Thinking of creating a new website for your own business? How to launch WordPress site? Sounds like a challenge but creating a website with WordPress will surely ease the process for anyone. This blog will reveal 10 things to know before launching a website with WordPress.
What is WordPress? WordPress is one of the most popular ways to create a website or blog. It is an open-source content management system that anyone can use and modify the WordPress software for free. This process does not involve any complications. Also, content management system allows you to build a website even if you’re not a developer.
Let’s just say, the best way to create a website is by creating with WordPress.
Here are the top 10 things you need to know before starting a Website with WordPress:
Installation of WordPress backup solution
Backups are always important to save your data, your files, and so on. Preferably taking daily or weekly backups, you will be unaffected by most data loss situations. To avoid such circumstances with your websites, there are plenty of WordPress backup plugins available for free and paid. Install the plugins and make sure that the backups are automatically saved. All the backup plugins should be installed before you launch your website.
Protect your WordPress admin area
Protecting your websites from hackers is needed as WordPress is often a popular target of hackers. Most of the WordPress websites run without having to face such issues but as a website owner, the most horrible thing I can imagine is seeing all the work and data entirely wiped out by a hacker. Sounds ridiculous, right? It is always good to be on the safe side. You have worked hard on your website and you should take some basic hacker protection tips before launching a website:
- Install security plugins
- Use HTTPS
- Regularly update your website platform and software
- Have a strong password
- Get a good backup of your website.
Double-check for 404 Errors
What is a 404 error? 404 error on your page means the page user is trying to reach but couldn’t be found on your server. Having a 404 error on your brand new website will surely make a bad user experience.
Bad user experience is what is going to harm your website and your brand. So, better to check all your 404 errors pages before you launch your website.
How do I find 404 error pages on my website? Simply, go to your search console account, under diagnostic click crawl errors. Click on not found and you will see the list of all the links resulting in the 404 error. Click on any URL, and you will find all the pages where the broken link is linked.
Enable email in your website
WordPress email settings, one of the main things you need to know before launching your WordPress website. Enabling your email settings in WordPress will help your customers contact you at an address that’s clearly connected to your site’s domain.
Steps to configure your email settings in WordPress:
- Find your web host’s SMTP settings
- Log in to your server’s control panel
- Create a new email address
- Install the WP Mail SMTP plugin
- Enter your email address and SMTP settings
- Test your WordPress SMTP email
- Encrypt your SMTP email password
Check your website’s forms
As your website is brand new, it is important to know everything before you launch your website. Adding forms on your websites plays an vital role as this will help you to secure your websites from spam, generate more leads, help people to reach out to you easily and quickly, and get to know your audience.
After the set up of your email, make sure to check if all your forms are working properly or not. Test your contact forms, comment forms, email subscription forms, and so on. Send a test email to double-check if every email has been sent to the right address.
Similarly, for the multi-users WordPress author, it is important to check the login and registration forms as well.
Audit your images, videos, and sliders
Websites can use images, videos, and sliders to make a good impression on visitors. But make sure all the images on your site are properly loaded. Check if all the videos your website is working in all different browsers and different devices without any huddle. Check for sliders on your website it should be checked for all browsers and devices just as you intended it to be.
Confirm proper social integration
To promote any brand online, social media and websites should work together. Social media plays an important role in launching a new product or website. Make sure that your social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. are easy for your visitors to find. Double-check to assure your social sharing plugins are working completely fine before you launch your website.
Conduct pre-testing of your website
User experience is of utmost importance but what user experience is all about? Basically user experience is about how a person feels when they interact with your website. To make every interaction of your customer easy, it is good to have a pretesting before you launch a WordPress website.
Browsing products, check out process, adding to cart, and billing process should be considered while testing your website.
Installation of Google Analytics
Google Analytics is used to get data and analysis of how the users interact with your website. This data will help you to know your customer better and what changes need to be done. Make sure to install google analytics before the launch of the website, so you can track how your launch efforts performed.
There are surely more things to know, but these are top 10 things to know before launching a website with WordPress and pre launch website checklist.
Now that you know what WordPress is and have little idea about how it works, are you ready to launch a website with WordPress?
