Launching Your New Site

What happens when my new site launches?

Once you've completed setting up your new site, our Site Review Committee will check it over for policy violations, spelling errors, style issues, and other problems that might prevent it from launching.  Once it's been approved, we'll meet with you for a launch.  This meeting typically takes about 30 minutes.

During that meeting, we'll run through the site one final time with you to answer any questions and make any last-minute corrections.  We'll also work together to make sure your site gets noticed.

Will people be able to find my new site?

Yes.  We'll fine-tune the UNC Asheville search engine to make sure you're the top result for all pertinent keyword searches.  We'll also redirect all the traffic from your old site to the new one.

What will become of my old website?  Can I still access the files there?

Once we set up the redirection, your old site will be completely inaccessible to the public.  All links, bookmarks, and search results that lead to your old site will instantly redirect the user to your new Drupal site's homepage.  If you still need access to the files on the old site, you can continue logging in with an SFTP application.

Be sure to check with other members of your department before launching to ensure no "hidden" sites exist for specific faculty, classes, or events.  If they do, we won't launch the site until that content has been migrated over.

What happens next?

After launching your site, we encourage you to continue working on it.  Replace your photos from time to time.  Add new alumni profiles, advertise special events and projects in your department, and remember to keep information up-to-date.

Drupal will email you once a year (for each page), reminding you to come back to the site and review and renew your content.  Those emails are important; ignoring them will result in your pages being unpublished.