Step 6: Launch your website
Great job making it this far. You’ve completed the setup for your website and you are ready to launch. In this section, you will find a checklist to review before launch as well as the instructions for how to bring your site live.
Checklist: Fill out all site content
The easiest to confirm your site works as expected is to visit a preview. From the WordPress.com dashboard, find a button titled “Visit site” in the top-right corner. Tap this button to visit a preview of your site. If prompted, don’t launch it yet.
Below is a list of all the pages that came automatically with your template. You should make sure that they are all updated with correct information. A fully updated page means: (a) all the text is correct, (b) all the links are correct, and (c) any images are correct.
List of pages to check:
Homepage
Timeline
Find Vaccines
Our Impact
FAQs
Contact Us
If any of these checks are incomplete, you may need to Step 5: Customize your website and finish any site setup that is required.
Additional checklist (optional): Security measures
Set up a reCAPTCHA (Step 7)
Set up a trusted list of administrators
Set up two-factor authorization for administrators
Launch your website
These instructions are for the website hosted on WordPress.com.
You are now ready to bring your WordPress.com website online to the public. Follow these steps to continue:
Navigate to the WordPress.com dashboard
Tap the button in the right-hand corner labeled “Visit Site”
You should see a banner at the top prompting you to “Launch site.” Tap this button to continue.
If you are prompted to “Give your site an address,” find and tap the button labeled “Skip purchase.”
You should see a loading screen before the process is complete.
You now have a website available to the public - tapping “Visit Site” from your WordPress.com dashboard should open it up. If you’re using a URL that you created for this new site, If you are creating your first vaccine website, you are all done and can skip the next step (congratulations!). If you are mapping an existing vaccine website URL, please continue to the next step - you are almost done.
Complete domain mapping
If you are mapping an existing vaccine website to your new WordPress site, this is your final step. It is a short settings configuration, but you may need to involve your IT team. If you don’t have an IT team and you need help with this step, don’t hesitate to send us an email! We’ll walk you through it.
Set up a redirection from your old website to your new website.
If your old website is a standalone domain, like “www.MyCountyVotes.com”, you will follow these steps: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/map-existing-domain/#c hange-your-domains-name-servers.
If your old website is a subdomain, like “vaccines.mycounty.com”, you will follow these steps: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/map-subdomain/.
Note: In some cases, a subdomain mapping may result in an “SSL warning” on your new website. If you experience this, you can send a message to the help desk at WordPress.com and they will fix the issue immediately!
The redirection may take a few hours to complete. you will know it is done when visiting your old website redirects to the new website.
When the redirection is complete, set up your primary domain:
Visit the WordPress.com dashboard
In the “Manage” section, tap the “Domains” tab.
At the top of the screen, tap the button titled “Change Primary Domain”.
Select the row with your old website’s address.
Congratulations!
If you’ve gotten this far, your site is launched, live, and available to the public! Congratulations. We hope you are excited about your new website - and we hope your constituents love it too.
Over the next few months, you will likely be adding, editing, or removing content with updated resources or announcements for your voters. You can follow all the same steps to edit pages, and also refer to our appendix for some tips on navigating the WordPress.com editor.
We are always available by email for any questions you have. Good luck with your new website!
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