Please note this is Linked From our Main Article – 7 Things Clients Should Know When Building A Website
5 of 7 – For Account Managers, Owners, Marketing Managers and Clients – What to know before a Website Launch/Online Software Launch
Very similar to email, websites come with their own idiosyncrasies so here a few guidelines to help overcome the web-server, setup and launch pitfalls.
For simple hosting solutions, pay a little bit extra for hosting in your local country. We recommend Ilisys in Australia for basic websites, their support team is quick to respond and we run around 200 sites on their platform without major hiccups.
If your agency is recommending a service (as long as it is not their own) they will have tested many to thousands of sites and matched their deployments to suit. Find out who they use (it should be no secret), but also pay that little bit extra to have them install and maintain your webserver, all of the technicalities of how your website performs on the server is best left in their hands and their responsibility. They, like us probably have partner relationships with server providers and can push through priorities and workarounds when needed.
On the other side of setup is the website launch. Plan and revisit your plan with your agency as the development progresses. Make sure you are discussing requirements on both parties and you are clear about who is doing what. If you can’t see it on the plan, no matter how small it is, ask about that banner, or heading, email address, where the form or payment notifications go – there are thousand little things that can trip up a website launch at the 11th hour, so challenge the plan. For anything to do with user interactions, sign up forms, payments, competition entries, always, always have one or two redundancies in place (we use client email notifications and a free gmail account to monitor activities).
Finally, when setting up passwords for anything, make sure they follow an online guide for complexity; a mixture of letters, numbers and special characters. Too often business websites are hacked after a client changes the admin website password to something like their daughters first name!
I strongly recommend AndMine and Michael's work to any forward thinking company. They have helped us rapidly evolve our business with great success in a very difficult period in retail. From online to offline they are the new generation of advertising delivering brilliant results and service. From simple EDM's to our new online store and creative campaigns, they have gone above and beyond, engrained themselves in our business and amplified our brand. We look forward to what Michael and the team achieve for us next.
Comments-
Rara Said :
"Normally I don't learn or post on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up very forecd me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, very great post."
Posted on October 14th, 2013
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Michael Said :
"Thanks for the great feedback on the article Rara."
Posted on October 15th, 2013