Last month we reviewed the new Newfangled website which had been in the works for over a year. Not all websites take that long to build--in fact we've launched significant sites in a little less than a month (not all websites are built that fast). However long one works on a website, there comes the day when we "send the site live." It's a day of great anticipation and anxiety. Getting everything together, making last minute changes, testing everything for the umteenth time, dealing with technical details, and finally pulling the trigger can be a momentous event.
This month's newsletter serves as a preparatory document for going live with a new site. Dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's before a site launch will make for a celebratory experience rather than a potentially fearful one.
The website "go live" date
Every website development project starts off with a target launch date. Rarely do sites actually go live by these preliminary dates. The culprit? Content. One of the benefits of Newfangled's approach to web development is that we include our NewfangledCMS for every project. Our technology, along with our whitescreening process, enables our clients to enter content into their sites throughout the design and development stages. Nevertheless, if I were to identify one major contributor to launch dates slipping, it would be the underestimation of the time required for content creation, editing, and approval.
We've written a couple newsletters in the past (Words Make the Web Work and Unleashing the Power of Words) about writing for the web, but anyway you slice it, it's still hard work. And the more parties involved in reviewing, editing, and approving content, the longer it will take. A big warning sign for a site that's going to take longer than planned is hearing things like "the content will be adapted from existing content," from a client. Even when content is re-purposed from other sources, it will still need editing and adjustment to flow properly in the context of a website. This routinely takes longer than planned.
Those websites that do go live by their intended launch dates are characterized by project teams that proactively pour themselves into content development before and during the project. This, above any other factor, determines the final launch date of a new website.
New site or redesign?
There are different challenges and considerations for launching a brand new site versus launching a redesigned site. I'll point out the "go live" differences for new sites versus redesigns throughout this newsletter. As far as content development goes though, it's obviously a little easier for redesigns since not all the content is new. But there are other factors besides content that need to be carefully considered as a site's launch date approaches. Among these are images and links.
