Maintaining and upgrading a website is essential for organizations. If your project involves changing platforms or moving to a new provider, there are some things you must keep in mind. Here’s a check list of things you should include while planning for website redevelopment.
Export And Prepare Customer Data
Retain your customer data if your website has a feature that allows customers to login or place orders. Moving to a new website while retaining your customer data can be quite challenging. A web developer will require an exported customer data from your old website which they can reformat and import to the new one. In some cases, it may not be possible to replicate everything on the new website in the same way. However, if your website doesn’t have features like customer registration, login or order features, you probably don’t need to store the data.
Do Post-Launch Testing
Assuming you did everything right and website launch went smooth, test your website in a live environment to confirm that everything is still working perfectly.
We suggest you place at least one order on your website, browse the pages, and fill out the contact forms to find out if any problems and fix them before a customer reports it to you.
Get A Handle On Content
Sometimes, the content becomes one of the most common causes of delay in launching a new website. Thus, its necessary to assign and plan accordingly. If your Web Development Company is also writing the content on your behalf, they will require some information and feedback from your side too.
Redirect Old URLs
If URLs of the new websites are going to be different from the older one, prepare 301 redirects in the new website. This can quickly be done by your web developer or an SEO professional in the team. With 301 redirects, visitors trying to locate an old page will automatically be sent to the new web page.
Set Your Goals
Developing a website is not an overnight job. It requires pre-planning, time, and effort from a team of experts that include web designers, web developers, web hosting managers and a marketing manager.
If you’ve shortlisted a Web Development Company, keep a track of your pre-settled goals. Engage your web development, marketing, and sales team at the launch of your new website. Discuss with your team if the launch date is realistic, otherwise plan the website relaunch in different phases.
Create Backups of The Old Website
Carry out regular backups for maintaining the website. A backup tool is generally available through web host’s control panel. You can take a backup of the website by directly copying your files and databases. Else, automate the website to perform backups on a regular basis, still ensure that you have a valid backup of the entire website before launching a new one.
We suggest you take a final backup right before the launch day, especially if customer or order activities are happening on the website.
File Your Digital Fulfilment Process
Never ignore small things on your website that may affect your online profit. For instance, make sure your contact us form is linked to an email address that receives all the enquires. You must also know the payment gateway used for each order. You are liable to accumulate all the credentials required for integrations so that the the web developer can add these settings on the platform of the new website. Review these details and document them accurately that will further help your employees and web development team as well.
Coordination Between The Web Development And IT Team
There are several steps involved for a successful launch of a new website. These steps might include access to a production server, taking backups, updating databases, and updating DNS records for a domain name. Coordinate with the web development team and IT team, so each of them can perform the task on the scheduled launch date.
Alert The Press
Outline the advantages that your new website brings to your customers and visitors, and write a press release about the launch and benefits of your new website. You can even plan some marketing plan for reaching out to your existing customers to entice them to use the new website. Publicise the posts of a new website on your social media channels.
Developing a website requires days of planning. Start formulating a plan to get the website redeveloped with a Website Development Company in India.