So you’ve worked for ages and now you’re ready to launch. How are you going to prove to your client that your lean css and well thought out semantic code really was worth the money they just invested in you?
Well hopefully you were able to nab their baseline web stats. But even if you didn’t, all is not lost. Use this handy checklist to cover all your bases. I suggest you keep an excel sheet for each site you operate so you can add new items to the list as new services come available.
Enjoy! (Get the Analytics ready checklist in spreadsheet format now!)
- Run websitegrader.com on the current (yucky) site to get a base grade. Write it down
- Upload everything to the live server.
- Point DNS to the live server
- Insert a permanent 301 redirect for all domains (this is important for web stats - read here)
- Create a Google Analytics account for the client with your gmail address but add your client as a user
- Place Google Analytics tracking code into the live site.
- In Google Analytics, add IP filters for your computer(s) and your clients.
- Submit the URL to Google.
- Submit to DMOZ.
- Submit the URL to Yahoo.
- Add the site to Yahoo Site Explore.
- Place the Yahoo verification tag into the home page
- Add new site to your Google Webmaster profile
- Place the Google Webmaster verification meta tag into the home page
- Upload robots.txt file to block paths to any admin directories or areas you don’t want spidered
- Tell Google Webmaster where the sitemap.xml file is
- Generate an initial Web Grade on your live site using websitegrader.com
- Fix obvious issues if they exist (missing alt values etc)
