this is an awesome list -- we've been at this for almost 3 years, and while we had most of them, I just realized that we never set up Bing Webmaster Console -- given their continued rise in % (combined with Yahoo), it can't hurt.
other great recommendations as well -- we're also SEOMoz subscribers, so some of this is also just a great reminder about tools we're probably underutilizing
Next up: 24 mistakes people make when launching a website, then 41 things people who have websites should do more often, then 58 mistakes people make when maintaining websites, followed by the 4 things you should do when canceling your webhosting account.
Good recommendation - I'm going to link to that from the post as a corollary to the list from a technical/development perspective (vs. marketing/metrics focus).
Rand,
This list is banal. About the only thing I Can agree with is installing some analytics software (preferably NOT Google Analytics) to monitor goals and traffic sources. The only thing you need to do when launching a website, or any business, is market your product off. Adding yourself to the various webmaster tools, tracking brand keywords via Google Alerts is all a huge waste of time and only makes sense (if it makes any sense at all!) once you actually have traction - links to look at, brand mentions to follow etc.
Well I don't like the idea of giving all your data to Google to exploit. I think the interface itself is nice and versatile but do you really want to give your ecommerce data to Google? If you really love it I think Google now licenses Urchin that you can host.
Alternatives include, but not limited to:
GetClicky
Omniture
Pwiki which is open source and can be modified
Mint
Log Files
28 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 80.8 ms ] threadother great recommendations as well -- we're also SEOMoz subscribers, so some of this is also just a great reminder about tools we're probably underutilizing
These sort of headlines have specific rules in the guidelines - I'm surprised it hasn't been changed already.
Consider Things to do when launching a new website as a revision.
Keep this out of HN and leave it for your blogroll crap, and don't pretend you didn't know any better either.
Ari
As a newbie entrepreneur, I am utterly confused as to whether these steps really are helpful/necessary or not.