Never Launch on a Friday – Best Day to Launch a New Website
Time and time again clients schedule the launch date for a new website, feature or paid search campaign on a Friday.
We advise never to launch such things on a Friday. And below, we will reveal the right time to launch your existing new project!
Over the years Dotwise have managed dozens of new website launches.
Launch day is an exciting time. The champagne corks may be popping. Eyes will be firmly fixed on the website as it welcomes new visitors.
But unfortunately the most popular day to slate a major launch is Friday.
And frankly that is the worst possible day to do it.
Why you should never launch on a Friday
A launch is the culmination of a long piece of work. But it is also the beginning of a far longer story – the website (or campaign)’s lifetime will last many months or even years.
It’s up to the developers to look after the launch process whilst the client celebrates.
Dev team availability
Site or campaign launches often last for many hours. It’s not just a case of flicking and switch and turning your website on. There are many, many tasks to be carried, from feature testing, to DNS updates, email checks.
At Dotwise we write a timed checklist for exactly when and in what order these tasks should be carried out.
The launch can often take longer than one working day. Launching on a Friday takes us into the weekend which is the worst possible time to be doing something new.
External dev teams
External development teams need to be on hand to supervise the launch and leap on any teething problems.
And there will always be teething problems.
If we are working with teams around the world who are in different time zones, then launching on a Friday can cause problems.
Teams in the far East and Asia have already left for the weekend just when we need them.
Teams in the US and Canada have not arrived for work.
As for in-house staff, we would need to schedule staff to be on call and on duty on Friday night and throughout the weekend. That’s the most expensive time to have staff working.
Third line and hosting support
Hosting companies frequently scale down their operations over the weekend. This always makes it harder for dev teams to get web hosting support should it be needed.
Client availability
Throughout all this you’d think that at least the client would be fully available and on call over that crucial first weekend. But, surprisingly, that’s not always the case.
Clients – if you want to launch on Friday then you must be prepared to be on-call 24×7 throughout the weekend.
So what is the best day to launch, then?
OK, the big reveal.
In our experience, here are the best and worst days to launch a new website or campaign, ranked in order, from worst to best.
| Bad | Friday | End of a hard week is not good time to launch. Dev team availability is low and/or expensive on Friday night, Saturdays and Sundays. |
| Saturday | After a long week of work, Saturday is not good day to launch. Dev team availability may be low. | |
| Sunday | Same reasons as Saturday. | |
| OK | Thursday | Whilst dev teams will be available on Thursday and Friday, if any teething problems occur we're headlong in the weekend. Not the best day. |
| Monday | With the whole week ahead of us and fresh from a resting weekend, Monday could be a good day to launch. | |
| Good | Wednesday | With two full days of availability ahead and plenty of time to dedicate the early part of the week to last-minute planning and testing, Wednesday makes a great day to launch. |
| Best | Tuesday | Rested after the weekend and having had a full day in the office to prepare for the upcoming launch, and with three full days of clear week ahead, Tuesday is the ultimate day to launch any new website or campaign! |
So you can see that in our experience and in the experience of dev teams around the world, the best possible day to launch your new website or campaign is … Tuesday!
Happy launch day!