LAUNCH PLAN
Envious Digital ensures that all bases are covered ahead of time, making the launch of new websites smooth, easy, and trouble-free
THE LAUNCH PLAN
The details within the launch plan are mainly taken care of by senior technical members of the Envious Digital team and are planned towards (but before) the end of a project to make sure nothing stalls the launch of a new website, piece of software, or web application.
Much of this is done behind the scenes, but all are crucial to the success of the launch to avoid any website downtime, detriment to Google rankings, or issues with coinciding marketing plans that our clients may have already put into place.
Each project is different, but examples of the types of things that will need to be addressed ahead of time and put into place include:-
Access to the domain name is really only needed if Envious Digital is going to be hosting the new website, piece of software, or application. This is so we can add our IP address to the domain name so it displays the new files, rather than what was there previously.
When the new website is replacing a previous one, there could be pages that have already been ranking well with Google. If the URL structure has needed to change, or old content is being archived, we will need to put 301 redirects into the site. This means that when someone visits the old URL, it will take them to a page on the new website containing content that is most relevant to what the previous page contained.
Depending on the type of migration needed (whether it is a site replacement on existing servers or whether the DNS needs to be changed) – there can be a time period of propagation. This is the time it takes for different servers and ISPs across the world to ping the new IP address and it update – displaying the new website. Due to this, it may be worth planning the launch for a time when the website is typically the least visited.
During development, it may not be possible to use live API keys, especially when the dev domain was different from the live environment or the system the API works with doesn’t allow for multiple domains to be active. Once the site is launched and on its new/final domain and hosting environment, we will ensure that API keys are updated accordingly. A typical example of this would be e-commerce stores where Stripe (a payment gateway for facilitating card payments) is being used.
KEEPING THINGS UP TO DATE
As well as monitoring traffic to the new site to ensure traction is maintained, there are many things in technology and development that need to be kept up to date.
These could be things such as the .php version of the hosting environment, the version of the database, any plugins or software platforms that were used to programmatically develop on.
Keeping the technology platforms up to date mitigates against opening it up to vulnerabilities or incompatibility when website browsers update over time.
WORK
Envious Digital provides consultation through to website design and development. Here is just a selection of our work
Oxford Flutes
Oxford Flutes run classes across the summer to International students. Their new website needed to promote their courses, display the gorgous location in Oxfordshire and allow for taking bookings.
Caroline Roussel
Caroline Roussel is a voice-over artist whose native language is French, but she also practices in English. After seeing some of our work, she approached Envious Digital to create a site to showcase her work with both audio and video examples.
Idox Group PLC
Envious Digital has partnered with Idox to create multiple websites to promote their products and services and provide information to their investors and shareholders. Their main website is featured here.
TESTIMONIALS
Katie Alcock
Oxford Flute Summer School
Michelle Stoodley
, 1Rebel
Rhys Redrup
ION Science
BLOG
In an ever changing digital environment, Envious Digital aim to write and publish informative articles to help keep businesses up to date with important changes in technology, as well as interesting insights on specific topics, and of course, keep you up to date with what’s going on in our world.
