Website Launch Checklist: Everything to Check Before Going Live

Launching a website is exciting, but it is easy to miss important details when you are eager to go live. This checklist covers everything a small business should verify before, during, and after a website launch. Work through each section and check off items as you go.

Print this page or bookmark it. Come back to it every time you launch a new site or push a major update.

A structured checklist prevents costly oversights on launch day.

Content and Copy

• Proofread every page. Read through all text for spelling errors, grammar issues, and awkward phrasing. Read it out loud. Better yet, have someone else read it.
• Verify business information. Check your business name, phone number, address, email, and hours on every page where they appear. One wrong digit in a phone number means lost customers.
• Check all headings. Make sure each page has one H1 heading and that the heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) makes logical sense.
• Review placeholder content. Search for "Lorem ipsum," placeholder images, or draft text you forgot to replace. Check default WordPress taglines like "Just another WordPress site."
• Confirm copyright year. Your footer should show the current year.
• Add a privacy policy. This is legally required in many states and countries, especially if you collect any user data through forms.
• Include clear calls to action. Every page should tell visitors what to do next: call you, fill out a form, or visit another page. Do not leave people guessing.

Design and User Experience

• Test on mobile phones. Pull up your site on an actual phone, not just a browser resize tool. Tap every button and link. Fill out forms. Scroll through every page. More than half your visitors will be on mobile.
• Test on tablets. Some layouts break at tablet widths even when they work on phones and desktops.
• Test in multiple browsers. At minimum, check Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. You do not need pixel-perfect consistency, but nothing should be broken.
• Check image quality. Images should look sharp, not blurry or stretched. Make sure they are sized appropriately for where they appear.
• Verify navigation works. Click every menu item, every dropdown, and every link in your footer. Test the mobile hamburger menu.
• Review your 404 page. Type a fake URL on your site (like yourdomain.com/asdfgh). The 404 page should be helpful, not the default server error. Include a link back to your homepage.
• Check font loading. If you use custom fonts like Google Fonts, make sure they load quickly and display correctly. A flash of unstyled text (FOUT) looks unprofessional.

SEO Essentials

• Write unique title tags for every page. Each title should be under 60 characters and include the page topic and your business name.
• Write meta descriptions for every page. Keep them between 150 and 160 characters. Make them compelling enough to click.
• Add alt text to all images. Describe what the image shows in plain language. This helps with accessibility and image search.
• Set up XML sitemap. If you use WordPress, a plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math generates this automatically. The sitemap tells search engines what pages to index.
• Submit sitemap to Google Search Console. Create a Search Console property for your site and submit the sitemap URL. This speeds up indexing.
• Check robots.txt. Make sure your robots.txt file is not blocking search engines from crawling your site. This is a common leftover from staging environments where you intentionally blocked crawlers.
• Install Google Analytics (or your preferred analytics tool). Without analytics, you are flying blind. You need to know how many visitors you get, where they come from, and what they do on your site.
• Set up your Google Business Profile if you have not already, and make sure the website URL matches your new site.

For a deeper SEO review, work through our full SEO audit checklist.

Technical and Security

• Enable SSL certificate. Your site must load over HTTPS. Verify the padlock icon appears in the browser bar on every page.
• Force HTTPS redirect. Visiting http://yourdomain.com should automatically redirect to https://yourdomain.com.
• Set up automatic backups. Configure daily backups stored off-server before you go live. Do not wait until something breaks.
• Update WordPress, themes, and plugins. Launch with everything up to date. Outdated software is a security risk.
• Remove unused themes and plugins. Delete anything you installed during development but are not using. Each one is a potential security vulnerability.
• Set strong passwords. Use unique, strong passwords for your WordPress admin, hosting account, domain registrar, and FTP. Enable two-factor authentication where available.
• Configure business email with your domain name. Form notifications should come from your professional email address.

Verify your SSL is active and all pages load over HTTPS before launch.

Forms and Functionality

• Test every contact form. Submit test entries from different email addresses. Verify that notifications arrive in your inbox and not in spam.
• Check confirmation messages. After someone submits a form, they should see a thank you message or be redirected to a confirmation page.
• Test auto-reply emails. If you have auto-responders set up, make sure they send and look correct.
• Verify phone number links. On mobile, tapping your phone number should initiate a call. Use tel: links in your HTML.
• Test email links. If you have mailto: links, confirm they open the visitor's email client with the correct address.
• Check maps and directions. If you have an embedded Google Map, make sure it points to the right location.

Performance

• Run a speed test. Test your homepage and key landing pages with Google PageSpeed Insights. Aim for a mobile score above 70.
• Optimize images. Compress all images before launch. Use WebP format where possible. No single image should exceed 200 KB unless it is a full-width hero.
• Enable caching. Install and configure a caching plugin (WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, or WP Rocket).
• Minify CSS and JavaScript. Use a plugin like Autoptimize to reduce file sizes.
• Test loading on a slow connection. In Chrome DevTools, throttle the connection to "Slow 3G" and see how your site loads. This simulates a real mobile experience.

Legal and Compliance

• Add a privacy policy page. Especially important if you use analytics, cookies, or collect form submissions.
• Include terms of service if applicable to your business.
• Add cookie consent notice if required in your jurisdiction (mandatory in the EU, increasingly expected in the U.S.).
• Verify accessibility basics. All images should have alt text. Text should have sufficient contrast. Forms should have proper labels. The site should be navigable by keyboard.
• Check ADA compliance. Run your site through the WAVE accessibility checker to catch common issues.

Post-Launch Tasks (First Week)

• Monitor Google Search Console daily. Watch for crawl errors, indexing issues, or security warnings.
• Verify analytics tracking. Check Google Analytics to confirm it is recording visits. Visit your own site and see if the visit shows up in the real-time report.
• Test forms again. Submit a real inquiry through your contact form to make sure everything still works in the live environment.
• Check for broken links. Use a tool like Broken Link Checker (WordPress plugin) or Screaming Frog (desktop application) to scan for 404 errors.
• Share your site. Post on your social media profiles, email your customer list, and update your Google Business Profile with the correct URL.
• Ask for feedback. Have three to five people you trust browse the site on their phones and tell you what is confusing, broken, or hard to find.

Monitor Search Console closely in the first weeks after launch.

Post-Launch Tasks (First Month)

• Submit to local directories. Make sure your site URL is correct on Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and any industry-specific directories. Consistent NAP information (Name, Address, Phone) helps local rankings.
• Set up uptime monitoring. Free tools like UptimeRobot check your site every few minutes and alert you if it goes down. You want to know about outages before your customers do.
• Review your backup system. Confirm that automated backups have been running successfully since launch. Test a restore to make sure it works.
• Plan ongoing content. A website that never changes stagnates in search results. Plan to add or update content at least monthly.