Website Launch Checklist: 50+ Things to Check Before You Go Live

Launch day is when small mistakes become public ones: a contact form that emails nobody, a staging site that Google has already indexed, a page that takes eight seconds to load on a phone. None of these are hard to fix — they’re just easy to forget.

This website launch checklist is the one we use before every site we ship at StrataDigi. It’s grouped by area so you can hand sections to different people, and it works whether you’re on WordPress, Webflow, Shopify or a custom build.

1. Content and copy

• Every page has a clear purpose and one main call to action. If you can’t say what a visitor should do next, neither can they.
• No placeholder text. Search the whole site for “lorem”, “TBC”, “example.com” and “coming soon”.
• Proofread headlines and buttons twice. Typos in large text are the ones people notice.
• Contact details are consistent — same phone, email and address on every page, footer and profile.
• Legal pages exist: privacy policy, terms, and cookie information if you use tracking.
• Dates and numbers are current — copyright year, team size, client counts, prices.

2. Design and user experience

• Test on real phones, not just a resized desktop browser. Check menus, forms and anything that scrolls sideways.
• Test in at least two browsers (for example Chrome and Safari).
• Buttons and links look clickable and have visible hover and focus states.
• Text contrast is readable — light grey on white is the most common failure.
• A custom 404 page sends lost visitors somewhere useful instead of a dead end.
• Favicon and app icons are set, so your tab and bookmarks look finished.

3. Forms and functionality

• Submit every form yourself and confirm the email arrives — in the inbox, not the spam folder. On most hosts, sending mail through SMTP (for example with the WP Mail SMTP plugin on WordPress) fixes deliverability problems.
• Check validation messages: leave required fields empty, enter a bad email, and see what happens.
• Spam protection is in place (honeypot fields or a lightweight CAPTCHA).
• Thank-you states tell people what happens next and when.
• Checkout, booking or sign-up flows are tested end to end in live mode with a real, refundable transaction.
• All links work. Run a broken-link checker across the site.

4. SEO foundations

You only get one first crawl. These items decide whether search engines understand your site from day one:

• Search engines are allowed in. On WordPress, make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” (Settings → Reading) is unchecked. Remove any leftover noindex tags from staging.
• Unique title tag and meta description on every page. Titles around 50–60 characters, descriptions around 140–160, each written for a human searcher.
• One H1 per page that describes the page, followed by a logical H2/H3 structure.
• Clean, readable URLs such as /services/ rather than /?page_id=12.
• XML sitemap is live and listed in robots.txt.
• Canonical tags point to the correct version of each page.
• Structured data (schema.org) describes your organisation, services, articles and breadcrumbs. Test it with Google’s Rich Results Test.
• Image alt text describes every meaningful image.
• Redirects from old URLs. If you’re replacing an existing site, map every old URL to its new home with 301 redirects so you keep existing rankings.
• Open Graph tags and a share image make links look good on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and WhatsApp.

For the full picture, see our SEO guide for startups.

5. Performance

Speed affects both conversions and search visibility. Google measures real-user experience with Core Web Vitals; the “good” thresholds are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5 seconds or less
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): 200 milliseconds or less
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less

Before launch:

• Run key pages through PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
• Compress and resize images; serve modern formats like WebP or AVIF where possible.
• Set width and height on images so the layout doesn’t jump while loading.
• Lazy-load images below the fold, but not your main hero image.
• Enable caching (for example LiteSpeed Cache on Hostinger) and a CDN if your audience is international.
• Remove unused plugins and scripts. Every chat widget, tracking pixel and slider adds weight.

6. Security and reliability

• HTTPS everywhere, with HTTP and non-www/www versions redirecting to one canonical address.
• Strong, unique admin passwords and two-factor authentication for every admin account.
• Automatic backups are running — and you know how to restore one.
• Software is up to date: CMS core, theme and plugins.
• Remove test accounts and demo content.
• Uptime monitoring alerts you if the site goes down.

7. Analytics and tracking

• Google Search Console is verified and your sitemap is submitted.
• Analytics (Google Analytics 4 or a privacy-friendly alternative) is installed once — not twice.
• Key conversions are tracked: form submissions, bookings, purchases, calls.
• Cookie consent matches the laws that apply to your visitors.
• Record a baseline (speed scores, indexed pages) so you can measure improvements later.

8. Launch day and the first week

1. Launch early in the week, early in the day — never on a Friday evening.
2. Clear all caches and check the live site logged out, on mobile data.
3. Re-submit every form on the live domain.
4. Request indexing of your homepage in Search Console.
5. Update your social profiles, email signatures and directory listings with the new site.
6. Watch Search Console and analytics daily for the first week for crawl errors or 404s.
7. Collect feedback from a few customers — they’ll find things your team is too close to see.

Frequently asked questions

How long before launch should I start this checklist?

Start the content, SEO and redirect sections at least two weeks before launch. The testing sections can happen in the final few days, once the design is locked.

Should I launch with a blog?

If you can, yes. Three to five genuinely useful articles give search engines something to index beyond your service pages and give visitors a reason to stay.

What’s the most common launch mistake?

Leaving search engines blocked after moving from staging to live. It’s one checkbox, and it can hide a new site from Google for weeks.

Want a second pair of eyes?

Our Website Development service includes this full checklist, performance tuning and 30 days of post-launch support. If you’re launching soon, get in touch and we’ll review your site before it goes live.