Whether you’re doing a new website launch or website redesign, there are some basic steps all webmasters should do to ensure the website launch goes smoothly.
First off, if you’re going through a website redesign, make sure that you setup 301 redirects. This protocol tells search engines where the pages on the old site are moving to. The process involved in setting up a 301 redirect is dependent on whether you have an Apache or IIS (Windows) server.
Once you’ve got your 301 redirects in place, you’ll want to setup a custom 404 page before launching your new redesigned website. Normally, when you go to a web page that doesn’t exist, you get a “Page Not Found” message in your browser. If you miss any pages when setting up your 301 redirects, custom 404 page can be setup to catch those visitors. Just like a 301 redirect, you'll either need to setup your custom 404 on your Apache or IIS server. If you're not sure what to put on your custom 404 page, check out Apple.com. They have a great example of a custom 404 page.
After launching the new website, you’ll also want to check for broken links to make sure that all the links on your site are working. Rather than go through your site manually, clicking on every link, you can use a link checker to those broken links.
Once everything on your new website is working, you’ll want to setup an XML sitemap and submit it to the search engines. XML sitemap will provide an easy way for search engines crawl the pages on your website. If you’re not sure how to launch an XML sitemap for your website, go to Google. Google offers a simple XML sitemap generator; however, before you try to use the sitemap generator, make sure you meet the requirements to use the software. If that doesn’t work, another great site to check out for creating XML sitemaps is XML-Sitemaps.com. Really, it doesn’t matter how you generate the sitemap, it just needs to meet the proper sitemap protocol.
Then register at Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Live Search Webmaster Central to submit your XML sitemap. During the registration process, you’ll need to upload an HTML file or meta tag to your home page to verify the site. Make sure that your meta tag goes in the <head> of your code. Also, it may take a few days for the search engines to crawl your sitemap.
Lastly, make sure you’ve setup website analytics so you're tracking your visitors from day one. If you're already using analytics on the old website, make sure that during the website redesign the code gets placed on the new website. If you don't have any analytics, sign up for Google Analytics before your launch the new website.
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