What Makes a Website Launch Successful (And What Usually Goes Wrong)

Most people think website launches are just supposed to be messy: 

The broken buttons. 
The last-minute changes. 
The “surprise” tech issues. 

But what if I told you that it doesn’t have to be that way? 

In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what actually makes a website launch successful—and what usually causes things to go sideways. 

I’ll also share one of the smoothest launches we’ve ever done and why it worked so well—so you can repeat the process in your own business, whether you’re building a brand-new site or upgrading what you’ve got. 

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Chapters

• 1:38 Why Launches Feel Messy
• 2:20 Show Intro And Promise
• 2:59 The “They’ll Handle Everything” Myth
• 4:22 What A Smooth Launch Looks Like
• 6:02 Case Study: Shopping Cart Switch
• 8:00 Common Failure Points To Avoid
• 10:34 Plan Collaboratively And Get Support
• 11:16 Five-Point Pre-Launch Checklist
• 12:18 Closing And Review Request

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:49

Most people think website launches are supposed to be messy. The broken buttons, last-minute changes, the surprise tech issues, but what if I told you that it doesn't have to be that way? In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what actually makes a website launch successful and what usually causes things to go sideways. I'll also share one of the smoothest launches we've ever done and why it works so well. So you can repeat the process in your own business. So whether you're building a brand new site or upgrading what you have, stick around to the end because I'll give you a quick pre-launch checklist you can use before your next launch or update, no matter what platform you're on. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about what makes a website launch or update launch successful. So, first let's talk about the myth that causes most launch headaches. People sometimes think, I'll just hire someone and they'll handle everything. And this sounds great in theory, but really in practice, this mindset causes delays, confusion, as well as missed details, many times really important details, because developers can't read your mind. You still need to be involved, and this is very, very key when you're having a new launch or a major update or overhaul. You need to be ready to be involved. It's just like building a house. You hire a contractor, but you still choose the fixtures. You walk through the rooms, you catch the things that only you would notice. Same thing when we're updating or rebuilding our website or starting from scratch. You will only notice certain things, and the developer won't notice those things, just like they'll notice things that you don't notice. So, what does a smooth launch actually look like? We want to have clear roles, clear expectations from day one. Who's doing what and what are the roles, etc.? We want to have open communication. We want to have you andor the developer ask questions early and not in panic. So anytime a question arises, I want you to ask the developer your question to get clarity and to make that communication open always. And then we want to make sure that both sides test from their perspective. So you as a business owner need to be testing the website from your perspective, from your understanding of your clients and their needs. And then the developer is going to be checking it from their view of what they feel like you need and in clients that your website's serving. So there's totally different perspectives here when you're looking at the website, when you have both of you test. And then we also want to make sure that deadlines are respected, but you are flexible when needed because certain things might come up and you might need to delay some things. Could come up on your end, could come up on the developer's end. We need to make sure that we try to respect those deadlines, but also clearly communicate when things need to be adjusted a bit. So we want to know that. Excellent transfers was just some minor issues, and that's what our goal is, because nothing is ever 100% perfect, not in life, and not on the internet as well. So we want to make it as close to perfect as possible with these tips here. Now, just recently, we moved one client from um one specific shopping cart software to another specific shopping cart software. And it worked out really well, which is what inspired me to create this podcast episode for you, because I wanted to talk about what went well and what didn't and why. So what went really well is that the client reviewed everything on their end. We took their feedback and digested it, made sure we understood it, asked questions back to them if we weren't sure what they were meaning, and then made those adjustments. As well as whenever we saw something we thought the client might want change that they didn't think of, we asked them very detailed questions and they responded in a very timely manner. So that timely response back and forth was very, very critical to making sure this website launch went really well. We each checked the functionality of the website from the different perspectives, us as the developers' perspective and them as the business manager perspective. We tested things like orders, shipping, making sure products displayed correctly because this was a major, major platform switch. Whenever you switch platforms, it can be very major, depends upon what you're going from. And they asked questions before the site went live. We asked questions before the site went live. For example, close to the few days prior to going live, I noticed some links that weren't quite right that that they hadn't noticed, for example. So you're gonna find different things depending upon your perspective, which is why you want multiple people testing. And because we both showed up fully, we both had confidence in the final result. And when it went live, there were only a few little minor hiccups that we were able to adjust and fix on our end pretty quickly, and it was nothing that really affected their sales. So having that open line of communication, both of you testing, is so so key. So then let's talk about what could usually go wrong. And these are some things that we usually find that customers tell us about when they're switching from another developer to us is there happens to be some vague feedback, or there's long delays in reviewing that feedback. And actually, we actually have a few clients right now that are being very slow at getting back to us. We're trying to do platform switches for them, and sometimes it's been months without a response. And we know things can happen. Sometimes things can happen on our IN2, but whenever they take that delay, this is from a developer's perspective, whenever they take that delay and get back to us, say three, four weeks later, we're not prepped and ready to jump back into that site because we've been reminding them and we're gonna have to move on to work on another client's site. So then we got to work them back into our schedule. So being mindful and being sure that you're available for questions whenever you're, you know, going through a major update or a new website development is very, very key. Have some time on your end to be ready for these questions so that you can answer them so everything can be successful. And then something else we see that goes wrong is going live without testing links, forms, or checkout. We obviously do that on our end and we ask our clients to do it as well because they have a different perspective of it. So whenever you haven't tested your website, say you have a developer and you think they've done a good job, you still need to make sure you're testing these things because they may have missed something. So make sure you are testing before going live your links, forms, and your checkout. And then we also sometimes see that clients assume that the developer will catch everything. Again, we're coming back to the same thing again, where the developer has a certain perspective, just like we all have different perspectives on what we observe and see than the client does. So you need to do your part in testing as well. And then on the flip side, sometimes we see developers assume that the client will know what to check. So whenever we're working on a project, we try to be very specific to the client on what we want them to check. And we also leave it open-ended and say anything else that you think of that's very important on your website. So making sure that your developer gives you some specific instructions on what they want you to check is very key to having something not crop up and surprise either one of you. Because these small issues could equal broken links, broken trust, and lost sales. So we want to make sure we're avoiding that when we're doing a big update or a brand new website. So the whole theme on this podcast episode is if you're planning a website launch or thinking about switching platforms, the best thing you can do is plan collaboratively. It's going to work so much better if you're side by side with your developer and both of you are working as a team. And if you're working with a developer or don't have one, we also have Done For You Services and Done With You Services where we can help make sure that your website transition goes really smoothly through us. We support migrations, redesign, or custom features as well. And you can always ask your pre-launch questions in our free Facebook group at smarteronlinebusiness.com forward slash Facebook. So I want to talk about that bonus tip now, that five-point pre-launch checklist. Before you launch or even update, you are going to want to check these things. First, all links work. Want to make sure you're testing the top navigation as well as the footer, as well as buttons. And then number two, your forms are submitting and sending the emails like they should. Number three, the mobile version looks clean and scrolls well and it's very clear. Number four, your home page says who you help and what you offer. This can be easily missed. It seems pretty simple, but it can be easily missed. And lastly, someone not on your team does a walkthrough. It's a really good idea to get a third party involved if you can, whether that's a business friend or somebody else, maybe at the company that's not been as involved in the project, that can really help see a few things that you andor the developer may have missed. And you have put in a ton of work. We want to make sure that these small details don't hold your site back when doing that major update or major upgrade. That's all we have for this week's episode of the Smarter Online Business Podcast. We would be so grateful if you rated or reviewed us on Apple Podcasts, as that helps get the word out to other business owners just like you and help them make sure that their website is effective and is a great sales tool for them. And we will see you next week.