{"id":6524,"date":"2013-12-02T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=6524"},"modified":"2013-12-09T09:25:58","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T16:25:58","slug":"6-things-to-check-before-publishing-your-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/6-things-to-check-before-publishing-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Things to Check before Publishing Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article written by Steve Benjamins, founder of Site Builder Report<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve been working non-stop on your company\u2019s new website, and surprise! Your boss wants it published today! You think everything is ready to be published, but it\u2019s 5 o\u2019clock, you\u2019re tired and having a hard time concentrating.<\/p>\n

You hover your mouse over the publish button and hesitate. It\u2019s a scary button. What if you missed something<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Well, you\u2019ve stumbled across to the right article. We\u2019ve put together a last-minute publishing checklist full of items you might want to double check before you publish your website.<\/p>\n

Check: Forms<\/strong>
\nTry playing make-believe \u2013 pretend you\u2019re a first time visitor who knows nothing about your site and try filling out its forms. Pay attention to how the forms feel \u2013 are the correct fields set as \u201crequired?\u201d Do their labels make sense? Is it confusing in any way?<\/p>\n

Next, try submitting the form to make sure that submissions are being sent to the appropriate email address, and that the emails are successfully received \u2013 some email providers have sensitive spam filters.<\/p>\n

Forms are often used for lead generation, and one of the most critical parts of a website. After all, your website is meant to drive more leads and business. Therefore, making sure your forms are in working order is essential.<\/p>\n

\"Site
\nDouble Check: Proofread<\/strong>
\nThis may be a given, but don\u2019t gloss over it. Make sure you take some time to proofread your website. A great way of doing this is reading the content out loud to hear to how it sounds. We guarantee you will be surprised at what you hear.<\/p>\n

Tip: If spelling isn\u2019t your strong suit, try installing a browser add-on like Spellchecker<\/a> to help point out spelling errors as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

Double Check: Favicon<\/strong>
\nA favicon is the icon for your website. It sits by your title in your browser bar:<\/p>\n

\"Site
\nFavicons are small: 16×16 pixels. Luckily there are some great resources for making them: Favicon.cc<\/a> or Favicon Generator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once you have your favicon created, you can upload it to Yola by entering Sitebuilder, and clicking Site > Site Properties > Favicon.<\/p>\n

Check: Page Title<\/strong>
\nPage titles appear in search engines and at the top of browser windows:<\/p>\n

\"Site
\nImportant: page titles are not generated from your content. A page title has to be set separately in your page metadata. You can add your page title with Yola by entering Sitebuilder and clicking\u00a0 Page > Metadata.<\/em><\/p>\n

When it comes to search engines, page titles are important because they describe the content of your page. That being said, if you\u2019re targeting a specific keyword be sure to include it in your page title, but don\u2019t go overboard. Try to keep a page title under 50 characters.<\/p>\n

Check: Is Google Analytics setup?<\/strong>
\nWhile Yola does include website analytics, you will want something a bit more in-depth. Google Analytics<\/a> is a free website statistic service from Google, and has become the industry standard.<\/p>\n

\"Site
\nGoogle Analytics allows you to see many things, including search keywords visitors use to find your site, where in the world visitors are located, how long visitors stay on your site, what pages are most popular and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also very easy to setup Google Analytics with Yola, just add your tracking code into Sitebuilder by clicking Site > Tracking > Google Analytics.<\/p>\n

Check: Image Alternative Text<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re serious about accessibility and search engine optimization<\/a> you should consider adding alternative tags to your image making it easier for search engines to understand your images.<\/p>\n

Adding alternative text to images with Yola is simple, while editing your site just click \u201cEdit\u201d on your images and add the alternative text.<\/p>\n

\"Site
\nWhen adding alternative text tags, be sure to keep them short, one-sentence descriptions of the image.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, these quick tips are enough to make you feel confident enough to publish next time you\u2019re hovering over that button. Remember though, there\u2019s only so much preparation you can do \u2013 sometimes, you just need to put it out there and see what happens, so don\u2019t be afraid to go for it!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Steve is the founder of Site Builder Report<\/a>. Before starting Site Builder Report he was a Toronto web designer with over 10 years experience planning, designing and developing websites.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article written by Steve Benjamins, founder of Site Builder Report Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve been working non-stop on your company\u2019s new website, and surprise! Your boss wants it published today! You think everything is ready to be published, but it\u2019s 5 o\u2019clock, you\u2019re tired and having a hard time concentrating. You hover your mouse over the… Read More »6 Things to Check before Publishing Your Website<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"categories":[119],"tags":[536,535,331,348,1113,86,297,534],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6524"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6562,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions\/6562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}