The Complete Website Launch Checklist

Test every interactive element:

• All forms submit correctly and send to the right destination
• Form validation shows clear error messages
• Confirmation pages/emails work as expected
• All internal links point to valid pages
• External links open in new tabs (where appropriate)
• Search functionality returns relevant results
• Filtering and sorting work correctly
• User accounts can register, login, and recover passwords
• Payment processing completes successfully (test mode)
• Download links serve correct files
• Video/audio players function across browsers
• Interactive elements work on mobile

Search visibility depends on technical correctness:

• Every page has a unique title tag (under 60 characters)
• Every page has a unique meta description (under 160 characters)
• H1 tags present on all pages (only one per page)
• Image alt text describes all images
• Clean URL structure (no special characters, query strings)
• XML sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console
• Robots.txt allows crawling of intended pages
• 301 redirects configured for all old URLs
• Canonical tags prevent duplicate content
• Schema markup validates without errors
• Open Graph tags display correctly when shared
• No broken links (run a full crawl)

Speed directly impacts conversions:

• Page load time under 3 seconds on mobile
• Core Web Vitals pass (LCP, FID, CLS)
• Images compressed and properly sized
• Lazy loading enabled for below-fold images
• CSS and JavaScript minified
• Browser caching configured
• CDN active for static assets
• No render-blocking resources
• Fonts load efficiently (display swap)
• Database queries optimized (no N+1 queries)
• Server response time under 200ms

Protect your site and users:

• SSL certificate installed and valid
• All pages force HTTPS
• Forms protected against CSRF attacks
• Input validation on all user-submitted data
• File upload restrictions (type, size, scanning)
• Admin areas protected with strong authentication
• Security headers configured (CSP, X-Frame-Options, etc.)
• No sensitive data in source code or console logs
• Database backups automated
• Monitoring alerts configured
• WAF (Web Application Firewall) active
• Rate limiting on forms and APIs

Measure what matters:

• Google Analytics 4 tracking code installed
• Events firing on key actions (form submissions, CTA clicks)
• Conversion goals configured
• Google Search Console verified
• Heatmap tool installed (optional but valuable)
• Custom dashboards created for KPIs
• UTM parameters ready for campaign tracking
• Cross-domain tracking configured (if applicable)
• Privacy consent banner working
• Analytics excluded for internal IPs