Write the list before the build
Agree the launch checklist before the build starts, so everyone knows what "ready" means and the last days go on checking rather than arguing. The launch checklist has 27 items grouped by topic; use it as a starting point and add anything specific to your business.
The checklist records what you have checked. It does not test the site for you.
Content and claims
- Every page on the plan exists and has its final words.
- Contact details and prices on the live pages agree with your Business Profile and printed material.
- Nothing on the site claims more than you can show.
- You know where every image came from and have the right to show it.
- A reader from outside the business has gone through the main pages.
Legal pages
- A privacy notice explains what the site collects and why.
- Cookies and similar technologies are listed, and consent is asked for where the rules require it, following the ICO's storage and access guidance.
- If you are a limited company, your registered name, number, part of the UK and registered office address are shown, as the 2015 trading disclosure regulations require.
- Terms of sale are in place if you sell online.
Domain, mail and hosting accounts
- The business itself holds the domain, and you know when it renews.
- Business email sends and receives. SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up, as the National Cyber Security Centre recommends.
- The site loads over https without warnings.
- More than one person can log in to the hosting or platform account.
- Backups are running, and you know how to restore one.
Pages and forms
- Each page has its own title and description.
- The contact form has been sent a test message, and it arrived.
- Booking or payment has been tried from start to finish, if the site has them.
- Every link goes where it should.
- A page for missing addresses exists and leads back into the site.
Phones and accessibility
Read every page on a phone, held upright and turned sideways. Then try the site with a keyboard alone: press Tab to move through links and buttons, and check you can always see where you are. The W3C's WCAG 2.2 guidelines cover these points and more, including text alternatives for images and enough contrast between text and background.
A quick check like this is not a full accessibility audit, and an accessibility statement should say which checks were actually done.
Freeze the content
About a week before launch, agree a content freeze: after that date, words and images change only to fix errors. Late rewrites are where typos, broken links and half-finished pages slip in, because the final checks have already been done. Keep a short list of changes people ask for during the freeze, and make them after launch, once the site is stable.
Replacing an old site
If the new site replaces an old one, list every address on the old site that people or search engines may still use: pages linked from other websites, addresses printed on leaflets or vans, and pages listed in search results. For each one, decide which new page answers the same question, and ask your builder to set up a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one. Where nothing on the new site matches, send the old address to the closest section rather than the home page. Test a sample of the redirects on launch day.
Sign-off
Decide in advance who says the site is ready, and what they sign off against: the plan, the launch checklist and the content freeze list. Put the sign-off in writing, even if it is a one-line email. It closes the build stage cleanly and gives everyone the same record of what was launched.
Launch day
Keep launch day simple: publish, check the home page and contact form on the live address, try a handful of the redirects, and tell the people who need to know.
After launch
Before launch day, put a review date in the diary a few weeks after launch. Google's SEO Starter Guide notes that some changes take effect in hours and others take months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging a change. At the review, look at what visitors contact you about, fix anything that confuses them, and move items from the later list into the plan if they now earn a place.
Hand over properly
If someone else built the site, ask for: the logins to every account, a short guide to editing pages, a note of what needs updating and how often, and who to contact if something breaks. Record them with your account list from the domain and hosting guide.
Sources checked for this page