Website Launch Checklist: Pre-Launch to Handoff on Any Platform

Launches go wrong in boring ways: a form that emails nobody, a staging site Google can see, a DNS change nobody planned for. This website launch checklist is platform neutral. It works for WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, and custom code deployed to Vercel or Netlify, with notes where a step differs. Each phase is a numbered list you can copy into your project template.

How to Use This Site Launch Checklist

Run the three phases in order and assign one owner per phase. Pre-launch takes the longest, a day or more on a normal brochure site. Launch day should be short and boring. Post-launch runs for at least the first two weeks.

Do the pre-launch list on staging, then repeat the key ones (forms, redirects, analytics, noindex) on the live site right after cutover, because live behaves differently from staging more often than you expect.

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Do all of this before anyone touches DNS.

Content and Design

1. Replace every placeholder. Search the site for "lorem," "TBD," "example.com," and "your name here."
2. Proofread every page, including the footer, legal pages, error messages, and email confirmations.
3. Get written sign-off on content and design. Save the approval where you can find it later. If your clients approve in a portal, that approval is the record.
4. Check every image. Alt text on meaningful images, compressed files, and correct sizes. Confirm you have the license for stock photos.
5. Add a favicon and a social share image, then test the share preview in a link checker.
6. Check the site on real devices. Phone, tablet, and at least two desktop browsers.
7. Create the 404 page and make sure it links back home.

SEO

1. Set a unique title and meta description for every important page.
2. Check one H1 per page and a sensible heading order.
3. Set the canonical URL for each page, using the final domain.
4. Block staging from search with a noindex tag or password while you work, and plan to remove it. See launch day below, because this is the most common launch mistake.
5. Generate an XML sitemap and confirm it lists only pages that should be indexed.
6. Add structured data where it applies, such as organization, local business, or product markup.

Redirects

If you are replacing an existing site, this is the step that protects the rankings you already have.

1. Crawl the old site and export every URL.
2. Map each old URL to its new equivalent. Map to the closest page, not the homepage.
3. Set up 301 redirects. On WordPress, a redirect plugin or server rules. On Webflow, the 301 redirect settings. On Shopify, the URL redirects tool. On a Vercel or Netlify site, redirects in the config file or the platform's redirect settings.
4. Test a sample of old URLs on staging and again after cutover.

Google's guidance on site moves with URL changes covers the details.

Forms and Email

1. Submit every form and confirm it arrives in the right inbox.
2. Check spam placement. Send from the live domain and look in spam folders. If form mail is landing there, set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for the sending domain.
3. Confirm the thank-you page or message works and is tracked as a conversion.
4. Add spam protection that does not hurt real users.
5. Test checkout end to end on Shopify or any store, using the payment provider's test mode, then do one real low-value order after launch.

Analytics and Tracking

1. Install analytics and confirm it records a visit from your own device.
2. Define the goals that matter, such as form submissions, calls, and purchases.
3. Set up consent handling if you use cookies or advertising pixels. A cookieless analytics tool can simplify this.
4. Add the tags the client's marketing team asked for, and remove tags nobody can explain.

Performance

1. Test the key pages with a speed tool on mobile settings.
2. Compress and size images, and use modern formats where the platform supports them.
3. Load only what you need. Remove unused plugins, apps, scripts, and fonts.
4. Check caching and a CDN. Most managed platforms handle this. Self-hosted WordPress needs a caching setup, and Vercel and Netlify cache static output at the edge by default.
5. Fix layout shift from images without dimensions and late-loading banners.

Accessibility

1. Check color contrast on text and buttons.
2. Make sure everything works with a keyboard, including menus and forms, and that focus is visible.
3. Label form fields and give links descriptive text.
4. Run an automated checker, then do a quick manual pass. Automated tools catch only some problems.

The WCAG 2.2 guidelines from the W3C are the standard to measure against.

Security and Backups

1. Force HTTPS and redirect the other version to it.
2. Update everything. On WordPress, core, themes, and plugins. On other platforms, dependencies and apps.
3. Remove default and unused accounts, and use strong, unique passwords with two-factor sign-in for admin.
4. Turn off debug mode and remove test content, test users, and staging banners.
5. Set up automated backups and test one restore. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.
6. Store credentials safely. Put logins in a password manager, not an email thread.

DNS Preparation

1. Lower the DNS TTL on the records you will change to 300 seconds, at least a day before launch. This makes the cutover take effect faster. Raise it again afterward.
2. Write down the current DNS records, especially email records (MX, SPF, DKIM). Losing these is how a launch takes down a client's email.
3. Find the registrar and DNS logins and test them now, not on launch day.
4. Decide where DNS lives and who changes it.

Website Launch Checklist: Launch Day

Launch early in the week and early in the day, so you have time to fix things and the client is reachable. Avoid Friday afternoon.

1. Take a final backup of the old site and the new one.
2. Announce a short content freeze so nothing changes mid-cutover.
3. Point the domain to the new host. Update the A record or CNAME with the values your host gives you. The exact records differ: Vercel and Netlify show the values in the domain settings, Webflow and Shopify give you their own, and a WordPress host will give an IP or nameservers.
4. Wait for propagation, then check from more than one network and device. Lowering TTL earlier makes this quicker.
5. Confirm SSL is issued and every page loads with the padlock. Fix mixed content warnings.
6. Remove the staging noindex and password. Check that the live site has no noindex tag and that robots.txt does not block it. This is the one to double check. Many sites launch invisible because the "discourage search engines" setting or a noindex header came along from staging.
7. Check robots.txt at /robots.txt. It should allow crawling and point to the sitemap. See Google's robots.txt introduction.
8. Test the redirects, forms, checkout, and analytics on the live site.
9. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console and request indexing of the homepage.
10. Tell the client it is live, with a short note on what to check and who to contact.

Website Post-Launch Checklist

The launch is not the end. The first two weeks are when real traffic finds the problems.

1. Watch uptime and SSL. Set up monitoring so you hear about downtime before the client does. Our guide to website monitoring tools compares options.
2. Verify the site in Google Search Console and check the Pages report for indexing errors after a few days.
3. Check for 404 errors and fix missed redirects.
4. Review analytics after one week. Confirm forms and goals record real conversions.
5. Retest page speed on the live site.
6. Put domain, SSL, and renewal dates on the calendar, and confirm who pays for hosting and the domain.
7. Raise the DNS TTL back to a normal value.
8. Send the handoff. Include logins (through a vault, not email), a short guide to editing content, and who to call.
9. Offer a care plan. Updates, backups, and monitoring don't stop at launch. See WordPress care plans for how to package it (the ideas apply to any platform), or the care plan solution for how StackOS handles it.
10. Schedule a 30 day check-in to review results with the client.

What a Website Launch Checklist Looks Like in StackOS

In StackOS, a launch lives on the project, so your team and the client see the same list. Website monitoring watches uptime, SSL, domain expiry, DNS, malware listings, and page speed, and sends incidents and alerts. Cookieless analytics installs with a script tag. Clients get a monthly site report in their portal, and the project can move into Care mode after launch so the work continues.

If you are still shaping the engagement, read how to scope and price the build in how much to charge for a website, and how to wrap it in a clear web design contract template.

Frequently Asked Questions