Website Launch Checklist: What to Check Before Your New Site Goes Live

Launching a new website is exciting, and that is exactly when small mistakes slip through: a contact form that sends enquiries nowhere, a page still full of placeholder text, or a setting that hides the whole site from Google.

Use this checklist before you (or your developer) switch the new site on. Most items take a few minutes to check, and every one of them is something we have seen go wrong on real launches.

Content

• No placeholder text or images. Search every page for “Lorem ipsum”, “Sample”, “Your text here” and stock photos you meant to replace.
• Business details are correct everywhere: name, phone number, email, address and opening hours, in the header, footer and contact page.
• Spelling and grammar have been checked by someone who did not write the text.
• Prices, offers and dates are current.
• Legal pages exist and are linked from the footer: privacy policy and, if you sell anything, terms and refund policy.
• Copyright year in the footer is correct (or updates automatically).

Mobile and browsers

Most visitors will see your website on a phone first.

• Every page has been checked on a real phone, not just a narrow desktop window.
• Text is readable without zooming, and buttons are easy to tap.
• Nothing spills off the side of the screen or needs horizontal scrolling.
• The menu opens and closes properly on mobile.
• The site works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

Forms and contact options

• Submit every form yourself and confirm the enquiry actually arrives in the right inbox, and not in spam.
• The visitor sees a clear thank-you message or page after submitting.
• Click-to-call and WhatsApp links open with the correct number.
• Email links open with the correct address.
• The map shows the right location.

Links

• Every menu and footer link goes to the right page.
• There are no broken links (pages that show a 404 error). Free online link checkers can scan the whole site.
• Links to other websites open correctly.
• Your custom 404 page works and helps visitors find their way back.

Speed

A slow website loses visitors before they see anything, and speed is part of how Google ranks pages.

• Images are compressed and sized correctly. A photo straight from a phone camera can be several megabytes; on the web it rarely needs to be more than a few hundred kilobytes. Modern formats such as WebP help.
• Images below the first screen are lazy-loaded.
• Run your key pages through Google PageSpeed Insights and fix the main issues it reports, especially on mobile.

SEO basics

• Every page has a unique title (around 50–60 characters) and meta description (around 140–160 characters).
• Each page has one main heading (H1) that describes it.
• Images have descriptive alt text.
• URLs are short and readable, such as /services/website-design/.
• An XML sitemap exists, and robots.txt does not block important pages.
• Search engines are not blocked. Many website builders and CMSs have a “discourage search engines” setting that is switched on during development. Make sure it is off, and that no live page has a stray noindex tag.
• If this site replaces an old one, every old URL that has changed redirects (301) to its new equivalent. Skipping this is one of the most common ways businesses lose their Google rankings after a redesign.

Security and technical setup

• HTTPS works on every page, and http:// and www. versions redirect to your main address.
• Admin passwords are strong and not shared by email.
• Automatic backups are set up, and you know how to restore one.
• The CMS, theme and plugins are up to date.
• Business email works, and SPF/DKIM records are set so your emails do not land in spam.

Tracking

• Google Analytics 4 (or another analytics tool) is installed and recording visits.
• Form submissions, calls and WhatsApp clicks are tracked as conversions if you plan to run ads.
• Your privacy policy mentions the analytics and cookies you use.

Immediately after launch

• Add the site to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap.
• Update your Google Business Profile with the new website address. No profile yet? Our Google Business Profile setup guide walks through it.
• Update the link on your social media profiles and directory listings.
• Check Search Console over the following weeks for crawl errors or pages that are not being indexed.
• Announce the new site to your customers.

After launch: keep it healthy

A website is not finished on launch day. Plan for regular updates, backups, security patches and fresh content. If you do not have someone in-house to do this, a website maintenance plan keeps everything running so you can focus on your business.

Planning a new website? Our website design and web development projects include all of these checks before launch.

Web DesignSEOChecklist