Launching a new website is kind of like having a baby- the process is long, and patience is a virtue. Like any birth, the process goes much more smoothly with careful thought and planning. 

1. Time Allocation: Successful site launches take at least eight weeks, if not longer, from start to finish. You can push the timeline, but that might not give you enough time to carefully consider user interface (UI), usability and design. Even the most simple websites should take weeks of planning and design. Rushing the planning and design process often ends up costing companies more money because they end up redoing their site more often than companies who have thought through the goals of the website.

2. Consider SEO: Another tip for a successful website launch is making sure you're considering SEO when launching your site. If you're already spending weeks to build your website, it is worth launching with a good SEO strategy for your launch and the months following. Make sure you've taken the five minutes to set up a Google Analytics account so that you can track the success of your launch. Additionally, it is important to remember 301 redirects if you're launching an existing site so that you don't lose your previous SEO investment.

3. Develop a Pre-Launch and Post-Launch To-Do List: Need to change your Twitter background to go with your new site? Want to make sure that your new website launch isn't going to shut down your email service? Develop a comprehensive list of to-dos both pre- and post-launch to make your website launch go more smoothly. This will allow you to allocate enough resources ahead of time so that you're not 'burning the midnight oil' tying up lose ends for your site launch.

4. Develop a QA Checklist: A QA (Quality Assurance) checklist is extremely important for complex site launches. Do you have a user login? Complex forms around your website? Is there a payment gateway? Custom development? If the answer to any of these is "yes," then I suggest writing out a QA checklist. Develop a list of all major site functions, and then define points for each of these site functions that might break. Then, give your QA checklist to someone else who isn't close the project so that they can catch possible site errors.

5. Build in a Beta Launch Period: We suggest building in at least a one-week period where close peers can test out your new site on a test URL. Sometimes, your friends and co-workers can point out important items missing from your new site. It also gives you more testers, which increases the likelihood that you'll locate all potential bugs in your new site.