Forms

Before taking a site live you will need to double check that all forms on the site are set up correctly. To do this check, navigate to Forms > select form > Settings in the sites WordPress dashboard and check the following form settings.

• Change the form title to “[Company Name] Form Enquiry”
  • Note – if the website has multiple forms, you can name other forms “[Company Name] Private Group Enquiry”, “[Company Name] Career Enquiry”, etc.

Navigate to Notifications Settings

• If there is not a notification set up, create one
• “Name” should be “Admin Notification”
• “Send To Email” should be the company’s main email address – it’s very important this be accurate to ensure the client gets notified of form submissions.
• “From Email” should be messages@fareharbor.site
• “Reply To” – click the “{..}” dropdown, click “Email,” and the one available will autofill in the field
• “Subject” should be labeled “New submission from {first name} {last name}”
  • You’ll need to click the {…} and select Name (first) and then Name (last)
• “Message” should have {all_fields} in the text box

Video Walkthrough: 2 minutes

There will need to be a GA4 measurement ID in the Google Measurement ID field in the backend of your site and in the Dashboard. Only GA4 measurement IDs are accepted in this field.

• For the site: Find the Google Measurement ID field under Settings > company settings > Analytics & Tracking > Google Measurement ID(s).
• For the Dashboard: Find the Analytics Service field under Settings > Online Booking > FH Analytics & Tracking > Add Analytics Service.

GA4 measurement IDs will replace any existing UA codes.

There are multiple scenarios which will change the steps a Project Coordinator/Manager must follow to set up Google Analytics. Open one of the dropdowns below that matches the client’s scenario.

1. Google Analytics 4

2. Configuring the GA4 property

• After being provided access, log in to analytics property and head to the Admin sidebar tab (the cog or gear in the bottom left corner).

2a. Configure Tag Settings

• In the Admin settings, click “Data Streams” under the middle Property column. Find the correct Data Stream (there is typically only one listed).

  • Click to open up Data Stream settings. Under Stream Details at the top of the page, there will be a Measurement ID listed. If not already, copy and paste the Measurement ID into the Measurement ID field under the Analytics and Tracking tab in the FareHarbor Site’s Company Settings.

• You’ll be taken to the Web Stream Details page. Scroll to the Google tag section of this page and click “Configure tag settings.”

• Click SHOW ALL across from Settings

Set up the unwanted referral list

There may be third-party websites or domains that you do not want to be included in your traffic analytics. You can specify which one(s) should be excluded by creating an unwanted referral exclusion list.

To add domains to the unwanted referrals list:

1. Select “List unwanted referrals.”

2. Under “Include referrals that match ANY of the following conditions” add two unwanted referrals:

   1. Match type: Referral domain contains

   2. Domain: fareharbor.com (required exclusion)

   3. Match type: Referral domain contains

   4. Domain: URL of site (self-referrals appear in GA4 even with automatic self-referral detection, (for example, yourownwebsite.com).

3. MAKE SURE TO CLICK “SAVE” AT THE TOP ONCE FAREHARBOR.COM AND ROOT DOMAIN ARE IN!

Note: If you need to add another domain, click “Add condition.” Note that conditions are evaluated using OR logic, so if any of the rules apply, they will be added to the unwanted referrals list.

• Exit out of the Google tag window until you are back to the Web Stream Details page. At the top of the page you will see the Measurement ID. If you haven’t already, copy this ID and make sure it is entered into the backend of the FareHarbor website under the Google Measurement ID section. Make sure this is separated from any other analytics IDs by a comma.

Video Walkthrough: 2 minutes

Troubleshooting Notes:

• If you see a “data collection isn’t active” message, log into the backend of the site and add the GA4 code under Company Settings >> Analytics & Tracking.

• If you see a notification/prompt to connect the Universal GA account with the new GA4 account, please follow the instructions to set this up.

• Under the Google Tag Settings (where the domain exclusion filter lives), if you see a ? mark between the Tag and Destinations under the Google Tag section, log in to the website and check to see if the GA4 code has been added to the backend. This typically means the code has not been added, so we will want to add the GA4 if this is the case.

2b. Data Retention Setting

Data retention controls allow you to set the amount of time before user- and event-level data stored by Google Analytics is automatically deleted from Analytics servers.

1. Click the Admin icon in the lower-left corner of the GA window.
2. In the Property column, click on Data Settings > Data Retention.
3. Select 14 months from the drop down. This change will reset the retention period of all user data from that point forward.
4. Click Save.

Video Walkthrough: 1 minute

3. If you created a new analytics account, share access with the client.

1. Click the Admin icon gear wheel icon in the lower-left corner of the GA window. Under the “Account” column, select “Account Access Management.”
2. In the Account Access Management window, choose the plus icon in the top right corner and select “Add users.”
3. Type in the client’s Gmail address and select the “Administrator” role. Click “Add.”
4. Access can only be shared to Gmail email addresses. If the client does not have a Gmail address, they will not be able to receive access to the Google Analytics account. You may see the error below.
   • In this case, let the client know you are unable to share access and that they must provide a Gmail email address to be granted access.

Video Walkthrough: 2 minutes

4. Add the measurement IDs to the back end of the site

• Make sure there is a Google Analytics tracking ID in the Google Measurement ID field in the backend of the FareHarbor Site:
  • In the backend of the site: Find the Google Measurement ID field under Settings > Company Settings > Analytics & Tracking tab.
• If there is more than one measurement ID, separate each ID with a comma.

5. Add the measurement IDs and analytics account to the dashboard

• In the dashboard, navigate through: Settings >> Analytics & Tracking >> + Add Analytics Service

  • Type: Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

  • SKU: [domain.com] • [analytics account]

    • Example: outdoorhawaii.com • a82

  • GA4 Measurement ID: GA4 ID

• Click “Create analytics service”

6. Update custom fields in Close with the measurement IDs and analytics account

Add the Analytics info to Close if not added already. This includes the GA4 Code and analytics account.

• Navigate to the appropriate lead in Close.
• Find the URL Custom Object and click the pencil icon to edit the object.
• Scroll below all of the fields that are already filled in and find the “Add Custom Field to URL” field.
• Click “Select a Custom Field”. This will bring you to a drop down where you can search for the fields to add:
  • “AM – Google Analytics Account”: Enter in the analytics account and click Save.
  • “AM – GA4 ID”: Enter in the newly created GA4 ID and click Save.

7. Add the measurement IDs and analytics account to the Airtable project card

• Go back to the project’s Airtable card and fill in the fields with the corresponding information:
  • Google Analytics Tracking ID (GA4 ID)
  • Google Analytics Account

Video Walkthrough: 3 minutes

• Ensure the meta titles and descriptions from the Pre Sweep’s Specialist Recommendations tab are added for every page and activity page
• Make sure alt text has been added for all photos used on pages and activity pages

Video Walkthrough: 3 minutes

Go Live Sweep

• Assign the SEO Specialist or SOPHI SEO Specialist in Airtable to the “Assigned” field and make sure the status of the card is “Greenlight”
• For SBMM sites, visit the #checks_fhs Slack channel and post the Site is Ready for the Go Live Sweep workflow.
  • Please plan to post this workflow at least 1 day prior to the site going live.
• For ENT sites, in the Airtable comments mention that the “site is ready for a go live sweep” and tag the or SEO Specialist.
• The SEO Specialist or SOPHI SEO Specialist will format the pre-sweep document and add all necessary redirects to the backend of the website.
• Once the SEO Specialist is done, they will assign the Project Coordinator to the Airtable card.

Announce Go Live

• Announce the site is going live after SEO Specialist is done adding redirects.
• In the Slack room #fareharborwebsites using the workflow Announce Go Live. Once filled out the post will look like: “@fhs_global @[AM/AE’s name] Starting go live on [Company Name][website url]”

Video Walkthrough: 2 minutes

In order to keep Close accurate with all domains live on a FareHarbor site, we need to make sure that there is a URL custom object for the domain that the site is going live on. In most cases, the URL Custom Object should exist and should already be linked to the FareHarbor Site Custom Object via the “Routing Domains” field as shown in the screenshot below:

If that is the case, no further action is needed.

If the domain that the site is going live on is not included as it’s own URL custom object, this New Object Request Form will need to be filled out.

• Please fill in all required fields, the ‘New URL (if applicable)’ field and add a note to the comments that says “Please connect this new URL custom object to [insert name of FHS custom object] FHS custom object”.

Once that form is submitted, the Lead Gen team will create the new URL custom object. They will then assign a task to you letting you know it’s been created. When you receive the task, go back to the FareHarbor site custom object, click edit, edit the Routing Domain field or add a custom field for Routing Domain, select the correct domain, and click save.

Change URL in WordPress & Add Site to Wordpress VIP

• In the backend of the site, hover over the client name in the top bar and click “Manage Site”.
  • Alternatively: Search for your site here and click “Edit”: https://fareharbor.site/wp-admin/network/sites.php.
• In the Info tab, change the listed URL in Site Address (URL) from https://domain.fareharbor.site/ to https://domain.com/ to match the domain name the client wants to go live on. This will add the domain to the VIP Dash.

• Click “Save Changes” and wait until the page updates. Do not refresh the page while you see this notice:

Video Walkthrough: 3 minutes

Depending on the client and their domain registrar service Cloudflare will need to be configured differently. By default, FareHarbor will take ownership of the clients DNS and manage that in Cloudflare.

Cloudflare Setup

Visit Cloudflare Status

• Don’t take your site live if Cloudflare has issues that affect SSL or propagation

Add Site to Cloudflare via WordPress Admin

• In the backend of the WordPress Admin (https://fareharbor.site/wp-admin/network/sites.php —> search and select site) navigate to the Info tab.
• Click Add Site to Cloudflare
  • Note: This button will not be available until you have completed the steps in the Change URL in WordPress & Add Site to Wordpress VIP section

DNS Records Setup

• Click DNS Settings next to the Cloudflare Status
• If you are prompted to, log in to Cloudflare
• Once logged in to Cloudflare navigate to the domains DNS settings
• You will need to confirm that the DNS records imported correctly. If no DNS records appear you will need to enter their current DNS records into Cloudflare manually
  • To do so, log in to the client’s current registrar or DNS
  • Copy and paste all records from the current DNS tree to Cloudflare, this may take a moment
• After all DNS records have been imported in to Cloudflare, in the DNS settings, click “Import and Export” and then click the “Export” button. This will download a TXT file with their current DNS records
• Add the TXT file to the attachments section of the projects Airtable record for future reference if anything goes wrong after switching the nameservers
• Verify these 2 CNAMEs & TXT record have imported Type: CNAME; Name: @; Content: fareharbor-sites.go-vip.net; Type: CNAME; Name: www; Content: fareharbor-sites.go-vip.net; Type: TXT; Name: _wpvip.domain.com; Content: wpvip-domain-verification=(long strand of characters);
• Delete any records with domain.com as the name (not including MX or TXT records)

• If you had to manually import the DNS records, you will also need to add the following CNAME records to point the domain to the FareHarbor website. ENSURE THESE RECORDS ARE PROXIED (ORANGE CLOUD IS ON): Type: CNAME; Name: @; Content: fareharbor-sites.go-vip.net; Type: CNAME; Name: www; Content: fareharbor-sites.go-vip.net;
• If you had to manually import the DNS records, you will also need to add the TXT record to verify the domain on Wordpress VIP. To get the TXT record:
  • Navigate back to the Wordpress Admin and click VIP Dashboard
    • https://fareharbor.site/wp-admin/network/sites.php —> search and select site —> scroll to VIP Dashboard —> Select “VIP Dashboard” link.
  • Click the three dots under Actions and select Verify Domain
  • Copy the TXT record that appears and add it to Cloudflare
  • Once the TXT record is in Cloudflare, click Continue and select Verify Domain
  • You won’t be able to click Finish and actually verify the domain until the nameservers are changed in the next step.
• Lastly, make sure the domain and www CNAMEs are proxied (orange cloud). Click Edit in the far column to update the proxy status of the record if needed. See the screenshot below for an example.

MX Record Check

If the client’s email is @domain.com, Cloudflare should have scanned MX records. You will need to confirm that the MX records are correct before changing the nameservers. Failure to make sure the MX records are correct can result in the email service no longer functioning.

• In Cloudflare, if the MX record value has the content other than domain.com then the clients email will continue to function and no adjustments need to be made. Below is an example of a domain that uses Google Workspace as their email provider. In this case the MX records point to Google Workspace servers and no additional DNS routing is needed. Another common email services with this setup is Microsoft Outlook, though there are many others.

• In the second scenario, the email is controlled by the clients current hosting service and the MX record will likely be pointing to domain.com. Where this is the case the MX record will need to be updated to point to the appropriate A record. In the example below “mail” has been added in front of the MX records content so that it is now pointing directly at the A record with the “mail” Name. By directing the MX record to the appropriate other record the service will continue to function once the nameservers have been changed.

Video Walkthrough: 7 minutes

Change Nameservers

To change the nameservers you will need to log in to the clients domain registrar. This should have been supplied at the beginning of the sites onboarding process. If you do not have this or are unable to log in you will need to coordinate with the client for this information.

• Login to Domain Registrar
• Use Keeper information to login to registrar (if you’re not already logged in)
• Find Domain Name in Registrar
• Click “Manage Domain” (can be something similar)
• Change Nameservers
• Nameservers should be changed according to registrar instructions (not all registrars manage nameservers the same way)
• Nameservers should be changed to match the ones provided by Cloudflare

The client may prefer to change their own nameservers than give you access to their domain registrar. If this is the case, send the client the nameservers in the Cloudflare zone with the email template, “FHS_PC – Client Will Update Nameservers.”

Video Walkthrough: 3 minutes

Domain Verification

• Navigate back to the Wordpress Admin and click VIP Dashboard

  • https://fareharbor.site/wp-admin/network/sites.php —> search and select site —> scroll to VIP Dashboard —> Select “VIP Dashboard” link.

• Once the nameservers are changed, click Finish in Domain Verification and you should now see a green check mark in the VIP Dashboard under Verification.

• If you see the error “Unable to verify domain”, wait a few minutes then click Reverify Domain. Continue doing this until the domain is verified and you see a green check mark under Verification.

• If it has been a while since you updated the nameservers and the DNS still isn’t Pointed to VIP:
  • Go to https://1.1.1.1/purge-cache/ (it’s a CloudFlare related service)
  • Add the Domain Name (no https or www needed)
  • Choose Record Type NS or A
  • Click Purge cash
  • Check back in a few minutes to see if the DNS has Pointed to VIP

Install Let’s Encrypt

• When there are green check marks under Verification and DNS, click the three little dots under Actions and select Install Let's Encrypt. Ensure the box next to “Install Let’s Encrypt for www.domain.com as well” is checked.
• This will issue the SSL Certificate for both domain.com and www.domain.com
• You may see an error after selecting Confirm. Check back in a few minutes and try again.

• Once Let’s Encrypt is installed, the site should be live!

Once the site has propagated you’ll need to add the domain to Google Search Console. Search Console is used to submit the new website sitemap to Google and request the new site be indexed. Before doing this the site will need to be verified at a domain level. Follow the steps below to obtain a TXT record that will be used later in the process when DNS records are updated.

Enter Search Console

• Sign in to the FareHarbor analytics account associated with the tracking ID on the site
• Navigate to Search Console

Add New Property

• Click on the dropdown below the menu in the left-hand corner and click “Add property” at the bottom
• Select “Domain” type and enter the domain (no https or www). Click continue.
• Search Console will prompt you to verify domain ownership via DNS record:
• Copy and save the TXT record provided to use later in the Cloudflare Setup Section

Add TXT Record in Cloudflare

• Navigate back to the Cloudflare account for the domain
• In the DNS section add the TXT record that you obtained from Search Console with the following information:
• Name: @
• Value: copied from Search Console

Check Search Console

• Navigate back to Search Console and click “Verify”
• Make sure you are in the correct property (check URL in top left corner)
• Click on “Sitemaps” in the left column

• You will need to add 3-4 sitemaps to this section (add the full URL of the sitemap and click submit). Use the optimized URL (may include www.) for the root domain found in the SEO presweep:
  • https://[DOMAIN.com]/sitemap.xml
  • https://[DOMAIN.com]/activity-sitemap.xml
  • https://[DOMAIN.com]/page-sitemap.xml
  • https://[DOMAIN.com]/post-sitemap.xml (only for sites with blogs)
• Make sure status says “Success” in the “Submitted sitemaps” section
• If status does not say “Success”, delete the property and try re-adding in a couple of minutes

Request Indexing

• At the top of the page type in the home page url to the search bar
• Google will take a moment to look up whether or not it has been indexed
• After Google has returned the page it will give you an option to “Request Indexing”, Click this. This will tell Google that something on the page or website has changed and it needs to re-crawl it.

Sync Google Search Console and Google Analytics

• Navigate to settings on the left menu.
• Click associations.
• Find the associated GA4 property and sync them with the GSC property.

Video Walkthrough: 5 minutes

Enter the back-end of clients site

• Navigate to users – add new user
• Enter client first and last name (no spaces)
• Enter client email (Use mail for Primary Contact in Close)
• Change the role to Administrator
• Keep Skip Confirmation Email unchecked
• Click Add New User (If you get an error that email already exists, follow the same steps using “Add Existing User”
• This will send the client their login details, the website training videos and support’s information for future website support.

Live Check

• In #checks_fhs, announce live check using the Live Check workflow, tagging your partner and the WCS
• In Airtable, move the record to the “Live Checks” status
• Your partner (or team lead, if your partner is out) will claim your site and add edits in the Airtable form
• Once the check is complete, they will let you know in the Slack thread that feedback has been posted in Airtable
• Navigate to the Airtable record’s Live Check linked record and make all necessary edits
• The Web Content Specialist will do a technical audit and address errors as soon as they are available and post in the #checks_fhs submission thread when completed making sure to tag the Project Coordinator or Project Manager and tag the SEO checks person from the First Round check. This will signal the SEO checks person to perform the final check of redirects and ensure tech audit errors have been addressed.
• SEO Specialists and Enterprise SEO Specialists complete post live check of redirects, verify tech audit, and implement any feedback immediately.
  • The Project Coordinator or Project Manager can move forward calling the site live before the final SEO check is complete.

• In Airtable, once the live check feedback has been completed, update “Status” to “Complete.”
• Clear the Assigned field in the Airtable card. The Live Date will automatically fill in once the status is marked “Complete”.
• The AM or OB will call the site in the #live channel.
• In Close, change the “FHS – Status” field to “Live.” This will start the billing cycle for the client.
  • Dormant Mode: If the client’s site is going live in Dormant Mode, add the field “FHS – Dormant Mode” and switch it “On”. If this is not done, the client will be billed.
• Send the client the “FHS_PC – 05 | Site is Live” email in Close.
  • Dormant Mode: If the client’s site is going live in Dormant Mode, send the email “FHS_PC – 05 | Site is Live (DORMANT MODE).”

Video Walkthrough: 4 minutes

Complianz is required to be enabled and configured on all sites. Configuration guidelines and instructions can be found in this document. Be sure to review the guidelines before configuring Complianz to decipher if the client should have an “opt in” or “opt out” Cookie Banner configuration.

SBMM Sites

• If a client has a minimal or simple question about the website post-live, the PC should answer it. If the request becomes too much, gently remind the client that their new point of contact for site updates is the LSS team.

Enterprise Sites

• The PM will remain the client’s point of contact for 30 days after go-live to answer and immediate site questions. At 30 days post-live, the PM will conduct an Internal Site check. A hand-off will occur to the AM and LSS teams.

Training

If a client asks for a site training, please present them our training tutorials. These videos cover the majority of training topics (login, blogging, SEO, editing text + images, and much more).

Small Business & Mid Market: Any additional training requests (at any point post-live) need to be submitted through the “FHS Training Request” workflow in #fareharborwebsites.

Enterprise: This is the Enterprise PM responsibility to schedule and conduct training. See the Enterprise Client Training Process (AMER) for more information.