Website Launch Checklist: 40 Checks Before You Go Live

Before a website goes live, check that the domain, DNS and SSL certificate are set up correctly, that every page has real content and the right legal pages, that search engines are allowed to index the site, that old URLs redirect to new ones, that analytics and every enquiry route work, and that the site is fast, accessible, secure, backed up and tested on real phones. The 40 checks below cover each of these, followed by what to watch in the first week.

Most launch problems are small oversights rather than technical failures: a noindex tag left on from staging, a contact form sending to an old email address, or email that stops working after a DNS change. Work through the list with your developer a few days before launch, and keep it for the next redesign.

Domain, DNS and SSL (checks 1–5)

Do these first. DNS changes take time to spread, and mistakes here can take the whole site, or your email, offline.

• 1. The domain is registered to the business, using an account the business controls, with auto-renewal switched on and the expiry date recorded.
• 2. Before changing DNS, you have a screenshot or export of all existing records, and the TTL has been lowered a day or two ahead so the switch spreads faster.
• 3. Email records are kept intact. MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records must survive the move, or email can stop working the moment the website goes live.
• 4. The SSL certificate covers every hostname you use, including both www and non-www, and renews automatically. Certificate lifetimes are getting shorter, so manual renewal is no longer practical. The site also loads with no mixed-content warnings.
• 5. There is one main version of the site. HTTP redirects to HTTPS, and www and non-www redirect to whichever you chose, in a single 301 step.

Content and legal pages (checks 6–10)

Read every page as a customer would, on a phone, rather than skimming the design files.

• 6. No placeholder text, dummy images, test products or lorem ipsum remain anywhere, including in footers, pop-ups and image alt text.
• 7. Everything has been proofread: spelling, prices, dates, team names, service descriptions and the copyright year.
• 8. Contact details are correct and match your Google Business Profile and social media profiles exactly, including the address format and phone number.
• 9. A privacy policy and terms of use are published and linked in the footer. Online shops also need clear refund, return and delivery policies, which payment gateways and banks commonly ask to see before approving a merchant account.
• 10. A custom 404 page exists that explains the page was not found and links to the home page, main services and contact page.

SEO basics and redirects (checks 11–19)

These checks decide whether search engines can find and index the new site. The most damaging launch errors happen here, and visitors rarely notice them.

On the page

• 11. Every important page has a unique title tag and meta description that describe what is on it.
• 12. Each page has one clear H1, and headings follow a logical order.
• 13. Canonical tags point to the live domain, not the staging address, and each indexable page points to itself.
• 14. Social sharing tags are set, so links shared on WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn show the right title, description and image. Test a few links before launch.

Crawling and indexing

• 15. No noindex is left over from staging. Check the meta robots tag, any X-Robots-Tag header and, on WordPress, the setting that discourages search engines from indexing the site.
• 16. The robots.txt file does not block the whole site with Disallow: /, and it includes a Sitemap line.
• 17. The XML sitemap lists only live, canonical, indexable URLs on the production domain.
• 18. Internal links point to the live domain, and a crawl finds no broken links. Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which covers most small business sites.

Redirects from old URLs

• 19. If you are replacing an existing site, every old URL that had traffic or links redirects with a 301 to its closest new equivalent. Pull the old URLs from Search Console, analytics and a crawl of the old site, and test them after launch. Do not redirect everything to the home page.

Analytics, tracking and enquiry routes (checks 20–25)

If tracking is broken on launch day, you lose the data you need to judge whether the new site is working. Test each route the way a visitor would use it.

• 20. GA4 is installed once on the live domain and data appears in the Realtime report. Google Tag Manager changes have been published, not just saved.
• 21. Key events for form submissions, WhatsApp clicks and phone clicks fire correctly, checked in DebugView.
• 22. Google Search Console is verified for the domain and the sitemap is submitted. Bing Webmaster Tools is set up too.
• 23. Any Google Ads conversion tracking, Meta Pixel and cookie consent banner work on the live domain, and the consent choices actually change which tags load.
• 24. Every form has been submitted for real. Messages arrive at the right inbox, not in spam, any automatic reply is correct, and spam protection is switched on.
• 25. WhatsApp and phone links work on a real phone. WhatsApp links use the international format without the plus sign or leading zero, such as wa.me/923001234567, and phone links use tel:+92 followed by the number.

Performance, images and accessibility (checks 26–31)

Focus on the pages that bring in enquiries rather than trying to perfect every page before launch.

• 26. Images are compressed, served in a modern format such as WebP, sized for the space they fill, and have width and height set so the layout does not jump.
• 27. The home page and main service pages have been tested in PageSpeed Insights on mobile, and obvious problems, such as a heavy hero image or a lazy-loaded main image, are fixed.
• 28. Caching is switched on, a CDN is in place if your visitors are far from the server, and unused plugins, scripts and fonts have been removed.
• 29. Meaningful images have descriptive alt text, and purely decorative images have empty alt text.
• 30. The site can be used with a keyboard alone: menus open, focus is visible and every form field has a label.
• 31. Text has enough contrast against its background, and the page language is set correctly, with lang="ur" and right-to-left direction on any Urdu sections.

Security, backups and device testing (checks 32–36)

A new site is an easy target if old test accounts and an open staging copy are left behind.

• 32. Admin accounts use strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication. Old developer and test accounts are removed, and each person has only the access they need.
• 33. The CMS, theme and plugins are up to date, and the staging site is password-protected or taken down so it cannot be indexed or attacked.
• 34. Automatic backups run on a schedule, are stored away from the hosting server, and a restore has been tested at least once. You know how to roll back if the launch goes wrong.
• 35. The site has been tested on real phones, at least a mid-range Android phone in Chrome and an iPhone in Safari, including menus, forms, pop-ups and the WhatsApp button.
• 36. Desktop testing covers Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox at common screen widths, and at least one test has been done on a slow mobile connection.

The first week after launch (checks 37–40)

Launch is not the end of the checklist. Problems that only appear with real traffic tend to show up in the first few days.

• 37. Search Console is checked every day or two: the sitemap shows Success, key pages pass URL Inspection, and the Page indexing report shows no unexpected noindex or blocked pages.
• 38. Pages that return 404 errors are tracked through Search Console, server logs or your analytics, and each one that matters is redirected or fixed.
• 39. An uptime monitor is set up to alert you if the site goes down. Several free services offer this.
• 40. Enquiries are compared with the weeks before launch. If forms, WhatsApp clicks or calls drop sharply, test every route again before assuming demand has changed.

Keep a short list of issues found after launch and fix them in order of impact, starting with anything that stops people contacting you or stops search engines reaching your pages. Search visibility often moves around for a few weeks after a redesign while Google recrawls the site, so judge the results over a month or two rather than a few days. If you would like a second check before your launch, Parwaz Digital can help.