Whether you’re unveil­ing a brand-new site or inject­ing new life into an exist­ing one, the jour­ney from con­cept to live web­site is full of crit­i­cal deci­sions and metic­u­lous planning.

In e‑commerce and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, your web­site is more than just a shop win­dow; it’s a sto­ry­teller, a sales­per­son, and often the first point of con­tact with your cus­tomers. It reflects your brand’s iden­ti­ty, val­ues, and com­mit­ment to user expe­ri­ence. But how do you ensure that your site res­onates with your audi­ence and stands out from the competition?

This 20-step check­list guides you through each stage of launch­ing or relaunch­ing your web­site. From bud­get­ing to post-launch analy­sis, we’ve left no stone unturned.

Let’s dive in.

Website launch checklist: 20 must-dos

1. Consider your time and financial budgets

Launch­ing or relaunch­ing a web­site calls for both time and finan­cial invest­ments. Before start­ing, you’ll need to con­sid­er how much you can spare for each.

The time it takes to launch a web­site can vary sig­nif­i­cant­ly. For a basic e‑commerce site, it might take as lit­tle as a few weeks, while more com­plex projects could extend to sev­er­al months. Learn more about web­site-build­ing times here.

When it comes to bud­get, there’s a broad spec­trum. If you’re work­ing on a DIY basis using web­site builders, you might spend a few hun­dred dol­lars, pri­mar­i­ly on host­ing and domain costs.

On the oth­er hand, pro­fes­sion­al cus­tom designs involv­ing devel­op­ers, design­ers, and con­tent cre­ators, can range in cost from a few thou­sand to tens of thou­sands of dol­lars. Your budget

should align with your busi­ness goals, desired web­site func­tion­al­i­ty, and the lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al assis­tance that you’ll require.

The cost and length of your launch­ing process will vary depend­ing on the com­plex­i­ty of your site, the lev­el of cus­tomi­sa­tion, and whether you are build­ing it from scratch.

It’s cru­cial to set a real­is­tic time­line that accom­mo­dates design, devel­op­ment, test­ing, and con­tent cre­ation as well as plan a finan­cial­ly achiev­able strat­e­gy. Your bud­gets for time and cost should be flex­i­ble because unex­pect­ed delays or nec­es­sary enhance­ments can affect your orig­i­nal plan.

2. Clarify your key concerns

The sec­ond crit­i­cal step of launch­ing a web­site is to clar­i­fy areas for improve­ment. This is cru­cial if the changes you imple­ment are to effec­tive­ly address your site’s needs and enhance its performance.

Start by list­ing down your main con­cerns. Is your cur­rent site’s user expe­ri­ence intu­itive and engag­ing? Are your CTAs effec­tive­ly con­vert­ing vis­i­tors? Is your SEO strat­e­gy bring­ing in the organ­ic traf­fic you were hop­ing for?

It’s tempt­ing to want to fix every­thing at once, but resources are often lim­it­ed. To opti­mise your invest­ment, pri­ori­tise the ele­ments that will have the most sig­nif­i­cant impact on your site’s per­for­mance. For instance, if your con­ver­sion rate is low, enhanc­ing your CTAs and check­out process might take prece­dence over a blog con­tent refresh.

Before you make any changes, it’s imper­a­tive to record your cur­rent KPIs. Met­rics like traf­fic lev­els, page load speed, bounce rate, con­ver­sion rate, cart aban­don­ment rate, and aver­age time spent on site will serve as bench­marks. Doc­u­ment­ing these fig­ures pro­vides a clear pic­ture of your site’s cur­rent state and will help you mea­sure the suc­cess of your relaunch efforts.

3. Name your website

Choos­ing the right domain name is pivotal—it’s your brand’s online identity.

For a relaunch, con­sid­er whether your cur­rent domain still res­onates with your brand and audi­ence. If launch­ing anew, select a name that’s mem­o­rable, easy to type, and reflec­tive of your e‑commerce niche.

Avoid com­pli­cat­ed spellings and aim for clar­i­ty. Remem­ber, your domain name can influ­ence SEO and brand recog­ni­tion, so choose wise­ly to make a last­ing impression.

4. Hire specialists

A key part of this process is being able to recog­nise when it’s time to call in the experts. If your vision is ambi­tious, you’ll like­ly need a team of spe­cial­ists to bring it to life.

While it’s tempt­ing to tack­le every­thing on your own, hir­ing pro­fes­sion­als such as web design­ers, SEO experts, and copy­writ­ers can vast­ly improve the qual­i­ty of your site. They bring a wealth of expe­ri­ence and spe­cialised skills that can make your site stand out in a crowd­ed dig­i­tal marketplace.

Find­ing the right peo­ple can take time—usually a few weeks to a cou­ple of months. Start by out­lin­ing what you need and then search for pro­fes­sion­als with strong port­fo­lios and proven results. Remem­ber, the time invest­ed in assem­bling a capa­ble team will pay div­i­dends in the qual­i­ty of your final product.

If your project is small­er or sim­pler, a web­site builder can be a cost-effec­tive alter­na­tive. These plat­forms can sim­pli­fy the process, although the trade-off might mean less cus­tomi­sa­tion and uniqueness.

In any case, ensure you start this process ear­ly, as align­ing the right tal­ent may take longer than anticipated.

5. Conduct competitor analysis

Under­stand­ing the com­pet­i­tive land­scape will be cru­cial to carv­ing out a space in it. This means you’ll need to con­duct a thor­ough com­pet­i­tive analy­sis.

The good thing about com­peti­tor analy­sis is that it sets a tem­plate for what you can achieve. You end up with real­is­tic goals for con­ver­sion rates, traf­fic, and engage­ment lev­els that are root­ed in reality.

Begin your research by analysing the mar­ket to iden­ti­fy trends and gauge cus­tomer expec­ta­tions. This insight is invalu­able as it informs how you design your site, what fea­tures you offer, and how you posi­tion your brand.

How’s your com­peti­tor’s web­site per­for­mance, user expe­ri­ence, and mar­ket­ing going? Con­sid­er what they’re doing well and not so well. Any data you can glean here will help set bench­marks and strate­gies for your own website.

6. Plan your website’s structure

A well-planned struc­ture is key to guid­ing vis­i­tors smooth­ly from brows­ing to purchase.

If you’re relaunch­ing your old web­site, eval­u­ate its ana­lyt­ics to iden­ti­fy which pages per­form well and which don’t. Con­sid­er adding new pages that align with emerg­ing trends or cus­tomer needs. Con­verse­ly, it might be time to retire pages that no longer serve your goals or attract traffic.

If you’re cre­at­ing an entire­ly new web­site, start by map­ping out a sitemap. This visu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion should detail all your main cat­e­gories and sub­cat­e­gories, ensur­ing they’re

log­i­cal, acces­si­ble, and con­ducive to a seam­less shop­ping expe­ri­ence. Each page should have a clear pur­pose in the cus­tomer’s journey.

7. Create a wireframe

A wire­frame is essen­tial for visu­al­is­ing the site’s lay­out with­out the dis­trac­tion of design details like colours and images.

When relaunch­ing a web­site, wire­fram­ing can help reor­gan­ise your con­tent and intro­duce new fea­tures. It helps in assess­ing the user flow and the strate­gic place­ment of CTAs, ensur­ing that the revamped site enhances the user experience.

In con­trast, wire­frames are invalu­able for new sites when it comes to plan­ning the user jour­ney. They ensure that the most crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion and con­ver­sion points are log­i­cal­ly placed and that the nav­i­ga­tion is intuitive.

8. Design your website

When reimag­in­ing your web­site’s design, start by cre­at­ing a style guide. This will be your com­pass for con­sis­ten­cy across the site. It should encom­pass your colour scheme, typog­ra­phy, iconog­ra­phy, and oth­er visu­al elements.

Hav­ing a detailed style guide ensures that no mat­ter who works on your con­tent, the brand’s essence will always remain intact.

In addi­tion to the style guide, sketch the basic lay­out of your web pages. Here, bal­ance and visu­al hier­ar­chy are key. You want to guide the user’s eye through the page in a way that is both pleas­ing and purposeful.

Once the style guide and lay­out sketch­es are ready, it’s time to cre­ate detailed mock-ups – these are what you give to your web design­er and developer.

The process of cre­at­ing mock-ups and going back and forth with design­ers can be time-con­sum­ing, as it often involves sev­er­al iter­a­tions based on feed­back and refine­ment. To read a more detailed check­list of the web design process, check out this blog post.

9. Develop your website

For both new launch­es and relaunch­es, web devel­op­ment involves cod­ing the front and back ends, ensur­ing that the design is not only aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing but also func­tion­al and secure.

When build­ing an entire­ly new site, devel­op­ers will build from the ground up, set­ting up servers, data­bas­es, and ensur­ing that the site’s archi­tec­ture is sol­id. They will trans­late your wire­frames and mock-ups into web pages, using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and inte­grate an e‑commerce platform.

In con­trast, a web­site relaunch will focus on inte­grat­ing new fea­tures, updat­ing exist­ing ele­ments, and per­haps migrat­ing to more robust plat­forms. Devel­op­ers will also ensure that any new code mesh­es seam­less­ly with the lega­cy system.

In terms of the time­frame for web devel­op­ment, this can vary. A sim­ple site might take a few weeks, while a more com­plex e‑commerce plat­form could take sev­er­al months. This stage is crit­i­cal and should not be rushed, as it includes not only the ini­tial build but also rig­or­ous test­ing to iron out any issues before going live.

When design­ing and devel­op­ing your web­site, you’ll need to think about acces­si­bil­i­ty. To learn more about this, read our in-depth guide.

10. Optimise for user experience

A seam­less user expe­ri­ence (UX) is vital for retain­ing vis­i­tors and con­vert­ing them into cus­tomers. Opti­mis­ing your new web­site’s UX involves a few dif­fer­ent aspects:

• Ensure every page has a clear CTA.
• Web­site nav­i­ga­tion should be intuitive.
• Impor­tant infor­ma­tion should be easy for site vis­i­tors to find.
• Your web­site must be mobile-optimised.
• Fast page load­ing times are key.
• To improve site respon­sive­ness, adjust image sizes and min­imise HTTP requests.

11. Lay the groundwork for SEO

Opti­mis­ing your web­site for search engines is a non-nego­tiable step in ensur­ing your site is found by the right audi­ence. SEO is not just about improv­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty; it’s about cre­at­ing a bet­ter, more user-friend­ly experience.

Start with ensur­ing that your site is crawlable for search engines. Remove any bar­ri­ers that might pre­vent search engines from read­ing your pages and fix all bro­ken links that con­tribute to a poor user experience.

Next, you’ll need to per­form com­pre­hen­sive key­word research to under­stand what your poten­tial cus­tomers are search­ing for. This research will inform your con­tent strat­e­gy, help­ing you to cre­ate mate­r­i­al that match­es users’ intent.

Each page should be opti­mised for rel­e­vant key­words with­out over­stuff­ing. This includes not just the con­tent but also meta tags and image alt tags. These ele­ments help search engines under­stand the con­text of your pages, con­tribut­ing to bet­ter rankings.

12. Set up your analytics

Mon­i­tor­ing the per­for­mance of your web­site is essen­tial for mak­ing informed deci­sions and con­tin­u­ous improve­ment. Whether you’re launch­ing a new site or relaunch­ing an exist­ing one, set­ting up ana­lyt­ics is cru­cial. Make sure you do the following:

- If you don’t already have a Google Ana­lyt­ics (GA) account, cre­ate one and link it to your web­site. GA pro­vides valu­able insights into your site’s traf­fic, user behav­iour, and conversions.

- Imple­ment event track­ing to mon­i­tor spe­cif­ic user inter­ac­tions, such as form sub­mis­sions, down­loads, or video views. This allows you to mea­sure the effec­tive­ness of var­i­ous ele­ments on your site.

- Set up con­ver­sion track­ing to mea­sure the suc­cess of your goals, whether they’re sales, sign-ups, or oth­er actions you want users to take. This helps you under­stand your site’s impact on your busi­ness objectives.

- Sched­ule reg­u­lar reports to stay updat­ed on your site’s per­for­mance. Analyse data to iden­ti­fy trends, areas for improve­ment, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for optimisation.

- Exam­ine user behav­iour, includ­ing pages vis­it­ed, bounce rates, and con­ver­sion paths. Use this infor­ma­tion to refine your con­tent and user experience.

13. Start creating content

Con­tent is fun­da­men­tal to most web­sites. Before you launch your new site, make sure its con­tent is rel­e­vant and of a high qual­i­ty. It should res­onate with your tar­get audi­ence and be informative.

Pro­vide a dynam­ic expe­ri­ence for users by util­is­ing a mix­ture of text, images, and videos. How­ev­er, you’ll want to main­tain a con­sis­tent brand voice across all your content.

Don’t for­get to opti­mise your con­tent for SEO by using key­words nat­u­ral­ly in the tex­t’s body and head­ings. In addi­tion, meta descrip­tions should entice vis­i­tors from the SERPs.

14. Complete your technical updates

Updat­ing the tech­ni­cal aspects of your site will ensure its secu­ri­ty, per­for­mance, and func­tion­al­i­ty. Con­sid­er the following:

• Update your Con­tent Man­age­ment Sys­tem (CMS) to the lat­est version.
• Review and update all plu­g­ins, exten­sions, or modules.
• Assess your host­ing plan – you may need to upgrade it to accom­mo­date increased traf­fic and stor­age needs.
• Imple­ment reg­u­lar back­ups to pre­vent data loss.
• Enable SSL encryp­tion for secure data transfer.
• Check for mobile respon­sive­ness and cross-brows­er compatibility.
• Review web­site code for dep­re­cat­ed func­tions or out­dat­ed scripts.

15. Make sure your site is legally compliant

Ensur­ing your web­site meets legal require­ments is not just good practice—it’s a neces­si­ty. Com­pli­ance affects trust and cred­i­bil­i­ty with cus­tomers and shields your busi­ness from poten­tial legal issues.

You’ll need to cre­ate a clear and com­pre­hen­sive pri­va­cy pol­i­cy that out­lines how you col­lect, use, and pro­tect user data. Don’t for­get to draft terms of ser­vice to define the rules and guide­lines users agree to fol­low when using your website.

If your site uses cook­ies, pro­vide a cook­ie pol­i­cy and obtain user con­sent where nec­es­sary, which is a legal require­ment in many juris­dic­tions. For e‑commerce sites, ensure that you com­ply with con­sumer pro­tec­tion laws, which include clear prod­uct descrip­tions, return poli­cies, and secure pay­ment processing.

Stay­ing com­pli­ant with these legal aspects not only pro­tects you but also builds trust with your cus­tomers, let­ting them know that their rights and pri­va­cy are respect­ed and safe­guard­ed. To learn how to make your Word­Press web­site GDPR com­pli­ant, read this guide.

16. Makeover your old marketing strategies

Once your web­site is launched, it’d be ide­al if you had some shiny new mar­ket­ing strate­gies to match. It’s a good idea to review and update your cam­paign URLs, cre­ate new email list pop-ups, seg­ment your mail­ing list (if you haven’t already), and start per­son­al­is­ing your messages.

There are count­less mar­ket­ing efforts you could begin, but you don’t have to pick them all. Con­sid­er updat­ing your social media strat­e­gy or devel­op­ing a blog post sched­ule. You may want to branch out into influ­encer part­ner­ships or paid adver­tis­ing techniques.

What­ev­er you choose to do, diver­si­fy­ing and updat­ing your mar­ket­ing strate­gies can help increase your reach, attract new cus­tomers, and re-engage exist­ing ones.

17. Conduct pre-launch tests

Before unveil­ing your web­site, pre-launch test­ing is essen­tial to ensure every­thing oper­ates smooth­ly. Make sure you test your web­site on var­i­ous devices to ensure it adapts seam­less­ly to dif­fer­ent screen sizes and resolutions.

You might like to con­duct usabil­i­ty test­ing with real users. This will pro­vide feed­back on the site’s nav­i­ga­tion and over­all user experience.

Don’t for­get to check your code using HTML and CSS val­ida­tors to ensure that it meets web stan­dards – this can help pre­vent ren­der­ing issues across dif­fer­ent web browsers and improve SEO performance.

18. Promote your new site

Once your web­site is poised for launch, it’s time to pro­mote it. Teas­ing the launch on social media can help cre­ate buzz – try sneak peeks, count­downs, or behind-the-scenes content.

Email cam­paigns can also help gen­er­ate antic­i­pa­tion. You might try send­ing exclu­sive offers to sub­scribers or fol­low-up emails post-launch.

19. Analyse post-launch performance

Keep­ing a close watch on post-launch ana­lyt­ics will pro­vide you with invalu­able insights and guide you towards sus­tained growth and improvement.

Pay close atten­tion to your SEO met­rics to under­stand how well your con­tent is rank­ing in search engine results. Look for changes in organ­ic traf­fic, key­word rank­ings, and your site’s vis­i­bil­i­ty on search engines.

Com­pare the KPIs you estab­lished before the launch with cur­rent per­for­mance. Met­rics like con­ver­sion rates, bounce rates, and aver­age ses­sion dura­tions are cru­cial for assess­ing the impact of the new design and functionality.

20. Continue to improve your website

Even though you’ve launched a new web­site, it will still need improv­ing as time goes on. To make eas­i­er changes as the months go by, look at your site’s per­for­mance data. This can help you respond to user behav­iour and tweak ele­ments that aren’t per­form­ing as expected.

High-per­form­ing sites main­tain a rou­tine of ongo­ing test­ing, includ­ing A/B test­ing. You can do this for dif­fer­ent page ver­sions, load­ing speeds, check­out process­es, form sub­mis­sions, and more.

Reg­u­lar­ly test­ing your site and mon­i­tor­ing per­for­mance met­rics ensures every­thing func­tions smooth­ly and that the user jour­ney is con­tin­u­al­ly being refined.

Final thoughts

There’s def­i­nite­ly a lot to do when launch­ing a new web­site. If you’d like some help with your project, get in touch with pur­ple­plan­et. Our team is made up of sev­er­al spe­cial­ists who can help with every step of your web­site launch.

Get in touch