Launch Your Website: What you need and what you don’t.

Moving forward, we’ll use Sunday as an opportunity to provide clarity, direction and inspiration to your week. To kick-off the series, we’re starting with a topic near and dear to our heart: When to Launch Your Website.

When to Launch Your Website:

As soon as possible.

Whether you’re building your own website or working with a designer, deciding when you’re website is ready to launch can be daunting. We have worked with so many clients that we have perfected the timeline for launching. The answer is easy – when you feel like you’re 90% finished, it’s time to launch.

Why:

The biggest mistake you can make for your brand is not getting started. We don’t mean starting on the backend where no one else sees it. Started means putting it out there, for the digital world to see.

By waiting for your website to be “perfect”, you’re costing your business money. How? People aren’t finding your business. If they are (via Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook), they have no where to click through to. Which means they aren’t buying. Further – your business looses credibility. Brands that may want to collaborate can’t find where to reach you, learn more about your business, or see what you do.

How:

No project will ever be 100% complete nor 100% perfect, waiting for either of those expectations will lead to a world of disappointment and missed opportunity. We PROMISE – the three sentences you’ve been rewriting for the bio page won’t be noticed by anyone but you. No one will chose to hire you or not based on the line spacing of your captions, or whether you selected stock photo A or B. 

They WILL hire you based on beautiful branding, an easily navigable user interface, mobile optimization, a strong call to action and beautiful photography. As your content fills your site, focus on these key areas first. The more specific details can come later, after you’ve launched.

Start here:

• Solidify your branding: logo, secondary logo, mark, icons, patterns, color palette and typography pairings. If you need help with this, click here. 
   

• Keep your menu bar to five tabs or less.
   

• Scale back your mobile version to exclude any pop-ups, focus on a single photo per page, and limit the number of distracting design elements.
   

• Make sure your call-to-action is clearly visible above the fold (thats the bottom edge of the webpage you can see without scrolling down).
   

• Look for crisp, powerful images that compliment your brand – but make sure to shrink the size of the photo to 800 px wide at 75 dpi. This will ensure your website loads quickly and easily on any device.

Here at IDCO, our website process is a 30 day turnaround for clients – and we heavily encourage them to stay within those guidelines. Week 1 consists of Brand Discovery and Mood Boarding. Week 2 is dedicated to Logos and other Graphic Elements. Week 3 we input all web content and complete the layout. Week 4 is spent proof reading, making revisions, and polishing. We’re confident you can use this same formula for launching your own website – it keeps you focused, on schedule, with a definitive launch date in site.

Just Launch:

90% complete is our favorite point to launch your website. Any errors have been corrected, the photos look beautiful, the copy has been cleaned up, but there may be a few tweaks you’re still considering. After you launch, that final 10% will be shaped with feedback. Any insecurities you were feeling will be washed away with overwhelming praise from friends, family and potential clients.

Don’t forget – it’s a digital world. Whatever you publish, can be edited. With a single click. Launch-phobia is prohibiting you from hitting the next level and could be slowing you down from achieving your goals. If you need any help – we’re here for you! Shoot us an inquiry here and we’ll help you decide when to launch your website and how to get there.

We believe in you. We are cheering you on. We want to see what you’ve been creating. What you’re crafting. We wanna see how we can work with you! So it’s time. Leave your URL below in the comments so we can cheer you on!