Preparing to Go Live
Below are items you should review and/or consider ahead of going live with your Spectra website. Please take a moment to review them.
Who will be making the DNS updates needed for go live?
You have 2 options for go live:
1. You can provide Wine Works access to your domain registrar (usually the service you used to purchase your domain such as GoDaddy, Hover, etc) and we can take care of the entire process for you, including adding the Commerce7 SPK, DKIM and DMARC records. Let us know what platform you’re using and we can advise on the best way to give us access,
2. We can provide the values that need to be updated to make your new site live for you or a third party to make the updates. This works best if you’re experienced with making DNS updates or are working with someone who is. With this option, you/the third party are responsible for adding the C7 records.
Either way, please coordinate with Wine Works at least one business day ahead of time.
Have you completed all the tasks in your C7 onboarding dashboard?
Ahead of go live, you will need to skip or check off every task in your C7 onboarding guide. Once you do, a button will appear at the top of the page that says “Go Live & Enable Emails”, which needs to be clicked for transaction emails to start.
If Wine Works is doing your Go Live, we will take care of these 2 tasks, you can check them off ahead of time
Have you addressed unused pages?
Your template came with several pre-built pages for you to use as a starting point for your website but chances are you didn’t use all of them. If you leave them active, these pages may eventually show up in Google results even though the information on them isn’t specific to your site, which can lead to confusion.
To prevent this from happening, we recommend either deleting these unused pages or turning them to drafts.
To delete a page: go to the Pages area and hover over the page you want to delete until you see links appear, then click on Trash
To turn a page to draft: do the same thing but click on Quick Edit instead of delete. In the Quick Edit panel, change the Status to Draft, then click the blue Update button.
Please note that the following administrative pages should not be deleted, turned to draft or updated in any way:
- Cart
- Checkout
- Club (this is different from Wine Club, which is the page you can edit and work on)
- Collection
- Product
- Profile
Do you need to add any scripts to your site such as Google Analytics, RedChirp, etc?
The best way to add Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, RedChirp and other scripts is via the Theme Settings area of your template.
For Google Analytics or Google Tag manager, you will need to select the Manual Installation option at the end of the setup process to get the script you need to add to the website. When working with a third-party like RedChirp, they will provide the script for you.
To add a script to your site:
- Select Theme Settings from the black sidebar on the left in WordPress
- Scroll until you get to the Custom Scripts section
- Add the script to the area specified by the provider (head, body, or footer)
- Scroll back up and click the blue Update button in the top right to publish your change
Note that it can take up to 48 hours for information to start flowing through to Google.
GOOGLE ANALYTICS SCRIPT EXAMPLE
Google analytics has 1 script, which is added to the Custom Scripts – Head field
GOOGLE TAG MANAGER SCRIPT EXAMPLE
Google Tag Manager has 2 scripts: one added to the Custom Scripts – Head field and one to the Custom Scripts – After <body> tag field
Do you have a strategy to ensure ongoing ADA compliance?
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that all electronic information and technology, including your website, must be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Your Spectra template is ADA-compliant right out of the box. However, compliance can be easily impacted by factors like installing non-compliant plugins or content additions (missing alt tags for images or insufficient contrast between text and background for instance).
Overlay tools that purport to remediate ADA issues on the fly have been a popular choice in the past but in reality these tools can make it worse for people with disabilities to use your site.
Instead, we recommend an initial round of scanning and remediation, if needed, followed by ongoing scanning. Let us know if you’d like to learn more about our ADA services.
Pre-Go Live Audit
Ensure your site shines with an audit! Let us test your site and provide suggestions for improvements.
Starting at $500. Includes:
- Testing all links to ensure they are working and the link structure is properly set for Go Live
- Reviewing navigation items to ensure they work smoothly
- Reviewing site images and correcting sizing issues as needed
- Reviewing product images to ensure they are well-sized to showcase products
- Flagging awkward design elements and recommending solutions
- Testing your cart, checkout, club sign up and reservations to ensure everything is setup properly