Written by Bethany Lee – Beth enjoys writing about internet marketing and web development.
Are you ready to launch your website on the web? Before you publish your site online you may want to make sure that you test out your links, proofread all copy and that your site is loading quickly. Here’s a checklist of things to test before going live.
1) Speed Counts
In today’s age of high-speed internet, surfers expect pages to load instantly. Most will go somewhere else if your page takes too long to fully load. Visit your site and make sure that your all of your pages and images are loading quickly. The speed of your site generally depends on your host and the server your site is hosted on. If your site is loading too slow you will need to contact tech support at your host for additional support.
2) Easy On The Eyes
Is your website easy on the eyes and readable? One of my pet peeves is text that is barely legible; for example navy text on a black background. Jarring color combinations can also irk some of your surfers. One of the most popular color schemes is black text on a white background; it’s classic and what most surfers are used to since it mimics the colors in books. Use a font that is standard and easy to read; arial is generally the most popular.
3) Test Your Links
This may seem like common sense but you would be surprised how many websites have links that are 404 and not working. Click and test all of the links on your site in order to ensure that all of the pages are loading and working properly. Are all of your images loading? Is everything linked properly?
4) Proofread Everything Twice
Surfers are more likely to trust sites that utilize proper grammar and spelling. Grammar mistakes can make your site appear unprofessional and amateurish. Make sure to proofread all your text and make sure that there aren’t any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes. It may be a good idea to have a friend proofread your site in order to get a second opinion.
5) Avoid Over-optimization
Google’s new algorithm update Penguin may penalize sites that overoptimize their on-page text. For example, if you own a car dealership and want to get ranked in Google for “Used Jeep” you don’t want to repeat that phrase over and over again on the on-page text. In addition, if you decide to build links to your site (which you should) you will want to avoid overoptimization when it comes to your anchor text as well. Make sure to mix up your anchor text in order to make your link building appear as natural as possible.
