When is a Website Ready for Launch/Relaunch?
The Common Misconception
On September 1, 2005, I was contacted by Ivan Schneider of Award Kitchen
Refacers. Award had confirmed participation as an exhibitor
at the National Home Show in Toronto at the end of the month and
wanted to have a website, logo and set of business cards that
could be presented to the public to support their offline
marketing efforts at that time.
Ivan and I sat down the next week and went through the various
materials and sketches that Award had come up with for use on
the website. Some of the sketches contained layouts and rough
copy for the body of the website.
There was a fairly large volume of material to encompass, and I
wasn't sure if I could cover all aspects of it along with other
client work. I asked Ivan, "I'm not sure if I can complete the
site, cards, and logo by the end of the month."
"That's okay."
"What do you mean? You want to go to the home show with a
completed site."
"No I don't. I'd be happy with the opening page, and a couple of
the writeup pages. You can worry about some of the other details
after. And over the next few months, we're going to keep
improving on it anyway."
It was then that I realized something that had been engrained in
my mind over my six years as a web designer/developer was
totally incorrect.
The misconception: "A website should only be revealed to the
public when it is complete." The truth: "A good website is
never truly 'complete', and is a constantly evolving entity unto
itself."
One of the unique aspects of the Internet is that designers and
developers are constantly pushing its boundaries from both the
design and development standpoints, discovering new and more
efficient ways to accomplish tasks, developing new coding
standards, improving their graphic abilities, and taking
advantage of newer technologies and programs as they become
readily available to the populace.
This, in conjunction with the continued growth of the businesses
that said websites represent, creates a state whereby effective
commercial websites are in a continual, Darwin-like state of
evolution. Content is added; functionality is improved; new
features are implemented; graphics and site layouts are tweaked
and, when necessary, completely redone. All of these things
considered, the question becomes: When is the best time to
launch a new or redeveloped website?
When is the Best Time to Launch a New or Redeveloped
Website?
Does your site meet or exceed the standards set by the
competition? Every commercial website, regardless of the
industry it pertains to, will have competition in some form or
fashion. Analyze your competitors' websites and see whether or
your not your site compares favourably to theirs.
Does your website possess a unique property that will enhance
your business in comparison to those of the competition?
Every business needs a way to distinguish itself in order to
"bring it to the front of the pack", and the same holds true
with websites. The unique property could be anything, from a
custom quote request form to a never-before-seen layout to a
high level of search engine optimization. It could even be as
simple as effective body copy.
Whatever your unique website property is, it is of the utmost
importance to get it to market as quickly as possible in order
to derive the maximum possible benefit from it before a
competitor discovers it.
Be prepared to expand on this unique property if necessary. One
of the unfortunate aspects of Internet marketing is that, as
soon as something new is discovered and proven to be successful,
others will copy and/or improve said property. If possible, you
may wish to consider holding back some aspects of your unique
property for future development and launch as an insurance
policy.
Do you have a deadline that cannot be altered or "pushed
back"? In the case of Award Kitchen Refacers, the home show
was at the end of the month and was not going to be changed for
any reason.
In situations like these, consider launching a smaller version
of the site that can still be considered "complete" (no dead
links, etc.), and then add to it later.
Does it meet a satisfactory level of completion to the
majority of the target market you wish to reach? Ensure that
there are no links on pages that lead to missing pages or pages
"under construction"; images aren't broken or missing; textual
copy is clear, concise, and as free of typographical and
spelling errors as possible; and that there are no potential
coding issues that interfere with customers' ability to find the
site via search engines, use the site, and gather the
information and resources that they require.
At this point, a site doesn't have to be "complete" per se. It
just has to be "presentable". A good developer will be able to
make the changes required to improve the site with minimal
impact on the usability of the existing site.
Is the site structured in such a way as to allow for quick
and easy changes to the style and layout of the site? Are
fonts and layout styles kept separate from the content? Does the
navigation bar allow room for additional options if necessary?
If you are a not a designer/developer, here are a few quick
things you can look for to help you determine how easy your site
is to update and add to:
Consistent navigation, headers and footers among the various
pages. If you notice strange behaviour in these two areas
(changing of the position of the header and footer relative to
the body, the navigation appears different on different pages,
the header looks different across pages of the site) that you
did not specifically outline, chances are that your site is not
structured for growth.
Consistent use of font and layout styles and spacing.
Your site, if structured correctly, should have the same font
size and style for body copy across all of its pages, in order
to ensure the consistency mentioned earlier. Header text and
other textual elements should appear the same throughout the
site as well.
Does your site make use of interactive elements (e.g. forms),
and/or do pages on the site end with extensions other than
.htm/.html? HTML is the output code which browsers read and
generate the pages of a website from. However, HTML is a display
language only; it cannot implement features such as form
processing, search, message boards, and the many other rich
interactive features that make up the Web.
These elements require a level of programming that HTML simply
cannot provide, and a developer that has the ability to
integrate these elements into an existing website also has the
ability to develop and grow a website in an infinite number of
directions.
Does your site draw information from a database? If the
answer is yes, then your site also requires the level of
programming mentioned in the previous point.
Can you receive positive, yet constructive feedback from
people when you show your website to them? If you show your
friends, family, and colleagues your website and they give you
positive feedback on various aspects of it, then it's a pretty
safe bet that your site is ready for launch.
Be careful and use your best judgement when you receive
feedback. Don't accept comments along the lines of "yeah, it's
great" as positive feedback; look for comments such as "I like
your use of colour, and the copy is easy to read." In other
words, try to elicit comments on the various aspects of your
website.
For more information on how you can gather such comments, please
visit a previous article I have written entitled Eliciting Constructive Website
Feedback.
Does the website pass the "24-hour/48-hour" test?
Depending on how much time you have, take a look at the site and
then make a conscious effort to avoid dealing with or looking at
the site for a period of at least 24 hours. Once you feel you
have a set of "fresh eyes" to examine the site again with, then
proceed to look at your site again.
Sometimes when working on websites, or when we work with others
on websites, we get involved to the point where we often miss
certain areas in which a site can be improved quickly because
we're too engrossed in the development of the site. By stepping
away from your website, and then looking at it again, other
ideas and ways to improve the site may come to mind that
previously did not.
By ensuring that your website passes as many of the checks above
as possible, then you will in turn ensure that your website will
meet or exceed its defined goals.