Often times designers spend so much time designing their site that they lose sight of having a plan for when it goes live. On The heels of the launch of my own portfolio site – www.goyettedesign.com, I decided to sit down and ask an expert for their advice and tips about launching a new website. That expert was Elliot Jay Stocks.

Elliot is a well known designer, an illustrator, a speaker, and an author. When not designing and illustrating, he can be found writing — or traveling the world to speak at design-related events.

How important is it to have a plan of action when launching a new site?

I think it depends on the site. Some can run without any plan of action and others require constant tweaking based on usability testing. The most important plan is probably to maintain a good, friendly relationship with your clients

Do you have any basic SEO rules you follow in preparing a site for launch?

Getting the hierarchy right in a document is a must (headings levels, etc.), as are relevant page titles. I’m also very into friendly URLs at the moment: I think URL design is overlooked all too often.

When launching a personal portfolio, is it important to submit your site to the millions of web galleries out there?

If you’re trying to make a name for yourself, submitting is a good idea. But so many of the galleries copy each other’s content that it’s probably only necessary to submit to the top 10 or 20.

What are your tips for driving traffic to a site once it has launched?

Tweeting about it, blogging about it, and talking about it in interviews and on stage. But I don’t believe in doing any of those things in a shameless way; I can’t stand people who use social media purely to promote their product. It’s about relevance to the audience.

If you had to pick one thing ever designer should do when launching their own portfolio site what would it be and why?

Tell people about it.