free web-based link checker tool.




5. Look at your website as if you were a first-time visitor.Does your website look real? Does it look like there is a real company and a real person behind it? Does the logo and tag line mesh with the content on your pages?




6. Test anything that has a function.Send a test through your contact form. Buy something through your own shopping cart. Sign-up for your own newsletter. You would be amazed how many programmers do not test their work after they’ve performed setup functions. Always test all functional aspects of your website and use multiple browsers and multiple versions of those browsers to make sure everyone will be able to use those features.




7. Check to see how many inbound links (also called backlinks) you have.These are listings on other websites pointing to yours and is one of the most critical elements of gaining top search engine positioning. Hopefully you have more inbound links than this time last year. Document your progress so that you can measure throughout the year. Sites that offer free web-based inbound link checkers seem to disappear quickly these days. So, I can’t give any specific recommendation. Just search Google for “free backlink checker” and you’ll find something I’m sure. We installed our own into our membership area so
   Level 2 HereNextYear members have use of this search tool as part of their paid membership.




8. Review every page of your website for quality page titles and headlines.Each page title of your website should focus on a specific keyword phrase. If you don’t know where the page title is found or what to do with it, or went cross-eyed when I brought up #7 above, order my Google SEO book called Getting Brutal With Google book immediately!




9. Enable or verify statistics tracking.Install Google Analytics tracking code on every page of your website so that you can monitor your visitors activity throughout your site. What pages are people landing on to enter your website? What keyword phrases are they using to get there? What search engines are those visitors coming from? What is the last page they look at before exiting your website? These are all questions you should be able to answer before spending a dime on promotion. And, you need to monitor those same stats throughout the promotional process.




10. Make sure every page of your website gets people to take some kind of action.Maybe you want people to buy something right then. Maybe you want them to sign-up for your newsletter. Maybe you want them to call you on the phone or send an email with more questions. Maybe you want them to visit another page of your website for more details before they call you. Whatever the case, this is the single most important thing you can do this week to assure your website is setup for your upcoming promotion. Tell your website visitors exactly what you want them to do next.

These are all basics to follow before you even engage an Internet marketing company to perform promotional services for you. By performing this checklist on your own, you will save time and money upfront that the service provider would have to do before the promotion process could begin.

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