Before you launch: a website launch checklist

Launch day is exciting, and that is exactly when small mistakes slip through. Go through this checklist before your new website goes live. Most items take a minute each.

Content

• All texts are final, with no placeholder text left anywhere.
• Prices, opening hours, address and phone numbers are correct.
• Spelling is checked, ideally by someone who did not write the texts.
• Every page has real photos, with descriptive alt text: what photos to use.
• Legal pages are in place: privacy policy and, if needed, terms and cookie information.

Everything a customer will touch

• Every button and link goes where it should.
• The phone number opens the dialler on a phone.
• Every form sends, arrives in the right inbox and shows a clear confirmation.
• Booking or payment flows work end to end, if you have them.
• The menu works on phones and closes properly.

On real devices

Google's free PageSpeed Insights [1] shows how fast each page loads on a phone.

• Check the site on at least one iPhone and one Android phone, plus a computer.
• Nothing runs off the side of the screen, text is readable without zooming.
• Pages load quickly on mobile data, not just on office Wi-Fi: why is my website slow.

For Google

Make sure no noindex rule is left over from development [2], and submit a sitemap [3] in Google Search Console [4].

• Each page has a unique title and description: page titles and descriptions that get clicks.
• No "noindex" setting is left on from development. This is one of the most common launch mistakes: why your website is not on Google.
• A sitemap exists and will be submitted in Google Search Console after launch.
• Your Google Business Profile will point to the new site.

The switch

• The domain points to the new site: how to move your domain to a new website.
• The SSL certificate works on every version of the address, with and without www: what is an SSL certificate.
• Email still works after the DNS change.
• Old page addresses redirect to the matching new pages.

After launch

• Submit the sitemap in Search Console.
• Send a test enquiry through the live site.
• Tell your customers: social media, email signature, business cards.

A calm launch is a checked launch. Ten minutes with this list saves days of fixing.

Or let someone else check it

Every Studio V1 site goes through this review before launch, done by a real developer, as part of how we build.

References

1. Google for Developers. "About PageSpeed Insights." developers.google.com
2. Google Search Central. "Block Search indexing with noindex." developers.google.com
3. Google Search Central. "Learn about sitemaps." developers.google.com
4. Google. "Google Search Console." search.google.com