Website launch checklist
The pre-launch, launch-day and week-one checks that separate clean launches from firefight — content, forms, redirects, analytics, speed and the legal minimum.
19 checks · copy it, print it, argue with it.
Most launch disasters are not code failures — they are forgotten checks. This list is the one we run before any site goes live, in the order the work actually happens. Copy it into your project tool and tick it in public, so "sure, that's done" has to survive being written down.
Phase 1 — Before anyone says "launch" (days before)
- Every page has a real title tag and meta descriptionunique, written for humans, no placeholders
- All forms submitted to their real destination and receivedcheck the inbox/spam, reply-to address correct
- Form confirmations and error states testedsubmit empty, submit wrong email — users will
- Redirect map covers every old URL worth keeping301s in place, zero important 404s — this is where rankings die
- Site checked on a real phonenot a desktop window resized — an actual thumb on an actual screen
- Analytics wired and verified with a real visitevents firing, no double-counting, bot filters sane
- Lighthouse / Core Web Vitals checked on mobileLCP under 2.5s on a normal connection is the bar
- Images compressed, sized and given alt textno 4MB heroes, no decorative alt-text spam
- Legal pages exist and say true thingsprivacy policy matches what the site actually collects
- Backups taken and a restore tested on stagingan untested backup is a hope, not a backup
- All logins held by you, in your namedomain, hosting, CMS, analytics — owner holds, developer borrows
Phase 2 — Launch day
- DNS switched with a documented TTL drop beforehandknow who flips it, when, and how to flip it back
- SSL active on every URL variantwww and non-www, http forced to https — one canonical form
- Sitemap submitted in Search Consoleand the old sitemap retired if this is a migration
- Full click-through of the top 10 revenue pathshomepage → service → form, on mobile, as a stranger
Phase 3 — Week one after launch
- 404 log reviewed daily, redirects patchedsearch engines find every crack you missed
- Form submissions monitored for silent failuresspam folders included — leads die quietly there
- Search Console checked for indexing errorsfix coverage issues while they are small
- Real users observed using the siteone honest session beats a month of assumptions
Print it, copy it, argue with it — but run it. If your developer cannot show you something like this list, that absence is the finding.
Quarterly, and only when the numbers move
Get the rate report before you negotiate.
Updated rate bands across the major stacks and regions, plus what changed and why. No other email.