You need to read this checklist BEFORE you launch your Commerce site

Launching a new E-Commerce website can be stressful. Very likely, your business will depend on your site’s successful launch. At the very least, a bad launch will affect your bottom line. So it’s incredibly important to make sure your launch goes smoothly and your website comes out swinging.

To help you on your journey, we have made this checklist for you to go through before you launch your E-Commerce site. Make sure you follow all these steps ahead of your launch and you will avoid embarrassing complications.

Make sure your website follows SEO guidelines

• If you have an old website, set up redirects from it to a relevant page on your new site

• Check your URL structure and ensure clean and clear URLs

• Affirm that all pages are set to INDEX, FOLLOW to accommodate Google’s bots

• Check the site’s meta tags and make sure titles and descriptions are optimized

• Make sure the site has a sitemap

• Each product page should have keywords to improve the search engine rankings

Make sure all moving parts are aligned and working

• Check that all your caching solutions are enabled

• Ensure that there are no Javascript errors

• Set up contact forms and other contact options so they lead to the correct address

• Test social sharing links to ensure that they work

• If you use third-party modules, make sure you are using valid license keys

• Set up your 404 error page and make certain it is working as expected

• Make sure HTML and CSS pass their W3C validation

• If you use email marketing, check that new subscriptions are captured (and if applicable in adherence to the EU GDPR Act)

• Ensure that your website has a favicon

• Update your copyright notice and your company information, including phone numbers and addresses

• Make sure all pages have links to ‘Sign in’ and ‘Sign up’

Test the website’s performance

• Test the general performance of the site to make sure it loads pages quickly

• Implement tools to monitor the website (Pingdom, Op5)

• Make sure the log system works properly

• Ensure that the site is responsive on all browsers

 Test the E-Commerce procedures

• Make sure that all payment methods you intend to offer on your site are set up correctly and work

• Place a test order to ensure transactions work

• Test to see if vouchers and coupons work as expected

• If you let users store their payment information in their account, make sure using this information to pay without hassle is possible

• Check shipping and tax options

• Make sure all product pages have ‘Add to cart’ and ‘Checkout’ buttons

• If you use an ERP system, make sure its integration is working as expected

• Verify the site's certificates to make sure all transactions are safe

• Finally, make certain that automatic emails, such as those to inform the customer of a received order or a shipment, are triggered correctly

Test the customer accounts

• Make sure that you can create and log into a user account

• Test the wish list functionality, checking to see if you can add items to it, and ensure it can be shared

• Make certain that a customer can reset their password and the email to do so is triggered correctly

• Check the functionalities of the account dashboard and ensure the customer can access all their information, such as previous orders and payment methods

You are now good to go. Launch your website and enjoy the reward of good preparation, a launch that goes off without a snag.

About to kick-start a commerce project? Get in touch with Niteco to find out how we can expertly deliver your project on time and within budget.