A website launch checklist makes sure nothing important breaks the day your new site goes live. The short version: before launch, check content, forms, speed, mobile, SEO, redirects, tracking and backups. On launch day, switch the domain, confirm SSL, submit the sitemap and test every form again. In the first weeks after, watch Search Console, analytics and your leads. Below is the full list we use, grouped so you can work through it in order and hand parts of it to the right person.
Why Use a Website Launch Checklist?
Most launch problems are small and invisible: a contact form that sends email to an old address, a page left on "noindex" from staging, a missing redirect from a URL that used to rank, or analytics that stopped tracking. None of them show up when you look at the homepage. All of them cost leads or rankings, and some take weeks to notice. A checklist turns launch from a hopeful moment into a routine one.
Before Launch: Content and Design
- Proofread every page. Spelling, grammar, names, phone numbers, addresses, hours and prices. Read them on a phone, where most visitors will.
- Remove placeholder content. No "lorem ipsum", sample images, test pages or "coming soon" sections left behind.
- Check every image. Real photos, properly sized and compressed, with descriptive alt text. See ADA compliant websites for why alt text matters.
- Confirm legal pages. Privacy policy, terms if you sell online, and cookie notices where they apply.
- Review the copy for clarity. Each page should say what you do, who it is for and what to do next. See website copywriting.
- Add a custom 404 page. A helpful "page not found" with links to your main pages keeps lost visitors.
- Favicon and social images. The small browser icon and the image that appears when someone shares your link.
Before Launch: Functionality
- Test every form. Submit each one, confirm the email arrives at the right inbox, the auto-reply works and the lead lands in your CRM if you use one.
- Test every link and button. Navigation, footer, calls to action, phone links (tap to call) and email links.
- Test booking, checkout and payments. Run a real test transaction and refund it.
- Check spam protection. A form with no protection fills with junk within days; one with too much blocks real customers.
- Cross-browser and device testing. Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox, on iPhone, Android, tablet and desktop.
- Accessibility basics. Keyboard navigation, visible focus states, color contrast and readable font sizes.
Before Launch: Speed and Performance
- Run PageSpeed Insights on the homepage and your key service pages, on mobile.
- Compress and resize images and use modern formats such as WebP.
- Turn on caching and compression on the server.
- Remove unused plugins and scripts. Every extra script slows the site and adds a security risk.
- Check Core Web Vitals. Loading speed, responsiveness and layout stability all affect rankings and how the site feels.
Before Launch: SEO
This is where launches most often lose traffic, especially on a redesign.
- Unique title and meta description for every page, written for the search you want each page to win.
- One clear H1 per page and a logical heading structure.
- Remove "noindex" from staging. Staging sites are usually hidden from Google on purpose. Forgetting to remove that setting can hide your whole new site.
- Check robots.txt so it does not block important pages.
- Generate an XML sitemap with only the pages you want indexed.
- Set canonical tags so each page points to its own preferred URL.
- Add structured data (schema) for your organization, local business, services, FAQs and articles. It also helps you get cited in AI answers.
- Bilingual sites: add hreflang tags so Google shows the right language version.
Redirects if you are replacing an old site
List every URL from the old site, especially the ones that get traffic or have links from other sites, and set a 301 redirect from each one to the closest matching new page. Skipping this step is the most common reason a new website loses rankings after launch. Learn more in website redesign cost.
Before Launch: Tracking and Analytics
- Install Google Analytics 4 and confirm it records visits on the new site.
- Track conversions: form submissions, phone clicks, bookings and purchases, marked as key events.
- Verify Google Search Console for the domain, so you can see indexing and search performance.
- Connect your Google Business Profile to the right page and make sure your name, address and phone match the website.
- Exclude internal traffic so your own visits do not inflate the numbers.
Before Launch: Security and Backups
- SSL certificate installed and every page loading on https, with http redirecting automatically.
- Strong passwords and two-factor authentication on the hosting, domain registrar and site admin.
- Admin area protected, with limited login attempts and only the users who need access.
- A full backup of the old site and the new one, stored off the server, before you switch anything.
- Software up to date, including the CMS, theme and plugins.
Launch Day Checklist
- Pick a quiet time, early in the week, never right before a weekend or holiday.
- Take a final backup of the old site.
- Point the domain or switch the server, and lower DNS TTL a day before if you are moving hosts.
- Confirm the site loads on the real domain, with and without "www", on https.
- Test every form again on the live domain. Settings often change between staging and production.
- Check that redirects work by visiting a sample of old URLs.
- Confirm analytics and conversion tracking record a visit and a test lead.
- Submit the XML sitemap in Google Search Console and request indexing for your key pages.
- Check the email on your domain still works if you changed any DNS records.
After Launch: The First 30 Days
- Watch Search Console for crawl errors, pages not indexed and 404s from old URLs you missed.
- Compare analytics with the weeks before launch: traffic, leads and top pages.
- Monitor uptime and speed with an automatic alert if the site goes down.
- Collect feedback from customers and your team, and fix anything confusing.
- Update your links everywhere: Google Business Profile, social profiles, directories and email signatures.
- Plan maintenance. Updates, backups and security checks do not stop after launch. See website maintenance cost.
Who Should Own Each Part?
On a small team, it helps to give each section an owner. The business owner or marketing lead usually reviews content, legal pages and contact details. The developer handles functionality, speed, security, redirects and the domain switch. Whoever runs SEO and analytics owns titles, schema, tracking and Search Console. Agree on one person who gives the final go-ahead on launch day.
How We Launch Websites at inSpace
Every site we build goes through this checklist before it goes live, including redirects from the old site, schema, conversion tracking and Search Console, and we watch rankings and leads in the weeks after launch. If you are planning a new website or a redesign, see our web design service or book a free 30-minute call.