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Website Launch Checklist

The checks that separate a launch from a quiet emergency. Work through it on staging a week before go-live, then run the launch-day section again on production.

How to use this template

  • Test as a visitor, not as a logged-in admin. Caching, consent banners and redirects behave differently when you are signed in.
  • Use a real phone on a mobile connection for the form and speed checks.
  • Tick items only after testing them on the final domain, not on staging.

Content

  • No placeholder text, lorem ipsum or stock 'Your headline here' left anywhere (search the codebase and CMS)

  • Phone numbers, emails and addresses are correct and clickable on mobile

  • Business name, address and phone match your Google Business Profile exactly

  • All links work; external links open the right destination

  • Images have descriptive alt text; decorative images have empty alt

  • Copyright year, team names and prices are current

SEO

  • Unique title (about 50-60 characters) and meta description (about 140-160) on every page

  • One H1 per page that says what the page is about

  • No noindex on pages you want found; staging protections removed

  • robots.txt does not block the site

  • XML sitemap live and submitted in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

  • Canonical tags point to the page's own preferred URL

  • Structured data validates (Rich Results Test): Organization or LocalBusiness at minimum

  • Redirects in place from any old URLs

  • Open Graph title, description and image set for sharing

Forms and conversions

  • Every form submitted with test data; the notification reaches the right inbox and is not in spam

  • Confirmation message or thank-you page shows after submit

  • Spam protection active (reCAPTCHA, Turnstile or honeypot)

  • Booking, payment or CRM integrations tested with a real transaction, then refunded or cleaned up

Analytics and privacy

  • Analytics installed on every page and recording in real time

  • Conversion events (form submit, call click, booking) firing once, not twice

  • Consent banner configured for your jurisdictions; tags respect the choice

  • Privacy policy and terms published and linked in the footer

  • Internal traffic filtered from analytics

Performance and accessibility

  • PageSpeed Insights on mobile for homepage and one key inner page; no major Core Web Vitals failures

  • Images served in modern formats (WebP/AVIF) and sized for their containers

  • Keyboard-only navigation works, with a visible focus state

  • Color contrast meets WCAG AA (4.5:1 for body text)

  • Form fields have labels; errors are announced, not shown by color alone

  • Tested on iOS Safari, Android Chrome, and one desktop browser other than your own

Security and operations

  • SSL certificate valid; http, www and non-www all redirect to one https version

  • Admin accounts use strong passwords and 2FA; unused accounts removed

  • Automated backups running, and one restore actually tested

  • Uptime monitoring and domain-expiry alerts set up

  • Custom 404 page returns a real 404 status

  • Favicon and app icons present

After launch

  • Day 1: check Search Console coverage and analytics for anomalies

  • Week 1: re-crawl the site for broken links and redirect chains

  • Week 2: review first real form submissions and conversion tracking

  • Month 1: compare traffic and conversions against the old site or your goals

Free to use, edit and share, including for client work. Last updated .

Frequently asked questions