Happy New Year! I thought I start us off a new year by talking about how to finish up websites.

When you build a website, the job doesn’t end when you’re done the coding. Ideally, you’ll do a few “wrap-up” items as you finish each project to keep things organized.

Back Up the Website

There is nothing worse then providing a website (especially one that the owner can edit) and being called a month later because the owner, while messing around on it, rendered it unusable. Or someone hacked it and deleted everything. Or insert your worst nightmare here.

So before you hand the website over, make sure the entire thing is backed up. This includes any databases and all files. For most websites, backing up the database and having an off-site computer backup (using, say Carbonite) is fine. Others, like WordPress, you’ll probably need/want a plugin for – Online Backup of WordPress is my current favorite.

Install Stats Tracker

Once you’ve launched the website, you’ll want to provide stats for the owner, whether through Google Stats or Statcounter stats. Personally I like Statcounter better. Unlike Google (at least at this time), Statcounter can remove IPs from the results. So, say the owner is writing blogs, simply add his IP to Statcounter and it will no longer be counted in the stats. For someone who blogs frequently, this could be a huge difference in the accuracy of the number.

If clients aren’t going to access their site frequently, Google Stats is perfectly acceptable. You can also go with Jetpack’s statistics (for WordPress), which is a bit more visual then Google Stats, and all the information is contained within WordPress – so no links taking the owner elsewhere if they aren’t especially internet savvy.

Dealing with Comments

Almost as soon as you launch a site with a blog you’ll start getting spam comments. This can become incredibly frustrating very quickly. To avoid the frustration use a spam blocker. My favorite is Akismet. Although it asks for donations, you can move the slider to 0 and get it for free. It is the single biggest help to my blog. You will want to review your trashed comments every once in a while, but I have yet to see one categorized incorrectly.

If you don’t want to use Akismet, you can set a comment blacklist, restrict comments to registered users (WordPress), or install a Captcha. Finally, if the owner doesn’t want comments on posts, you can remove the comments altogether (at least on WordPress).

Train the Website Owner

If there’s a back end to the website, you’ll need to take time to train the website owner. This isn’t free time – it should be included in your quote/package price, but it can be invaluable.

That’s not to say you won’t be contacted with a questions from some owners like “how do I log in again?” or “how do I change the home page’s information, I forgot?” but you’ve done your best to prepare them, so charging them for additional time probably won’t phase them.

Close out the Project

When a website is finished, you’ll need to move it (figuratively or literally) from the currents pile to the finished pile. For me, that includes making a file with all the hard-copy information they gave me and closing out my hours on Toggl.com. Additionally, if needed, writing a summary explanation of how the site is organized can be useful when you’re called on to change it later.

Send the Invoice

You don’t want to close out the project without sending an invoice! And don’t get stuck in that limbo…waiting for the owner to get back to you with content so you can get paid. Make sure they understand that there is a time limit. After a certain time period, you’ll need to get paid, with or without the content on the site.

Summary

Making sure you stay organized can be a huge help to accomplishing your goals, not to mention staying sane. So take a few more minutes to close out each website – you’ll be happy you did!