Website Launch Checklist

Launching a new website is an exciting time for any business. Doing away with the old, outdated site and going live with a new design, new content and a more accurate representation of what you do. It might be your very first website for a new business venture and somehow getting the website live just makes it feel more real. Whatever your reason for launching a website, you’ll need to make sure you have everything in place to avoid any post-launch hiccups.

Your web developer may check some of these, but, as the client, you’re likely to have to complete some of these yourself. If you’re unsure, it’s worth asking if these have been done and who is responsible.

Here’s our handy pre-launch checklist:

Content Preparation

1. Proofread all content: Ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Hopefully you did this before sending the content to your developer, but if not, you’ll need to do this to ensure your website launches error-free and looks professional.
2. Test for readability: Check for clear and concise text that’s easy to read and understand. There are many online tools available to help you do this.
3. SEO: If you’ve invested in search engine optimisation and you have solid organic rankings, you’ll want to preserve these with the new website so it’s important to transfer page titles, descriptions, headers (H1, H2), and relevant keywords for each page. SEO is often addressed post-launch when low rankings have been identified, but ideally you’ll complete this step before launching to minimise the negative impact of changing the site.
4. Internal linking: Ensure all internal links are working. This includes navigation links and also contextual links within your text. These may be present on your product/services pages as well as on any blog articles.
5. 404 error page: Create a custom 404 page to guide users when they hit a broken link. It’s important for user experience to give website visitors the option to find the content they were looking for; either with a search box or links to key pages on the website.
6. Check images: Ensure all images are high quality, optimised for web (compressed), and have alt tags for accessibility and SEO. If you’re using stock images, ensure you’ve purchased the correct licence, removed any watermarks or added a credit to the source if appropriate.

Technical Setup

1. Domain registration: Confirm that your domain is registered and correctly pointed to your new hosting (if moving hosts).
2. Hosting setup: Ensure the hosting environment is secure, reliable, and scalable as needed.
3. SSL certificate: Make sure your website is secure with an SSL certificate (HTTPS).
4. Favicon: Add a favicon to enhance branding and site recognition. This is the small, square image that appears in the browser tab next to your page title.
5. Mobile responsiveness: Test the website on different devices and screen sizes to ensure it works well across all. Can you click all links, even with “fat fingers”? Is the contact form easy to fill in without a keyboard? Do the text or images get cut off on a small screen? Does the flow of the content make sense on mobile?
6. Page load speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to check load times and make necessary optimisations to ensure you’re providing the best user experience – no one likes waiting for pages to load!
7. Browser compatibility: Test your website on different browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge). Just because it looks good on the one you use, doesn’t mean it will look good for everyone, so take the time to install a few different browsers and check how it displays.
8. 301 redirects: if you’re replacing an old site, you’ll need to make sure anyone searching for or being directed to the old site is redirected smoothly to the most appropriate page on the new website. This will not only improve the user experience, it can also help to minimise the negative SEO impact of deleting the old site and speed up Google’s indexing of your new pages.

Analytics and Tracking

1. Google Analytics: Install Google Analytics (or other tracking tools) to monitor website performance. If you’ve been using Google Analytics on your old website, you’ll want to install the same tracking code on the new website and note down when the site launched to be able to compare traffic and conversions with the old website.
2. Google Search Console: Set up Google Search Console for indexing and performance tracking in search results. This is really important to monitor whether Google has found and indexed your new pages and identify any crawling issues with the new website.
3. Conversion tracking: Set up any conversion tracking for key actions (sign-ups, leads, purchases, etc.). These may be set up via Google Analytics or advertising platforms such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads. Google Tag Manager is your friend here – just remember to test everything!
4. Heatmaps: Implement heatmapping tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg to monitor user behaviour and gain more insights into how users are engaging with your new website.

Legal Requirements

1. GDPR compliance: Ensure your site complies with GDPR regulations, including gaining  consent for marketing communications and providing transparent privacy and data policies.
2. Privacy policy & Terms of service: Ensure these documents are in place and easily accessible.
3. Cookie consent: Add a cookie consent banner that complies with regulations and ensure cookies are only set when a user actively agrees.
4. Accessibility: Make sure the website is accessible to all users regardless of disabilities and adhering to WCAG guidelines.

Functional Testing

1. Forms: Test all forms (contact forms, sign-up forms) to ensure submissions are being received and they provide user-friendly feedback to users when incorrectly filled out.
2. Social media integration: Ensure social media icons and links are working correctly and opening in a new tab.
3. Search functionality: Test the on-site search to ensure it returns relevant results.
4. Navigation: Check that the navigation is intuitive and works smoothly on all devices.

Backup and Security

1. Backup system: Implement regular automatic backups for your website.
2. Security plugins/tools: Install necessary security plugins or tools to protect your site from attacks (WordPress: Wordfence, Sucuri).
3. Captcha/Spam protection: Ensure your forms and comment sections are protected against spam with CAPTCHA or other anti-spam tools.

User Experience (UX)

1. Call-to-action buttons: Ensure CTAs are prominent, clear, and functional.
2. Contact information: Make sure your contact details are correct and easy to find.
3. Usability testing: Conduct real user testing to identify any potential UX issues.

Post-Launch Marketing

1. Email newsletter sign-up: Ensure sign-up forms are working and linked to your email marketing system. If you have email templates set up, ensure all links go to the correct pages on your new website.
2. Social media sharing: Integrate sharing buttons and ensure they work across platforms.
3. Announcement strategy: Plan your website launch announcement (social media, email blast, blog post).
4. Sitemap submission: Submit your sitemap to search engines (Google, Bing) for faster indexing. You can do this via Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.

Post-Launch Review

1. Monitor for issues: After launch, closely monitor analytics and search console for broken links, errors, or slow load times.
2. User feedback: Gather feedback from users and make any necessary adjustments based on this feedback.

There’s a lot to consider and put in place before pressing ‘go’ on a new website. We can’t stress enough how important these steps are to avoid losing rankings in search, annoying users with links that don’t work or jeopardising leads and sales with missing functionality. A few hours spent now will save you days of rectifying issues later on.