A website launch checklist built around what must work.
A launch is ready when customers can complete the important tasks, the business receives their enquiries or orders, search engines can discover the intended pages and your team can operate the site. Test the live environment as well as the preview.
An example journey, shaped around your requirements.
Check what matters before going live.
Check the customer journey on real page layouts.
Start with the paths that matter: discovery to a service enquiry, product to checkout or article to a useful next step. Verify navigation, visible contact details, button destinations and readable content. Check a narrow mobile viewport as well as desktop; a layout that fits on one device can hide actions on another.
Use a keyboard through menus, dialogs and forms. Check focus visibility, labels, error messages and image alternatives. W3C recommends planning and evaluating accessibility throughout the lifecycle. A last-minute launch review is a useful gate, but it does not replace the wider work.
Prove form delivery and integration behaviour.
Submit an agreed test enquiry using clearly identified test data. Confirm validation, a meaningful success or error response and delivery to the configured business destination. An on-screen success message alone does not prove email or CRM delivery. Test the failure path too, without sending repeated production messages.
For ecommerce, review products, shipping, tax configuration and payment behaviour against your operating requirements. Shopify’s general launch checklist is a useful platform-specific reference. A generic website checklist cannot establish whether your store’s commercial settings are correct.
Inspect crawlability, canonical URLs and page metadata.
Confirm that the intended public pages return useful content with a successful response and are not blocked by an accidental noindex directive. Check that each page has a descriptive title and a canonical URL that matches the intended version. Staging or private pages should retain their deliberate restrictions.
Publish a sitemap with the intended canonical pages and submit it in Search Console. Add crawlable internal links from relevant pages. A sitemap helps discovery but does not guarantee indexing or ranking. Review Google’s guidance for the actual site structure rather than using a checklist as a promise.
Treat a redesign as a migration.
Inventory the old URLs before changing the structure. Map a useful old page to the corresponding new page where the content has a genuine replacement. Use deliberate redirects and check the final destination. Do not send every retired or unrelated URL to the homepage.
Retain useful content, image assets and working integrations. Check for broken internal links after the new pages are generated. If the domain or hosting changes, include DNS, certificates, email routing and rollback in the launch plan. These dependencies need named owners and a recoverable release.
Close with operating evidence, not a launch announcement.
Record the deployed release, its backup and the checks completed on the public domain. Confirm CMS access, content editing instructions, monitoring ownership and support contact details. Keep credentials out of the public handover document.
Review analytics configuration and consent behaviour where applicable, then test the events that matter to your business. After launch, watch errors and Search Console discovery over time. New pages may take time to be crawled; investigate the evidence before repeatedly requesting indexing.
Launch acceptance gates.
Adapt the checks to your site and attach evidence to each gate.
Gate
What to test
Evidence
Who signs off
Customer task
Navigation, responsive layout and accessible interaction
A completed desktop and mobile journey
Named reviewer
Business delivery
Forms, notifications and required connections
Approved test reaches its destination
Business and integration owners
Search discovery
Canonical pages, metadata, sitemap and internal links
HTTP and rendered-page checks
Site maintainer
Operations
Backups, ownership, support and recovery
Handover record and restore procedure
Operating owner
Take the working template.
Copy this editable Markdown template into your document or share it with your team.
Does a submitted sitemap mean launch SEO is finished?
No. It makes URLs available for discovery. Google still decides crawling and indexing, and useful content, internal links and a healthy site need continued attention.
Should I test forms on production?
Yes, with an agreed, clearly marked test and a check at the receiving system. Avoid repeated test messages and remove or label the resulting test records as appropriate.
What if one check fails?
Assess whether it blocks an essential journey or operating requirement. Fix critical failures before launch; document lower-impact issues with an owner and a specific follow-up date.
