Website Quality Checklist: Are You on the Right Track

You’re finalising the web development process and you want to make sure that the website you’re about to launch will become an instant hit. Working with your web design company on the finishing touches and making sure that the development corresponds to search engine and visitor requirements will both be essential.

Want to make sure that your website is the best it can be? The following web development checklist will help you figure out whether you’ve accomplished everything necessary for a great start.

Functionalities

Make sure that all of the functionalities and features on your website work and that they’re user-friendly. If you’re having trouble with any of those, you’ll need to have the web design company check on the feature once again.

Forms: Contact forms, ecommerce forms and all other forms featured on the website should be understandable. The visitor should get a confirmation upon the completion of the process.

Links: Click on all and make sure that they take you exactly where they promise.

Logo: The website logo appearing in the upper corner should link to the homepage.

Social media buttons: These should be linked to the respective social media profiles.

RSS feeds: See what appears in the feed and whether it gets automatically updated.

Cross-platform compatibility: All of the functionalities should work across different browsers and different devices. Do a thorough test.

Content

Every website needs to be filled with useful and interesting content before its launch. Don’t wait for the website to go live before you start thinking about adding text to each of the pages.

Content on all pages: Make sure that you have sufficient information about who you are, what you do and what the purpose of the website is.

Blog: Create a blog and have at least a couple of fun and interesting posts written before the launch.

Contact details: Accurate contact details are of paramount importance to your business.

Unique content: Don’t copy content from other websites! Everything that appears on the page should be unique. Otherwise, you risk getting penalised by search engines.

Spelling and grammar: If you want people to take you seriously, you have to make sure that all of your content is 100 percent error-free.

SEO

Website optimisation is one of the most important aspects of web development. Otherwise, even the best project will be impossible to find. Search engines are a massive source of quality traffic, which is why SEO should never be underestimated.

Choose the right keywords: Incorporating quality keywords in your content and your metatags is essential for getting the position you’re hoping for. Google AdWords has an excellent tool that you can use for the purpose of doing keyword research. Here’s another great and free keyword research tool.

Page titles: All of your pages and articles should have title and description tags that incorporate the keyword and explain exactly what the page is all about.

Alt tags: Add alt tags to images. And yes, you can optimise the visuals on the website, as well!

URLs: Descriptive URLs that contain the keyword and suggest what the page is all about are also incredibly beneficial in terms of optimisation.

Optimised niche content: The content you write is one of the most important prerequisites for SEO success. Make sure that you’ve chosen niche topics and you’ve written unique, engaging pieces that will keep the audience online for a longer period of time.

Sitemap: Creating a sitemap and submitting it to Google Webmaster Tools will speed up the indexing of all your pages. There are many tools that can be used for the purpose of sitemap creation, regardless of the web development process and the platform you’ve chosen for the website.

Image size: Small images are very important for keeping the size of the website small. They will contribute to faster loading, which is one of the factors that search engines take into consideration.

Standards and Validation

These are very important for quality and effective web design. Several elements will need to be checked:

Contrast and visibility: Once again, check the website on different devices and make sure that the design looks clean and crisp on all of those.

Validation: A few errors could stand in the way of website validation. Experienced developers will be capable of running a test and identifying the problem.

Alt tags: All images need to have clear and well-written alt tag.

JavaScript: Many people have JavaScript turned off. Your website should still deliver a stellar performance and look great.

Responsive design: This is the key to having your website look great, regardless of the device that it’s being viewed on. Make sure that your website’s design is responsive and it adapts to the size of the screen.

These are just some of the essentials that will need to be examined. An experienced web design company team will guide you through the process and make sure that all of the mistakes are fixed before the launch of your website. Fixing errors on the go after the website goes live is a big no-no and it can cost you many visitors.