Before You Publish a Website Revision Update

Before You Publish a Website Revision update post explains what you need to set up and implement before you go ahead and start your first blog.

Last Updated: June 8, 2023

Latest News: Updated a broken link.

When you decide you want to publish a website, what do you do? The information here is very similar to the following URL Write Your First Blog post.

There are many questions to consider before you start developing your website. Many people decide to publish a website before they even look at some of the most important questions that you must consider before you even go ahead and publish a website. After they have submitted their website they realize how much is missing. You don’t want this to happen to you.

I have put together some of the questions that I ask my clients before I go ahead and design and publish their website.

Take a look at the list below and answer these questions before you consider developing and publishing your website.

Before You Publish A Website Revision Update

Requirements:

Step 1 ) Which host will you sign up with?

I have been using Justhost for more than 6 years and I am happy with their services. There are many hosting companies on the market for you to choose from. So which one so you think is the right one for you? This all depends on what kind of website are you going to develop. For example:

1. Are you going to develop a dynamic or static site? Most people nowadays choose dynamic and use CMS systems like WordPress.
2. Are you going to developer a membership site?
3. Are you going to develop a full eCommerce site?
4. Is your site going to have forms, shopping cart, forums, blogs, tutorials etc?

The above are just a few questions to help you understand what can cause your site to slow down because of lack of server resources etc.

So before you go ahead and sign up with the first host you find, do some research. Once you are happy then sign up. Most host nowadays provide CMS “Content Management System” services. Three most popular CMS in today’s market is; Joomla, WordPress and Drupal. But the one that I love and work with is WordPress. This site runs with WordPress.

Note: I highly recommend WordPress CMS for site development.

Recommend Host: (Some links below are affiliated links / I get a small commission if you sign up.)

1. Justhost, The host I am currently using for this website.
   
2. Bluehost, Bluehost and Justhost are sister companies. Bluehost is at the top of the list in wordpress.org website.
   
3. Inmotionhosting, This hosting company is recommended by many website developers.
   
4. Dreamhost is very reliable and has many different plans i.e. shared host, VPS host, dedicated server and cloud.
5. WP Engine is a hassle-free WordPress hosting environment which helps you with your speed, security, support and it is fully managed.

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Step 2 ) What domain name are you going to use for your website?

You have to make sure that it is available first. Do a search on Google and see if that name is taken. Also make sure that the name you choose has something to do with what you are selling or promoting. The domain name can help your ranking from the word go. So think about it before you go ahead and register the domain name. Important: Once you have registered the domain name you cannot change it.

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Step 3 ) Will your website target your country or the world i.e. www.yourname.com.au or www.yourname.com? Will your site have www or will you omit it from the URL?

This is important as you want all traffic to be directed to the correct URL i.e. is different to.

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Step 4 ) How many web pages, blog posts are you going to have?

You need to have an idea of how many web pages you will start with before you publish your website. This can be a good starting point.

Later on as your website popularity grows you will be adding more pages. You might even edit some of the old pages. If your site is a blog, I recommend using WordPress. You will probably end up having thousands of blog posts and some pages.

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Step 5 ) What template or theme are you going to use for your website?

The layout is very important as well. Depending on your audience you want to attract that is the template or theme you will need to implement on your website or blog.

You might like to check the following URL How To Install WordPress Theme tutorial, to learn how to install a theme.

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Step 6 ) What will you include in your About Me page?

Give your audience something that will make them want to purchase your product, your service or do business with you. Be honest about what you have done and or currently doing.

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Step 7 ) What Information about your services or products will you provide?

This part will attract people to visit your website, the more information you add here the more people you will attract to your website. This can be your homepage.

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Step 8 ) Do you have a portfolio?

It would be great to add a portfolio page in your website. This will populate as your business grows.

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Step 9 ) Are you going to provide links in your website?

What kind of links? Very important for SEO and promoting your sight with Google, Bing and Yahoo. One of the best methods is reciprocal linking especially with sites that promote the same or similar services as yours.

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Step 10 ) Will you add a contact form (Highly recommended)? Will you be including an email address, mobile phone number and business address in the Contact Us page? 

Very important to note that if you are going to add a visible e-mail address, make sure it is a domain name e-mail. For example: your domain name is www.yourdomain.com and the e-mail address would be yourname@yourdomain.com. This is a great method to further promote your business and website.

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Step 11 ) Do you have an ABN “Australian Business Number” for Australia? Other countries have different business numbers, if so, are you going to include it in your website?

This is great for business; you want potential clients to know that you are legitimate and that you are here to stay.

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Step 12 ) What Meta tag and Meta description will you add to promote your website?

This requires a bit of research. This will either promote your website quickly or leave you at the end of the line somewhere where no one will find you for a short time or a long period. Always remember that good content will always give you traffic. If what you write people like then you will always get traffic. Traffic equals, promotion, ranking, status and most important happiness.

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Step 13 ) SEO “Search Engine Optimisation” promotional methods. How are you going to promote your website to search engines like Google and Bing? Do you have a Google account? Do you have a
Bing account?

If not, then I suggest that you create one!! One of the most important part of promoting your website is with one of the most important search engines in the world, “Google”. You want to know what goes on behind your back with some incredible FREE tools that Google so nicely have included for you to use once you sign up. The following are just a few of the many tools you will have access to: Webmaster tools, Analytics, Google places, Profile, YouTube, Calendar and Feedburner.

When it comes to SEO and Google you really need to make sure you follow Google guidelines or else you will be penalized.

You might like to check the following URL First Time Blogging SEO.

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RSS Feed

Step 14 ) Are you going to have an RSS “Really Simple Syndication” feed?

You need to have this in place if you want people to sign up and follow your feeds. You can use Feedburner from Google mentioned previously.

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Step 15 ) Are you going to promote your website with social networks like facebook and twitter?

If you don’t then you are going to miss out on a potential market worth millions of visitors. Do the sums and you will see that it is very important to get involved with these social networks? Another business-oriented social networking site that is climbing the ladder very quickly is Linkedin. Linkedin allows you to manage your professional network. You can promote yourself, your business, look for work, list jobs and share information.

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Step 16 ) Will you be including YouTube videos, photos or tutorials?

How will you attract people to your site if you don’t give them something they want or need? If you choose to create a tutorials, you will need to add a blog to your website. One of the best CMS platforms to manage a blog online is WordPress.

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Step 17 ) What about a testimonial page?

This is just as important as the above. Try and get all your clients, business partners and friends to submit testimonials or reviews about your services or products.

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Step 18 ) It is very important to maintain a vigilant eye on your site.

If you use a CMS “Content Management System” like Joomla or WordPress, then you will realise that these CMS get updated regularly. Security updates, module, component or plugins you use will always get updates.

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Step 19 ) Is your website mobile compatible?

Today this is very important to implement. You really need to consider if you want to get more traffic, sales and business. Google is ranking high websites that are mobile friendly.

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Security

Step 20 ) Security.

What kind of security will you be implementing? Depending on your CMS or just plain HTML website. Since I am using WordPress for this blog, they have many plugins that help you maintain a secured website.

You might like to read about the following security plugin for WordPress All In One WP Security And Firewall Plugin. I highly recommend this plugin.

Step 20-a) Email Server Security.

If you manage your server or your site is hosted in a shared server you need to make sure the following email security options are setup correctly. We all know what a nuisance it is to receive spam emails. At the same time you don’t want your email to be branded as a spam. For that reason enabling and setting the following can prevent this from happening. At the same time you want to also protect your email account from getting abused and used by others inappropriately.

Email Sever Security Settings

• DKIM = Check the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DomainKeys_Identified_Mail to learn more.
• SPF = Check the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework to learn more.
• DMARC = Check the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC to learn more.

Tools to check your email

• https://mxtoolbox.com/ = This provides a list of tools you can use to test your email.

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Step 21 ) Miscellaneous.

Will you be adding a logo to your website? Will you be adding a favicon to your website? Will you be creating a signature to be included on your e-mails, it is important to have a signature when you are replying to form request and or to clients.

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Backup

Step 22 ) One more important factor to remember!

and one that many forget to do is “BACKUP”. Backup your website when you first setup and publish your website. Create new backups every time you update your site. Have a copy on the server and one on your local computer or laptop. Believe me I have had my share of incidents without a backup and the feeling is not very nice.

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Step 23 ) Everyone knows how important it is to have a fast loading website.

Tools you can use to test your speed:

1. Google Speed Test
2. Gtmetrix
3. Test your website with the WP Engine WordPress Speed Test.
4. Dotcom Speed Test = This service has the ability to test your site in real time from many different locations in the world. You can also select different browsers for the test plus a lot more.

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Rates And Other Services

If you need a website developed in WordPress, promote your website and services via SEO, then send me an e-mail. My web developing rates are economical. Click the following URL SEO and IT rates to learn about other services and rates.

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Remember if you have any questions, post a comment or send me an e-mail via my contact form. I will be glad to help you further.

Good luck with your website.

Enjoy.