Publishing your site is merely the act of transferring your files from your hard disk to the web server. We normally do this by using an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol=FTP). Some software such as Dreamweaver (One of the favourite web design, authoring and development software that the professional web designers use) have in built site management software which will allow you to transfer the files and synchronise the newer versions on your PC with the older ones on the web server.

There are a couple of things which you need to do before and after you transfer your files. Below is a checklist which you may find useful. This is by no means a program specific checklist but a general one. I have classified them as "Before" and "After" file transfer.

BEFORE

• Do a spell check, ensure all spelling mistakes are removed. If your primary market is the US, then use the US dictionary, even though you may be more used to the British spelling. Proof read it yourself, then ask someone else to proof read it for you. (Family members comes with responsibilities to help you)
  
  
• Key in the appropriate text in your images "Alt" tag. These are the wordings will appear in the image box before they load. It gives people an idea what image will load, while waiting for it to load. Of course, there are people who prefer to view text only (disable the images) in order to surf faster. Without the alt tags, they won't know what the images may be.
  
  
• Determine how your links and hyperlinks will behave when they are clicked. Do you want your viewer to go directly to the clicked link in the same window (default), or would you prefer that a new window opens up so that the open window will remain. You decide on what is appropriate.
  
  
• Check all links. Double check. Make sure that they go where you intend them to go to. This is especially true for affiliate programs. Put in the wrong URL and you will lose the sale (and the commission). If the link leads to a dead page (Can't find page = 404 page error), then change it or remove the link altogether.
  
  
• Check your meta tags, title tags, description tags and your 1st paragraph is keyword optimised. What are these tags anyway ? Ask your web designer, or refer to any web design book, or search the web to find out more. These are merely codes to identify your page which is important to search engines.
  
  
• Check the page sizes. If the page is too big, it will be too slow to load. Remove unnecessary graphics, flash movies, animation, music etc. It is most important that your page loads reasonably fast. More important than looking pretty. A lot of people I know (myself included) will just close the page if it takes more than 7 to 8 seconds to load. If you need to use a lot of images, use thumbnails where possible.

FILE TRANSFER

Use your web design program (with site management features) or FTP program to upload your files to your webserver. When you signup for your webhosting, the webmaster will give you an URL to log on to, a user name and password to log into your account. Configure your FTP program so that it will dial into your account. Then when you are connected, transfer the files to the webserver. Some web host I know doesn't even require the use of any FTP program. You just drag the files from you desktop to the window of the web server. Just like drag and drop in Windows.

You may get free copies of FTP program by downloading them from the web. Recommended ones are WS FTP Pro or WS FTP LE programs. Go to www.download.com. In the search window, type WS_FTP Pro and click 'go'. You will be given a whole list of the programs to download. You may select those which are 'free' and has the word 'pick' next to it. These are the popular and recommended ones. LE stands for Light Edition and Pro stands for Professional. Both work well. Check your documentation from your web host, the web server may not show your files immediately from your browser. There may be a time lag. So don't panic when you try to look at your site immediately after that and it doesn't appear.

AFTER

After transfer, you need to check the following again :

• Check your loading time. Do all pages take too long to load ? Refine those that are too big and upload your refined page again. If you are using broadband, then it may not be representative of what most people use. As such you may need to test from another machine that uses 33K or 56K modem. 28K modem are not so common nowadays.
  
  
• Check all your links. Yes even your ordering page (especially your ORDERING page). For peace of mind, run through the whole purchasing and downloading process to make sure everything is OK. Check ALL hyperlinks to ensure that they actually go to where you intend them to. Remove all broken links. Ensure all behaviours of the links act correctly as well, ie open within the same window or a new window.
  
  
• Sign up for your own newsletter or autoresponder messages. Is the opt in procedure easy to understand and all the responding messages coming in correctly.
  
  
• Are the pages aligning properly ? View your pages using a few resolution, 640, 800, 1024 and 1280. 800 and 1024 would be the most commonly used. I would suggest 800 as the 15" monitor is probably the most commonly used. Are the text legible ? Does the site look 'pleasant' and 'professional' enough. Judge that against your target market. If your target market is people looking for web design services, then you have to showcase your web design ability. A plain text site will not do. If your target market is people looking for investment, a site with gaudy colours and grunge music will not do as well. For the conservative market, nothing reads better than black text on white paper. Check that your button rollovers are working as well.
  
  
• From your site, try to send an email to yourself or fill in the feedback form. Does it work ? Is it easy to find ?
  
  
• Is the site easy to navigate ? Is it easy to move around ? Can you get lost ?

If you have covered the above, then functionally the website should be working properly. Design is a matter of taste but being moderate is always safe unleass you're trying to win awards in design. Bottomline, functionality is more important.