ā§ Whatās the Developerās Cherry on Top? š
Launching a brand-new website is the grand finale of dozensāsometimes hundredsāof hours of work by developers, designers, and everyone else involved.
At this point, the site already has a clear goal, a mapped-out information architecture, and a carefully planned user journey. Content is written, custom photo shoots are done. The stage is set for your online success⦠š
But is everything really polished to the sparkle of Easter window cleaning?
Sure, developers have done amazing workābut mistakes happen. And with a website project, there are countless places where things can go wrong⦠š¬
ā§ A Pre-launch Website Audit
The safety net that protects you from mishaps? A thorough pre-launch audit.
It verifies that everything was implemented correctly. But! Donāt bother poking around the site with Sherlock Holmes levels of determination šµš»āāļø Without a checklist, youāll waste time and still miss crucial details.
What can go wrong, and what should you check before going live? Keep readingāyouāll sleep better knowing your launch wonāt end in chaos.
If youāre still in the early stages and want to learn where to start with design, check out our article: What to Remember When Designing a Website?
ā§ Designing Functional Websites That Convert
āHi, I filled out your form a week ago and havenāt heard backā¦ā š
If your siteās contact form doesnāt work, what happens to all those leads? Chances are, they never bother reaching out again. Some might try another way, but most will simply forget about you. Thatās a lot of potential customers slipping through the cracks.
The danger? You could be celebrating your shiny new launch, only to realize months later that your contact form has been broken the entire time. Zero leads reaching sales. Thatās not just embarrassingāitās an open invitation for your competitors to swoop in and steal your clients.
ā§ Donāt Forget to Test Functionality
Check every touchpoint where potential customers might try to reach you.
Hereās what to verify:
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Is the customer journey intuitive?
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Are only essential fields required in your forms?
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Do error messages clearly explain how to fix mistakes?
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Does the user get confirmation after submitting a form?
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Are all messages delivered to the right inbox?
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Is your autoresponder working correctly?
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Are emails sent from the right sender name, with the right subject line, from a legitimate address?
After launch, set up a recurring task to test your forms. Even better, automate it with e2e testing or tools like make.com.
Pro tip: test with an email address outside your domain.
ā§ GDPR-Compliant Servers & Data Protection
āHello, this is The Law Officeāyour site isnāt GDPR-compliant. See you in courtā¦ā š©š»āāļø
Oops. Not exactly the ballroom invitation you were hoping for.
Privacy policies and website terms often get treated as an afterthought. Thatās a mistakeāwith legal and financial consequences. And what about analytics tied to marketing consent? It turns out building a site from scratch isnāt as straight as a ruler. Itās more like a tangled spring šš»
This is no joke. Good websites must be legally compliant āļø, and depending on the features, this can involve quite a few obligations. No one wants to be chased down by the āinternet police,ā right? š
Consult your privacy policy with your legal team. Youāll need:
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A full list of all tracking codes on the site (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, etc.)
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A list of automation tools using customer data and integrated with the site (MailerLite, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, etc.)
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A list of features that involve processing user data
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A list of browser-stored data or cookies related to personal information
We recommend full anonymization of user data. It simplifies your life, trims down the privacy policy, and removes the need for cookie consent pop-ups. The fewer pop-ups, the better!
ā§ Clear, User-Friendly Communication of Your Offer
āYeah, I saw your website. I still have no idea what you doāor whether itās for me.ā š¤
64% of employees struggle with remote communication at work [1]. If two out of three people at the same company find it hard to communicate, imagine how tough it is to explain your offer to a complete stranger landing on your website.
Some visitors may have heard your name in passingāfeeding a baby, ironing shirts, scrolling the train home. Most havenāt. Thatās why your website copy has to do the heavy lifting.
Letās go full Pareto on copywriting. Ask yourself if your business copy:
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Speaks to the reader and names their problems or goals.
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Includes a clear CTA that tells them what to do next.
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Avoids insider jargon, acronyms, and niche terms that create friction.
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Skips empty triggers like ācomprehensive solutions,ā ātop quality,ā or āindividual approach.ā (They donāt say anything!)
ā§ Make Your Site a Pleasure to Read ā Copywriting
What should website text look like?
Here, less is more. If you can cut itācut it āļø
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Keep sentences to 15-20 words max.
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If a word doesnāt change the meaning, remove it.
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If industry slang isnāt essential, simplify.
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Make CTAs echo the context (āRead the articleā beats āClick hereā).
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Format for readabilityāheadings, short paragraphs, bullets.
Run the Mom Test: show your offer page to your mom and ask her to explain what your business does, who itās for, and why itās valuable.
ā§ Proper Ad & Analytics Setup on Your Website
āBoss, awkward update⦠we canāt tell how many customers came from the last campaign. Our ads were misconfigured.ā
If you want reach, youāll be paying the ad platformsāespecially at the start.
But performance marketing runs on analytics. Without correct conversion tracking, youāre flying blind. Thereās nothing worse for a marketer than zero feedback. Donāt play pin-the-tail with your business š
ā§ Marketing Tools for Modern Websites
Great ad creatives cost time and money.
If your site isnāt set up properly, you wonāt know who visited what or which visit convertedāand there goes your budget š¤·š»āāļø
How to avoid guesswork and configure analytics & conversions on a fresh launch? š
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Verify event collection across all ad platforms (GA, Meta, etc.).
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Confirm conversion tracking is mapped and firing correctly.
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Run a small test campaign and reconcile numbers across platforms.
ā§ Pre-Launch Housekeeping (a.k.a. Preventing Facepalms)
āWhatās this lorem ipsum on your site? Kinda exotic, but I donāt get it.ā š
Fun fact: Lorem ipsum has been used to test layouts since Gutenberg. To this day, designers use it to fill space. And sometimes, developers get creativeānaming a blog category after a⦠strategic human body part used for sitting. It happens š
Not our proudest momentābut a good lesson. Before launch, purge all test content and placeholders (or at least rename them to something less⦠memorable š).
Before going live, scan for:
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Unneeded, test, or empty pages
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Categories, tags, or other items with missing or ātoo colorfulā names
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Lorem ipsum anywhere
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Temporary graphics and placeholder images
Then slay them all š”ļø
ā§ Fast Load Times on Every Device ā Hosting Matters
āYour offer looked great, but when your page took 10 seconds to load⦠I left.ā
Page speed is a real competitive advantage in these blink-and-you-miss-it times šØ Users are impatient, attention is scarce, and Googleās not exactly thrilled with slow pages either. If your site drags its feet, youāre paying for traffic that bounces before the first scroll.
Performance optimization is kind of our love language. Thatās why we lean on stacks that genuinely care about speed: Vercel, Next.js, Astro.js, and Sanity. Each was built to make the web fast, accessible, and genuinely pleasant to use š¤
Weāll happily sign our names under thatātwice, and with a flourish š
Itās a huge topic (Kuba could talk for hours about it), so hereās just a taste. If you want your site to sprint like a lively doeānot plod along like a sluggish billy goat š, start by asking yourself:
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Are you using a robust server and a CDN to keep latency low and assets close to users?
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Do you host fonts locally and keep the number of weights/styles to a sensible minimum?
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Are your logos and simple icons delivered as .svg for crisp rendering and tiny file sizes?
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Are all your images served in modern formats like .webp, .avif, or .svg?
ā§ Launching Your Website & Store with Every Detail Buttoned Up š
What else can bite you if launch is sloppy? š¤«
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Bad redirects ā āPage not foundā when visiting old URLs
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Missing www/non-www canonical ā leaking hard-won SEO authority
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Surprise 404s from internal links
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Broken mobile layout (looks fine on desktop, chaos on phones)
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No or poor CMS setup ā adding pages is a nightmare
ā§ Need a site thatās functional, secure and draws customers? Get in touch with us!
[1] https://zipdo.co/statistics/workplace-communication/