We hope you’re not one of those set and forget types of people, because when it involves technology you’re bound only to cause extra issues for yourself. A website is not just something you can get someone to build and then pass to you and expect it to be great from there on out.

As with all things, websites need love, care, constant updating, and maintenance. If they don’t receive these, eventually problems will arise. It is relatively simple to maintain a website, and it doesn’t take long, much of it can even be tested (and sometimes fixed) by those who aren’t developers or really understand how websites work. The following ten things can be easily checked by you and any issues found can be reported to the developer.

Check for little mistakes

It may seem obvious but during the excitement of checking out and testing your new website, don’t forget to properly check everything. A simple proofread of the copy throughout your website will do wonders for credibility, there’s nothing worse than having a typo (or bad grammar) on an important page.

• Check that your copy is easy to read, and the styling is consistent,
• Check loading times of pages, especially the homepage and other important pages,
• Optimize your images, make sure they load fast, and use good-quality images. Pixabay and Unsplash have a great range of free-to-use images,
• Make sure all links are working correctly and direct to the correct page,
• Check all audio and video files are working,
• The biggest one is to make sure to remove the dummy text.

Error message 404

In short, a 404 is a response code stating that the browser found the website, but the server was unable to locate the requested page. These errors happen for many reasons and often you just need to reload the page and you’ll be presented with what you were looking for. It is a good idea though to ask your developer to set up a 404 error page message to inform your visitors to try again, plus it also looks more professional.

Site Usability

Much like the above point, this one is also crucial and often forgotten. All functions and navigation of your website need to be checked -here it’s a good idea to ask family/friends to check it too- for usability. Pretend you’re a completely new visitor to your website, what works, and what doesn’t work.

• Do any pages crash? 
• Test your contact us page, does it work as expected and direct to the correct email?
• If you have this function, how is the login process for both staff and members?
• Test your shopping cart if you’re selling things,
• Will you be taking payments? If so do a test run of the whole process and make sure it’s smooth and intuitive.

Compatibility testing

Are you using multiple different plugins on your website? If so, you should check if they're conflicting with each other, as not all plugins play nicely with one another. Either ask your developer to test the compatibility of your plugins properly, or you can do it yourself.

Correct location and timezone settings 

Have you checked if your website is running in the correct timezone? You may be wondering why this matters! But it does, especially if you’re selling products. If there were to be some issue with someone’s purchase, and you needed to track down the payment, when it was made, the order email, etc. Well just imagine that the times displayed on each of these documents are different, it could get very confusing. Make it easier on yourself and check the time on your website is correct.

Friendly for mobile users

With the majority of users nowadays accessing the internet from mobile devices it is imperative to have and check the usability of the mobile version of your website.

• Is the same content visible?
• Does the menu work as it should?
• How is the styling?

Friendly to other internet browsers

Most people only use one internet browser, and the most widely used is Chrome. It’s a good and fast browser, so why wouldn’t you use it? But just because the majority of people use Chrome, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore the other browsers. Many people who are more security and privacy-focused use Firefox or some of its derivatives (Waterfox, Tor, etc) as their main browser. 

So while testing your website, download different browsers and test it on them, or ask your friends/family to do it if they use different browsers. Below is a short table of the market share of the most popular internet browsers.

Source: gs.statcounter.com. Correct as of August 1st, 2022.

Accurate site navigation

Have you ever visited a website and used the search function only for it to present a bunch of unrelated or inaccurate results? It’s more common than you think. Check the search function of your new site and ask the developer to optimize it if needed. If visitors can’t easily find what they want, well you’ve lost their business.

Informative permalinks

What is a permalink, and why is it important? Well, a permalink is just the URL of the website you’re visiting. It consists of the website domain and the slug of the page you’re on. For example, you are currently on https://ahdesign.website/post/things-to-check-before-launching-your-website, the underlined text is the domain name, and the text in italics is the slug. 

The above permalink is very informative to both search engines for SEO purposes, as well as informative to people visiting your site. Now just imagine that the permalink was https://ahdesign.website/post/45am2. It contains no information on what the webpage is about, so it’s impossible for search engines and visitors to glean anything from the permalink. Make sure you have custom permalinks, and if not, ask your developer to implement them.

Legal Stuff, no one likes it, but we have to do it

This is probably the most boring part, but in the end, it could save you thousands if something was to happen.

• Does your website need to include a warning that it uses cookies? If so, you must include it.
• Privacy Policy. If you’re handling registrations, memberships, orders, or anything with personal data, you must include a privacy policy that adheres to the law, and this must be available to visitors.
• Terms and Conditions, if you are selling things from your website, you must have this so the customer is aware of the agreement between you and them, make sure to explicitly state your return policy. Here you might want to contact a legal firm to help you with the wording.
• Terms of Service, if you will be offering services, then you need to include this as it is the contract between yourself and the customer.
• Do you need to acquire any licensing for images, videos, or fonts used in your website? This you should check with your developer.