Are you getting ready to launch your website? Exciting stuff! We’ve put together a guide to help you have a successful launch of your Pagecloud website.

Everything from connecting your custom domain, to reviewing your content, this guide gives you a comprehensive list of must-haves and must-dos before launch. Our team is proud to support the launch of your website and ensure your website is up and running fast and securely.

Pagecloud Hosting and SSL

First, let’s go over all the things Pagecloud does for you, so you don’t need to worry! Pagecloud handles the techy stuff so you don’t have to 🙌

  • Fast secure website hosting (https)
  • SSL Certificate
  • Analytics (No personal identifiable information)
  • Image optimization
  • Browser compatibility
  • XML Sitemap
  • Backups

Now, here are some things you can do before launching your website to ensure your site gets online without a hitch.

Register and Connect Your Custom Domain

We recommend registering a custom domain name (for example, pagecloud.com) and connecting it to your website. A custom domain is your website address, and is a great way to represent your business and build brand awareness. Popular domain registrars include Hover, Godaddy, and Namecheap. Annual Pagecloud plans come with a free custom domain from Hover for the first year. 

Check out our full guide to connecting your custom domain.

If you would rather publish your website without a custom domain, you can use the free .mypagecloud.com domain.

Preview Your Site on Mobile

Making sure your website can be viewed on mobile devices is an important part of your users’ experience and getting found in search engines like Google.

You would be surprised how many people forget to check how their website will look on mobile. With Pagecloud, it’s easy! In your editor and preview you can toggle to mobile to view what your site looks like on a mobile device. Here are a few suggestions for ensuing your site works well on mobile: 

  • Make sure your text is large enough to be read on mobile devices
  • Add space between buttons so they can be easily tapped 
  • Use a hamburger, stacked, or scroll menu 

Any changes you make to your mobile website will not impact the desktop view. 

Add a Favicon

Details matter, they help set you apart, express your brand, and show that you care. The favicon is the small icon that shows up in a browser tab, bookmarks, search results, etc. In many cases, brands will use their logo, much like they would for a social media icon. In fact, you could use the same file. 

It’s easy to add a favicon to your project in Pagecloud. Add and update a favicon in Website Settings. We recommend making your favicon at least 250 x 250px so it’s versatile in as many applications as possible.

Review Your Page Titles and Descriptions

One of the most simple ways to optimize your web pages for search results is to make sure you fill out your page titles, descriptions, and upload OG images. This information shows up in search results, allows search engines to understand your website content, and creates shareable links of your pages.

For page titles, we recommend coming up with a format that’s easy to update. For example, you could try a format that includes the specific page title and your business name and tagline: 

“Contact Us | Pagecloud, your friendly website builder”

You can view and edit Titles and descriptions in the Page Editor. You can also update your title preferences for blog posts in Blog Settings. 

OG information is specific for social sharing. When you share a link on social media it includes a title, description, and image. 

Review Your Content for Typos, Readability, and Content Structure

Words matter! Make sure you do a pass through your content to look for typos, grammatical errors, and overall readability and length. It’s common to write too much content. Condensing your content to what is most important for your website visitors can make a huge difference in your site usability. 

A few tips for your content:

  • In general, write for the reading level of grade 6. Simplicity ensures your content is accessible for everyone.
  • Keep your content short and concise. A website visitor doesn’t want to read paragraphs of content to find what they are looking for.
  • Keep your content in the same tone and voice. 
  • Use headings effectively. If a visitor only reads the headings on your web page they should have a basic understanding of the content on the page.

In Pagecloud we have an AI feature that can help you improve your grammar, find typos and even expand or condense your content. Learn about AI in Pagecloud.

View your site in preview and click on all your links. Do they go to the correct pages? Are any of them broken?

In Pagecloud, you can create a custom 404 page. This is a page that will be displayed if anyone follows a broken link on your site. Learn about creating a custom 404 page.

Add Alt Text to Your Images

Images on your website should have a description (alt text) that describes what the image is. Alt text ensures that people using screen readers know what the image displays. Alt text also improves your website’s SEO. 

Here are a couple resources to help you better understand how, why and when you should add these descriptions.

Have Someone Else Review Your Site

It’s easy to become blind to your own omissions and errors. Have a friend or colleague (or two!) review your website. Guide them to navigate to all the pages and read the content. Also let them know what you are trying to achieve and encourage them to give you honest feedback to help you be successful. If it’s possible, consider getting out for a coffee to review their findings and catch up.

It’s easy to share a draft site with someone else in Pagecloud using the Share draft feature. You can share a page or the entire site. A great way to get feedback before launch.

Ready to Start Promoting Your Website?

Launching your website is just the beginning! It's what comes after that can do big things for your business and brand. An important part of a website launch is promotion. You can promote your new site by emailing your customers, posting on social media, and sharing your link. 

You can check out our article on promoting your website, and download our free guide on driving website traffic from your social media platforms.

Optimizing your website is an ongoing effort. You should constantly be tracking your user behaviour (which is easy to do with Pagecloud Analytics!) in order to understand which of your web pages perform best, and which need improvement. To learn more about optimizing your website to increase conversions, sign up for our free course.

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Web Design