Hitting "publish" on a new webpage or major update is exciting, but there's a nagging fear... Did you miss something? Little mistakes can seriously impact website visitors.
Before launching the next update, take a moment and follow a website editing checklist. When roughly 88% of online consumers won't return to a site after a frustrating experience, it’s important to be careful.
A website editing checklist guides you through essential checks for:
- Accuracy: Outdated information, broken links, and typos damage your credibility.
- Visuals: Poor image quality, strange formatting, and misaligned elements detract from your message.
- Functionality: Visitors become frustrated if forms don't submit or navigation fails.
This article will provide a comprehensive website editing checklist that covers everything from content review to technical testing. Use this checklist to create a polished, professional website with a positive user experience.
Top Reasons Why You Need a Website Editing Checklist
Think of a website design checklist as your blueprint for a successful build. Here's why it's so valuable:
- Keeps you organized: You must understand that building a website involves lots of moving parts. A checklist helps ensure your team stays on track and that nothing of significance gets overlooked.
- Simplifies teamwork: It helps your team understand their responsibilities and work towards the same goals, whether they’re working solo or with others.
- Catches problems early: Are you aware that a checklist helps you spot potential issues before your site goes live? It can save you from several headaches and even prevent you from potentially embarrassing yourself.
- Creates a better experience for visitors: Whenever you use a checklist, you have to ascertain everything is in the right place and working correctly, your visitors will prefer a smooth, user-friendly website.
- Streamlines updates for existing websites: Even after launch, changes are necessary. A checklist helps you provide streamlined updates, especially when you edit websites with no coding experience that simplifies the editing process.
Ready to build your website edit checklist? Let's see how to create a winning one that leads to a successful website launch.
The Ultimate Website Editing Checklist
A website represents your brand and provides information to visitors. You need an editing checklist to provide a consistently effective user experience when you edit a website online. With this checklist, you can maintain a user-friendly, informative, and well-optimized website that fulfills your business objectives.
1. Content
Do you know up-to-date, relevant content is important to user engagement and search engine rankings? A content analysis keeps your website messaging fresh and aligned with your goals. Here’s what you need to check in terms of content:
- Accuracy: Verify all facts, figures, and product/service details for correctness.
- Relevance: Assess if your content aligns with current audience needs and interests. Update or rework content as necessary.
- Clarity & Tone: It is recommended to keep your writing style consistent, clear, and aligned with your brand voice.
- Grammar, Spelling, and Readability: Proofreading is vital for credibility. Utilize tools like Grammarly as needed. Consider using tools to assess readability levels.
- Calls to Action (CTAs): Are your CTAs clear, compelling, and placed strategically? Are they compelling your visitors to take the right action (for instance, adding the product to the cart, subscribing to your channel, etc.)?
2. Visuals
Your website's visual describes who you are, what you do, and your organization’s vision. To build a unique brand presence and reputation, you must use high-quality graphics to capture visitors’ attention, appeal to them with your unique aesthetic style, and provide a user experience they crave. However, you have to refrain from using visuals that are slow to load or don't align with your brand, as a survey reported that 39% of people will stop engaging with a website when images won't load or the loading time is too long. You should check these before you proceed:
- Quality: People might say otherwise, but looks matter! So, always double-check that images and videos should be high-resolution and free from blurriness.
- Optimization: While high-quality visuals appeal to visitors, never forget to compress images for fast page loading speeds. Use descriptive filenames and alt-text for SEO.
- Relevance: Evaluate whether any visuals need updates to reflect changes in products, services, or branding
- Placement & Arrangement: Check if visuals are well-placed and complement text effectively.
- Branding: Do the visuals align strongly with your overall brand identity (colors, fonts, style)?
3. Functionality
A seamless user experience helps you keep the visitors on your site. It requires you to make sure all navigational elements and functions work correctly. So, evaluate all the elements given below:
- Links: Test all internal and external links for broken links or incorrect destinations.
- Forms: Verify that users can submit forms correctly and that any confirmation messages or autoresponders work as intended.
- Search Bar: Be mindful of testing the accuracy and functionality of the search bar if you have an on-site search function on your website.
- Cross-Browser/ Device Compatibility: Nowadays, users prefer to use multiple devices or browsers. Therefore, you must cross-check that your website renders properly on every browser (Eg. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.) and device (Eg. Desktop, mobile, tablet).
- Mobile Responsiveness: Nowadays, the majority of people on the internet are coming from mobile, so it is crucial to ensure mobile responsiveness. You should specifically include multiple tests for looks and functions on various screen sizes and mobile operating systems (Android, iOS).
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Do you know what SEO is? Well, it holds the key to your website’s ranking and visibility in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages), and directing organic traffic to your website. So, it is highly recommended to optimize your site for search engines and evaluate SEO elements regularly to maintain strong rankings.
- Keywords: You must integrate target keywords naturally into your content, titles, and meta descriptions.
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: An ideal title tag and meta description should be engaging, clear, and include all relevant keywords.
- Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Header tags make it easier for users to figure out and understand your content. Accordingly, always use structured headers to improve content organization and readability for search engines.
- Image Alt Text: Search Engines can’t rank what they can’t understand! Add descriptive alt text to enable search engines to understand your images.
- Site Structure: A complex website structure makes it challenging for search engines to crawl and index your content. Don’t forget to interlink and structure your website logically using the SEO best practices.
5. Accessibility
We believe that an inclusive web design can help ensure your content is accessible to every visitor, including those with disabilities. So, don’t forget to make sure you focus on these elements to create an inclusive design:
- Color Contrast: Verify sufficient contrast for users with visual impairments.
- Alternative Text: Add meaningful alt-text descriptions to all images.
- Keyboard Navigation: Test your site's navigation without a mouse.
- Screen Readers Compatibility: We suggest you use tools to identify and diagnose areas inaccessible by screen readers.
- Captions and Transcripts: It is always a good practice to use captions for videos and transcripts for audio content, it helps you reach and cater to a wider audience.
Additional Sections
- Performance: Your checklist should include website speed testing using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Aim for fast, efficient loading times.
- Security: A secure website can ensure trust in the visitor's mind. We suggest that you check for SSL certificates, regular software updates, and vulnerability scans to assure your website’s safety.
- Legal Compliance: Lastly, don’t forget to check for any relevant legal requirements for your website and industry, such as privacy policies (GDPR compliance) and terms of use.
How to Enhance Website Checklist?
- Prioritization: While all items are important, consider indicating "high priority", "medium priority", and "low priority" sections to focus on the most critical aspects.
- Assignment: If working with a team, consider a column to assign specific tasks to individuals.
Conclusion
A website editing checklist is your final safety net before hitting publish when you edit a web page online. It will play a vital role in protecting your reputation and ensuring that every update enhances your website rather than detracting from it.
Regardless of who you are, whether a solo creator, a start-up, or an MNC, this checklist will guide you in building a professional, user-friendly website that supports your business goals and delivers the quality experience your visitors yearn for.
