Overview
Before a website is placed online, several areas should be checked to make sure things have not been forgotten. So that any missing pieces can be added before the website is goes online. The Basic Go-live checklist provides a list of things that should be reviewed for a basic website.
Typical use cases for the Basic Go-live checklist might be:
- A local church website
- A department website
- A small event website for annual events
If a website utilizes many modules, or has a higher level of complexity, additional elements will need to be reviewed. Also if the website is for an Online Course or Media Library (e.g. Hope Channel) there are additional areas to consider before going online.
How to
Structure
A list of possible pages to implement on the website. These are not required, just ideas. For a small website, one could create a page which has several sections on it, instead of creating each individual page.
- Homepage
- About us
- Team page
- Contact
- News
- Events
- Donations
Content:
- Logo: have all required logos been added?
- Is the Favicon in place?
- Have all website pages been reviewed for design, layout, and content?
- Forms:
- The proper emails are set, so form information goes to the correct recipient?
- The consent or required legal texts are in place?
- Legal pages: Does the website require any legal pages (Impressum, privacy, data protect, etc.)?
SEO
Search Engine Optimization is what helps search engines to find your pages and index them correctly. This allows them to be presented in the search engine result list that is returned when someone searches on a topic. Please see the SEO configuration article for additional information.
Cookies
Clear the browser cache and reload the website. Are all of the types of cookies accounted for in the cookie popup? If you are using a service such as Google Analytics, YouTube, etc. you need to verify if the website is putting cookies on users machines. If there are cookie types missing, then speak with your administrator to see about adding these to the website configuration.
Menus:
- Are all menus displaying the correct navigation links?
- Have all menu navigation links been tested for proper functioning?
Analytics:
- Have the built-in analytics been configured and are reporting website traffic?
- Configuration of Google Analytics are the responsibility of the partner.
Translations:
- If the website has translations...
- Have all pages been translated?
- Have all Menus been translated?
- Has the website Appearance submodule been translated?
- Have the website Settings been translated?
- Is the language menu visible in the frontend? (If not, see setting up website translations.)
Redirects
- If the website is brand new, no redirects are required.
If the website is replacing an existing website, review sitemaps and consider redirects required.
Add redirects from old website URLs to new website URLs to make sure visitors get where they need to go.
Google's links will be broken, if the pages or website structure has changed. People will get 404 errors because Google has incorrect linking in place. The redirects prevent this from happening.
Redirects can be added in the Web submodule Redirects.
Robots.txt file
- If you setup a restrictive robots.txt, review your settings before the launch of your website and delete it.
- In the website page tree, look for a page with the name "robots.txt". It should be in the root of the page tree.
DNS Changes for websites
- !!! Make DNS changes only when the website is ready to go online.
- If your website uses a subdomain:
- Example Subdomain (adventist.uk): buc-sabbathschool.adventist.uk
- You can add the full domain name, including the subdomain, into the Primary Domain field.
- Navigate to: Website > Settings > General tab and scroll to Primary Domain section.
- Make a copy of the current Primary Domain, in case you need to revert.
- Enter your full domain name into the Primary Domain field, then scroll down and click on Update button.
- In the backend, go to the homepage and then click on the View online button to check the website.
- If you have a custom domain name:
- The Partner must have access to the DNS control panel for the domain name that is being used.
- The settings on the DNS Control Panel need to be updated:
- Navigate to: Website > Settings > General tab and scroll down to the "Important" section.
- See the CNAME and A record settings in this area.
- Add or update those fields in the DNS control panel, so the name server points to the Web Engine environment.
- Once DNS changes are saved on the control panel, update the primary domain name field to the final domain.
- Add any redirect domain(s).
- The Web Engine support team can assist as needed with DNS changes if things are not working as expected.