Pre-Launch Checklist For Nucleus Web

So you’ve created a website with Nucleus. Fantastic! Now it’s time to set it live for the rest of the world to see 🤩 (i.e. before you actually point your domain to your new Nucleus site).

But before you do that, let’s just double check that you’ve done everything you need to do in order to make the experience of visiting your church’s website the best it can be.

In this guide, we'll cover the following topics. Click on any one to jump ahead.

Review All Your Pages & Navigation Items

Think all your pages are on the up and up? Think again 😅 Even the most careful website creator is bound to miss something. And it would be a shame if that something ended up being bad/incorrect information. (Or an embarrassing photo of your lead pastor!)

If you don’t have too many pages to review, you can always tackle this yourself. But if you have several pages, it might be helpful to recruit a few other people to help with your review.

Whether you’re sharing the load or not, the best approach to this review is to go to your homepage by clicking View Site in your Nucleus Web Dashboard and then select Preview URL.

Note: The URL in the address bar is what you can share with others to test out your site.

Below are a number of items to look out for as you’re perusing your site.

Because of the amount of work and time required to do a complete and thorough review, we recommend making a task list with notes on what needs to change on which page, do that for your entire website, and then go back to your Dashboard to make all your edits in one go. This way, you can continue with your review without breaking your flow each time you go back to your Dashboard to make an edit. (i.e. Review first. Make edits second.)

But maybe that’s not your style and you’d rather make each edit as you find each mistake. That’s totally okay! However you wish to carry out your review and edits is up to you. Just take your time - especially if it’s only you doing the review. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a second pair of eyes to catch what you might miss.

Unpublished Pages & Changes

Before navigating through your entire website, it might be helpful to first check to see if there are any pages left in the Never Published and In Progress tabs in the left sidebar of your Pages Panel. Because Nucleus Web autosaves any changes you make to pages, you might have accidentally forgotten to publish those changes.

Click here for a quick link to check on this in your Dashboard.

The Actual Information & Content

While reading through your website, analyze to make sure it’s accurate. Is there information missing? Are there spelling errors or any grammar mistakes? While having inaccurate info has more serious consequences than spelling/grammar errors, all of this adds up to make or break a good impression. So be sure to take your time and read through line by line, rather than just skimming.

Images/Photos

While looking at the images and photos on your site, make sure they match the text content they’re close to. Do they match? Have the wrong photos been uploaded? Are there any missing? Are the focal points accurate? (This you can test by changing the size of your browser to see how the photo changes dynamically.)

Hyperlinks & Buttons

This one is easy to test out without actually paying attention to the actual content. You can just click on every hyperlink and button you have available - either while reading through your content with a fine tooth comb, or doing a blitz and mindlessly clicking on every possible item that’s clickable. Does it take you to where you want to go? Is it a dead link? Does it take you to the wrong place?

Navigation Items

While this could be included with the previous group (Hyperlinks & Buttons), it’s important to call this out just in case you miss checking to make sure all your navigation items (both in the Header and Footer) are linked correctly and take you to the correct location on your website. Or perhaps there’s an item that should be parented under a main navigation item. Who knows - you might even discover an item that’s missing!

Click here to edit any navigation menu items.

Privacy Controls

For every page that you visit, are all your privacy controls in place? If all pages should be Public, are there any that are set to Hidden or Private? Are there pages that are Hidden or Private that should be Public?

Should you find a page that requires a change of privacy settings, find the page in question in your Pages Panel here.

While editing the page, select Privacy Controls in the left sidebar and choose the correct privacy setting. (Don’t forget to Publish your changes!)

If you have any pages set to Private, check to make sure that the messaging on the status page to Sign In is accurate. Then test signing in to make sure the controls are working correctly.

And if you really want to level up your review game, you can test signing in with one profile that has the correct Connection Type and one profile that has the incorrect Connection Type. (Or you could adjust the Connection Type for your own profile to test both scenarios out.) This will also help you see what the Unauthorized page looks like when you try to access a private page with the incorrect Connection Type associated with your profile.

Should you need to make an adjustment to the messaging of your Status Pages, click here to access your Site Settings.

For more details on how to update the content on each status page, check out our guide on how to Manage Your Overall Site Settings.

Colors, Fonts & Layout

As you navigate through your website, keep an eye out for your colors, fonts, and layout of it all. Does it follow your church’s brand guide? Is there a section on a page that doesn’t look quite right and might need a different layout? Are there headlines or groups of body texts that are too big or too small?

You can edit your overall site’s colors and fonts here in your Design Panel. Click here for a quick link.

For editing a specific page’s section, go to your Pages Panel to edit that page (and any sections in it). Click here for a quick link.

Page SEO Information & Social Sharing Images

Some settings that are easy to forget about are each individual page’s SEO information and social sharing images. To double check that all the information is correct for each page, click on SEO in the left sidebar while editing each page.

SEO is super important to consider when building a website if you want to be found on search engines like Google. Each page you create has a spot for you to add an SEO description and keywords that search engines will use to help people find your website should they search for those phrases or keywords.

By default, Nucleus uses the Page Name, Description, and Image you upload for the Basic Information of each page for your SEO Title, Description, and Sharing Image.

This means, as long as you’ve entered the Basic Information about a page, you do not need to customize the page’s SEO information. This is only if you wish to override the page’s Basic Information.

That being said, one thing not covered by the Basic Information are the SEO keywords, so feel free to add a few to help each page show up better in search results.

Note: SEO information also exists at the website level, not just per-page level as discussed above. Any SEO information left untouched at the per-page level will default to using the SEO information at the site level. Click here to scroll down to learn how to access your site level SEO settings.

Lastly, by default, Nucleus uses the same information in your SEO settings for a page when you share a URL on social media. If you’d like to customize exactly what is showcased on social media when a particular page’s URL is shared, click on Social Sharing in the left sidebar of a page, and select Customize.

Below, you’ll have the opportunity to customize the preview of a page for OpenGraph (generally when sharing with other social media platforms), and then specifically for Facebook and Twitter.

Don’t forget to Publish any changes you make!

Review Your Overall Site Settings

Once you’ve poked and prodded and explored every corner of your website, it’s time to review a few items directly in your Nucleus Dashboard.

To begin, click on Manage and select Site Settings. Click here for a quick link.

Site SEO Settings

The first on the list is your overall site’s SEO information. While every single page you create has its own SEO information you can enter, if you leave the SEO fields untouched at the per-page level, the SEO information entered here in your Site Settings will be the default SEO information used.

Even though you might have taken the time to curate each individual page’s custom SEO information, we recommend including SEO information here as a fallback just in case.

For some tips on what to include in your SEO description, click here.

Don’t forget to save any changes!

For more details on editing your website's SEO information, check out our guide on how to Manage Your Overall Site Settings.

Favicon & App-Style Icon

Next on the list is to make sure you’ve uploaded a favicon and app-style icon. To do this, select the Favicon tab. Click here for a quick link.

Favicons are those tiny icons or logos you see in the tabs of your browser that help indicate the various websites you’re currently viewing (apart from the SEO name that also appears in each tab). They also typically show up whenever you bookmark or save a website.

While not necessary, favicons are just a small detail that most websites use, so you don’t want to be the odd one out and not have one.

Favicons typically mirror the logo of whatever company/organization has on their website. Feel free to use your church’s logo. Just make sure it’s no bigger than 512 x 512 pixels, with a minimum size of 32 x 32 pixels.

Note: If you choose not to upload a favicon, it will default to the Nucleus logo.

Below this, you can upload an app-style icon. Feel free to upload the same image as your favicon here, though for this specific icon, it’s best to either use the light version of your logo, or upload a logo with an opaque background. This is because on some devices, the background of the “app” button will appear in black, so if you have a dark logo, it might not show up well.

This icon will specifically showcase on devices that have saved your website to their home screen. Saving a website to a home screen makes it feel like you’re opening an app, all the while simply opening up the device’s browser and pulling up that specific website. (This is especially true if your website is dynamic and interactive - like a Nucleu site! - not just a yellow pages listing type of website.)

We have an entire guide that walks you through how to save a website to both an Apple and Android device’s home screen. Click here to view that.

Don’t forget to save your changes!

Site Status Pages

While you might have already done this in reviewing each page’s privacy controls, it’s good to review all your site’s status pages just to be sure the messaging on each type of status page makes sense and is readable for the majority of your church. (For instance, you might not want to use a bunch of internet slang from 2023 if the majority of your church was born in the mid-1900’s 😆🤳🧓)

Select the Status Pages tab to edit these. Click here for a quick link.

There are three types of status pages:

  • Unavailable (404)
  • Sign In Required (401)
  • Unauthorized (403).

Don’t forget to save your changes!

For more details on how to update the content on each status page, check out our guide on how to Manage Your Overall Site Settings.

Double Check All Admins Have Been Invited

One quick piece of review is to double check that everyone who needs access to your Nucleus Web Dashboard has been invited and has accepted their email invitation. (And more importantly, that those invited have the correct admin permissions.)

To review who’s on your team of Web admins, click on Manage in the main menu and select Admins. Click here for a quick link.

Here, you can invite someone new…

Resend an invite…

And edit each admin’s access levels to Nucleus Web.

Should you make any adjustments to an admin’s access levels, don’t forget to save your changes.

Review The Launcher & Banners

While The Launcher is automatically installed on your Nucleus website, it is a completely separate product and requires its own set up.

To make sure you’ve added all the actions you need, go Next Steps in your Dashboard and select Launcher in the main menu. Click here for a quick link.

We have an entire section of our Help Center dedicated to The Launcher, so if you haven’t yet set up your actions in The Launcher or need help with designing it, etc. click here.

Once you’ve set up The Launcher, it’s time to make sure it’s working correctly and that all your actions open the correct Flow and/or point people to exactly where they need to be.

To do this, simply go to the preview of your website. This can be found by going back to Web, clicking on View Site, and then on Preview URL.

Once the button for The Launcher has loaded (either on the bottom right or left corner of your site), click on it and explore all the actions. Are any actions dead? Do they take you to the correct place? Do they open the wrong Flow? Anything you notice that needs to be changed can happen right in your Next Steps Dashboard here.

Similarly, it’s also good to review and test any Banners or Info Cards you’ve created. This also takes place in your Next Steps Dashboard.

To review (or create!) either of these, select Banners or Info Cards in the main menu.

Specifically for Banners, click here for a quick link.

Specifically for Info Cards, click here for a quick link.

While reviewing both, make sure all the information presented is accurate. Check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Double check the action associated with each (i.e. Does the action link to the correct Flow, Page, or URL?).

To test these out, follow the same instructions as above: go to the preview of your website. This can be found by going back to Web, clicking on View Site, and then on Preview URL.

Banners load alongside The Launcher, so it may take a few seconds before you see them load on your website. Once you do, test them out in this order:

  1. If you have multiple Banners, click the arrow to switch between them. Do they appear in the correct order? Are there any Banners missing?
  2. Interact with the Banner. When you click on the action, does it take you to the correct place?

If a Banner doesn’t load but you’ve double checked that all the settings are correct, it’s possible you’ve already interacted with the Banner in the previous 3-5 days and so the Banner is hidden from you during that time frame. To ensure that all Banners load, feel free to open a private window in your browser and go to the Preview URL there.

Info Cards open up in The Launcher, so to test those out, you either need to have an action in The Launcher that links to an Info Card, or you need to have another button/hyperlink on your website elsewhere that links to an Info Card.

Click here to learn more about how to create, edit, and test Banners & Info Cards.

Test Your Prayer Hub & Any Custom Flows

While testing out the actions in The Launcher, you might have already taken the liberty to test out your Prayer Hub and any custom Flows you’ve created. But in case you didn’t, take the time to ensure your Prayer Hub is linked up correctly as an action in The Launcher. If not, don’t worry! You’ve can do it right now 😊

Check out this guide to help you get started with Nucleus Prayer.

Similarly, if you have any Flows linked to actions in The Launcher, fill out some test submissions to ensure that you’re not missing any steps.

To make any edits to your Flows, you can do so in your Flows Dashboard.

Need some help getting started with Flows? Click here to access our Help Center on Nucleus Flows.

Review Our Nucleus Rollout Guide

The last piece of review is to visit our guide titled Roll Out Nucleus To Your Congregation.

Even if you might not be utilizing every product that Nucleus offers, we still think it’s valuable to peruse each section, as you might find even more helpful tips you can use in tandem with launching your new website. (It is built using Nucleus’ platform after all 😉)

Point Your Custom Domain To Your Nucleus Website

Okay, you’re on the home stretch! Once your entire review is complete, it’s time to point your custom domain to your Nucleus website. We have several guides on how to accomplish this, so why don’t you start with this article and follow along with those instructions, tips, and helpful information.

Overview Of Web Domains

Or, if you’re familiar with the world of domains, feel free to start here instead:

Add A Custom Domain & Manage Redirects

What Next?

And that’s that! If you completed your review and pointed your domain to your Nucleus website, congratulations on launching your brand new website! Now you can sit back and relax and receive all the compliments you’re sure to receive from the overhaul and fresh coat of paint of your website. And if you receive any negative feedback…you can keep that to yourself 😜

Kidding! Whatever feedback you receive - whether from your congregation or admins using the Nucleus Dashboard, we’d love to hear from you! Send us a message to hello@nucleus.church and let us know how things are going 😎

Looking to explore other Nucleus products? Feel free to peruse any of these guides to give you a good idea of what else Nucleus has to offer:

Did this answer your question? Thanks for the feedback There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again later.